art Archives - West of the Moon Creative Retreat

The Hidden Paths

February 27, 2015 By Terry Price 1 Comment

“Still round the corner there may wait

A new road or a secret gate

And though I oft have passed them by

A day will come at last when I

Shall take the hidden paths that run

West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, part of Frodo’s walking song from Lord of the Rings

A few years after Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee return to the shire, Frodo makes up new words to an old song and sings it softly during a walk as he prepares for a new journey. Aside from the beautiful lyricism of the poetry and rhythm, it is the words that bring magic to this walking song.

This is a song of adventure and of faith. I use the term “faith” here in a spiritual sense rather than a religious. In this case, it is a return from a grand adventure of a lifetime that fosters Frodo’s faith and it is his faith that compels him to seek another adventure. Faith is a belief in the intangible, in things unseen but sometimes, things sensed or felt. It is a belief in something better, a working form of optimism.

What is adventure?

It’s not what happens to you. Rather, adventure is how you perceive the events of your life. For some, driving cross-country is a routine job to do as quickly and efficiently as possible. For others, a trip to the local grocer holds promise of the unknown. You define adventure. You determine whether you live a life filled with it. You.

A sense of adventure says there could be a new road or a secret gate around the next corner, a corner that you’ve come around most every day of your life. But this time…this time, maybe it’s different. And how does one believe in a hidden path, let alone find and take it?

This is the adventure of a creative soul. This is the life of the artist. We wake up believing. In what?

In everything. The creative believes in possibilities. The artists go to the medium with the faith that an adventure will take place, that on this page, one that looks just like all the rest, a new road might be found, a secret gate might be revealed. It is a faith that leads to the adventure.

The artist lives a life of faith and adventure because she knows anything less is not living. The artist develops and nurtures a creative practice to which she returns again and again, finding things that heretofore did not exist. Faith is knowing that one day she will take the hidden paths which shall be revealed only as the first step is taken and not before. Anything less and magic is removed from the adventure, faith is rendered unnecessary.

It is the same with a creative life.

It is the difference between waking up excited at possibilities and waking up dreading the routine.

This past week, we had a great deal of snow for the Nashville area. Crossing a parking lot I saw two pennies on a bare spot of concrete and picked one up, leaving the other. “Good luck!” I said to my friend as I held it up before pocketing it. “I’m not bending down for a penny and take a chance on messing up my back,” he replied. “You don’t believe that stuff, do you?”

It made me think. No, I don’t believe that the serendipitous discovery of a copper coin will affect my fate. But I’m glad that I keep looking for those things not because they bring me luck, rather they remind me to be present, to remember the good things I am blessed with. They are keys to a secret gate, not the gate itself. One/one-hundreth of a dollar will not get you anything anymore. But an object can become a talisman in the hands of an alchemist. It becomes a symbol of the magic constantly surrounding us so, in a way, it can actually bring us luck.

I left the other penny hoping another traveller finds it on another adventure. As for me, it’s time for another walk. I feel a song a comin’ on.

A World of Gentle Possibility

December 29, 2014 By Dave Leave a Comment

“A young boy dreams big dreams of what lies beyond” by desertdutchman

Ideally, we want WEST OF THE MOON to be Your Path to a Creative Life. We want to help you live in your own world of possibility.

We want you help you Imagine, Discover, Create.

Not just a particular project you’re called to work on, but the life you’re called to live. We want you to find your own secret gate, to follow your own hidden paths, to live the life that is true to you. That is our intention.

Creative and all around kind heart, Erin Julian, recently posted the following quote on her Facebook page and it seemed very apt because, ultimately, we want you to “come into rhythm” with yourself.

In the Western tradition, we were taught many things about the nature of negativity and the nature of sin, but we were never told that one of the greatest sins is the unlived life.

It is a lonely experience to be at the deathbed of someone who is full of regret; to hear him say how he would love another year to do the things his heart had always dreamed of but believed he could never do until he retired. He had always postponed the dream of his heart.

We are so privileged to still have time. We have but one life, and it is a shame to limit it by fear and false barriers. The divine has such passionate creativity and instinct for the fully inhabited life. If you allow yourself to be the person that you are, then everything will come into rhythm.

The shape of each soul is different. There is a secret destiny for each person. When you endeavor to repeat what others have done or force yourself into a preset mold, you betray your individuality.

We need to return to the solitude within, to find again the dream that lies at the hearth of the soul. We need to feel the dream with the wonder of a child approaching a threshold of discovery. When we rediscover our childlike nature, we enter into a world of gentle possibility. The false burdens fall away. We come into rhythm with ourselves.” – John O’Donohue

One of the most rewarding aspects of WOTM for us is creating an environment that allows creatives “to return to the solitude within, to find again the dream that lies at the hearth of the soul.”

Tranquil Fountain & Labyrinth

New Harmony is an ideal setting for such solitude. Yet, we also encourage you to spend some time with others rekindling or building on your respective dreams “with the wonder of a child approaching a threshold of discovery.”

