Faith

Over the past several weeks, we've been talking about some of the more potent forces in the universe.  First, uncertainty, that which plagues every minute of every day.  Then came fear, the brainchild of uncertainty, its minion and hench-person.  Last week, we talked about hope, that blind, stupid belief that everything is going to be okay.  And now we come to the most potent of these forces, the one that lets us get through our days, both as Creatives and as Regular People.

I'm talking about faith.

Now, I'm not just talking about spiritual or religious faith (though both are important), but rather good ol' generic faith.  Some might not like the word and want to call it trust -- same beast, different moniker.

Since I've couched the past several weeks in terms of my creating, I'll do the same with faith; realize that most of this can be applied, with varying degrees of success, to your regular life, as well.

When I sit down to write a piece, I'm uncertain about how to start, where it will go, or if it will be any good.  Fear follows along in its Master's footsteps, causing varying degrees of mini freak-outs.  I throw wide the gates of my soul and out rushes hope, dancing and singing and flinging flower petals of Goodness and Light and Lollipops everywhere.  Consider it the equivalent of sending a Chihuahua out to attack a mountain lion.

Yet that hope has a secret weapon, one that allows it to triumph again and again, despite the fact that, on its own, it has no clue what it's doing.  That weapon, is faith.

As I stare at the piece before me, I have faith that it all is going to go well.  Faith is neither blind nor uninformed; faith comes from a deep knowing.  I know I can write a piece, because I've done it before.  I have faced this problem time and time again, and have come out on top time and time again.  I went to college for four years to learn how to do what I do, and since they let me graduate, I must have the tools necessary to do the task.  I've written countless pieces for countless reasons, and every time, the piece ends up finished and, usually, not half-bad.  In short, I have faith that I can do this.

Much like religious faith, I don't need to know what; I only need to know that.  I don't need to know what forces are at work in my life, only that those forces have come into play for me time and again, and are more than likely to do so this time, too.  Ask any spiritual or religious person, and many of them will say the same thing: they may not know what God is, but it's enough to know that He is. 

I've never had a satisfactory answer for the question, "How do you write your music?"  I have no idea.  None at all.  In fact, when it comes to writing my music, there's only one thing I'm sure of: it's not the mass of neurons between my ears and behind my eyes that's doing it.  There is Someone or Something that is helping me do it, even though I don't know what It's called.  Every time I go to start a piece, I sit down, and I ask this force to help me write it, and I trust (I have faith) that whatever benevolent force has helped me in the past will do so again.

One of the recurring themes from one of my favorite TV series of all time is the simple phrase, "Faith manages."  I've seen it happen in my life too many times not to know it's true.  Have faith that the help you need to create (or just in your life in general) will be there when you need it, and see what wonderful things happen.