Invention

There is a meditation technique called open focus. I know I don't practice this all day every day-- unless I'm engaged in playing music or photographing. The activity of invention involves this special awareness that is beneficial far beyond making stuff. But the trance that one enters for creating, inventing, visualizing, etc. is what it's all about. I watched an American Masters program on Tom Petty recently, and Mr. Petty describes writing a particular song, and the steps that he went through inventing it. This is fascinating to me. What is the space we enter to invent? How is it accessed and nurtured? When does it happen? How do we know our work (whatever our work is), is right? Is finished?

All of these things are at work while I walk with my camera. It is meditation. Openness, giving our brains permission to bubble up ideas and ourselves permission to notice them, the stillness that nurtures this process; these are all involved. Entrepreneurs do it. Bio-medical researchers do it. Painters do it. And yes, photographers do it.