Express Yourself!

Simple Creativity

“There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and it will be lost.”

Martha Graham

Think of the cave paintings in France, and the Aboriginal art of Australia, the petroglyphs of the Native American tribes. Think about the weaving of the Central Americans and the rugs of the Middle Eastern people. The beads and lavishly painted fabrics from Africa, or the sand mandalas from India and Nepal. How impoverished our lives would be without these expressions of humanity from every sector of the globe. When we see them, we know right away where they originated. Too often we think that art has to be presentable, and good enough to hang on a wall, but that's not its purpose most of the time. Its purpose is to express oneself in a medium other than speech.

Creativity is the most genuine expression of self that we have at our disposal. One woman in our church did a collage of the newspaper clippings from Ferguson, MO, in the middle is the figure of a woman with Michael Brown's mother's face. It kicks you in the gut when you see it. It's not meant to be pretty. It is a unique image of shared pain and compassion.

There's a little clip on NPR of Martha Stewart saying, “There are dreamers, who go and buy; and there are doers, who go and make...” Both are expressions of creativity. Whether your medium is paint, or fabric, or arranging a room, or filling a bowl with fruit for the center piece on your table, creativity is an essential expression of soul. When we make time and space for creativity in our busy lives, we will be more centered, more grounded and better able to live authentically in every other area.

                                                           In the Spirit,

                                                                Jane