How do you use your creativity? Is it therapy for you? It is for me.
With all the upheaval and craziness of the national political scene in the past year or more, I struggled to find a way to cope and still stay informed. Since art is my therapy and my inspiration, that is the main vehicle I found to comfort myself and share to encourage others if possible – and still be able to watch the news!. I chose these five main examples for now, but in looking back, there are many more that I could have used here – like these six in this slide show:
During the campaign in 2016, I was moved to express my prayers for the process a few times. My first effort to create my own antidote for the craziness, was around the 4th of July in 2016, and the Heart Haiku was for America’s Heart. My heart is a part of that heart so I just let my heart speak for me:
“America’s Heart
yearns for peace, freedom for all
Oh, say, can you see?”
The second creative expression that was inspired as a response to the political unrest was just prior to the national election in October of 2016. With such divisiveness and anger within the country, my heart cried out:
“peace is found through love
fuel the peace to calm the beast
united in peace”
The third time came when I was summoned to Grand Jury Service in January of 2017, and was moved by the vision and experience of our federal government functioning smoothly behind all the chaos and fear in the media, like the deep waters of the ocean despite the storm on the surface. I was inspired and reassured and it helped to honor and acknowledge that with a creative Heart Haiku titled “We the People”, the haiku reading:
“are more than the ‘news’
Hearts rooted in liberty
and justice for all
return to your roots”
Then in February, when the slings and arrows of anger and fear in the media seemed to center around concerns for the integrity of the White House, I was moved to pray for the spiritual protection of that special American house by creating a coloring page. The Heart Haiku reads:
“envision the Love
fill & surround the White House
everyone involved
with Love, only Love”
And in this past few weeks celebrating Earth Day, I was working on a painting that did not get finished in time for the actual Earth Day. During these weeks, I have heard and been concerned about the challenges to the laws protecting the earth and the challenge to the reality that the earth is our home and we need to care for it with great loving. The haiku message is:
“Earth Day, every day
without Earth, there is no show
the show must go on”
So that is one of the ways that I cooperate with my heart and my art to help me cope with the world’s craziness. The drawings and paintings are my way of expressing the concerns and prayers of my heart and giving me a way to participate and speak up that works for me. And primarily, it comforts me as I find a positive way to express.
May your creativity (whatever that is) comfort and encourage you; smoothing your path through this sometimes crazy and unsettling world. And may God bless our country and our beloved Earth.