The Tall Order of the Creative Sweet Spot
Morning, noon, or night - when are you most creative?
Don’t like reading? Allow me to read it to you 👈
Tall is all
When you’re small.
Did you know small
Is just resting tall?
And in us all?
Go find your tall.
- Non-traditional waffle
When are you tall?
I’m not talking tall as measured by “this tall to ride” signs, or notches etched on a door jamb, or back-row-class-photo tall. I’m talking tall as in clear-eyed, far-horizon vision, Guinness record reach, drawn to the absolute height of your creative powers tall.
Tall as in standing tall in your artistic prowess and towering intellect and optimizing sightlines and leveling your piercing gaze over the heads of trouble and stress and self-doubt and in that moment, making eye contact with confidence and charging on to do the thing.
To make your art. Confidently. Comfortably. Creatively. At your tallest tall of all.
Do you know it? Is it morning? Noon? Night?
When are you tall?
“What is tall?” you ask. “Where will I find it? Will I ever grow to be tall? Are there pills?”
You’re talking like a short.
Calm down, that’s not an insult. Being short is a necessary state (though small is the preferred term), for long periods of every day. Small is at ground level. Small is in the real-time, tussling with the bills, getting life done. Feisty and unstoppable, small is the reset button for tired, tall brains. When flailing about, press small.
Small is simply resting tall. And in short, we are all tall. We grow and shrink and grow and shrink, and life—like art—is peppered with moments of tall and small.
You’ve just gotta find your tall.
If you need it pointed out on a chart, tall is found in the metaphorical spine region of the psyche, materializing when vertebrae are at their most comfortable and clicky-snap-poppy to ratchet up your inspiration to the straight-ahead place.
Look up, look on, look in.
This spine alignment can occur at any time of day, and no two spines are ever aligned the same. Or more precisely, at the same time. Dawn spines, dusk spines, night owl spines, nooners—it’s up to you to find your preferred tall time zone. This is when you work best and fire and zap and make magic, Wowee!
When you are tall.
Metaphorical, remember. It has nothing to do with actual spines. Don’t make an appointment with a bone-cracker to find your tall.
When the tall comes on, mind spines, cracking in chiropractic ecstasy, straighten in the dream space. This mind spine, when reaching its tallest, announces itself with the release of inspiration, as if to say: “I am ready. Let us begin. I shall lead the way.”
So tall!
Check the clock.
This is it. You are looking down at your most fertile and rich seam of inspiration. Note the time, the hour, the moment. Remember this feeling: what it is to be tall and feel things flow. Once you know when you are tall—your tall time zone—aim to be tall in that moment whenever you can. Be not afraid of heights. The air up there is refined and thick with ideas. Catch them all in your art net.
Metaphorical.
All that’s left is to do tall work. The work of tall and being at your tallest. It’s not all fluttering around at great heights—there’s still the sit at the desk or piano or easel and put in the hours of tall. Be tall for as long as you can. Towering intellect tallest. Tippety-top tall.
I—thanks for asking—am morning tall.
Morning tall shoots hoops in that pre-dawn light, smiling as the light catches upon the ring of “nothing but net.” Morning tall feels the brush of a dewy idea branch as it glistens with fresh chill and crisp attention, swishing excited through the low glow of the morn.
Dreams and sparks of action are carried in upon the wings of sparrows to perch atop the shoulders of morning tall. Here, these giant gaseous idea blobs give off magical vapors rising to an elevation only morning tall can detect.
Morning tall inhales, huffing in gulps of motivational air to breathe life into that draft or conceptualize that sculpture or hammer out that tune.
To toil at it in tall.
It is, at times, a bleary-eyed height and one the physical body must comply with, even with the feel of warm blankets fresh in its memory. It ramps up slowly some days. This is to be expected.
The blur found at the mind edge of a morning tall is the body holding the arms of distraction back. In the half-light of this not-quite-awake blur is where morning tall finds its height. With the blur at the edge of the mind, you walk tall with morning confidence.
If you are morning tall, you will often require a small nap around 2 PM. But that’s OK. Small is just resting tall.
I am—you didn’t ask, but I’ll tell you—not night tall.
Night tall is at one with the owls, hooting through the treetops in the dark of the world, glints of light hitting shiny eyeballs as ideas spark to life. Fire! Fire! Smoke rises as creation from the crucible of black.
Night vision is powerful—night tall sees all. With head swiveling to survey the ground below, night tall scans for the wriggle and scurry of a defenseless draft, a sketch, a thought, or simply a starting point. A place to land and become—if one dares—even taller in that moment.
Night tall reaches into the stars and waves a thick hand through the firmament just to see what sticks to the skin of it. A nebula, a galaxy, a North Star to guide? Night tall gets lucky and the universe reveals itself. Life is found in the dark, a black star, dense with potential and extending beyond the realm of understanding.
Night tall makes sense of it all, unraveling mystery with the confidence of Sherlock soul.
If you are night tall, you will feel the pull of midnight and race toward it with eagerness and vigor. The approaching hour will crank up your height like a scissor jack, stealing inches from the ruler of creativity to add them to the measure of your work’s worth.
If you are night tall, you grow to the glow of a desk lamp. Strong, steady, tall, productive, creative, inspired; your shadow throws its shapes upon the gallery of your art.
And so, I ask you again: when are you tall? When are you tallest?
There are all sorts of tall you can be. Between morning tall and night tall and back to morning tall again are many time zones in which to stretch your legs, and mind, and your mind’s spine.
Stretch.
Find that moment in time when you realize you can reach for and grab the things on the highest shelf of your creative self.
Pinpoint that time of day when you stand tallest in your creativity.
Identify the hours when you are most confident in your pen marks, your paint strokes, your chord strikes, and your moments of creative Zen. Being tall is you at your bravest, towering over self doubt and casting the coolest of shade.
Be brave. Morning, noon, night. Try them all to find your tall.
Watch the Video about the themes in this post 👇
This week’s amends…
“At my age, in this still hierarchical time, people often ask me if I’m ‘passing the torch.’ I explain that I’m keeping my torch, thank you very much – and I’m using it to light the torches of others. Because only if each of us has a torch will there be enough light.”– Gloria Steinem
Via SwissMiss via Ms. Magazine
On Rotation: “Joy Division Oven Gloves” by Half Man Half Biscuit
Language warning, if you’re a sensitive type. But it’s a kid saying it, so it’s cool. And fun.
Get out there. Take chances.
Kottke posted that Terry passed away in 2005. RIP, daredevil.
Via Kottke
Shameless Podcast Plug
Listen to audio versions of early issues of The Stream on my podcast, Field of Streams, available on 👉 all major podcasting platforms 👈
Here’s Apple