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Reflections

Category: Creativity

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Missing My Muse

Before I came to Houston for the SDI Conference I had spent several intense days writing, writing, and more writing and all through it Abbess Petunia was a quiet, faithful presence encouraging me on. Who is the muse in your own life? Make sure to stop by the Poetry Party — the random drawing for a prize is tomorrow! Become a fan of the Abbey on Facebook or follow the Abbey on Twitter (new!) © Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts: Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts Subscribe in a reader

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Cycles of Creativity

“A major obstacle to creativity is wanting to be in the peak season of growth and generation at all times . . . but if we see the soul’s journey as cyclical, like the seasons. . . then we can accept the reality that periods of despair or fallowness are like winter – a resting time that offers us a period of creative hibernation, purification, and regeneration that prepare us for the births of spring.” (7) -Linda Leonard, from Call to Create : Celebrating Acts of Imagination One of the greatest gifts of the seasons to me as a writer

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Creative Rhythms

The moon will be full this Thursday, February 21st. There are no children in our home (by choice, I might add), and so I gather “the sleeping infant of (my)self” to go out into the dark night and drink in the inky beauty of white rock in a sea of blackness.  My sun sign is Cancer whose planet is the moon.  I have always felt an affinity for the moon and her phases and rhythms, appreciating the profound wisdom of her gentle waxing and waning as a mirror of the movement of the seasons from flowering to death and back to blossoming again. 

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Serving the Mysteries

A couple of weeks ago, in my interview with Heather Williams Durka, she used a phrase to describe her work as an artist that has stayed with me: “Serving the Mysteries.”  I was really entranced by that image, because for me the spiritual journey is not so much about growing in certainty as it is about learning how to move more deeply into the heart of Mystery.  And so the idea of my work as an artist being about serving the mysteries resonates deeply. In the January/February 2008 issue of Spirituality and Health magazine, Thomas Moore wrote in his column about religion and the

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Artists Speaking About Their Art

I am honored to be included in this compilation of quotes by artists speaking about their art as a part of a grant project to explore creativity and spirituality.  Some intriguing words for reflection found there, not to mention links to some fabulous artists’ websites.  Click on over to find some inspiration. How would you articulate the connection between your creativity (whether visual, literary, movement, music, etc.) and your spirituality?  Feel free to answer in the comments below or provide a link back to your blog if you post a response there.  I’d really love to hear your responses. -Christine

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Creating Space

I had a dream the other night: In the building where we live one of the condos is going to be rented out for a couple of months, so I decide to go take a look at it. When I first walk in, there is a small cramped kitchen with a stairway going up from the middle of the room. I climb the stairs and discover a lovely room up above with floor-to-ceiling windows and a view of some lovely old stone church ruins (similar to the ones I saw in Ireland–photo above is on the Dingle Peninsula) and beyond

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Inevitable Creating

“After all, the goal is not to make art, but to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable.” -Robert Henri from The Art Spirit “I don’t believe in it. . .Plumbers don’t get plumbers block, and doctor’s don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working and then expect sympathy for it?” -Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) These two quotes have caught my attention today, in part because they seem to each speak of a different end of the

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