Week 14 Awaken Creative Here we are,
On the turning point of one quarter.
This four quarter year.
Look how far we've come.
Gathering understanding about making choices,
Leaning in,
Listening well,
And being invigorated towards a start.
Over and over again we have these opportunities,
These chances to get to know ourselves,
Our work,
And the world we live in.
Let's dig in a little deeper this week,
Week 14.
I'll meet you there.
In my work of creating things,
Being this co-creator in the world,
I ask myself often why I'm here.
Why I'm showing up to this place,
This call,
If you will.
I'm never certain it's a call,
Or a prepossession on my own part to call myself something.
To be seen and recognized,
Identified,
Described.
It's difficult to slough off those layers of recognition of oneself,
Or others to oneself.
And I don't think we're meant to.
But also they're not meant to define us entirely.
They're a layer we need.
We're onions after all.
These selves of ourselves and these lives of our lives.
So in this work that I do,
This work of creating not just in the studio,
Which is a huge portion of it of course,
But also in this compound where I create space for others to enjoy.
Where I create an environment in which I host others to learn and expand.
In the books and retreats and workshops I've held,
All these creation spaces,
I often ask myself,
What's my point?
I've kind of narrowed it down to two realms.
One is continuously,
Consistently recognizing myself.
This tends to show up across the canvas more than say in the environment or the compound that I create.
It's the stepping back and pulling close,
It's the holding the brush or squinting the eyes.
It's the choosing the colors and then taking the long view over months or years of creation and recognizing the me that's shown up there.
It's not a me I look for or look to define,
It's just an aha.
I can see it there.
Where I wouldn't otherwise perhaps find it if I were out doing another work,
Another job,
A place that isn't this kind of creating.
I feel privileged.
I know I am,
But also I've done a lot and a lot and a lot of hard work.
And I think we all do that.
If we go to the nine to five,
Or if we open the door upon our studio and pick up the brush.
The other thing I see in the work I'm doing,
The why am I here,
Is trying to say something.
So often I'm identifying myself and often I'm trying to say something.
I've never felt implored to incite anybody to anything.
Those positions in the world have a voice,
Have a person through which they travel.
For me,
If I incite to anything,
It is to the individual to recognize their own voice.
Their own soulful intuition.
I think as human beings we have traveled way too far away from this core.
And the more we can day by day,
Year by year,
Life by life,
Live more fully in that space of soulful intuitive knowingness and live into the world through it,
That we are all meeting in a more authentic and heartful and intentioned way.
These two forces of discovery that are everything about what I create show up over the multi-surfaced canvases that I often associate to communion,
Community,
Or the simple,
Small individual pieces that are redolent with my spirit.
So simple,
Oftentimes,
That I fear they'll say nothing to the viewer.
But I have to trust that the resonance I put in,
And I still feel energetically in their creation,
Will find the right person and tell that story.
Now all this is to say,
Or lead us to,
The quote for this week's contemplation as you create.
I believe artistic creation,
Whether it's a brush or a guitar or a keyboard or a pencil,
Are all aesthetic creations.
That is,
The artist as an aesthetic.
That is,
The artist as the contemplative or the monk.
When I try to say all of this in a way that will be simple and mean something to a viewer more quickly,
I say my paintings are prayers unto the world.
My compound,
The spaces I make,
The retreats I host,
In their own way too,
In their own right,
They're prayers unto the world.
A way of touching the ground,
The soil,
The sky,
With my own grace in thanksgiving.
That idea came to me through the book I want to highlight,
And it is that,
Just that,
Is our simplest of quotes this week.
What are you creating?
How are you creating?
In such a way that it is your prayer unto the world.
There's a delightful little book.
I return to it over and over to reground.
I grew up in the Catholic tradition but have explored all avenues and means of spiritual recognition and connection.
This one comes from that Catholic background though.
Here in Kentucky there's a beautiful monastery,
Gethsemane.
One of the monks there now is Paul Quenon.
His book is called In Praise of the Useless Life,
A Monk's Memoir.
It's easy to see a monk's life in that way.
To not recognize that their aesthetic is that beautiful prayer unto the world.
And that is a viable,
Valiant trajectory for a human life to take.
This too,
This artistic path can be seen as a wasted journey or an inconsequential journey compared to some of the more voluminous projections of career path and life styles that our world can possess.
So when I need that reminder that I am worthwhile,
This path I've chosen is viable and necessary,
I turn to this book and that one simple phrase.
Prayers unto the world.
We need these alongside everything else that human beings are called to co-create into the world.
This too.
So this week,
When you pick up your brush,
Or your pen and book,
Or your keyboard or guitar,
Remember,
Or ask,
Or pray your prayer into the world.
Awaken creative.
Today.
