Losing My Spark?

About a year ago, I read an article about a producer (and I can't remember which one) who said that people lose their creative edge as they get older and that this was the reason why he hires people who are under the age of thirty. I disagree with that person seeing that I am in my thirties and I believe that I still possess creative edge. Subsequently, I scoured the internet looking for other writers who became famous in their thirties. I found a long list of people who sold their novels in their 30's. I even read a piece about debut authors who published novels after their 40's. These people haven't lost their creative edge. I felt a little relieved. There are thousands of articles out there that claim that you can regain your creativity and passion, but there are also thousands of articles claiming that certain diets make you lose weight. 

Recently, I put a not so great poem on here. At the time, I thought, "this is pretty good," until a close friend pointed out some flaws. I realized pretty quickly that I shouldn't be posting poetry or prose I wrote the same day. I should have waited, put in a drawer for a week and then re-evaluated it. I wrote it on a whim to prove to myself that I could still write in meter, something that I used to love to do as a teenager in high school. In college, I learned more about it. I've read Mary Oliver's book, "A Poetry Handbook" over and over again to make sure that I grasp some of the principles that make poetry great, my poem was anything but.

Because my friendship with this person is profound and will forever be unchanging, I also discussed the fact that I do not have a high readership on this blog. So this someone decided to be blunt about my blog. What they said was this: It is not controversial enough. It has all the ingredients of what kind of person I am or what I'm interested in, but "nothing of interest for anyone else". I thought, well maybe this person is right. Maybe I don't provide enough opinion in my pieces. But then... this individual continued to tell me that I "lost" my spark. I asked why they thought that this was so to which they replied, "Well, it's because you aren't the same person as you were as when I met you. You've changed. I blame myself for it but the person who used to push herself to write back then is not the same person. You are different." 

As one could imagine, the conversation got me very upset. Not only had I been shown a flaw in my poem, told that my blog was useless drivel, but now I heard that my passion went out for milk and never came back. This person, who was supposed to be my source of inspiration, delivered me a cauliflower ear. Over the last few months I've made writing a morning habit. I hadn't thought that it was as inconsequential as making a bunny ear while tying my shoes.

So my question is, to those few readers out in the void, can you regain your spark? Does age have anything to do with losing your creative edge? Can I catch it (like Peter Pan catches his shadow)? Or is it gone forever?

(Image of Disney's Peter Pan)