For ages now my spiritual director has encouraged me to write as spiritual practice. By this she does not mean the daily journal I have kept for 17 years - usually the dross of what I did the day before with little that goes below the surface.
She doesn't mean writing sermons, poems, prayers, and reflections for worship, as I have for thirteen years. These do go deep and have become an important part of my spiritual practice, but this still not the kind of writing my spiritual director is urging. She's encouraging me to write more creative things that I may never share with anyone else. She's encouraging me to write from the center of myself for myself.
In her book Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest, Christina Baldwin talks about the aspect of self that is the "walker," the active self who goes through life doing, and the "watcher," the reflective self who, given time and space, will reflect on what is going on beneath one's surface. This can in turn influence the way the walker walks, changing the journey.
Reading that this morning I realized my walker has taken over my life - I have given obligations to family and work such high priority, it's no wonder that my journal has become all about that and not about me. A couple weeks ago I went on a retreat and realized that my spirit really does need time and space to do some reflective personal writing..
She doesn't mean writing sermons, poems, prayers, and reflections for worship, as I have for thirteen years. These do go deep and have become an important part of my spiritual practice, but this still not the kind of writing my spiritual director is urging. She's encouraging me to write more creative things that I may never share with anyone else. She's encouraging me to write from the center of myself for myself.
In her book Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest, Christina Baldwin talks about the aspect of self that is the "walker," the active self who goes through life doing, and the "watcher," the reflective self who, given time and space, will reflect on what is going on beneath one's surface. This can in turn influence the way the walker walks, changing the journey.
Reading that this morning I realized my walker has taken over my life - I have given obligations to family and work such high priority, it's no wonder that my journal has become all about that and not about me. A couple weeks ago I went on a retreat and realized that my spirit really does need time and space to do some reflective personal writing..
Creating time is not too tough if I commit to it, but space? The above photo shows what my home office has looked like. It is squeezed into the end of a small room that doubles as a sun room for the whole family when I'm not working or having time to myself. Bland, huh? Colorless - a small secretary desk with very little workspace stuck between two towering bookshelves crammed with work books. Not very inspiring. Not much sense of space.
Since the retreat I have been thinking about how to redo my office so that it can be an inspiring creative, spacious place with room for a different kind of writing. I went from thinking to imagining, and from imagining to planning, and then from planning to doing - buying, assembling and installing a new desk and shelves, organizing my books and supplies, and then decorating with bright things old and new.
Since the retreat I have been thinking about how to redo my office so that it can be an inspiring creative, spacious place with room for a different kind of writing. I went from thinking to imagining, and from imagining to planning, and then from planning to doing - buying, assembling and installing a new desk and shelves, organizing my books and supplies, and then decorating with bright things old and new.
Here is the result. Inspiring, eh? Though it actually takes up less room it feels so spacious - probably due to those horizontal lines. It is colorful, beautiful and functional. I worried that this was an elaborate form of procrastination. Then I realized that this too is creative work and so important.
Deep down I am creative and that creativity will poke through anything I throw on top of it, like the bulbs emerging from the rocky soil near my door. It emerges not only in my work but also in my cooking, knitting, dancing, and the great pleasure I take in re-decorating my home. My spiritual director was so right. I need to make time and space for my creator to knit together my walker and my watcher with words. Thank you, Susan.
Deep down I am creative and that creativity will poke through anything I throw on top of it, like the bulbs emerging from the rocky soil near my door. It emerges not only in my work but also in my cooking, knitting, dancing, and the great pleasure I take in re-decorating my home. My spiritual director was so right. I need to make time and space for my creator to knit together my walker and my watcher with words. Thank you, Susan.
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