the sound of stillness where
where silence shapes what wants to be made
It’s funny what happens when you step away from the daily grind and immerse yourself in nature. The noise of everyday life begins to subside, and the hum of the natural world starts to emerge. A chorus of sound and stillness that carries its own kind of wisdom. The birds, the trees, the feeling of sunlight on skin, the scent of wild bergamot and wisteria, the way the wind picks up before a storm. Each one whispering, listen.
Since returning from my travels, days spent in nature, and time with friends, it’s been hard to drop back into the creative process. There’s this quiet pressure that sneaks in, a need to make, to produce… especially when you care deeply about your work. It’s easy to want to push, to make something happen. But I keep remembering: creativity doesn’t respond to force. It responds to presence.
For the better part of two decades, my relationship with nature has expanded my capacity to listen to the world around me and to my own inner voice. Alongside embodiment practices, I’ve learned the gifts of somatic wisdom, the act of turning inward. This practice of listening, both inwardly and outwardly, has informed my creative process and helped me recognize the flecks of gold, the threads of creativity that beckon me to pay attention.
Ask any artist or creative, and they’ll tell you that creativity isn’t something you can force. It asks for noticing, for stillness, for a willingness to be moved by what wants to unfold. Living artfully isn’t about filling a calendar or keeping up with content creation, though sharing our work is part of the path. What I’m pointing to is the life spark that wants to be made. All we have to do is get curious about that nudge, to move toward and be with what’s asking to express itself through us.
The gift of deep listening, of being with what’s revealing itself, is that it weaves wonder into daily life, into relationships, into work, into art. In that reciprocity, life shapes us, and we shape life in return, crafting it into a living, breathing work of art.
Question to Carry: Where might life be inviting you to pause and listen before you create or take next step forward?
Lately, I’ve been exploring this very question more intimately—how the body, breath, and creative impulse move together when we stop trying to make sense of it all. It inspired a new poem I shared inside The Velvet Underground, my members-only space for deeper reflections and creative musings.
If you’d like to read it—and journey with me in quieter, more personal corners of the confessional, where my creative process unfolds, Join The Velvet Underground → (Subscribe to read the full piece →)
© Alana Foy 2025
