Collaborative Community

Over the last eight months, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with three talented poets on a illustrated poem, work in the Alberta Phonetics Lab, write and illustrate a book about giraffes on skates for my niece and nephew, help my dad finish painting my grandpa’s truck, and spend most of my summer focusing on editing my novel. All of these opportunities have reinforced for me to joys, frustrations and sorrows of being a creative person.

Whether I am writing with other people, looking for missing truck parts, or making myself write and edit a certain amount during a week, creativity and completing projects is not easy. It is enormously rewarding, but never easy.

Collaborative art and creativity are both more rewarding and more difficult than solo work. Scheduling, creative differences and interpersonal communication make each collective project more challenging, but they also give you the external stimuli and impetus that is hard to find internally when you are working alone. Putting the truck together with my dad, sister, brother-in-law and uncle was the highlight of my summer. It was so much fun to see the completion of the project and to work with people I love. This is why I believe community is so important. Although the majority of my novel is solo work and alone am responsible for completing it, having my family ask me how it is going is a good encouragement. Having my sister knock on my door while I am writing to give me chocolate because I had told her I was struggling, is a wonderful blessing and encouragement. For those of you who are shocked that I now eat chocolate, I will let you know that I am still picky and only like expensive chocolate. Also, I still do not drink coffee, not that they are in anyway similar other than both being caffeinated.

It is the little moments of thought and interaction that create community. In the same way it is those moments where ideas, words and character come together and flow onto the page that good writing happens. There is no way of knowing when that is going to be, but if you are not trying to write you are more likely to miss the opportunity. If you are not admitting to others your struggles they cannot encourage you and if you are not forcing yourself to write even when nothing of any worth ends up on the page, you are likely to miss those moments when you actually can write.

Like all creative forms, the hardest part of writing is making yourself write and the hardest part of community is remembering to notice and talk to the people around you.

Community is important for everyone, but I think it is essential for creative people. Even if like me you tend to create in solitude, having the encouragement and support of a community is very important. I want to encourage all creative people and those of you who know creative people, to be intentional about being in community.

I am greatly looking forward to collaborating once again in a poetic community this fall.

Out of the Shadows

This picture sums up how I am feeling. As final projects, final papers and final exams pile up, it feel like I am stuck in the shadows of a Siq, knowing I have to move forward, but not quite able to see what awaits me when I reach the end. However, like Petra, the destination will be worth the trek, and the walk is interesting and creative if a little stressful. Thankfully, I am not alone, I am in a community of people who are either in the same shadows or who have been there before. Community helps put everything into perspective, and means I do not have to walk alone.

10 Things I Learned From Doing a Narrative Contest.

This last month I entered my first writing competition. It was a learning experience. I had never written a short story before, so that was new. I am in the middle of a full course load and still working on my novel, so I had to be very intentional with my writing. After I was done, I made a list to help me consolidate the experience, and learn for next time. Here it is.

1) Before beginning: Read all the instructions including the application. There may be a hidden clause that is important.
2) Look at the time and set reasonable goals for each stage: first draft, second draft, final draft. Most importantly, meet your goals.
3) Been done the submission including application and final draft a week early, but do not submit until the night before. Give yourself the grace period to make changes.
4) If possible, wait for it to be good, sleep on it and then submit. Do not send it off as soon as it is done, and you are sick of it.
5) Relax: Tension makes mistakes. When in doubt, change it, but keep the old draft somewhere, reread it after a bit of time has passed, maybe the next day. If you are still in doubt, change it back.
6) The final draft should be shorter, not necessarily than the first draft, but than the last proceeding draft. If you haven’t gotten to the place where you are removing unnecessary words, clauses, and sentences, its not the final draft.
7) Reread your opening and conclusion before submitting. They are what your reader will remember, make sure they are the best they can be.
8) Do at least one edit bottom up: One paragraph at a time, starting at the end.
9) Try to read what you wrote, not what you think you wrote: esp. tense, spelling, missing words and grammar.
10) Have fun! – Learn and give yourself a break.

Its not on this list, but the other thing I learned, is that you need to take chances. Even if you don’t succeed, at least you tried, and you learned something.

Settling In

I have lived in Edmonton for a little over a month. Midterms are coming up, and I found a church. It has been exhilarating and exhausting settling into a new community. It is amazing how quickly time flies. On the same hand, how easy it is to fall back into old routines, some good and some bad.

Spiritually and creatively, this relates to setting time aside for God and for art. Since I have a major project I am working on it has been relatively easy to make time for art. I also, started carving time in my schedule before I moved.

However, taking time with God has been harder. Being more aware of his presence in everyday moments has helped, but I still find it difficult to set aside time specifically to meditate on his Word and be in his presence. I always find it a struggle to maintain an organic and interactive time with God. I tend to pendulum between a legalistic rigorous schedule and no planned interaction, both of which are spiritually exhausting. Maybe an artistic component will help with this, as well as, giving myself the freedom to not be perfect.

