Creativity as a Meditative Balm

Recently I have been reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat Pray Love fame). The subtitle is “creative living beyond fear.” 

If you’re alive, Gilbert says, you’re a creative person. After all, she reminds us, we are descended from tens of thousands of years of makers. Humans have had to make everything for millennia before our consumerism-focused “advancements,” but that impulse to make things has not left us.

It’s the perfect time of year to remember this. In the northern hemisphere, where I live, the days shorten as the dark evenings begin earlier and earlier. There’s a drawing within that happens quite naturally as a human response to seasonal changes.

And given the turmoil in the world, it’s a great time in history to find some big magic, even if that magic is in the form of tiny beads. Gilbert puts it this way:

“…inspiration works with us, it seems, because inspiration likes working us—because human beings are possessed of something special, something extra, something unnecessarily rich…an overabundance that is magical.

That magical overabundance?

That’s your inherent creativity, humming and stirring quietly in its deep reserve.”

(pages 8-89, Big Magic)

And so, you and I and many others, we simply MUST create, we must keep our hands busy, which keeps our minds busy, which helps us soothe ourselves in these turbulent times.

History and world events tend to work cyclically, some sort of unending wave pulsing through time and space, from chaos to equilibrium, on repeat.

Many events we have little to no control over. We do what we can. Some will protest, some will write letters, and some will pray or meditate.

Gilbert calls the act of creating “an act of prayer.” Although not formally “religious,” I agree. Whether I am beading or crocheting, or some other form of slow stitching, my mind dwells in a quiet place.

 

Photos of the orts of our inspiration and creativity!
Orts: an archaic British word meaning scraps or leavings. I use it like “bits and bobs.” (Photos courtesy of a friend’s crafting area!)

To inspire your creativity, I leave you with links to a few YouTube channels, one that is loaded with hours of beadi-li-cious enjoyment and two that are snippets for those with smaller opportunities of time.

Beading Globally with Valerie Hector – Perfect binge-worthy interviews with beading world luminaries as well as tons of tutorials in a variety of bead stitches and projects!

Jamie Cloud Eakin – There are only seven videos, but well worth watching to learn technique – cubic right angle weave, bead embroidery edge stitches, and more.

Heidi Kummli – Again only nine videos, but each one is more delightful than the previous. Ornaments, blessing bag, offering vessel and more.

And finally, to further inspire your creativity, a few pieces of seasonal music that speak to the creative and contemplative soul in me and that I adore at this time of year. Enjoy the festive season, no matter where you live, what you celebrate, who you love, or what you dream of.

Canadian songstress Loreena McKennitt sings “Snow.”

British singer, Sting, sings “You Only Cross My Mind in Winter.”

Canadian west coast ensemble, Winter Harp, presents “Winter Harp.”

Create some beadiful “big magic,” stay safe and healthy, and see you in 2025! Xox Cathy

 

 

“pure creativity is magnificent expressly because it is the opposite of everything else in life that’s essential or inescapable (food, shelter, medicine, rule of law, social order, community and familiar responsibility, sickness, loss, death, taxes, etc.). Pure creativity is something better than a necessity: it’s a gift. It’s the frosting. Our creativity is a wild and unexpected bonus from the universe. It’s as if all our gods and angels gathered together and said, ‘It’s tough down there as a human being, we know. Here—have some delight.” (Page 128, Big Magic)