Yesterday I was the guest host at the weekly #SpiritChat twitter chat. I have been a participant since the early days of SpiritChat – and it has been a staple of my connection with people of all different faith groups in many parts of the world who share similar heart spaces. Now that I live on the East Coast, it is much easier to show up for the 9 am chat since it is no longer a 6 am “call time” as it was when I was in the Pacific Time Zone in Bakersfield, California. To find out more about this weekly adventure in spirituality, growth and connection, please visit here.
I was asked to substititute in as guest host by the leader, Kumud Ajmani. What follows is the blog post I wrote introducing the theme to the Spirit Chat community. I plan to share some of the insights I have had on the theme that were inspired by the chat yesterday on my blog this week.
More than twenty years ago I was a guest teacher in a classroom of adults who were used to studying spiritual topics in depth. I chose the topic “You are Art.”
What I remember most is before I started when a man who said, “I am a businessman, I am the furthest thing from art.”
I remember the naive, sweet version of myself felt a wave of incredulity, “You mean, you don’t see your business as an art form?”
My poet, singing, life purpose coach self may have even gotten tears in my eyes.
I was grieved he didn’t get it. He didn’t understand business is art. Getting dressed every day is art. Making a meal is art.
I don’t think that one particular hour-long session made a difference in his life, but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief to say “It could have. The creative spark could have risen from what we said and did in that session to invite him into the possibility that his business was, indeed, his creative project. His business was his art, his sculpture, his dramatic monologue, his pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, his photo, his poem.”
The creative spark – the initial entry into making things – beats in all of our hearts. It moves through our veins and is heard through our voices.
American painter Robert Henri said, “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
This wonderful state Henri refers to is where sparks fly and gather into something more than a single light. The creative spark is at the heart of conversations that leave an impression and sit in our memory decades later. It is the space where we go on walks and suddenly see light in a new way. It is when we solve a problem into a solution that benefits more people than we knew it could.
The creative spark opens doors, breezes through windows and wakes us up from a long nap ready to dive into what we were afraid of before we fell asleep thinking we were stuck in a hopeless mess.
At the ripe old age of ten-years-old I first sang harmonies in a girls chorus class. My voice lifted up and hit higher notes than the melody. I could not believe how beautiful it was to join other voices to make such a glorious, blended sound I couldn’t make by singing alone.
It was like suddenly being a part of a divine miracle. Truth be told, it was a part of a divine miracle, never replicated.
By the end of that school year I abandoned my love of acting, a talent I possessed, was praised for and didn’t use again for three decades.
I only started to act again because of a series of synchronicities and a moment of transcendence pushed me into a space where I could no longer deny this spark within me.
Osho reminds us “To be creative means to be in love with life.”
Let’s deepen that love, together, today and on as many days as possible in the future.
Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.
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YES!! Life Is ART!! ART IS LIFE!!
Never heard of a twitter chat before..
Lovely post! I’m a lot like that business man, not seeing the art in the everyday things we do. Since my stroke I’ve been thinking that I need to access my creative side and I thought I needed to do “art”. Thank you for showing me that my creating that new recipe, decorating my house, and making my blog as entertaining as I can is my art.
In my profession as adult educator, we always said, what we teach my not sink in right away, you may find that what you taught made sense years later and changed their life. I’m certain that you changed that man’s life in a positive way that day.
I didn’t know you could chat on Twitter either!
My favorite form of art is books and writing. I used to draw but that was mainly to illustrate the books that I wrote as a kid with my cousins!
I am learning how important rest really is, to be as creative as I can be! Sometimes, after a night when I have gotten enough sleep, I wake up writing in my head. I have been to SpiritChat several times. It would have been great to be there when you were leading.
The fact that this businessman attended your class tells me that he was open to things that are different from his facts and figures based day job.
For many people “art” or “being creative” has to do with painting, music or theater, when in fact solving a problem by thinking differently can be creative.
“To be creative means to be in love with life.” This is so true! And loving your life causes you to be creative in order to express that love for life.
I love being creative and I love your quote, “to be creative means to be in love with life.” Creativity can be found in so many ways and my many love is creating window treatments. We had our decorating business for over 53 years and it was hard to consider it work since it was so interesting and exciting.