the benefits of hiding

“Hiding is a way of staying alive. Hiding is a way of holding ourselves until we are ready to come into the light.”

David Whyte

While I was making the album ‘Birth’, I felt a strong urge to hide. To hide the project and not speak about it very much. To hide the fact I spent pretty much all of my spare time working on it.

At times I thought it was because I was afraid. That I should be more confident. Talk about it directly. Own it more fully in the public sphere of my life.

At times it was frustrating and lonely. Working so hard, for so long and having nothing to show for myself that would allow people to understand what was taking up so much of my energy and resources.

I’ve since realised that I was following a deeper instinct to protect and nourish what I was making.

In his book, Consolations: the Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, David Whyte writes beautifully about hiding, calling it a necessary, creative act. A rebellion against outside influence so that the life that is growing within can become all it is meant to be.

I have found this to be true.

For me, hiding has been an incubation, a protective space that has allowed tiny seeds of ideas to become strong enough to break through the topsoil.

All in their own time.

Hibernation

Blossoming

Fruitfulness

Dying away

There’s room for it all.