Weekly Soul: Week 42 - Creativity (Craigie)
Today's meditation from Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living by Dr. Frederic Craigie:
-42-
We
fail to use our powers when we fail to think of our lives and our work,
whatever it is, as creative—as potential art, or “life art.”
Dan Wakefield
Creativity applies to all of life, not
just the Arts.
Wakefield goes on to give examples of a
telephone operator singing greetings in answering the phone, of a business
person seeing the possibilities of a new product, and of a yoga teacher’s
creative guided meditation. This was the mid-1990s. I’m frankly not sure
whether there are telephone operators anymore, but you get the idea.
It is, as Wakefield says, “life art.” You
have the ability to choose how you do what you do and to make even mundane
daily activities into exercises in creativity.
You can explore a different process of
interaction in your committee meetings. You can tinker with your choices in
clothing. You can try something new with the kale and red peppers that are left
in the fridge. You can move the furniture that’s been in the same place for ten
years, or paint the living room a different color. You can make up some bedtime
stories for your 6-year-old daughter. You can pack the dog in the car and go
with him to a new walk or take him on the regular walk and try to see it with
new eyes.
When I was growing up, my father would
find great joy in planning family motor trips around the country. Long before
the days of GPS and Internet research, he’d study maps and tourist brochures
and lay out an itinerary to get to the high spots of wherever we were going: a
site rich in history, a national park, a music, or theater venue. He had a
particular passion for anything related to railroads: rolling stock, museums,
excursion lines. Planning distances, I remember, was based on the premise that
you could count on 45 mph on US highways and 60 mph on the newly-developed
Interstate highways.
All of this is creative. It’s all art.
The same benefits attend life art as
attend art in the narrower sense. There is the inherent satisfaction of doing
something new, of bringing a new and creative way of doing what you do into the
world. You take something ordinary and infuse it… bless it… with your soul.
But for art both in the broad and narrow
senses, there is another benefit. You learn. You grow. You shed some of the old
skin and try out a new one. I remember the comment of a poet I interviewed many
years ago, “I write to learn something about myself.” Indeed. And I believe the
same is true for composing a song, proposing a new program at your town meeting
(which is the way we do things in rural Maine), or dying your hair a color that
isn’t found in nature.
There is something powerful in living out
your creative instincts. Putting yourself out there. Putting ideas into words. My
experience is that when I want to understand something more clearly in my life
or work, I write. Or I develop a teaching session, whether or not it really
takes place. Creatively getting out ideas and seeing how they may or may not
come together usually brings me, eventually, to a sharper understanding of the
way things work.
What you are reading is Exhibit A. I began
with my belief that creativity is an essential dimension of life well-lived and
warranted equal billing among the dozen-or-so other chapters of this book. Then
began the creative work. What do I know and what can I say about creativity,
anyway? What does the literature say? What is my experience? What have I
learned from my life and from what I have seen in the lives of other people? How
might I succinctly describe the key elements of the creative process, and what
stories could give life to the conceptual bones? I sit with the quotations. I
make an outline. I try out some words. I take it again from the top and see
what I’m missing or what could be expressed more clearly.
You enrich your life when you create art. And
you enrich your life when you stretch yourself in some new and creative ways,
seeing the whole canvas of your life as art, as well.
Reflection
- Think of a couple of times when you
have done something new and creative in the spirit of “life art.” Sit with
your recollection of what this was like for you, or perhaps you may wish
to write a few words of reflection to yourself.
- What thoughts occur to you about how
you might “stretch yourself in some new and creative ways?” What might
interfere with your pursuing such things? Obstacles vary, by the way. For
planning and building a deck on the back of your house or re-doing your
kitchen, the challenge is probably one of time and resources. For dying
your hair the color that isn’t found in nature, the challenge is more
likely emotional. For whatever new and creative pursuits you’re
considering, how will you find your way around the barriers that could
stand in your way?
- In the coming week, experiment with
one or two ways of creatively stretching yourself that are logistically
within your reach.
Author
Dan Wakefield (b. 1932) is an American
writer and, for many years, an educator of writers. His own writing has been
remarkably diverse, publishing essays in national magazines such as the New
York Times Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly, publishing five novels
and eleven books of nonfiction, and writing screenplays for movies and
television. As an educator, he has taught in writing programs around the
country, most recently retiring after 16 years as Writer in Residence at
Florida International University in 2010.
Wakefield’s work is particularly infused
with his passion for the life of the spirit, writing and presenting workshops
internationally on developing the spiritual autobiography and on spirituality
and creativity. The quotation was originally published in Wakefield’s 1996
book, Creating from the Spirit. The book was republished as the edition
that I have used, titled Releasing the Creative Spirit (Skylight Paths,
2001).
Book Description:
Keywords:
meditation; reflection; inspiration; miracles; aliveness; purpose; laughter; joy; presence; mindfulness; activism; acceptance; gratitude; forgiveness; creativity; civility; hope; affirmation; wholeness; well-being; mental health; personal growth; transformation; inner peace; personal reflection; joy; joyful living; inspirational quotes; inspirational commentary
For more posts by and about Fred and his book, click HERE.
CONTACT editor@msipress.com FOR A REVIEW COPY
To purchase copies of any MSI Press book at 25% discount,
use code FF25 at MSI Press webstore.
Want to read an MSI Press book and not have to pay for it?
(1) Ask your local library to purchase and shelve it.
(2) Ask us for a review copy; we love to have our books reviewed.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALL OUR AUTHORS AND TITLES.
Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter: get inside information before others see it and access to additional book content(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, links to precerpts/excerpts, author advice, and more)Check out recent issues.
We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us? Find out at www.msipress.com.
Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help. Ask us. Check out more information at www.msipress.com.
Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process. See what we can do for your at www.msipress.com.
Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com.
Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.
Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.Steven Greenebaum, author of award-winning books, An Afternoon's Discussion and One Family: Indivisible, talking to a reader at Barnes & Noble in Gilroy, California.MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.
Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.
Comments
Post a Comment