July 2005 – Creative Spirituality
“All words are formative, but not all words are creative. The creative word lays hold of Spirit substance and power,” Charles Fillmore said. I like to put it this way: Formative thoughts and words focus on “what already is.” Creative thoughts and words focus on “what is yet to be.”
Any time we talk about an either / or it is easy to imply a right / wrong. This is not my intention, however. There is a right time for formative thinking and doing. One of these times is when I am driving on I-80. This is not a time to get creative. The signs and yellow lines are there for a good purpose and I do well to align myself with them!
However, getting around in my car can be creative in regard to what route I choose and what I choose to notice along that route. I remember hearing a person say, “I have driven the same route to work for 20 years and I cannot tell you one single thing that is on either side of the road I travel!” I call this “formative driving.” It gets you there, but it isn’t very interesting! There are at least three ways for me to come out from where we live and I try to use all of them. I remind myself that I live in a place that other people travel long distances to see!
Creativity is a matter of viewpoint. It begins with how we think about things, how we see things, how we understand and use the creative powers we have been given .I remember the little story about the two bricklayers who were approached and asked the question: “What are you doing?” The first replied, “I am laying brick.” The second replied, “I am building a cathedral.”
Most of us will not literally build a cathedral, but we are building a living environment that includes our mind, our body, our home, our car, our relationships, our choices, our habits, our worship, our play… in other words… our spirituality! For what is spirituality but the way we create our lives?
Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist’s Way,” expands this when says, “ Every day can be filled with tiny increments of artistry and change. Our lives are works of art.”
I love this line… “Our lives are works of art.” Carla Needleman, the author of “Life as Art and Craft” enlarges the idea even more. She says, “We reveal the universal in the specific.”
Long ago, the psalmist said it this way:
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet, you have made them little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.” Psalm 8: 3-5
We commonly confine our definition of “spirituality” to things religious and of “art” to things we call “the arts.” But, spirituality and art, like life, are as much about process as about product. They are as much “verb” as they are “noun.” In the context in which we are thinking here, they are more synonym than they are separate.
So, because “spirituality” is a long word, let’s take the word “art” and use it to identify three qualities that describe this of which we speak… life as art or creative spirituality.
The first is Aesthetic ~ adding beauty to the world. (Beauty being that which brings harmony and pleasure to the Spirit, soul or body.)
Adding beauty to the world reminds me of England’s Queen Mother who passed on in her 102nd year. Anytime you saw her, in person or on film, she was wearing a beautiful hat. She began wearing these hats during WWII when England and so much of the world was dark and filled with fear. It was her desire to be a “bright spot of beauty” whenever she went out, believing this to be one small way she could lift the spirits of those who saw her. The hats became her trademark and she was rarely seen in public without one. Today we would say she “walked her talk.” She understood life as art.
The second quality is “Rewarding.” ~ using one’s abilities and talents.
Some “art” brings in money, and in its right time and place, this is good. But the greater reward of living “life as art” goes beyond money. It fulfills a need we have as human beings… the need to be good at something… and then to have the opportunity to do the thing we’re good at. Some of us are good at many things, but each of us is good at something… something that, for us, is creative; is art.
I recently watched a TV interview with the two men who created Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. They spoke of trying to find their right place in various career directions and finally decided to create something they both loved… ice cream! Most of the interview was about their commitment to bring spirituality into their business and to a “bottom line” that was about service to humankind as well as profit. Their creativity in finding ways to make this happen was inspiring to hear. Their reward clearly was very real.
The third quality is Timely… focused in the now.
Over the past year or so we’ve heard a lot about “the power of now.” The phrase has almost become cliché. But it is true. The book that we’re going to write “some day,” the painting we may get back to “some day,” the cookbooks that are never opened, the travel plans that never realized, the flowers that are never brought to bloom… all those things on our “someday” list, will never bless us and our world as long as we view them as separate from ourselves. It is only when we realize that we are our art… that our lives are what creative spirituality is all about… that something begins to happen Now.
