Wild Woman of Queens: Notes on Urban Creativity from across the East River.

Mojo Rising

The news can be a real creativity crusher. The feeling is like trying to dance in quicksand. You want to move. There is yuck surrounding you that blocks out your vision and prevents any movement. When you are thinking about how to pay your bills the urge to create can be severely squashed. But now it is more important then ever to reignite your muse and get creating.

On the way to work on Friday I kept hearing a certain refrain from the song LA Woman by the Doors. "Mr. mojo risin, mr. mojo risin, Got to keep on risin. . ." played over and over in my head. I don't know what the song as whole had to with any thing but it did get me to thinking about Mojo.I had the thought that I had lost my mojo, my special magic, my juice, my inspiration.

That realization hit me like an epiphany that if I had been on Oprah surely it would have been an "ah ha" kind of moment that would have catapulted me, Oprah and her millions of viewers out of this quicksand that had sucked us into its grip.

We all get sidetracked, giving into a night of TV instead of writing. The more depressing the news gets the more we want to disappear. Giving in to our art will be the thing that will keep us sane, and reasonable happy. There is a certain joy in producing a piece of art. No matter how hard it may be to start something the end result can propel you to more creativity.

Once you are on a creativity roll the bad news will have less effect on you. I guess you can say your mojo gives you the incentive to rise above circumstances or live next to them.

Jim Morrison may have met a tragic end but he was certainly engaged in his creativity. Was he whispering my ear, reminding me that I have control over my creativity and my life? I don't know. All I know as the news churns around us we have the choice to take what need to make reasonable decisions about our lives. The rest of it we can ignore while we craft a more vibrant like for ourselves.

Sandra Lee Schubert is a creative vagabond, a poet, writer and dabbler in the arts and online entrepreneur. She co-facilitates the Wild Angels Poets and Writers Group at the historic Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. She is also the creator of the e-course, Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own. Visit her blog: Email her info@writing4life.com or via twitter.