The other day I wrote about the field of the expressive arts and how discovering this resource has really augmented my work in integrating spirituality and the arts.  Here are some books I would recommend: Spirituality and Art Therapy, edited by Mimi Farrelly-Hansen This book has chapters written by different expressive arts practitioners from various religious and spiritual perspectives.  Each chapter explores the connections between a particular spiritual tradition and work in the expressive arts.  Some chapters are stronger than others, especially good are “Prayer, Sacraments, Grace,” “Pilgrimage: Celtic Spirituality Revisited,” and “Nature: Art Therapy in Partnership with the Earth.” Foundations of

I just updated my website to include the text of two articles I wrote which you might find interesting: Responding to Beauty’s Call: The Shape of an Aesthetic Spirituality published in the October 2005 issue of The Way, an international journal of contemporary Christian spirituality published by the British Jesuits. Creativity as Christian Spiritual Practice: Foundations and Explorations for Ministry, published in the 2006 issue of the Journal of Supervision and Training in Ministry. Also, coming in the September issue of Presence: Journal of Spiritual Directors International is an article on Using the Arts in Spiritual Direction and Discernment.

I have received some email requests from folks asking about how to subscribe to this blog.  I have discovered Feedblitz, a simple website that does this well.  Your email is used only to send you blog updates and is a separate process from being on the Creating Space mailing list.  Here are the instructions: REGISTER for the service by clicking here.  A new window will open and all you give is a valid email address and a password. An email is sent to you to confirm your registration. CLICK on the LINK provided to CONFIRM Log on! CLICK ON “New Subscription” from the menu on the right.

As if I needed one more reason to nap more. . .gotta love those British research projects! (“Sleep more and save the environment”) My father was definitely a workaholic, but being European by upbringing, he always came home in the middle of his 12-14 hour workday for a two hour lunch and nap break.  I am proud to say that I have firmly embraced the napping tradition of my ancestors, but rejected my father’s workaholic tendencies.  There is something so wonderful and decadent about taking a leisurely pause in the afternoon.  It is one of my acts of resistance against a culture that

Rita Bresnahan sent me this upcoming resource: the good folks over at Spirituality & Health magazine have started a new website devoted entirely to different spiritual practices.  They are offering a 40-day e-course beginning July 6 on “Practicing Spirituality through Creativity” for $10.  I am all signed up, eager to see what other resources they offer.

I offer you this beautiful reflection by Ron Cole on the beauty of Creation:  I think it makes a huge difference when you come out of your home in the morning, whether you believe on the one hand you're stepping into inert space, which is endless, or whether you're stepping into something that is animate and alive. And I really believe that landscape is alive. I think that one of the amazing things about humans is the way that we have usurped the notion of consciousness in almost an imperialistic way for ourselves. We in a sense have separated ourselves from creation.

These are three of my favorite books for working with dreams: Jill Mellick’s Art of Dreaming is a wonderful resource that contains a multitude of ideas for using the expressive arts to unpack the meaning and significance of our dreams. Louis Savary’s Dreams and Spiritual Growth is a great introductory resource for bringing dreamwork together with insights from Christian tradition. Jeremy Taylor has many books available on dreams, but his book Dream Work is a good introduction to his method of Projective Dream Work. Please click here for our Creating Space resource page for dreamwork with links directly to Amazon