In the gap - how to get no points and be happy about it

​​This week, enjoying more and more our weeklong meditation retreat, and while I might “use it” to get some deeper ideas about my various project(s) (as mentioned in the previous blog),  the biggest reminder is a simple one: that ultimately, I believe that there are no “points” for projects, for being productive, for answering emails, for “doing”. 

Quoting Donal’s article from his new website

"We often live with a sense of tremendous speed propelled towards a vague future in the company of the twin terrors: hope and fear. Life seems always to lie in that future. We miss completely the in-dwelling life and the life around us and live in the realm of thought and projection. Thus the greater background, the space of awareness and the mystery and depth of being-in-itself is obliterated by the hard speed of thought and habit. What does it mean to be fully present in our living? Is it possible to be present to the world around us; to the wind in the trees, the bird in the air, the woman sweeping the floor and the man at the gate, to beauty and sorrow? Is it possible to be present to the internal world of thought and feeling and of speech, action and reaction? And going further, what is presence in itself, free of any object, presence without becoming?"

I find it reassuring that I do have a choice about spending time on “projects” and spending time in the “gap”.

It also reminded me of an interview I did recently for this creativity project with a friend who is a teacher and therapist and she came up with the distinction between “product creativity” and “process creativity”. 

"And as with all my creative life which used to be much more actively in theatre, it was always improvisation. It's always been about process. I've never been engaged in a creative process that was about an end product only. That's never been interesting to me. And it still really isn't interesting to me. I mean, not that I don't love great pieces of art, but I know that's not what I can create. I'm compelled in the moment to be moved in a moment. That's what creativity is for me. (...)  Improvisation and picking up things in a moment in just being very present has always been most interesting and I'm most good at it. And I don't know exactly why, but I'm paying extreme attention to everything all the time. And that's what, I think that's this like present process creativity."

So, on a very practical level, should I go to the next meditation session, starting in 3 minutes and be present, in the "gap", or should I continue writing this blog and aim for the end-product? Is there a formula for integrating those two? 

On a more philosophical note, is creativity in this sense all pervasive? A sign of being human? A sign of being alive?

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