It doesn't have to be pretty.
It has to be true.
“What if the call to a spiritual life and the call to be creative is, in fact, one call?”
What does it mean to live a creative life?
What does it mean to live a spiritual life?
For me, a creative life focuses on visual art. For you, it could be creating something with words or notes on the scale or food or flowers. Living a creative life responds to the call to express what is true and authentic to you.
Understanding a creative life through that lens makes the connection between a creative life and a spiritual life more obvious.
A spiritual life responds to the divine call to be fully expressed, completely who you were created to be. Thomas Merton wrote that a tree gives glory to God by being a tree. You give glory to God by being the fullest and truest version of you.
You answer the call to a spiritually creative life when you create a life that is uniquely and truthfully yours, even when, and especially if, that means going against the status quo, walking away from what is expected, dis-appointing others who reward you for giving your power away to them.
This living a spiritually creative life doesn't have to be hard. You do not have to “walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting,” as Mary Oliver offers in her poem, Wild Geese.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.
It doesn’t have to be good.
It does, though, have to be true.
Do you feel the freedom in that?
In his recent post on Substack, Carl McColman asked “What if the call to a spiritual life and the call to be creative is, in fact, one call? He was exploring an assertion made by Christian Valtern Paintner in her book, The Artist’s Rule. The book offers practices combining monastic wisdom with creativity. Paintner asserts that the ways the artist and monk move through the world are indeed similar - they move on a path of “slowness, of savoring, of seeing the world below surfaces.”
When you slow down enough to embrace silence, you can hear the voice of your soul and imagine what is not yet; you can begin to see what is possible; you can envision a compassionate world. With all the cruelty and chaos happening around us, we need to keep that vision alive.
The imagination is a powerful tool, but it needs space to play. This month, I’ve been making space to play by creating self-portraits in a course called UNAPOLOGETIC with Connie Solera. I’ve been showing up regularly to draw a quick ink sketch of my face. No erasing, no fixing, no making it pretty. Just making it real. I hate that I can’t erase. I struggle to draw the wrinkles and the saggy neck. I have to keep reminding myself that it doesn’t have to be pretty. It has to be true.
NO NOTES:
This is what I’m learning: It is powerful to draw yourself. Throughout the ages, women have been drawn by male artists in a variety of soft, submissive poses. When you draw yourself, you take back the brush. You wield the power to render yourself in whatever manner pleases you. My reward for this self-portrait practice is building a habit to show up for myself and getting more comfortable taking up space. That is a radical bad-ass practice in a world that prefers women to stay small and quiet.
NO APOLOGIES:
What do you have to gain by showing up boldly without apology?
It doesn’t have to be pretty.
It just has to be true.
No Notes.
I’m holding the light for you in these horrific times. If you need someone to process it all with, let’s talk.
Here’s a link to my schedule.
There are a few spots left for this Saturday’s Creative Resistance session using Graffiti! We’ll be screaming out loud onto paper with markers at 11:00am eastern. It will be a powerful way to work through the sadness and rage.
For details and registration click below.
Take care of yourself because you are worth it!
Mary
I LOVE your self portraits and can't wait to try the practice. Thank you for the inspiration and your wise words!
Thank you Mary, I love the title ‘it doesn’t have to be pretty’ there so many places this can go, and heart catching to see your first sentence.