What it really means to be in a relationship with your creative partner
When you commit to your creative partner, there are a few things you need to be ready for:
Anything in your daily life is potential inspiration for your next project. Those dirty underwear in the bathroom? Could be the catalyst to your creative partner's next drawing series.
What seems like manic or obsessive episodes are coming from somewhere much deeper. Your partner probably needs 1 of 3 things; sleep, food, or a hug. Careful with this one, they might do everything in their power to convince you they need none of these things. Hug them anyway.
They'll forget simple daily tasks like feeding the dog or brushing their teeth. Practice patience when you come home to a cold, wet heap where you left them (the laundry, not your partner) after asking them to switch the wash to the dryer. It isn't because they ignored you. It's because they lost track of time in a story that's been calling out to them all weekend.
Do you understand what you've gotten yourself into by being in a relationship with a creative?! Their sensitivities to recycling the cardboard from every package brought into the house. Their need to save antique doors that you'll keep moving out of the way in the garage until the doors are too rotted to do anything with. It'll drive you mad most days.
But you must remember the fullness they bring to your world over the frustration:
They turn dirty undies into a reverent series of drawings, exposing the integrity of a young and hardworking couple who puts Love before anything else.
They fill your heart with thoughtful letters of moments you would've missed had they not written the words.
When the laundry lay sopping and forgotten, remember they could be putting the finishing touches on a story you've never heard before. The one about you, and them, and your life together. The one you'll tell your kids, and their kids, about.
You already know this if you're in a committed relationship with a creative partner. You're the brave soul who keeps them going after all. Touchy ones, those creatives. They always need so much validation. But they need you to keep pining away at the discovery of their masterpiece. They count on your faith in them. Don't give up.
You are the person they soon discover is the masterpiece they've been looking for all along.
