On Living a Creative Life

Living a creative life demands faith in your inner world and the only way I know to take the plunge is to trust that order will emerge. It must. Order is as integral as chaos to the creative process, but the order will be new and often unexpected. Gertrude Stein put it this way, “You cannot go into the womb to form the child... What will be best in it (your creation) is what your really do not know now. If you knew it all it would not be creation but dictation.”

Silence and Self

Silence is the womb;
silence is the heartbeat.
Without silence we cannot hear the song.

Wear silence like a crown.
Drape yourself in its radiance.
Enter silence in the midst of laughter,
sorrow, joy and pain.
Self awaits.

Silence is our birthright. It is the place that intuition, the voice of our inner guidance, calls home. It is the place where our true Self can be heard. The problem is, silence is a rarity. We can be alone deep in a pristine forest, far far away from the noise of modern society; we can be alone on a mountaintop with no sign of human life for miles and miles, but the outer world silence can not penetrate the raucous swirling of own thoughts. Even if we are awe struck by the purity and silence of nature in the moment, so much so that our minds are suddenly infused with peace, it won’t be long before thoughts intrude.

The silence of pure solitude holds awareness and possibility, not loneliness or fear. The question is: how can we learn to inhabit solitude?

Who said becoming conscious is easy!

"Being right places you in a position of imagined moral superiority in relation to a person or situation that is being judged and found wanting. It is that sense of superiority the ego craves and through which it enhances itself."

Ekhart Tolle

Creativity and Play

Watch small children and see how seriously they take their play. In fact, play is how we first learn and through it we find delicious joy in the unexpected. How delighted children are when their “play” leads to new understanding.

Creative people never lose joy in their play.

Not that our creative work is always a big joy ride. It’s hard work, often frustrating, but in the end, why do we do it if, ultimately, we can’t find fun? Which is why, for example, writing in the white heat is so fantastic. Because the outer reality no longer has any pull and we are immersed in the mystery.

Katherine Anne Porter put is this way: “Perhaps in time I shall learn to live more deeply and consistently in that undistracted center of being where the will does not intrude, and the sense of time passing is lost, or has no power over the imagination.”

No matter that we, like Katherine Anne Porter, “yearn for that undistracted center of being where the will does not intrude,” it is often the hardest destination to reach, precisely because it requires an act of faith.

“I don’t think God cares where we were graduated or what we did for a living. God wants to know who we are. Discovering this is the work of the soul – it is our true life’s work.”

Bernie Siegel

Having Faith in the Creative Process

Gestation and birth are perfect symbols for the creative process, whether it be the birth of a child, an animal, the emergence of a butterfly from the chrysalis or the flower from the seed buried under winter’s frozen earth. Birth is a continual marvel; it warms the heart, brings out the fierce instinct to protect and fills the mind with wonder. We need to hold our own creative ideas in similar awe. We need to give them the warm, safe place in which to germinate. We need to protect them in their newborn vulnerability, which is the same as protecting our deepest self. This is precisely what, I believe, makes the first steps of a creative endeavor so difficult. Too often we don’t trust our own deepest truth; it makes us feel too vulnerable or it seems incongruous with the person we think we are or must be. Our Inner Critics are all too quick to discard these newborns as silly, frivolous or worse, as boring and still worse, as downright stupid.

The poem below by Franz Kafka is a passionate refute to the Inner Critic.

You do not need to leave your room.

Remain sitting at your table and listen.

Do not even listen, simply wait.

Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary.

The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked,

it has no choice,

it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

–– Franz Kafka

Imagine such faith in the creative process! Imagine being self-nurturing enough to give our stories and books, any of our creations, such time and patience, Yet, if we do, Kafka promises we will receive ecstasy that brings untold meaning to our life. Mere publication pales in relationship to such abundance.

Who Am I? Who Has the Answer?

“You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself.”

-- Beryl Markham

Who am I? Who is the I who calls you home?

Most of us have a nodding acquaintance with the true self, the one who is hidden behind doors to which our ego has the key. The ego would like us believe that the hundreds of thousands of often critical thoughts it feeds us and the accompanying whirlwind of emotions are the true stuff of our being. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The ego keeps us prisoner of its neurotic habits; it keeps us stuck in patterns that do not serve our true self. Much if not all of the ego’s life is as unsubstantial as smoke.

Methinks the ego doth protest too much!

Consider this: it is a lovely day. You are on a walk. The sky is blue. The air is warm. A gentle breeze blows. Birds sing. Frogs croak. Your thoughts are happy, reflective of the beauty that surrounds you. There is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with the moment.

Unbeknownst to you, enemies are mounting an assault, subtle at first. It begins this way. (Or some variation of what follows!)

You think of another such day when you were out walking with your beloved. Which makes you think of the time you were sitting and sipping wine with said beloved and he/she said, as he/she alwaysAnd God, that made you furious. He/she just loves to make little of things that are important to you. And you’re really sick of it. As if he/she is some beacon of goodness and light, not to mention intelligence. What are you doing with such a loser anyway? But then aren’t you always picking losers? It’s always been that way and it will always be that way. You’re the loser, actually. Your life is one dumb move after the other, just like the time when…………. says, __________________ (you fill in the blank).

You might as well be walking in the midst of a hurricane for all the Beauty Surrounding You Matters!