Is there anything new in your life? Has it changed the way you relate to others and/or God? Or is the change only external and you are the same internally? Are you happy with the changes or lack of change?

Transforming Weakness

I have started using the calendar on my computer. I still have a paper day planner, but there are a few things I have entered in my computer. Two of them are my monthly writing club and my tri-weekly blog post. It is handy having an automatic reminder every third Tuesday or the second Saturday of the month. Unfortunately, life is not always as precise as technology. Of the eight months since I entered my writing club, this month, which happens to be the last month, was the first time that it was on the day I had planned.

In a similar vein, yesterday, when I got my reminder for this blog, I was annoyed. I didn’t want to write a blog. I’m moving in two days, I have a test in three, and my family has come to visit. The last thing I wanted to do was blog. However, tonight, I opened my computer and caught up on reading the two blogs that I follow. This one and Whispers of Encouragement. It was interesting to see that both of them talked about life being overwhelming and God being sufficient.

I was encouraged. I know that life can be hectic and we should not be slaves to our schedules, but I also think that sometimes it is good to have deadlines to strive for. Like Christine has been doing with Ignatian examen, I think that routines are important to stability. At this point, most of my routines have to do with writing and learning Japanese, but I would like to find more creative spiritual habits that help me grow.

One of the disciplines I do try and maintain is listening when my computer reminds me every three weeks that I need to blog. I don’t always need the reminder, and sometimes I look forward to it. I usually, even read Christine and Jill’s thoughts on their weeks, but there are times when I am just not interested. However, every time I do sit down to write, I find I have something to say. Whether, it is profound, or simple, at least once a month I take the time to think about my life, creativity and my relationship with God.

What are you dreading, that you should maybe do anyway?

Preparing for Transitions

In September, I’ll be going back to school. I’m really excited, and a bit overwhelmed. Last week, I stayed with a friend for the few days before she left for school. It was wonderful, because she’s amazing, and moving to Tennessee, but it was also exhausting. It reminded me off all the things I need to get done before I go. I’ve already started studying for a placement exam. I’m working several days a week. I have to pack and move. Moving didn’t seem like a big deal, until I remembered that I needed to bring furniture, which means coordinating help, and taking a bigger vehicle. I’d also, like to get some of the projects I started in the last few years done, before I go to school.

Thinking about all this, I starting to regret the five day vacation in the middle of August. It would be five more days of studying, packing, etc. However, reading Christine’s blog from last week reminded me that not only is getting everything ready, making money for school, etc. important, but taking a break is an important part of preparation.

The idea of Sabbath rest is something I have always treasured about the Bible. Spending most of your time working, but having time set apart for rest has always made a lot of sense to me. It also makes me feel special, that God did not create me just to slave away. He created me with gifts and he expects me to use them. Work and learning are both part of his plan, but he also created me for relationship, rest and pleasure.

In the Old Testament, the seventh day was set apart as holy, it was the day that the Israelites were to do no work. Instead, they were to rest, just like God did during Creation. I am not sure what the Israelites did or didn’t do on the Sabbath. How they rested, or if they gathered in the temple, but I think that the idea of setting time apart for rest is very important even today.

Over the years, I have had many jobs where I had to work weekends. Sometimes this meant that I always had Mondays and Tuesdays off, and other times it meant that my weeks varied. As long as I took one day completely off within a week or so, it did not seem to make a difference. However, one of the things that I like about school, is there are no classes on Saturday and Sunday. I am looking forward to once again having every weekend off, or at least one of the two days off from studying. Hopefully, during this time of preparation, I will be able to find a healthy balance between work, rest and saying goodbye.

Have you found a healthy work, rest and relationship balance?

Family History

Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking about family history. I just finished reading a book about my great-great grandparents, “Homestead Memories on the Buffalo Paunch Creek”, by Yvonne Lorentzen McGuire. I found it interesting to read stories about my ancestors who lived, and some of whom died over a hundred years ago. I was fascinated by the their log cabin being made in the stockade fashion instead of horizontal logs like I am used to. Reading my Grandfather’s cousin’s account of helping not homestead in the mid-fifties, still cooking on a coal stove. Although I still prefer the story I had heard of great-great-great grandpa Emmanuel’s ghost ship floating in the Atlantic, it was fascinating to hear the more reasonable a ship lost at sea.

Reading this, made me curious about my other sets of great-great grandparents. What were Great Grandpa and Grandma Knight’s parents like? What was it like raising children in poverty during the reign of Queen Victoria? Who were Great-Great Grandpa and Grandma Barlow? How come they moved so much? So many questions and so few people who might know the answers.

