CREATIVITY IN A TIME OF CRISIS
Creativity in a Time of Crisis
Nancy B. Detweiler, M.Ed., M.Div.
Essayist Ann Taylor Fleming once shared her means of coping with the present planetary crisis. Instead of focusing on the turmoil, she visits museums of art. She feasts upon the beauty humankind has created. Surrounded by the extraordinary, Ann finds hope. Humanity is capable of creating a world of splendor!
We are all artists. We all sculpt our world. Our paint brushes and chisel are the thoughts upon which we dwell. Our emotions are the paint and fervor with which we create. Let’s evaluate the quality of the painting or sculpture we are creating during this time of planetary crisis.
Humanity has many terms by which to refer to our Creator God. Among them are the Divine Mind and creative ethers. Our every thought is registered in the creative ethers and is felt, at some level, throughout the cosmos. Thoughts are energy waves. We literally paint our thoughts on a cosmic canvas. Then, with our emotional energy, we sculpt them into forms that are visible to the clairvoyant. These thoughtforms assume the shape of our emotions. A predominantly fearful emotion will sculpt a form that is jagged and menacing. We want to escape fear thoughtforms. Feelings of love will create a soft, flowing energy that is often a shimmering rose pink mingled with glowing white. We desire to merge, to experience the ecstasy of love thoughtforms.
In times of planetary crisis, humanity tends to cover our planetary canvas with the dark, ugly colors of fear thoughtforms. Horrifying black thoughtforms of fear, hate, prejudice, and revenge pepper the canvas. We behold this frightening scene and cry out to our leaders, “Do something … anything! Make it go away.” Our leaders, upon whose shoulders humanity attempts to place the responsibility for removing this painting, tend to respond in like manner. “We must make it go away!” They, too, react with fear. Policies are devised based upon panic. Our freedoms are snatched away. Since our leaders do not know who can be trusted, all of us are suspect. We consent to give up our freedoms because we, too, are unable to identify the trustworthy. The appalling gray paint of fear is splashed thicker and thicker across our planetary canvas. Our planet dwells in fear … is overcome with fear. We search in vain for those glowing strokes of rose pink and white that feel so comforting to our exhausted minds. Our world is spinning out of control. The more we fear, the more numerous are the frightening events that pierce the fabric of our lives. For in Truth, we are the artists painting a very scary scenario. With our thoughts—nourished by the powerful emotions of fear, revenge, and hate—we are creating our world. We scream, “We must do something!” But, we know not what to do. Or do we?
Why not change our brush strokes? Why not use the lovely rose pink paint instead of the heinous gray? We are in control of our actions. We are free to paint the emotion of love rather than that of fear. Humanity possesses the capacity to paint over the gray of fear with the pink of love. We can make fear disappear. Why do we not use our skills to create a more loving environment in which to live and move and have our being? How can we do so?
1. The first step is Intention. We, as a human family, must say, “Enough fear! … Enough revenge! … Enough hate!” This monstrous gray painting sickens us! It saps the life force from us! It begets more fearful events! Instead, we intend to use strokes of rose pink in painting our canvas. We intend an environment of love!
The word intention is synonymous with purpose, goal, and design. To intend is to persist in bringing forth, into physical manifestation, a definitive design or objective. It means to have a goal and to set out toward it. We can dream of a loving world; but, in order to have it, we must set out to paint our canvas rose pink mingled with white. We must pick up a new paint brush … a new chisel … and set out to re-create our world one brush stroke at a time. To intend involves steady progress forward, while our eyes remain fixed on the goal.
2. Intention requires the thoughtform of what is to be. We must consider what a loving world would look like and establish that goal in mind. When we travel to a specific destination, such as Seattle, we set out toward it with arrival there as our goal. We would never reach Seattle, if we continually questioned the wisdom of going. We would never get there if we repeatedly allowed fear, inconvenience, distractions, or mishap to cause us to turn around and return to the seclusion of our homes. Intention is our motivating force; holding Seattle in mind is our thoughtform of what is to be.
So, what would a loving world look like? The number one characteristic would be a recognition that humanity is One Family living in One Home—planet Earth. Our new painting would, therefore, contain black, brown, yellow, red, and white faces scattered across a background of shimmering rose pink and white. All would reside in an atmosphere of love. Wherever we behold a pocket of odious gray, we would center our thoughts on that area and ask, “What does this gray area need in order to be transformed into rose pink?” Once we have determined the root cause for the gray, we would set out to re-create the situation. For example: A gray area exists because children have been orphaned and have never known the bliss of a mother’s loving hand caressing them. They have not experienced the security of a home in which they are cherished for their own individual, unique qualities of personhood. We convert this gray area into one of love by joining forces with organizations that work to bring about loving change, such as Church World Service, Habitat for Humanity, Waters Edge Ministry, and Child Fund International.
