Everyone has creative power

How sad. All of us start out thinking of ourselves as little creative geniuses. We acknowledge and celebrate our God given creative talents and abilities, but somewhere, for some reason at around age eight, we build a box around ourselves and we start to dwell inside that box. And as we grow, the box around us stays the same size. We physically become bigger, and what we’re capable of becomes greater, but the way we see ourselves and what we are capable of able to do stays the same size. Somewhere along the way we apply the label of “creative” to those we deem can "draw really good pictures". We then relegate ourselves to the larger part of the population who simply aren't very gifted in the creative realms.

For those of you who didn’t raise your hands at being creative, I’ve got a little scientific evidence that’s going to blow your theory and your view of yourself out of the water. Alex Osbourne, author of Your Creative Power, writes, "An analysis of almost all the psychological tests ever made points to the conclusion that creative talent is normally distributed - that all of us possess this talent. The difference is only in degree; and that degree is largely influenced by effort."

Those of you who call yourselves “the uncreative” let me just tell you right now that you’re wrong – there’s no such thing as a person who is not creative – there’s just active and inactive creative people.

Creativity does not mean that you can draw. Or sing. Or dance. Or play an instrument. I can’t do one single one of those things, or at least, I can’t do them well. Creativity is the art, and those different things are the tools, or expressions of that creativity. But we limit ourselves on what we consider to be creative. Creativity is not a technique but an attitude. It’s the way that we approach our lives, and it’s just as valid if you are a professional painter as if you are a financial planner or a mom or a student or a…fill in the blank with what you do – not just your profession, but each thing that you do in your day and your life. It’s for businesspeople trying to close a sale, it’s for engineers trying to solve a problem, it’s for parents who want their children to see the world in more than one way.

Dewitt Jones, who was a photographer for National Geographic said that “creativity is falling in love through the lens of the camera”. And that’s just what it is supposed to be – falling in love with the world, through whatever means you should choose. It’s approaching each challenge and problem and new thing and relationship and every day occurance and seeing it for the very first time with a fresh set of eyes – not your old, in-the-box, I’m-not-creative eyes, but with the eyes of someone who is created in God’s image and who has the Creator of the world on their side and who lives life not as the age that you are, but as a former kindergartener in a bigger body.


From http://lakeviewchurch.com/sermons/sermons06/godandhiscreativity.html

Artists have a maker

I saw that the maker of objects was himself made by a maker, and that faithfulness to the maker was where I wanted to be.... ~ Ted Kershaw


Creative teachers make mistakes, but but they also search for ways to overcome mistakes. Each time they try something, they review the outcomes and try to imagine ways to make improvements. If I am an uncreative teacher, it may be because I do not feel that I make mistakes. ~ Marvin Bartel Ed.D.

A few art teachers succeed with self-taught artists because they understand how fragile many self-taught artists are. These teachers put the first emphasis on learning new observation skills. They use blind contour drawing and humor. They encourage line-making for fun like a music teacher might play noise games as a warm up. These teachers do not worry about pointing out mistakes. When the students begin to notice their own mistakes, the teacher knows how to use questions that help help students learn to see and eventually answer their own questions. When these teachers see bad habits, they know how to raise questions that get the students to notice things. The questions can be phrased in ways that are face saving for the student. A teacher can fein ignorance, by saying, "I can't quite see what you intend here. Do you want me to see it coming forward or going back? What am I missing?" These teachers teach creativity because their students move from being dependent to being independent learners that think about what they see - not merely copy. They learned how artists solve visual problems.


http://www.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/arted/tc.html



The elements and principles of design are the building blocks used to create a work of art. The elements of design can be thought of as the things that make up a painting, drawing, design etc. Good or bad - all paintings will contain most of if not all, the seven elements of design.

The Principles of design can be thought of as what we do to the elements of design. How we apply the Principles of design determines how successful we are in creating a work of art.

Click for more....

http://www.johnlovett.com/test.htm

(Now we get into what will you DO with your creative talent?)

Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.

It is important to recognize the distinction, but also the connection, between these two aspects of human activity. The distinction is clear. It is one thing for human beings to be the authors of their own acts, with responsibility for their moral value; it is another to be an artist, able, that is, to respond to the demands of art and faithfully to accept art's specific dictates.(2) This is what makes the artist capable of producing objects, but it says nothing as yet of his moral character. We are speaking not of moulding oneself, of forming one's own personality, but simply of actualizing one's productive capacities, giving aesthetic form to ideas conceived in the mind.

