May 14, 2014 WBAS Cat Prayers & Reflections, WBAS Topics Virtues & Values, REL Asset - Activity, REL Topic- Saints, REL Topic- Virtues/Values, REL Catechetical - Adult
By: Kathy Hendricks
“How many of you are creative?” The question generally draws only a smattering of positive responses at one of my women’s retreats. Those answering yes typically describe their talent for art or music. When I probe a little deeper by asking questions about the creative aspect of caring for others, of managing home or office, or of making a feast out of leftovers, a few more hands are tentatively raised. Then I read a quote defining creativity as the ability to make something beautiful out of everyday experience. Everyone in the room can relate.
One popular way to describe creativity is “thinking outside the box.” Here is an even better one: moving beyond the boundaries. In the spiritual journal, Weavings, this is how writer John Mogabgab describes God’s creativity. He writes that, since God is the Creator who set boundaries in place, God is also the one who can press beyond those boundaries. Mogabgab goes on to name biblical images of a burning bush, a parted sea, God’s child gestating in a womb, and a tomb unable to restrain the life-beyond-death within it. “…With unfettered ingenuity, God presses against the boundaries, searches out the potential still dormant in them, [and] reconstructs them so we can glimpse what is beyond their rim.” (Weavings, XVII, No. 2)
Boundary-pushing comes naturally for the artist who sees form and color even before it emerges in stone or canvas. What about the rest of us? Might we all find ways to press through self-imposed boundaries? Doing so means engaging in what Mogabgab describes as “artful living”. This isn’t the American dream of becoming whatever we choose. I, for example, will never sing at the Met or dance on the Broadway stage, despite fantasies stretching back to childhood. I am not blessed with that kind of natural talent. What I have done is find my voice and rhythm in ways which have sometimes taken me by surprise. All of us are made for artful living, for pushing past boundaries in order to find the creative potential within us. Doing so is a way of making each and every day a creative experience, one to be unearthed and explored, savored and shared, cherished and celebrated with awe and exuberance.
Bright Ideas
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Engage your class or family in a discussion about creativity. Invite each person to tell, write, or draw something describing his or her creativity. How does the discussion push your own boundaries for creative potential outward?
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Download my Reflections of a Creative Saint: Hildegard of Bingen, and use it in your parish or home.