Thinking about how quickly family stories can be lost, has made me treasure my own memories of my grandparents & great grandparents. My tiny Great Grandma Blanche whose hands were as strong as a vice. My equally short and less well know Great Grandma Morey. Gruff Great Grandpa Morey. My Grandma’s dad and his wife, who I only met a few times, but who welcomed a whole gaggle of us to their home. Grandpa Morey who loved and emulated Eeyore and looked like Spenser Tracy. Grandma Mom who I spent many summers with and most weekends my first year of university. Grandpa Lorentz and Grandma Lou who are still alive and when they are home live right across the alley.

So many memories, and thankfully there is still time to make more. I’m glad that cousin Yvonne took the time and effort to not only write down her memories, but research the facts that were missing and give some of the history of Washburn, ND.

Always We Begin Again

Over a year ago, I was given Always We Begin Again: The Benedict Way of Living by John McQuiston II. It is a tiny book full of tidbits of knowledge from The Rules of Saint Benedict. It is quite interesting, although I haven’t finished it. Yesterday I was reminded of the title. I was reminded by Christina’s blog from last week, where she quotes Pope Francis as saying Christianity “points to a horizon of beauty.” I take this to mean that Christianity is something beautiful and alluring, which cannot be fully attained at this time. It is always there, and always the same, but new every day. At sunrise, and sunset it is a myriad of colours. During the day, it is green and blue, separated or blurred together. At times, it is white snow and white clouds, or mountains that appear to float in a netherworld between earth and sky.

The horizon is always beautiful, but you cannot always see it, nor do we always observe it. In the same way, God is always there and always beautiful, but we have to make note of him in order to experience his brilliance.

This constant relearning to observe the divine has been practically illustrated for me in the last month. I am making an afghan from an idea in my head. I found a basic pattern for the middle, and have been slowly working my way out from the core. I have the basic skills and a vision of what it should look like, but I have to invent the individual steps. When I am working on it, I can see bits and pieces. In order to see the whole, I have to lay it on the floor. There have been many times where I laid it on the floor and thought it is not quite right. I usually try to fudge it, and do another couple rounds, but I always get to the point where I just take it out to the last place that it worked. It is not efficient and very frustrating, but the final product will be beautiful.

As frustrating as this is, I think that it is an important skill to learn. If you don’t take risks, in life, art or your spiritual walk you will live in fear and not grow. At the same, time we need those times when we begin again, or at least check to see we are on the right path or we will end up making daring and miraculously disastrous decisions.

Location, Location, Location

Doesn’t this look like a creative space. It was for me and I’m sure it is for other people.

There have been times when I thought that to be creative I needed the perfect space. In the same, I found myself making excuses for spiritual stagnation because of my surroundings. However, having spent time in places like this, I have learned that it is just as easy to be uncreative and spiritually shallow in a beautiful and quiet place as it is in the hustle and bustle of the city.

The more intentional I am about creative and spiritual growth, the more I have realized that the internal space that you bring is more important than your physical surroundings. There are days, like today, where the most important part of making art or blogging about art is making yourself get started. The second most important part, is not letting technology get in your way. When the computer won’t put the picture into your blog, turn it off and start over. Remember to pray for forgiveness, for your unclean thoughts. Not that just happened to me, but it did remind me of how easy it is to fall out of a creative or meditative state, and how hard it is to get back in.

However, if you make yourself try, you might just create a thing of beauty, or at least a half way intelligent thought.

Like most of life, tenacity key to making art and knowing God. 

Icons

Last week, Christine blogged about icons as “tangible things meant to facilitate impressions of the Divine.” I like this idea of utilizing tactile art as a means to greater understand God. God is spirit, and we cannot fully know him, but he is also the Creator of everything around us. So it stands to reason, that creating and playing with physical creation could help us better understand God.

In John 17, Jesus is praying to God and says, “this is eternal life, that they may know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (vs 3).” I love this description, it is much more welcoming and intriguing than a Cream Cheese commercial. It is relational and exciting, God is infinite and we have all of eternity to get to know him. Beyond this, I believe this eternal life starts now, here on earth. As we draw closer to God, we are experiencing moments of eternal life. But how are we to know God, earlier in first chapter of John, Jesus is described as the Word, who was instrumental in creation (John 1:3) and who became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Jesus not only created, but he allowed himself to become part of creation so that he could save us.

Obviously, the idea of the Word brings to mind speech, reading, praying, but I also think there is an element of creativity within this description of Jesus. He was a carpenter, or builder for the majority of his life. He worked with his hands, and created useful, beautiful and possibly boring things. His ministry was through words, but also through touch. He healed people, and did miracles. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” I know the saying, What Would Jesus Do, is extremely kitsch and over used, but why not ask ourselves, What Would Jesus Make? If he were here beside you, what would catch his eye, and what would his hands create.

I wonder how much easier it would be to know God if we spent more time creating like him.