The distinction between the moral and artistic aspects is fundamental, but no less important is the connection between them. Each conditions the other in a profound way. In producing a work, artists express themselves to the point where their work becomes a unique disclosure of their own being, of what they are and of how they are what they are. And there are endless examples of this in human history. In shaping a masterpiece, the artist not only summons his work into being, but also in some way reveals his own personality by means of it. For him art offers both a new dimension and an exceptional mode of expression for his spiritual growth. Through his works, the artist speaks to others and communicates with them. The history of art, therefore, is not only a story of works produced but also a story of men and women. Works of art speak of their authors; they enable us to know their inner life, and they reveal the original contribution which artists offer to the history of culture. ~ Pope John Paul II

Attention, Patience, Practice

A little exerpt from http://musiced.about.com/od/quicktip/qt/stip.htm on how to play a musical instrument faster. Things that slow you down will be inattentiveness, lack of patience, and lack of practice. There is a direct parallel to playing an instrument and christianity, and also anything else in life that you want to be successful at.

Playing a Music Instrument
Tips on Learning your Instrument Faster
By Espie Estrella


Pay Attention
Listen and give your instructor your full attention when you're in class. Bring a small notebook and pen and jot down any information, tips or advice your instructor has that will further help your music playing. Ask your instructor if you have any question or point of clarification.

Patience
Learning an instrument is hard at the beginning so you must be very patient with yourself. Don't be discouraged if for the first few months you feel you're making slower progress than the rest of your class. Each of us learn differently and it doesn't necessarily mean that if you learn slower you're not as good as them. Stick to your lessons and you'll be surprised at how much you've improved in the end.

Practice
Ahhh, every music student will hear this saying, "Practice makes perfect." It's true, the more you practice playing your instrument, the better you become at it. Set a time each day for practice and discipline yourself to stick to your schedule. You'll see, in no time you'll be playing beautiful music and you'll be pleased with the progress you've made.

http://www.catholicartists.org/members/

The ART of patience

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, But sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art. ~ Rumi

The Hole in the Floor, by Richard Wilbur

A Hole In The Floor

The carpenter's made a hole
In the parlor floor, and I'm standing
Staring down into it now
At four o'clock in the evening,
As Schliemann stood when his shovel
Knocked on the crowns of Troy.

A clean-cut sawdust sparkles
On the grey, shaggy laths,
And here is a cluster of shavings
From the time when the floor was laid.
They are silvery-gold, the color
Of Hesperian apple-parings.

Kneeling, I look in under
Where the joists go into hiding.
A pure street, faintly littered
With bits and strokes of light,
Enters the long darkness
Where its parallels will meet.

The radiator-pipe
Rises in middle distance
Like a shuttered kiosk, standing
Where the only news is night.
Here's it's not painted green,
As it is in the visible world.

For God's sake, what am I after?
Some treasure, or tiny garden?
Or that untrodden place,
The house's very soul,
Where time has stored our footbeats
And the long skein of our voices?

Not these, but the buried strangeness
Which nourishes the known:
That spring from which the floor-lamp
Drinks now a wilder bloom,
Inflaming the damask love-seat
And the whole dangerous room.

Melody of You by Sixpence None the Richer

Go to God by love

St Paul noticed an altar in Athens dedicated, ‘To an unknown God.' That is you, Lord. I do not know you but I seek you. I have glimpses of you in the face of Christ. Sometimes I feel close to you in the sacraments and in prayer. I know you in dark times too: when I am in utter desolation, my heart tells me, ‘There must be something beyond this.' These glimpses are always a gift, a grace, a promise, a momentary lifting of the veil. Saint John of the Cross mistrusted whatever removes a soul from the obscure faith where the understanding must be left behind, in order to go to God by love.

From: www.sacredspace.ie

Maxine to the Rescue !

Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind... Romans 12:2

Eliminate physical clutter. More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter. ~D.H. Mondfleur

Having Trouble Discovering Your Vocation ?

Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.
Mother Teresa

To keep or not to keep, that is the question.

I just ordered this book from Amazon. It's about a woman whose husband lost her job, and she and her family were forced to move into a much smaller house. She was cleaning out the overgrown garden in the yard and found a fallen bird house. She almost threw out the birdhouse, but she was inspired by it's simple yet intricate construction, and used it as inspiration along with the bible to create a sanctuary for her family in the smaller home.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0446695165/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_un

I desperately need this. We are not moving from a big house to a small house, but we are stuck in a small house and bursting at the seams. I have to sort through what is necessary and not necessary and get the situation under control over here. If we move to a bigger place, we are only going to take the junk with us and make more clutter. If I can't manage this small thing, why should God give us something bigger? Maybe this place would appear bigger with less junk?