It’s the combination of community – the creative energy you share and the sparks you create in each other – as well as the tranquility and equanimity of the place itself that make West of the Moon so special for me and Terry.

Hopefully, that is what makes the experience special for you, and allows you to recognize that part of yourself that you may overlook from time to time, and, in doing so, allows you to “be the person that you are,” so that “everything will come into rhythm.”

As the year comes to a close, consider this time one of transition. One of beginning. One where you “enter into a world of gentle possibility.”

“A young boy dreams big dreams of what lies beyond” photo by desertdutchman courtesy of Creative Commons.

Self-Doubt and Worry

May 1, 2014 By Dave Leave a Comment

“Worried Eggs II” by Domiriel

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life,  most of which never happened.” – Mark Twain

Self-Doubt plagues many writers, artists, creatives (i.e. worry that they might not have something worthwhile to say, or that they might not be able to say it in a worthwhile way). The often crippling result is that the worry part often gets in the way of the trying part. And that’s a shame.

The worthiness component indicates self-judgement, which indicates time spent in the old noggin.

Writers sometimes worry about the outcome and, as a result, have a difficult time getting started. It is almost impossible to settle into a creative act and to fully immerse yourself if you are worried. Focus is directed to the imagined possible outcome, emotional energy is redirected to the fight or flight response rather than being used for diving down deep where memory and the imagination meet. That’s where the creating happens – in that very out of the way place and it requires a slowing down – it takes solitude of a sort, it takes stillness – to get there.

But when worry becomes anxiety becomes fear, the imagination is so preoccupied there’s not much room for anything else.

Look, we are creatures of emotion and imagination. We have the capacity to feel and to think and to imagine. Our brains are always on. One of those things (a thought, an emotion, etc) can spark the others without our consciously setting out to do so.

That’s part of being human.

But it’s also part of what gets in the way of our realizing our dreams, or even chasing them sometimes. And it sometimes gets in the way of our being happy (regardless of whether we chase our dreams or not).

“Understand not everything is meant to be understood . . .” by deeplifequotes

The key is finding ways to become cognizant of the differences Karen pointed out between fear and worry. Fear being a real, in that moment, threat. Worry being an imagined future possibility (and that doesn’t mean you have to think about the future, you can worry that a thing has already happened that you hope hasn’t happened, but since you don’t know in the present moment, it’s still a possible future consequence that is being given time and space in the present).

So, what can we do, if we in fact identify the culprit, WORRY invading our lives?

The answer will be varied, as we’re all different, the reasons behind our worry are also different.

Here are a few things that might help you get out of the chattering-in-the-head mode so you can be present:

Breathing Exercises – We humans live in our heads. All of the time. Hence the universal appeal of external methods to help get us out of our heads for a bit.

But one thing we often forget is that we also live in our bodies. All the time. The mind, the body, the emotions . . . they’re all connected. And sometimes, rather than dulling the mind, which often leads to worse feelings afterwards and a lack of productivity in the moment, we might get out of our heads through our bodies. By breathing. By moving. By training our brains to focus in on specific things.

Yoga – most people think yoga requires you to be a contortionist, that you have to be super-bendy for it to work, but just sitting still, just slowing down and being aware of the moment, of your body, of your breath, that is yoga. You can do it in a chair, on the floor. You don’t have to go to a studio or be on the mat.

Two poses I like for just slowing down and calming the mind are Savasana (Corpse Pose) and Viparita Karani (Fountain of Youth or Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose).

Get Outside (to Walk and to Observe) – walking by itself is great, but you can still spend the whole time going over and over and over what might come to pass, which is why honing in on the moment is important).

Focus on the air. What’s it doing? How does it feel?

Is the sun out? How does that feel?

What sort of shadows does it create?

What can you smell? Or hear?

What do you truly see?

Allow your senses to be fully engaged.

Most of us tool around on our walks in these beautiful settings (myself included) totally oblivious to the setting itself. We feel good, often much better just by being there. Often without even paying much attention once we’re there. So why do we feel better? You can get an idea of the answer if you allow yourself to engage your senses. If you see something and you slow down or stop and really take it in, you suddenly become aware of the moment and of the place. You are truly present in time and space.

And here are a few things that might help get out of the fight or flight response that happens if worry leads to fear (which Karen also indicated can lead to panic):

Find a Pose – I love Yoga Journal. You can find an assortment of poses with photos on how to do the pose and they also break down the therapeutic and the physiological benefits (i.e. how the poses can benefit the body, as well as the mind and the emotions). Look at all these poses that can help with ANXIETY. That’s right, you don’t have to do an entire sequence to reap the benefits.

Just Stop – Jon Kabat-Zinn defines MINDFULNESS as “moment to moment, non-judgmental awareness.” He claims, the ONLY MOMENT we are EVER ALIVE IN is NOW.” He also says we need to pay attention in the moment.

Meditation– no, that is NOT medication. Nice try! Here’s a simple video with a few suggestions on how to meditate. And this article alludes to “Meditation And Your 40,000-Year-Old Brain.”

