Into this Dark we pray to come

Into this Dark, beyond all light, we pray to come and, unseeing and unknowing, to see and to know the One that is beyond seeing and beyond knowing...That is to do as sculptors do, drawing the statue latent there...and displaying the beauty hidden there.

Creativity reflects our uniqueness

Creativity reflects our uniqueness and infuses energy and spirit into life. Creativity plays with the possible and when we are being creative we feel fully alive and vibrant, celebrants at the liturgy of life.

All things speak to me

All things speak to me.
Now this color, now that shape.
Now the clear call of the loon.
The forest sees me coming
And each tree says, "Look at me.
See, I reveal the Beautiful." . . .

Whatever you choose, you will create

Once a reporter asked Einstein, "What is the most important question in the world?" He replied, "The most important question in the world is, do you want a peaceful, happy, abundant world in which to live, or do you want a foreboding, fearful, and scarce world?"

The reporter slightly puzzled, asked, "Why is this the most important question in the world?"

Einstein replied, "Because whatever you choose, you will create."

March 2013 (Vol. XXVI, No. 3)

Greetings, dear friends! In many parts of the country, this is the season we begin to see tiny miracles of creation becoming visible: little tips of green as the early spring bulbs push up through the ground, tender green buds bursting from bare branches of trees . . . and we begin to feel creative stirrings in our souls right along with nature. How do we experience those stirrings? What exactly is creativity? As we go into silence with the questions and feelings we may have, we remember that we are called to be co-creators with the Divine. We don't need to paint a masterpiece, or write a best-seller, though for some that happens. What we do need are ways to express our own, personal, unique creative yearnings. Listen carefully, dear friends: the answers will begin to flow, and we will begin to bloom right along with those spring flowers!

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Unless we are creators we are not fully alive

Unless we are creators, we are not fully alive . . . Remember, the root word of humble and human is the same: humus: earth. We are dust. We are created; it is God who made us and not we ourselves. But we were made to be co-creators with our maker.

~ from WALKING ON WATER by Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle Walking On Water creativity Buy on Amazon

Colleagues and co-creators with God

We are not victims. We are not guests. You and I are colleagues and co-creators with God—living in the midst of ongoing creation and called upon to celebrate everything that is.

~ from RETURN OF THE WOLF by Martin Bell
Martin Bell Return Of The Wolf creativity Buy on Amazon

Flood with divine creativity

Reality is permeated, indeed flooded, with divine creativity, nourishment, and care.

~ from CONFLICT, HOLINESS, AND POLITICS by Marcus J. Borg, thanks to Liz Stewart
Marcus J. Borg Conflict, Holiness, And Politics creativity Buy on Amazon

Creativity is a spiritual force

Creativity is a spiritual force. The force that drives the green fuse through the flower, as Dylan Thomas defined his idea of the life force, is the same urge that drives us toward creation. There is a central will to create that is part of our human heritage and potential. Because creation is always an act of faith, and faith is a spiritual issue, so is creativity. As we strive for our highest selves, our spiritual selves, we cannot help but be more aware, more proactive, and more creative.

~ from THE ARTIST'S WAY MORNING PAGES JOURNAL by Julia Cameron
Julia Cameron The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal creativity Buy on Amazon

God speaks to us through the element of creation

Just as God speaks to us through the words of scripture, so God speaks to us through the elements of creation. The cosmos is like a living sacred text that we can learn to read and interpret. Just as we prayerfully ponder the words of the Bible in Christian practice, and as other traditions study their sacred texts, so we are invited to listen to the life of creation as an ongoing, living utterance of God.

~ from CHRIST OF THE CELTS by J. Philip Newell
J. Philip Newell Christ Of The Celts creativity Buy on Amazon

God is creatively present in everyone in every moment whether we are aware of it or not

God is creatively present in everyone in every moment whether we are aware of it or not. But when we are in the state of silent gratefulness, we are aware of God's Presence.

~ from THE ETERNAL NOW by Paul Tillich
Paul Tillich The Eternal Now creativity Buy on Amazon

Every artistic creation is an attempt to recover something of the original sense of order

Every artistic creation is an attempt to recover something of the original sense of order, of right proportion. Our capacity for wonder, for awe, our sense of the magical and the sacred, has its source here—in what we can call a state of grace, equilibrium. I suppose that what we refer to as sacred is so because of some primal relation between ourselves and the world. We feel that a part of our being is hallowed or blessed by this, that some acts of ours enhance this feeling, while others violate it.

~ from "The Creative Spirit in Art and Literature" by John Haines, in THE NATURE OF NATURE, edited by William H Shore
John Haines The Nature Of Nature creativity

With the word creative we stand under a mystery

With the word creative we stand under a mystery. And from time to time that mystery, as if it were a sun, sends down upon one head or another, a sudden shaft of light—by grace, one feels, rather than deserving, for it always is something given, free, unsought, unexpected. It is useless, possibly even profane, to ask for an explanation.

~ from CREATORS ON CREATING by Pamela Travers
Pamela Travers Creators On Creating creativity

When we grow radishes we participate in creation

When we grow radishes in a small container in a city apartment, we participate in creation. We sustain the globe. When we sweep the street in front of a house in the dirtiest city in the country, we bring new order to the universe. We tidy the Garden of Eden. We make God's world new again. When we repair what has been broken or paint what is old or give away what we have earned that is above and beyond our own sustenance, we stoop down and scoop up the earth and breathe into it new life again, as God did one morning in time only to watch it unfold, unfold, and unfold through the ages.

~ from THERE IS A SEASON by Joan Chittister, thanks to Liz Stewart
Joan Chittister There Is A Season creativity Buy on Amazon

The creative process is generation and birth

The creative process is generation and birth as well as transformation and rebirth. The perpetual self-renewal and the dependence on grace of the person who opens to create are a human parallel to the eternal rebirth of all that is created.

~ from ART AND THE CREATIVE UNCONSCIOUS by Erich Neumann
Erich Neumann Art And The Creative Unconscious creativity Buy on Amazon

Going inside the act of creation to become what they are creating

You do not have to be in some setting hallowed by greatness, or in the presence of an artist honored around the world, for art to move you. Art can work its magic any time you are in the presence of a work created by someone who has gone inside the act of creation to become what they are creating. When this takes place, time stands still, and if our hearts are open to this experience, our spirits soar and our imaginations are unfettered.

~ Kent Nerburn in Intuition, April 1999
Kent Nerburn Intuition creativity

Creativity will be meaningful

In the future, creativity will be meaningful only if it is relevant to all humanity.
~ David Bohm
David Bohm creativity

An unexhaustible wellspring of creativity

Creative work, like love, is not an exclusive gift bestowed on only a chosen few. A few now possess sanctity and moral vision, heroism and wisdom, genius and talent. But all that is merely activation of the potential dormant within every soul. A sea of love, an unexhaustible wellspring of creativity, bubbles behind the consciousness of each one of us. . . . All creative work that is done in its own name and for its own sake is divine in nature. Through it, people elevate themselves and fill their own hearts and the hearts of those around them with God.

~ from THE ROSE OF THE WORLD by Danil Andreev
Danil Andreev The Rose Of The World creativity Buy on Amazon

Unless we are creators we are not fully alive

Unless we are creators, we are not fully alive . . . Remember, the root word of humble and human is the same: humus: earth. We are dust. We are created; it is God who made us and not we ourselves. But we were made to be co-creators with our maker.

Colleagues and co-creators with God

We are not victims. We are not guests. You and I are colleagues and co-creators with God—living in the midst of ongoing creation and called upon to celebrate everything that is.

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