Eliminate physical clutter. More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter. ~D.H. Mondfleur

All of you

GOD’S LOVING POWER longs to enfold and flood through all that we are — our subconscious as well as conscious selves; our wounded memories; our damaged trust; our fears; our shadow sides; our hidden hopes; the deep gifts within us not yet born or long forgotten; our attitudes toward ourselves, others, the world around us, and God. Perhaps the greatest act of wonder is that as we are healed, made whole, and filled with God, we become more our unique selves, not less. We are not identical products on a factory line; we are each individually handcrafted.

- Flora Slosson Wuellner
Miracle: When Christ Touches Our Deepest Need

Creativity Quote

Creativity deepens as "the shock of suffering and vision breaks down, one after another, the living sensitive partitions behind which his identity is hiding." A spiritual descent begins where custom and comfortable assumptions break down, indeed, are "destroyed." Finally, creativity reaches a dark but very creative place after all "human substance is consumed": the depths of the human "cave," the "partition of the heart."

This point in the creative process takes us to Dante's steps. Here one becomes aware of his own insufficiency. Once faces the self mirrored in the darkness of her own suffering and sense of helplessness. As such, it is a moment akin to the confession of sin. It is also, like Tillich's insight, a moment for courage. One must find the courage to let go of the self and enter a mysterious but fertile place where something new and wondrous can happen. It is the place of the coram Deo. It is, indeed, the place of a mysterious but renewing Innocence.

A Wounded Innocence, Sketches for a Theology of Art by Alejandro R. Garcia-Rivera

Joy versus Happiness

Happiness versus Biblical Joy

http://cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/PERSONAL/k/280/Fruit-of-Spirit-Joy.htm

My linking to this was inspired by a blog my first cousin Mary Beth posted on blogspot about the same subject, and also my pastor Father Mario Arroyo did a homily on it sometime last year.

Here are my cousin Mary Beth's words below. Her husbands job transferred him to China, and she has a blog about her experiences as a Westerner in the East. I was inspired by her blog.

Faith in the East, Faith in the West

We got back on the 19th to Texas and the first few hours were just surreal. My friend Tricia and my mom picked us up at the airport. On the way home, I popped in to see Jennifer at her store (that is so cool to say - her store). Anyway, I have gotten to see my sis and her family, my mom, and my bro, Mike and oodles of friends who have come by to visit. It was so nice going to church yesterday and hugging the necks of so many people that help me be a better person for God.

One song that we sang in church yesterday is one that we just sang last week in China. It is hard to believe that last Sunday, we were in China worshipping God! And hearing that song made me feel my life was connected. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to be in China. I feel like God has a purpose for our lives by us being there. Of course, I have not had the burning bush yet saying "Hello, MB do this". It sure would be easier that way, wouldn't it? I think it may be an evolution, not revolution that God is working in me.

One thing that I did catch in the sermon on Sunday, amidst the zoning out I have been doing due to jet lag is HAPPINESS vs. JOY. Happiness is temporary, joy is in your heart because of God's love in us. I can honestly say, right now, I feel God's joy in my life. Joy is there regardless of circumstances. The U.S. needs God's joy right now. Most times, I am in my Shanghai bubble and don't deal with this head on. There were times in my life that I was seeking happiness. Now God has a hunger in me to seek joy. By seeking joy, I can do more for God because he's doing more in me. At least that's my prayer right now.

I just got through a Bible Study called Breaking Free by Beth Moore. It was pretty heavy. It was pretty deep. And I just feel so blessed that being in China with help around the house and with our children is enabling me to grow my faith in the East. In this season, I am receiving God's love and not serving for Him. This is really hard for me. I feel God is telling me to sit back. Be a Mary, not a Martha. He's got to do a few things in me before I can do some things for Him.

One hard thing is I have so many people that support me and help me with my faith in the West here in Texas. I miss my friends here. I get strength from the love from my family.

Anyway you put it, it is nice to be back. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here is Mary Beth's blog....West Meets East. She is quite a talented writer and has a keen wit and sense of humor. I am proud of her, love and miss her very much.

http://helloandnihao.blogspot.com