personal catastrophes

"The loss of my father created in my life a vacuum, a space in which my words began to float and collect and find their purpose. The great W.H. Auden said 'the so-called traumatic experience is not an accident, but the opportunity for which the child has been patiently waiting - had it not occurred, it would have found another - in oder that its life become a serious matter.' The death of my father was the 'traumatic experience' Auden talks about which left the hole for God to fill. How beautiful the notion that we create our own personal catastrophes and that it is the creative forces within us that are instrumental in doing this. Here our creative impulses lie in ambush at the side of our lives, ready to leap forth and kick holes in it - holes through which inspiration can rise. We each have our need to create, and sorrow itself is a creative act."

(nick cave, the secret life of the love song)