“It’s better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at that line for the rest of your life.” ~Unknown
I woke up this morning to find memories from a few years back grumbling in my head without my consent. Unhealed memories haunt us like a dark cloud on a sunny day.
[restrict] I tried diverting my attention to other things but the memories kept rumbling like a rat gnawing inside the wall. John Irving says, “Your memory is a monster; you forget – it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you – and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have in a memory; but it has you!” I realized I needed to forgive again. Forgiveness is not earned. It is given. There are times when forgiveness is implied because we know we must forgive especially when we recite the Lord’s Prayer but that would be superficial faith. However, there are times when we need to hone in on an issue and be explicit about it… just between you and God. Like the Jewish rabbi who said (I’m paraphrasing), “I had to forgive Hitler before I left Europe because I didn’t want to take him with me to my new country (USA).
It’s hard to be creative with all that rumbling inside the soul. To create something without staying in touch with my heart would be writing from false self that leads to egocentrism and narcissism.
Dr. John T. Chirban, Ph.D. Th.D in his book, “True Coming of Age: A Dynamic Process that Leads to Emotional Stability Spiritual Growth, and Meaningful Relationship says, “Creativity is a unique expression of our ability to make something out of our “originality of thought.” He says that although we cannot, like God, create ex nihilo (“out of nothing”), we have the power to generate and transform things: to convert our ideas into new forms, to make our dreams realities, to shape our self and our world– to inspire, excite, incite, calm, and originate. When we create in connection with God, we feel inspired and empowered. Through creativity, we can develop skills which we often do not fully understand or engage. By applying our abilities to new possibilities, creativity builds self-awareness and strengthens identity – our true self.
When we create, we take risks and embrace new possibilities. The creative process taps the source of both our built-in nature and our individuality. This permits us to discover and express more of our other intrinsic gifts and more of our self. It helps us to recognize those qualities and to harness their power.
We generate creativity from within rather than accepting external formulations of it. For this reason, we often feel that what we create is who we are–it is part of ourselves. When our work permits us to create, we often call it art and equate the product with our self-worth. One of the miracles of each of our lives is the possibility of leaving our distinct — creative — mark through the expressions of our creativity. Creativity is a unique expression of our own experience and achievements. [/restrict]