The gorgeous day has, for all intents and purposes, vanished. And you are feeling about as terrible as you’ve every felt. One bad memory after another starts cascading and, well, you’d be better off dead….

Thought patterns like this (although not always so extreme) make up a huge percentage of our inner reality. If you think that isn’t so, try this:

Sit quietly and focus on your breath. Just the in and out of your breath. Thoughts will come cascading in. Stories actually, that your mind, which is addicted to thinking, spins without hesitation. If you catch these stories and watch them – become the observer of your own thoughts – you will be shocked at the number of judgmental thoughts and negative jaunts your mind takes you on.

These negative thoughts have become your reality. But they are not who you are.

Observing your thoughts and not identifying with them, noticing them as a thought pattern that is taking away and belittling you, is a huge step toward opening the door of inner truth.

Who Are You? Who Is the I Who Calls You Home?

“You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself.”

-- Beryl Markham

Beryl Markham was a pioneer aviator. She was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from London to North America. ...

Who are you? Who is the I who calls you home?

Most of us have a nodding acquaintance with the true self, the one who is hidden behind doors to which our ego has the key. The ego would like us believe that the hundreds of thousands of often critical thoughts it feeds us and the accompanying whirlwind of emotions are the true stuff of our being. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The ego keeps us prisoner of its neurotic habits; it keeps us stuck in patterns that do not serve our true self. Much if not all of the ego’s life is as unsubstantial as smoke.

Methinks the ego doth protest too much!

Consider this: it is a lovely day. You are on a walk. The sky is blue. The air is warm. A gentle breeze blows. Birds sing. Frogs croak. Your thoughts are happy, reflective of the beauty that surrounds you. There is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with the moment.

Unbeknownst to you, enemies are mounting an assault, subtle at first. It begins this way. You think of another such day when you were out walking with your beloved. Which makes you think of the time you were sitting and sipping wine with said beloved and he/she said, as he/she always says, __________________ (you fill in the blank). And God, that made you furious. He/she just loves to make little of things that are important to you. And you’re really sick of it. As if he/she is some beacon of goodness and light, not to mention intelligence. What are you doing with such a loser anyway? But then aren’t you always picking losers? It’s always been that way and it will always be that way. You’re the loser, actually. Your life is one dumb move after the other, just like the time when………….

You might as well be walking in the midst of a hurricane for all the outside world matters!

The gorgeous day has, for all intents and purposes, vanished. And you are feeling about as terrible as you’ve every felt. One bad memory after another starts cascading and, well, you’d be better off dead….

Thought patterns like this often make up a huge percentage of our inner reality. If you think that isn’t so, try this:

Sit quietly and focus on your breath. Just the in and out of your breath. Thoughts will come cascading in. Stories actually, that your brain, which is addicted to thinking, does without hesitation. If you catch these stories and watch them – become the observer of your own thoughts – you will be shocked at the number of judgmental thoughts and negative jaunts your mind takes you on.

These negative thoughts have become your reality. But they are not who you are.

Observing your thoughts and not identifying with them, noticing them as a thought pattern that is taking away and belittling you, is a huge step toward opening the door of inner truth.

Tapping Into the Feminine, Connecting to Source

Intuition, the Voice of Inner Guidance
A TeleWorkshop from Emily Hanlon and Creative Soul Works

Every other Tuesday beginning on January 22, 2008
Jan. 22, Feb. 5, Feb. 19, March 4

In the fall we met in the first series of TeleWorkshops to explore and share individual and collective experiences of being creative women in today's world. We reclaimed aspects of the feminine energy that we'd forgotten, or lost. We shared. We listened. We wrote. We laughed. We embraced one another through the telephone lines, all the while opening to parts of self that were calling us home.

Join us for the next four sessions as we explore Intuition as the Voice of Inner Guidance.

Intuition is a sacred connection to our own deeper knowing and flow of life's Mystery. We live in a culture where facts predominate and the word "mystery" evokes the a good murder mystery or tv series. Most of us have not been taught to depend upon and honor the inner wisdom that is our greatest teacher. Even when we clearly hear a call from within that resonates with the sacredness of our being, we do not trust it because there is no outside authority to validate its worth. Feeling fear or unworthiness, we slam shut the inner door that opened with such promise, or think, "Yes, maybe... someday, when______ or when _____" (You fill in the blanks).

In this TeleWorkshop we will explore many aspects of intuition as a source of inner guidance. We will embrace the knowing that what we experience as sacred is indeed sacred.

• Why we turn a deaf ear to our intuition
• What to do when fear overrides intuition
• Honoring intuition as sacred knowledge
• Turning risk into commitment: the Feminine as Spiritual Warrior
• Building intuition: how we hear our inner guidance

The Teleworkshop begins on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 and meets every other Tuesday beginning on January 22, 2008

Jan. 22, Feb. 5, Feb. 19, March 4
$180

Class size is limited. You do not need to have attended the previous sessions.

View the web page

Register

email Emily

Thoughts for the New Year

The Mother Bear
by Emily Hanlon

Such confusion is life
emotions and doings and things.
Right, wrong, yes, no,
a whirlwind of living.
And where is love?

Like the roots of Sequoias
love penetrates,
tender, strong and caressing,
a web of support.

The soul’s song is sweet and ancient,
fierce with love,
a mother bear
wild and free.

This is what we have come for:
love, you and me, love!