To Keep Your Channel Open

Is nothing short of your mission in life

Sacred Creativity

We all know, at least intellectually, that we need the Earth. But what if the Earth actually needs us back?

Consider this famous quote from Martha Graham:

There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

-Martha Graham, as quoted in Dance to the Piper by Agnes Demille

Wholeness

On the surface, this quote may seem like it’s about being truly committed to making your art. But really, it’s about being fully expressed as a human being. As an artist, an athlete, a parent, a friend, a teacher, a bird watcher, a short order cook—any and all of the ways you are or might become.

Graham is like a stern but loving taskmaster insisting that it’s nothing short of your sacred duty is to be fully committed to being yourself. To allow your own uniqueness to flow through you unimpeded.

To honor the miracle of your life by living it as fully as you can.

My two favorite lines from this quote are:

• “It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how it compares with other expressions.” and

• “You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.”

Because she strips away all the reasons we use to justify stepping back from ourselves.

You don’t get to be the judge of the value of your contribution to this world. That, frankly, is past your pay grade. Your job, rather, is to be “all in” on your existence. To simply do your very best—whatever that might be and however that might change, unfold, or evolve.

And the reason I love that is because beauty and talent may be wonderful things, but nothing is more breathtaking than sincerity. And to be fully expressed is to be steeped in sincerity.

In fact, being fully expressed as a human being is your particular contribution to the Earth’s mission of expressing itself—of the Earth expressing its own wholeness. When you work well, the Earth works well.

And if this is true for you and me, it’s true for everyone. Which is why our own wholeness also relies on the wholeness of others.

This is the world we need to build.

It’s not about self absorption, selfishness, or your ego. It’s really about (re)discovering what’s already there—your deep connection and contribution to the endless breath of life itself. Your own innate mattering.

Certainly, in the quest to be fully expressed, we must drop many of our cultural misconceptions about what that is or looks like. Like letting go of ideas about scarcity, winning as a zero sum game, or survival of the fittest. In our quest to be fully expressed, we’ll continually confront such cultural confusions and must work our way through them to free ourselves. This is just an interesting part of the journey of paying attention to your life.

When we are each fully expressed in our unique wholeness—balanced in our natures and committed to being alive on planet Earth—we are fulfilling our cosmic duty to the endless creativity that is the universe.

Exhilarating.