Creativity is a mysterious process of organizing diversity into a coherent whole. It is a magical way of making sense out of chaos, weaving together threds from seemingly random sources, to produce something unique and even beautiful as it follows some kind of recognizable pattern.
All of matter is constructed in patterns, some more complicated than others, but it's all comprised of delicate patterns, lacy overlays of life, folding together in a perfect visual rhythm of movement. In fact, it only appears to be static, still, when in reality on some other dimensional level, it is actually all in motion, continuing the on-going process of creating.
We tend to think of life as being motion, observable results constantly producing, giving, growing, but sometimes it's not. There are those times when everything seems to come to a sudden stop. You will have been going along at full tilt, and then one day you wake up and you don't want to get out of bed. Nothing is wrong, except that you just can't seem to get going. Suddenly, you find yourself in an empty void and it is precisely in that void, that silence, that immovable non-action, invisibility, that life is doing its best work. Life is gestating. It is a powerful and integral process of creation and clearly evident in every aspect of life - from the butterflies to continental shifts, weather patterns and spiritual awakening out of dark nights of the soul, to entire civilizations undergoing a stagnation before awakening into a renaissance. It is the resurrection of life after death. It is the New Jerusalem after the Apocalypse. It is grandiose as much as it is microscopic. It is life, the mysterious mother invisibly at work creating more life.
It is always there and yet we human beings who love to control everything - from when we go to work to what we eat - can not stand any kind of static, non-doing, non-action in our lives. We can't stand what we can't control and we cannot control life's process of creating. We cannot control God who is still the source of all creating.
While you were out there actively engaged in working, doing, preparing for the holidays, everything that's exciting and alive for you, you weren't aware that your inner self was taking in information all around you at exactly that same speed and even on deeper levels, processing it all, attempting to create from all that you were being exposed to. Finally, as if in a single command from the internal spiritual conductor, your system screams, "Stop."
Suddenly, you find yourself completely and totally blown away from too much incoming data that your mind literally shuts down. When the mind is shut down nothing can get in.
One day we wake up only to find ourselves in a kind of cocoon. While we may not be aware of this, it is a natural creative time of gestating something new, either while or immediately after an active time. It may be likened to the calm after a storm. It is a time when we digest all the data, energy and information we've taken in over a period of time, all combined with a seemingly inexhaustable amout of motivation, and even vision, until the inner life processor needs to stop the in-coming data to create the next step from which you will step into the next level of life.
It almost seems this dormant time feels wrong. It feels completely unproductive, even lazy, keeping us all holed up inside our warm homes. Meanwhile, as this week, an arctic blast, has taken our country by storm, leaving us no alternative but to slow down and stay in, even hibernate.
As most of the country is steeped in an arctic deep freeze, some areas are covered in snow, others ice and other areas, completely holed up due to below zero temperstures, I can imagine most of us are dealing with that frustrating state of non-doing.
It is no surprise that after the high activity level of the holidays, the country churning after a deep recession, the closing down of our government this fall, the Middle East wars, and the rapidly changing times in general, that we as a nation would almost need a deep freeze to get us to chill out.
It's all good. It is mother nature's way of creating out of chaos. As an individual butterfly crawls out of its cocoon after a period of time, a beautiful new creature, so will we. Individually, we're all growing and as a nation (and as a world) we are growing as well. We only seem disparaging, even teetering on global destruction, teasing ourselves into a state of terror. But, we are not doing anything unusual. We are gestating a new awesome creation. When you look back at old television newscasts, from even the 1960s, it's just amazing to me how far we've come. We'd like to think fondly on the 'good old days," but they weren't good. They were packed with falseness, in a million ways. while we are so far from perfect it isn't funny, we are closer to it than we've ever been. Yes, the world is in a precarious state, but there are whole sections of the world breaking into newfound states of enlightenment, minimalistic and environmentally sustainable living, more compassion for animals, children, women, minorities, cross-cultural equitable lifestyles, an overarching call to support the dignity of all of life, from whales to mitochondria.
After this global tempest passes, we will awaken one day to find that we are on the brink of a new age, a beautiful new world. In Shakespeare's classic that inspires at times like this, there is the reminder that after "all torment, trouble, " there is "wonder, amazement" as "some heavenly power guide(s) us out of this fearful country." And, "though the seas threaten, they are merciful." (The Tempest, scene 5)
It is the eternal process of creation that builds a crucible as a chrysalis and silently waits while the magical mother brings forth new life. It takes courage to surrender our need to control, relinquish our anxiety and unbelief, and allow creation to happen. It's all good, even if we can't control it and its outcome isn't certain. Life is happening despite us and even that is all good.
No comments:
Post a Comment