Additional gray areas may be the result of no schools and no work. There are a growing list of organizations whose goal is to lift the educational and economic status of all our human family. Opportunity International, Women to Women International, Waters Edge Ministry, and Church World Service are just a few of the many examples. We can paint these gray areas rose pink by volunteering to work with these organizations, raising money that would allow them to expand their services, and providing publicity for them. We can travel with the research tours that many organizations offer enabling us to see firsthand the problems that await innovative and loving solutions.
A loving world would include the knowledge that every human being is extremely valuable and has a role to play within the Divine Plan that no other individual can fulfill. We would work to insure that every child receive the guidance needed to allow him/her to perform his/her role as an integral Part of the Whole Family of God. We would recognize a child turns to crime and terrorism only when he/she cannot see a better way to be acknowledged for the priceless beings he/she is. We would use paint strokes of rose pink as we guide every child in weaving his/her distinctive thread into the fabric of a loving world.
Our Creator God fashioned the Earth, then proclaimed that creation to be Good in all its forms. We use rose pink paint when we remember and take action based on the knowledge that at the core of our being, every human being is Good. We know this to be Truth because God indwells all of humanity and God is Good. Thus, when we interact with another human being, we are interacting with a Part of God. Remembering this Truth, we can begin to paint a loving world by looking behind the facades most of us wear to the Good residing within. We can learn to tap into that spark of divinity … to magnetize it outward … to relate to the inner being of every person. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to reciprocate genuine love and respect with mischief and indifference. The more we consistently and sincerely love the inner core of all persons, the more they will learn to trust and to respond with love—even those who demonstrate outwardly all the signs of being completely unlovable. We come to realize that those who appear unlovable have never experienced unconditional love. Love overcomes fear. Love is the transformative energy of the universe. All else withers and dies in the face of authentic love.
3. We paint with rose pink as we transform cooperatively our planetary structures and do so with the highest good of all humanity as our goal. Our Creator God designed a world in which every individual (God) Part of our human Family lives in abundance. At present the canvas of our planet is covered in sickening gray because we believe there is not enough to go around. We are desperately afraid that someone or something will take away what we have. Because we believe in lack, we have instituted all sorts of laws and behaviors that supposedly protect us. The end result is lack, simply because we used gray paint in formulating human laws. We lack a sense of security. We approach life from the stance of: “I’ve got to do whatever it takes to grab my share before someone else does.” On very subtle—and not so subtle—levels, every other human being becomes our potential enemy.
We can exchange this repulsive gray paint for the tranquility of the rose pink by learning to approach every facet of our lives with an intention to create structures that bring forth the Good in all of humanity. We can hasten the journey to our destination of a loving world via giving attention to those persons and organizations that are creating the Good. At present, we are permitting our world leaders, our entertainment industries, our news media, and even our religious organizations to fixate on the negative. For every moment we concentrate on the negative, we paint another brush stroke of gray on our planetary canvas. Why are we so fascinated with the grotesque? Why do we not dedicate our lives to solving, with love and creativity, the problems of the world? Have we completely lost touch with the core of our being?
Humankind is Good. We can create splendid structures that allow all persons to thrive. We were created with the capacity to walk the path of love … of peace … of justice for all … of plenty … of joy! Why do we fail to do so? Why have we stifled these marvelous parts of ourselves in exchange for fear, insecurity, lack, sickness, violence, and death—on both the psychological and physical levels? What holds us back from reclaiming the richness of our inner being? What prevents the flow of the creative urges that swell within us? Why do we accept our world as it is … even grow complacent with a world of gray? Each one of us possesses the God-given capacity to create a new world for ourselves and our human family. Why do we paint a gray world when we could, just as easily, paint a world of love and plenty for all? Why do we forfeit the tremendous power for Good, harbored within each of us, in exchange for that external power that negates the rights of all our human family to thrive in the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey?
It seems we all need to browse through an art museum and to be reminded of the splendor of which humanity is capable. We all need to recall our true identities as beloved Sons and Daughters of our Mother/Father God.
Why settle for a dreadful world of gray when we can have a heavenly rose pink world of love and peace? Humanity is capable of establishing heaven on Earth.
Let us join hands and hearts and do so together!
