Day: September 29, 2013

I took my crystal – soon to be my necklace – and placed it on a stump with the sun behind it, the sun touched the crystal and I felt it’s power. People tell me that crystals are healing – people tell me a million things are healing, and I think if all of the things that people see as healing would really heal, then there would be no illness and death in the world (you would not believe all of the things people tell me absolutely cures diabetes, it is a wonder anyone on the earth has it).

I have my own ideas about healing for me. I think what heals is belief.

I think creativity heals, I worship the creative spark.  And love. And gentleness to animals and people. And connection with other humans. And a love of Mother Earth and an understanding of nutrition and movement. I think meditation heals, and humility and self-awareness. So does forgiveness and openness, taking photos, reading books, walks with dogs, holding my wife close to me and giving thanks for here. For me, blogging heals and writing books.

Everyone’s ideas about healing are as good as mine. I never tell anyone else what is healing for them, only for me. We are not the same, we are all individual, our lives and minds and biology unique. In our arrogance and self-absorption, we are led to believe that what works for us works for everyone, and that we know what is best for others.

Humility teaches me that I do not know what is healing to other people, only what makes me feel better as a human being. I cannot alter the cycle of human life, I will wither and die whether I find crystals or not. And whether I find them or not, I will live a good life for as long as I can.

For me, creativity is not simply only writing books of poems, taking photos or painting, singing or sketching. Creativity for me is the holy spark in us, the thing we were given by our many notions of God that separates us from all other living things. Spirituality is not really about religion for me – more people brutalize and murder other people in the name of religion than any other thing in our history. Creativity is about finding ways to live that are nourishing, that bring light and images and colors and emotions to the world.

Creativity is an ideology, a pathway to spirituality, the very definition of spirituality, it requires us to live in a spiritual way. Creativity challenges me to be self-aware, to look inward, to be authentic. It helps me to see the anger and fear that have corroded so much of my life and to begin to learn how to move behind them. It asks me to find other means of communicating that argument and anger, and to shed the endemic culture of struggle stories and lament that is the currency of so many people in our world.

Creativity helped me to see that that if I wanted love in my life, I need to open myself up to it, to think differently about it. And so it came to me.

Creativity helped me to begin taking photographs, which helped me to see the world anew, to begin to bend my knee to color and light, to literally change the way I see the world.

Creativity helped me to respect death as much as life, and to see one as a part of the other. I do not mourn the things I have lost in my life, I celebrate the things I can have. Everyone I love will die, as will I. I celebrate their lives. Every dog I love will die, and how blessed I am to be able to get another, to love one again. I will never make loving a dog a misery, for me, a gift of creativity.

When I hear about the sad and angry news from Washington, I think mostly of how bereft of creativity our political culture has become, how mired on old ways of thinking, how  differently I have come to see conflict than the people who embrace it as a way of life. People who love history know better than to think conflict works to solve problems.  Creativity is about seeing the world in different ways, about solving problems rather than arguing about them. The creative mind is challenged to think differently, open to new ideas, see the world in different ways.

Creativity requires us to be mindful, to think about lives, our aspirations, to light the creative spark and cherish it more than power or money or position. In our culture, creativity is isolating, it lives on the fringes of our world, it requires patience and strength and discipline, acceptance of the reality that it will most often fail. It is a lonely way of thinking, you will not see creativity people in Washington much or on TV arguing about the world.

Creativity does not make me better than anyone else, or superior to any other way of thinking. It brings me love and peace and beauty, every waking minute of my life.

I’ve had crystals around me for years, I always write with a big chunk of quartz by the computer, I’ve always felt something from crystals, although I am never sure exactly what. But I am enchanted by our wanderings around Crystal Hill, I love to take photos there, Maria kneels down on the ground and seems to feel where some of the crystals are. There was something mystical about this place and Maria came back with a pouch of treasures, one of which she is making into a necklace for me.

When I look at the ground, I see light and leaves, Maria sees other things, and it is a beautiful thing to see. My wife is a Pagan, a good witch, connected to the earth in a visceral way.

The back porch seems to be a reflection of our lives, where we are a given time. Around here, the morning wash is rarely laundry (my wife is not into washing socks of any kind, she doesn’t believe in it), it is more apt to be recycled fabric or, this morning, vintage hankies. I always look at the porch first to see how the farm is. Barn cats are usually in the chairs, chickens are parading by the back door, no leaves are appearing.

My driftwood cross keeps a spiritual eye on the place. I love seeing the vintage hankies, they are Maria’s flags, flapping in the wind. Then off to Saratoga Springs for the first time in awhile. From noon to one p.m., I’ll be taking part in a celebration of Northshire Book’s new Saratoga Springs store, I hear it is a wonderful store and booming also. Nice news. I’ll be taking Red and Maria is coming and I’ll be signing books and greeting visitors to the store. Lots of writers are coming by today, sounds like a fun afternoon.