Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae - May 7, 2023
Creative Spirit
"Art as meditation reminds people –so that they will never forget – that the most beautiful thing a potter produces is... the potter," reflected Vincent van Gogh. What is the connection between art and spirituality? How do we tap into our creative spirits to enrich our spiritual lives and transform ourselves and the world around us? Join us as we explore this month's theme of creativity in our Sunday service.
From Monthly: "Creativity"
There are so many ways to be creative! Here’s a small bouquet of ways to approach creativity at this time, in this place, in our community. We’ll explore in our worship, small groups, and personal reflection this month’s theme, The Path of Creativity. A creative life is any life where somebody consistently follows their curiosity more than their fear. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert But our mosaic making tells another story too, one that is often more difficult to see… One that lies not in the beautiful and broken bits and pieces but in the grout… Grout happens in board meetings and committee meetings and endless emails and slow-moving institutions. It is in weekly potlucks shared by neighbors, a ride to church, and coffee in the social hall after worship… ~ The Grout, Rev. Marcus Hartlief We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ~ Ray Bradbury Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. ~ Anais Nin We have a mythology that tells us creativity is selfish. We are tutored to believe that artists are self-centered, but I think that as we experience our creativity, we experience a sense of expansion that is in fact the opposite of selfish. ~ Julia Cameron Cultural messages tell women that making art and having children are incompatible pursuits. But science suggests that women may become more creative after having kids. ~ Erica Hayasaki One of the primary reasons we get tripped up when it comes to creativity has to do with fear and judgment. We may have had an elementary school teacher that told us dogs do not look like pigs, and penguins are not fire hydrants with wings, a high school English teacher who told us our writing metaphors were stale and well worn, or a camp director who said we couldn’t act our way out of our lamest lie… Well to that i say: hogwash!… ~ Fireflies and Genius, Rev. Kaaren Anderson The heart of human identity is the capacity and desire for birthing. To be is to become creative and bring forth the beautiful. ~ John O’Donohue Because our religious tradition is grounded in innovation, we could say we are a people of creativity… However, we can’t simply cling to that definition unless we understand more deeply what it demands of us… ~ Nurturing Creativity, Rev. Jonalu Johnstone