These days, it’s easy to be pulled into the flow of information.  Digital devices and social streams bring it to wherever we may be, at all hours of the day or night.  The flow is a raging river that sweeps us along.

As someone who strives to to create original work, I know I will do my best work only when I can spend time focused and removed from excess noise. Cave time. Yet I must also heed the lessons of the river – to gauge its features and dip into the rich eddy of information.  Occasionally I may want to swim out into the main current, hoping that it doesn’t sweep me into raging rapids of confusion or over a waterfall of wasted time.

While informative, don’t get caught frolicking in the river too often – the cave offers more;  It is not banishment to be assigned to the cave – but freedom.  The freedom to be apart, to take the time to examine ideas in detail and follow them wherever they lead, to explore the nooks and crannies of the creative process.  There, it is easier to uncover the ideas that drive you, filtering the substance from the trendy, the essence from the superfluous.

When or how often we should seek higher ground and retreat to a cave of our own?