An Endless Cycle

CONFESSION #10: I easily forget that my art and creativity are not free from the cycle of daily life.

For the past few days, we've been looking at Ecclesiastes 1 and how the words of King Solomon apply to life and apply to creativity and art as well.  We've looked at how what we create is never new or original, and we've looked at how are creative works are impermanent. Today is focusing on the third main idea of Ecclesiastes 1, which is that all of life is an endless cycle. 

A generation goes and a generation comes, 
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down, 
and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind
and on its circuits the wind returns.
...
What has been is what will be, 
and what has been done is what will be done, 
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1: 4-6, 9

Life is an endless cycle. We get up. We get ready. We go to work or school. We take part in activities. We Eat. We work out. We watch television. We read. We spend time with our families and friends. We go to bed. We start over the next day.

The majority of life, apart from vacations and special seasons, is filled with repetition. We do some of the same things everyday. Creativity and the act of creating works of art fall into that repetition as well.

We get an idea. We flesh out the idea. We start making our creative work. We get stumped. We find inspiration. We keep working on it. We finish it. We enjoy it for a little while. We share it with others. Then we want to make something else, and the cycle starts over again.   

This cycle can be maddening, but it can also be freeing. Some people look at endless repetition as a boring thing, and they desire to escape repetition. But repetition, like King Solomon writes, is a part of life. You can't escape it. The sun rises. The sun goes down.

C'est la vie (That is life).

However, you can make peace with the fact that this is a part of life. That repetition a lot of times is not a bad thing. We grow and get better through repetition. It's like an endless practice. Our art grows from repetition. Our creativity grows as well.

Repetition can be a good thing (even though artists like to scoff at it). 

God made us for repetition, for diligence, and He made life to be lived in cycles.  Our art and creativity follow suit. 

P.S. Even the seasons display God's design of life cycles.

This post is part of a 31 day series called Confessions of a Creative Christian.