Emerging into Creativity & Community
/“Now let us issue from the darkness of solitude.”
~ Virginia Woolf
I first began this museletter several weeks ago, as the summer solstice was approaching, and there was a quickening in the air. An obvious uptick in activity and gatherings.
Wherever I went, indoors or outside, on forest trails, at the beach, in health clubs, or inside grocery stores I would see that most folks were not wearing masks. And I get it. Masks are no longer required in most places and we are all eager to shed and shun the restrictive protocols put in place more than two years ago, to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Now, once again, we are out and about, traveling, visiting family, friends, and foreign venues.
And here in my neighborhood, and in others too, we are celebrating spectacular gardens bursting with flowers, bees, and birdsong, all of these flora and fauna singing out, “Ta da”! I’m here! I’m back. I’m alive”.
Is it any wonder then, as springtime tumbles into summer, here in the northern hemisphere, that we mammals feel an attunement with the vernal sun, moon, and stars? Our animal bodies long to emerge from our tattered cocoons into the sunlight.
I’m also feeling this instinctual impulse to issue from the darkness of solitude. And I’m wondering how to meet this deep longing, for reconnection and merriment, with a healthy dose of mindfulness…or not.
Instead of thoughtful conversations, and visionary choreography, it feels like the local and global reemergence is occurring in one great gush of restlessness.
And I understand. We’ve all been through so much trauma in the past several years. And we’re still navigating a multiplicity of traumas, on a daily basis, both personal and collective. There’s so much grim international, national, and local news. Perhaps then, this gush is predictable and inevitable.
I have to say, I’m both encouraged and also concerned by the initial stirrings I perceive. And I’m wondering if we are rushing headlong, and with gusto, into an old normal that was not optimal for all? An old shape that was skewed toward the privileged few and which excluded so many of us?
Is our reemergence spiked with resentment for all that we’ve endured and sacrificed?
Is post-pandemic scarcity consciousness causing us to act frantically? Behave like someone who’s been deprived of oxygen and then instinctually gasps, then violently grasps for air, and then ends up hyperventilating?
And maybe, maybe, after we settle down for a minute, like we sometimes do the morning after an exuberant New Year’s Eve celebration, perhaps we’ll pause, take a few centering breaths, and consider new possibilities. Consider making intentions around kindness, compassion, and inclusivity.
Emerging from a worldwide pandemic is something most of us have never experienced. And if that challenge weren’t enough, we’re still taking the full measure of climate disruption; still addressing issues of social injustice and accountability; still watching in horror as Russia brutally attacks Ukraine; and closer to home, here in the States, we are filled with sorrow by all of the recent mass shootings; and we are stunned by the most recent rulings by the Supreme Court overturning gun safety restrictions, the devastating reversal of Roe v. Wade, and the calamitous ruling curtailing the E.P.A.’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants…
As I peer out from under my metaphorical covers, I ask myself, how do I show up? How might I help? How can I be of service? The world I’m inhabiting seems fraught and often overwhelming. So what then is the practice for mindfully meeting these times of reemergence?
What I do know is that I must not go numb. How do I feel, heal, and be present to what is happening in our shared world? What is the medicine for our times?
One portal where I find orientation and inspiration is through creativity. Especially when I practice creative self-expression alongside others, either in person or online.
Being creative in a safe container, where art matters, and there’s no way to do it wrong, is healing to our broken artist’s heart. And these spaces provide a safe place to both sob and laugh together, where we may fall to our knees in grief, or fall off our chairs with big belly laughs. Every emotion is welcome and that is healing medicine.
When I lift my brush and trust my intuition to choose a color, make a shape or an image that’s never been done before, I’m fed by the creative process itself.
When I sit at my laptop and quiet my inner chatter, I can hear my inner muse, and invariably, I midwife a new poem.
And when the music plays and I allow my body to sway in response, allow my toes to tap and my hands to clap in an embodied movement prayer, I know I’m standing and dancing on sacred ground. My dancing feet make it so.
And when I show up for myself and others in these vulnerable courageous ways a communion is happening. I’m listening with my ears and eyes, with my hands and feet, with my heart and belly to my inner wisdom.
And here’s the thing. When I inhabit this fertile terroir, brand new possibilities blossom. I’m being sustained by something bigger and less personal than my small scared self. I feel held in an elementally safe manner. And from that place, I can bear witness. I can be present with myself and with others in a well-oriented way. That’s the healing alchemy of creativity practiced in community.
A deep bow goes to the women in my writing salon. A sincere shout out to the sisters and brothers in my Intuitive Painting circle. And a big hug to the rag tag tribe of creatives in my Improv classes and movement workshops. You lift my spirit and make me smile.
My soul gets juiced up by playful creativity. And from that alive juicy place, I simply want to share my joy and enthusiasm. I authentically feel the impulse to give to others from a place of fullness.
So as each of us finds who and what brings us alive, in whatever creative expressions we’re drawn to, we’re more likely to be joyful. And that joy is contagious. We become a light and that light is contagious. And the world needs more light.
I’m proposing that we each explore and discover what, how, and where we love to be creative… and with whom. Finding like-hearted folks with whom we can be creative is powerful medicine for the world.
And now I offer you my newest poem, a prayer for reemerging:
Emerging into Creativity and Community
“...we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which consciously or unconsciously the whole world is hungering”.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Perhaps we will be like honey bees coming and going from our hives.
Or maybe more like emergent butterflies, newly shape shifted from the chrysalis,
merrily and busily going from flower to flower imbibing nectar, providing pollen
to fragrant flowers far and near, our only raison d’etre, the erotic pleasure
of pollinating and being simultaneously nourished in the dance of eros.
In this sensual synchronicity of spreading pollen and being fed in the process,
we become vectors of love, infectors of peace, dancing love to love,
peace to peace, sating the world’s hunger, quenching her thirst,
offering to each other a good long drink to our parched lips and dry throats,
reminding ourselves we are not alone in our longing for belonging.
Infinite acts of generosity and reciprocity exist on this good green earth,
all are reminiscent of that primal iconic offering of a baby at her mother’s breast.
While at first glance it may appear the good mama is selflessly giving to her baby,
and so she is, there’s more to be known in this wholehearted act of devotion,
for in this precious exchange of coos and kisses, mama is utterly nurtured as well.
In all of nature there exists reciprocity everywhere we look. No scarcity. No lack.
I’m not talking transactional. No quid pro quo. Rather a simple generous abundance.
The ebb and flow of tides, the xylem and phloem within tall trees and tiny plants.
The green ones breathing out their oxygen for our mammalian lungs to inhale,
while our human exhalations offer them essential carbon dioxide in exchange.
Everything and everyone showing up as themselves in full display. In flow.
Sometimes as fluttering pollinators and often as fiery buzzing bees of simultaneity.
Just like musicians collaborating with choreographers of hula, samba, and ballet,
creating a delightful double current, drummers keeping a steady heartbeat for
dancers in flight, loving and being loved, offering peace to peace.
Let us be ambassadors of lovingkindness, let us infect each other with patience.
Let us heal divisiveness with tolerance, and vow to judge each other less.
Let us blanket the world with generosity, covering the world in a duvet of inclusivity,
offering some semblance of peace and love, resembling that which we hunger for,
reminding us of who we truly are…the best versions of ourselves.
