1999-04-07-Creativity is Fun

Session

Dialogue

GORMAN: You seem weary. It would seem exhaustion is a part of your day. Yes, it is an exhausting life you live. There is so much to go against the grain. Existing in this world with its density is a constant struggle. I have some advantage, inasmuch as I am not encumbered with the material density of you in the flesh but I, too, am affected by the down-pull of the many factors that go against the grain of a more upward trend. Even so, let us see if there is anything we can accomplish. If you are too tired, I can come back another time

You have all born my assignment with a keen sense of responsibility. You have all delighted in this project and have all come forth with some ideas. Let’s get those on the table first. Rachel, your list is the smallest.

Rachel: All I could think about was books. I had a dream about a beautiful, beautiful fern gracing a book jacket. I only had that lovely painting.

GORMAN: To the contrary, your book jacket is quite appropriate and in keeping with your decorative flair. It would not do to have a product that was undecorated, and so you are keeping true to form here. Let’s see what else we have on these scraps of paper. Are you ready, Angus?

Angus: Yes. I’ve been wanting to put something of the Urantia Book together for public use. There’s never enough outreach into the market. But the UB covers a lot of important things that people are concerned about these days: love, marriage, heaven and hell, and so on, and it would be neat to put together some things, basically, under the topic of ‘What does the UB say about… this, this, or this.’ Perhaps even juxtaposing it with what other philosophies have to say, and that could draw the correlations and the conflicts also together.

We are working on getting the Fruits of the Spirit put together for hard copy publication and recording it; that’s another idea. And I have a work or two that I have started that I haven’t finished; I’m thinking maybe I’ll revisit that and other projects that were initiated from my perspective and, as Rachel said, we’re trying to pool our resources here out of the Serendipity shop and somewhere along the line I’m sure that our projects will comingle, and if they do, we could be of help to one another and maybe find some talents, abilities, we didn’t know we had.

Gerdean: I seem to have lost my notes! The one thing in my creative mind was very profound, and that was -- two nights in a row I went to sleep thinking “Believe in me.” I suppose this was a result of your talk with us about asking what do people want, and I think that people want people to believe in them. Angus and I talked about this. When you believe in someone, it adds a dimension of reality. It’s like investing in the person. I was reminded that Jesus got so much result from people because he believed in them. And it seemed noteworthy somehow, and I go back to thinking, “It’s about believing in each other.” Effect and product.

I wish I hadn’t lost my notes. I want to do a daily reflection kind of a book. I’d like to do one-liners, a One Day at a Time, like the early Teaching Mission calendars; one sweet thing, very much like Sonny’s work on-line. I was also looking at the structure of some of Tomas’ sentences (which sometimes seem to be 300 words long) and thinking they would lend themselves very well to elegies, that they would lend themselves well to poetic form. He doesn’t portray himself as a poet, but his words really are graceful sometimes – for a word person, anyway, I appreciate how he lays out his sentences; even though they are long, they are musical, in a way.

I guess that’s it. The fruits. The Fruits seem to be the one that we’ve spent the most time thinking about. It’s basically done – Tomas’ Fruits of the Spirit – except Angus is adding an introduction to it. It would need artwork. I don’t think it needs to be hard cover. I think soft cover would work; maybe even with a fern on the front. I think it should have a cornucopia of fruits. Anyhow, these are some of the ideas, Gorman. Thanks for asking.

GORMAN: I appreciate your contributions and your thoughts regarding what you might do. Indeed it is a challenge and I know that you are all looking at this more critically than you are creatively. You are very obstructionistic of your own good efforts. Your critical thinking says, “It won’t sell. They won’t buy it. They won’t read it. It won’t work. It’s been done before. It’s too expensive to do. I don’t have time. It’s been done already” ad infinitum, and so that which you allow to seep through the cracks is that which comes, generally, with a little bit of inspiration that somehow slips past the critical thinker.

In the art of effort there is the creative portion and after the creative portion, then you get critical.

There have been many good workers in the field of artistic endeavor, such as “The Artist’s Way” and many others, encouraging people to tap into their creative resources. When you think of work, you don’t often think creatively, as if work and creativity could not be harmoniously in the same room, on the same age. But all work is creative. Ask the artisans.

In order for you to feel creative about your effort, your product, you truly need to stop thinking of it as work. I am not suggesting you think of it as play, either,but allow it to bubble up and come forth. Remember that all good effort is a creation, and good creation comes from the Creator, even as it comes through you.

The great part about creating is letting the juices flow unobstructed. When you have let go of those constraints, the ideas tumble forth like waterfall. Let them come forth. Don’t stop to criticize or condemn your idea before it is even born. Allow yourself that freedom of expression on paper, on t ape, so that it is duly notated. Allow it to come forth unobstructed, unimpeded by your intellect and/or your ego.

Here is a good place for you to relish the aspect of childlikeness. Revel in it without worrying about whether you are staying within the lines. Just let it happen. Eventually you will see it taking place, taking form.

Let me cite your friend Marty as an example. He is gathering up creative ideas on people’s scraps of paper from all over, and as he collects these scraps of paper, they are taking shape as a format for a product. In due course, there will be order, harmony, and purpose inte product because it is a creation born of the desire to serve the Creator.

When and what God and man alike will, will be, and as you desire to bring about an effect / a product, it will come about, but allow the creative aspect of yourselves to work with you and not against you. Have fun with this! You are all exhausted from your efforts at thinking of good ideas. Allow these good ideas to just come forth. How out of practice you are!

Let’s try it again, and have fun with it this time, because no one is getting a grade. It doesn’t cost a nickel. No one is going to be critical of your ideas or compare your ideas with someone else’s and find one of them lesser or greater. Even the great ideas and works of the masters are done in this way. Great novels and great compositions are created by allowing the cream to rise to the top, but you have to have all of it in order to discern one from another, the dregs from the elite.

Words and pictures is how the mind grasps concepts.

A sense of urgency is always a part of a creative investment. It is like when you give birth to something you need to do it at the right timer andf you begin to sense the time and feel this urgency like, not only childbirth, but baking a cake or painting a wall or opening a store. There is a sense of timing.

There are almost unlimited ways of creatively looking at life and its works, in order to appreciate what you can do when you can do it. That is what is exciting now about having the opportunity to be part of your team here, your unit, because we can find great joy in what you can do today in your life, where you are and as you are, and learn to work effectively with others in order to accomplish this valuable purpose.

There is a great hunger for spiritual food, yes, but they are picky eaters. They are in demand of a large menu and some want only salads, some want only red meat, some want appetizers only. You will find your audience and they will find you, but you must allow yourself to experience the creative flow and not rely upon your intellect exclusively. Your world is entirely too fickle these days to be dependable. You can lose time and money by banking on your intellectual approach to marketing only.

Allow the spirit to help you; allow the Creator to become part of the project with you. invite the celestial artisans in to tea. Since, when you are being assisted, when you are being assisted by spirit, you are indeed having fun. You are not weighing every word so ponderously or dissecting each concept so viciously, but allowing it to outpour, and then you just tidy up the tide pools one at a time and present them for their perfect harmony, symmetry, and for the life forms therein.

Closing

Get yourself a notebook if you like because if we are effective and productive, we will begin to create notebooks and more filled with wonderful product to feed the multitudes, whether it be red meat, salads or appetizers. I’ll be back when you have decided you’d like another visit. Teacher Tomas sends his best regards and Teacher Merium says “hello.” Good night.