Time as objective reality has never made much sense to me. It's what happens that matters. How can minutes and years, devices of our own creation, mean the same thing to gnats and to cedars? Two hundred years is young for the trees whose tops this morning are hung with mist. It's an eyeblink of time for the river and nothing at all for the rocks...
If there is meaning in the past and in the imagined future, it is captured in the moment. When you have all the time in the world, you can spend it, not on going somewhere, but on being where you are. So I stretch out, close my eyes, and listen to the rain.
In embracing creativity as a spiritual practice, we commend ourselves into the Creator's
hands, knowing that our goal is to disappear. And when we do, we become one with
all creation. The divine spirit dances us, it plays its music through us. We become the
instrument through which the divine flows like a river. When your Creative Self calls,
go with it. It is God speaking. Listen to your Creative Conscience, the voice of the
divine guiding you each day. It resides in your heart: your true temple.
~ Lucia Capacchione in THE SOUL OF CREATIVITY, ed. by Tona P. Myers
In order to tap the uniquely creative in ourselves, it is important to honor the four ways of deep listening: intuition, perception, insight, and vision. Many indigenous cultures recognize that intuition is the source that sparks external seeing (perception), internal viewing (insight), and holistic seeing (vision). Paying attention to these modes of seeing is a way to honor the sacred and fire the creative fire. The Creative Spirit—the relentless power within us that constantly invites us to be who we are—requires the capacity to be open to our authenticity, vision, and creativity.
~ Angeles Arrien in THE SOUL OF CREATIVITY, ed. By T. P. Myers
Embedded within our souls and DNA are the creative possibilities of our enlightenment and future. Our communities, art, music, scientific technologies, and businesses can become life-affirming, harmonious, beautiful, and healing institutions if we are willing to awaken to inspired states of creativity. These soul gifts are the means through which we manifest our individual sparks of divine light. By practicing these gifts with wisdom, love, and compassion, we can contribute to a spiritual renaissance: one in which our creativity reflects the true light of divinity and can remake our world.
~ Judith Cornell in THE SOUL OF CREATIVITY ed. By T. P. Myers
Listening is our bridge from the outer world to the inner world. Music creates multiple levels of listening. Learning to listen to music in creative ways provides the means for health improvement in the body, enhanced communication, and expression. For music has all the universal components of language, emotions, and expression. There is music in silence; thus meditation and hours of silence heighten awareness of our body rhythms and sounds.
~ Don Campbell in THE SOUL OF CREATIVITY, ed. By T. P. Myers
If artistic creations emerge from our lives and the ways in which we see the world, then it seems useful to engage the workplace as a source of creative subject matter and energy. The job is the place where most of us spend time and expend effort each day. It is the world we inhabit, and I believe we can make it better and more satisfying through the conscious use of the creative process. . . . Our creations and our lives are enhanced when we realize that everything in our environment is a source for imagination.
~ from “The Practice of Creativity in the Workplace” by Shaun McNiff, in THE SOUL OF CREATIVITY, ed. by Tona P. Myers
Soul gifts are the means through which we manifest our individual sparts of divine light. By practicing our gifts with wisdom, love, and compassion, we can contribute to a spiritual renaissance: one in which our creativity reflects the true light of divinity. This renaissance can remake the world.
The creative act is a courageous, ancient gesture, a dynamic prayerful exploration of the dark mystery that is human existence. When I finally identified this face of creativity as sacred practice, I built a small altar in my studio and my work took on a depth of meaning it never had. Prayer and art suddenly meshed and became refined. It wasn't done in pursuit of holiness as I'd been taught in the child's corner of my life. Prayer became synonomous with art as an authentic expression of my entire complex Self.
~ Adriana Diaz in THE SOUL OF CREATIVITY ed. by T. P. Myers
