We Are All Creators - Part 2

Happy Monday Everybody!

This weekend I got to be a part of celebrating my niece’s 9th birthday. Aside from the usual family craziness that is normal for us when all the cuzzies get together (nine of them ranging from 2-15yrs), we had a beautiful moment that I’d like to tell you about. It was a moment of creation.

My Brother and Sister-in-Law have made this brilliant tradition that whenever we celebrate a family birthday, we sit the person (whose special day it is) in the middle of the family group and we speak good words over them. We tell them what we love about them, encourage them, praise them, build them up; honour them. It is truly wonderful. The child or adult might feel a little uncomfortable at first, but is always an incredible time. 

I believe this is a powerful moment of creation. Where we get to pause, acknowledge and call out the good in an individual. We get to push against the tide of our busy lives to mark a moment and pour life into an individual’s identity. We have used our words to purposefully help create wholeness and strength in a person. All in the middle of a crazy family Sunday evening!

I know that a birthday only comes up once in a year; and that that was a special moment. However, I think we can all have these special moments of creating joy in our lives EACH DAY. I watched a great movie last night that had the following theme to it: We all have the capacity to be happy. But it is more than our right – it is our obligation. The world needs us to be happy. Not a delusional, unrealistic happy; but a grounded, deep sense of joy despite the circumstances' type of happy.

Many of us fall into the trap of rushing through life. We move too fast. Our lives are cluttered or distracted by all the ‘stuff’ we have to do. I’m learning to slow down and notice the details. Enjoy the moments that only I might see. That flower that was in bloom just when I walked past. That cheeky smile on my daughters face that no-one else was there to witness. Our little puppy bouncing around in crazy doggy madness. Beauty. All around us. That we miss ALL the time.

I can learn to be a witness and participant in this beauty; and I can let it create in me a joy that sticks regardless of the circumstances. OR I can rush along and miss it all. Get caught up in the speed of modern life. Get stuck up in my head thinking about all the stuff I should be doing. Stuck in negative thinking or anxious thinking. This thinking is destructive to everything. Myself, others and my environment.

So today I invite you to look out for those moments of beauty. Pause and celebrate them. Contemplate them until the wonder creates space in your day. Or take a moment to intentionally speak life to somebody. Maybe it’s another person. Maybe it’s yourself.

Let’s all create a bit of beauty in our lives this week and see what happens. I’d love to hear your stories!

Lexi

We Are All Creators

For the past year or so I’ve been doing my best to get to a local art group on Friday mornings. It’s kind of my ‘self-care’ day where I do something just for me. It’s great! For most of my life I have loved art and wished I could be better at it. But any time I tried I didn’t like the results I got. I couldn’t paint or draw what was in my head. Or not well enough for my liking anyway. (Did I take the time to learn and practice and get better? Course not!) So I put art to the side and told myself I wasn’t creative enough. “Obviously it’s just not my thing.”

Have you ever heard of Black and White thinking before? Basically it means that if it’s not one thing it’s the opposite. If I can’t be excellent at something – I must be 'no good' at it. Being 'no good' at something is usually not ok so I might as well not do it all – just in case I might be seen as a failure – or not good enough. See how it works?

So, if you’re anything like I was, you might be going through life with all these things that you would have loved to do – or at least given a try; but you haven’t – because you tell yourself that you can’t do it, or you probably won’t be able to do it – so why bother trying at all?

Life becomes “safe” because you’ve got into the habit of just doing the things that you know you can do already.

Safe is comfortable.

Don’t get me wrong, a little bit of comfort is not a bad thing at all! However, if we are keeping ourselves comfortable because of internal beliefs that say something like “if I try and fail then I might not be good enough - a failure” then that’s a lot less ok!

Anyway, back to Art Group. I am learning that I am a Creator. Everything about me is Creative. Creativity is not at all confined to art – although art is an excellent outlet for creativity. Everything I put my hand to, I can do creatively. Because there is only one of me – only I can do the things I can do. Only I have the knowledge, background, experience and talent to do what I can do the way I can do it. Whatever I do is unique and creative because only I can do it like this. It’s the same for you – all of us!

At the very deepest level, I believe we are creators of our daily existence. I’m not meaning this in narcissistic self-deifying way. But actually, on another level we do have the ability to create life or death within our own lives – and in the world around us. Each day the thoughts I choose create a physical, emotional and behavioural reaction in me that affects everything I do. In every situation (good or not so good) that crosses my path I can choose how I react. Will I react out of fear, guilt, anxiety, shame or bitterness – or will I act with dignity and self-respect and love (for myself, others and the environment)? The way I choose to think and act not only affects my physical, emotional and spiritual state; it also affects everything around me. I can bring a little bit of light or a little bit of darkness to the world. Bit by bit we can influence our environment by just choosing to ‘Be’ a certain way.

So somehow, my going to art class has turned into me changing the world. (Maybe I am a little narcissistic after all!) I think what I’m getting at is that there is SO much more going on in our lives and this world than what we can see with our eyes. Modern science is just beginning to show us this. You just have to google neuroscience or particle physics or molecular biology to see just how intricately we are connected to one another and our world.

What I have decided is that I want to consciously impact my little slice of this planet for the better. I want others and the Earth to be better off for my presence here – rather than the other way around. I understand that I am a creative being regardless of whether I choose to acknowledge it or not – and I want to learn to create positive things with my words and actions.

So how do I do this? Well that's a much larger discussion isn't it!? I guess this blog is my invitation to you to enter into this discussion too. I'd love to hear your comments or reflections.

What shall we create today?

Lexi x