“Where your talents meet the needs of the world, that is where God wants you to be.”
Albert Schweitzer, musician, doctor, humanitarian, artist!
jbm
Any time we talk about an either / or it is easy to imply a right / wrong. This is not my intention, however. There is a right time for formative thinking and doing. One of these times is when I am driving on I-80. This is not a time to get creative. The signs and yellow lines are there for a good purpose and I do well to align myself with them!
However, getting around in my car can be creative in regard to what route I choose and what I choose to notice along that route. I remember hearing a person say, “I have driven the same route to work for 20 years and I cannot tell you one single thing that is on either side of the road I travel!” I call this “formative driving.” It gets you there, but it isn’t very interesting! There are at least three ways for me to come out from where we live and I try to use all of them. I remind myself that I live in a place that other people travel long distances to see!
Creativity is a matter of viewpoint. It begins with how we think about things, how we see things, how we understand and use the creative powers we have been given .I remember the little story about the two bricklayers who were approached and asked the question: “What are you doing?” The first replied, “I am laying brick.” The second replied, “I am building a cathedral.”
Most of us will not literally build a cathedral, but we are building a living environment that includes our mind, our body, our home, our car, our relationships, our choices, our habits, our worship, our play… in other words… our spirituality! For what is spirituality but the way we create our lives?
Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist’s Way,” expands this when says, “ Every day can be filled with tiny increments of artistry and change. Our lives are works of art.”
I love this line… “Our lives are works of art.” Carla Needleman, the author of “Life as Art and Craft” enlarges the idea even more. She says, “We reveal the universal in the specific.”
Long ago, the psalmist said it this way:
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet, you have made them little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.” Psalm 8: 3-5
We commonly confine our definition of “spirituality” to things religious and of “art” to things we call “the arts.” But, spirituality and art, like life, are as much about process as about product. They are as much “verb” as they are “noun.” In the context in which we are thinking here, they are more synonym than they are separate.
So, because “spirituality” is a long word, let’s take the word “art” and use it to identify three qualities that describe this of which we speak… life as art or creative spirituality.
The first is Aesthetic ~ adding beauty to the world. (Beauty being that which brings harmony and pleasure to the Spirit, soul or body.)
Adding beauty to the world reminds me of England’s Queen Mother who passed on in her 102nd year. Anytime you saw her, in person or on film, she was wearing a beautiful hat. She began wearing these hats during WWII when England and so much of the world was dark and filled with fear. It was her desire to be a “bright spot of beauty” whenever she went out, believing this to be one small way she could lift the spirits of those who saw her. The hats became her trademark and she was rarely seen in public without one. Today we would say she “walked her talk.” She understood life as art.
The second quality is “Rewarding.” ~ using one’s abilities and talents.
Some “art” brings in money, and in its right time and place, this is good. But the greater reward of living “life as art” goes beyond money. It fulfills a need we have as human beings… the need to be good at something… and then to have the opportunity to do the thing we’re good at. Some of us are good at many things, but each of us is good at something… something that, for us, is creative; is art.
I recently watched a TV interview with the two men who created Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. They spoke of trying to find their right place in various career directions and finally decided to create something they both loved… ice cream! Most of the interview was about their commitment to bring spirituality into their business and to a “bottom line” that was about service to humankind as well as profit. Their creativity in finding ways to make this happen was inspiring to hear. Their reward clearly was very real.
The third quality is Timely… focused in the now.
Over the past year or so we’ve heard a lot about “the power of now.” The phrase has almost become cliché. But it is true. The book that we’re going to write “some day,” the painting we may get back to “some day,” the cookbooks that are never opened, the travel plans that never realized, the flowers that are never brought to bloom… all those things on our “someday” list, will never bless us and our world as long as we view them as separate from ourselves. It is only when we realize that we are our art… that our lives are what creative spirituality is all about… that something begins to happen Now.
“Where your talents meet the needs of the world, that is where God wants you to be.”
Albert Schweitzer, musician, doctor, humanitarian, artist!
jbm
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