Free-Write – (if you’re a painter, then just have at it with no purpose aside from adding color to the blank canvas and see what you get). This is not about quality. It’s merely about letting go! You can still pick something you might want to work on, a new poem, a specific scene for the novel, but don’t worry about using it. Allow yourself fifteen minutes or half-an-hour to just spew words on the page or the computer screen. And if you can use a notepad and a pen or pencil, let your body be part of the process.

This can be quite freeing (no pun intended). And here’s an article on a few of the benefits of free-writing in a journal.

Play – give yourself time to be playful (which free-writing is also aimed at).

“The opposite of play is not work. It’s depression.” – Brian Sutton-Smith

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.” – Carl Jung

“Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play.” – Henri Matisse

“Drag your thoughts away from your troubles . . . by the ears,
by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.” – Mark Twain

Let’s be honest. If it were as easy as saying, drag your thoughts away, none of us would worry for very long. But Twain’s comment is still on point. Do what you can to free your thoughts from your troubles. It’s already a huge undertaking to turn inward, to hold your breath and dive to your very depths in order to tap that wellspring, and to create.

But if your thoughts are entwined with your worries, breath-holding becomes involuntary, you flounder in the shallow end, and often never truly submerge. You never fully immerse yourself in your unconscious and let it take over. You never get into any sort of flow.

“How much pain they have cost us,
the evils which have never happened.” – Thomas Jefferson

I bet if we went back over the past year, decade, longer, and sorted out all the worries we’ve had from all the real problems that actually happened, one side of that scale would far surpass the other.

Think of all that time and energy spent worrying being used to do the thing you love.

Don’t get me wrong. I worry. Worrying is, as I said before, part of the human condition. The trick comes, I believe, in recognizing worry for what it is and squelching the anxiety before it takes over.

Here’s one suggestion I came across recently for calming the mind, emotions, body:

“Begin with the Lotus position, sitting crossed legged with hands resting on the knees, palms up. The most important thing is to remember to breathe. To calm the rapid breathing often accompanying panic attacks, focus on your breathing at first, a five count in and a five count out, but let the breathing become natural. Let the breathing set the rhythm of the practice. Eyes should be closed, listening to the rhythm of the breathing. After five or ten minutes here, the body should feel calmer.” (This tip comes from an article on “10 Yoga Poses to Fight Depression and Anxiety” which can be found here).

“Don’t worry. Be happy.” Nice song. Wise words. Difficult task. But you can do it. Hopefully a few of the above tips will help. After all, I’m hoping you get to the page, too. Speaking of which, it’s time for me to work on some new poems.

Keep after it, y’all!

The above post was taken from a longer post. You can read the original post here.

““Understand not everything is meant to be understood . . .” by deeplifequotes, “Worried Eggs II” by Domiriel, and “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Evil Erin are all used as per Creative Commons License on Flickr.

What If?

April 19, 2014 By Terry Price Leave a Comment

“It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there’s not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality. The problem is that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination.” ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Whenever I work with writers, especially those who feel as if they’ve hit a dead end in their work, I encourage them to play the game of “what if.”

“What if” is exactly what it sounds like. And it is unrestricted. The focus of the game is to be playful and to get out of your left brain, rational, logical thinking, at least for the moment. It’s designed to return to that playful mode we experienced as children; when we made up stories and never, ever had “writer’s block.” Nothing was impossible.

What about life?

Sometimes we work so hard to live our own life story, we reach dead ends and don’t know where to turn. We reach a “life block.” We work so hard to do rational, logical, “grown-up” things and yet we move through life as if we’re not getting anywhere. People look around and ask, “is this all there is?”

The answer lies in your imagination.

If you only believe that the world of your senses, the world of your intellect, is all there is…you will be right. But, conversely, if you believe there is more, much more, maybe even life greater than your imagination, you will be right, too.

We live our lives and tell our stories, one often a metaphor for the other. Ultimately, when we write, we decide what possibilities exist for our characters. Ultimately, as we live, we decide what possibilities await for us. We build our own prisons and hold the keys to our release, but only some have the imagination to unlock the doors and venture outside. It is our logic that tells us the safety of the prison is better than the danger of the dragons that await outside.

But is the imagination that whispers “what if…”

What if you were made for slaying dragons?

What if the dragons aren’t what you thought?

What if dragons were actually quite tasty, served with an apple cranberry chutney and a decanted 1999 Brunello?

What if there are no dragons?

There are times in our life when logic and reason are necessary. But there is a season and a time for every things…times when we must escape the structured, limited, confining boundaries of our intelligence. Great works of art are not fashioned from the mind, they are created through the passion of the heart, the soul, and the imagination, all of which have some basis in reality. Life is ultimately not about what you know. It’s about what you don’t know, about what you are willing to learn, about what you are willing to dream…about what you’re willing to be.

Therein lies the fertile playground of the “what-ifs.”

And today is a perfect day to go out and play.

The Gift of Time and Space

April 4, 2014 By Dave Leave a Comment

Great Places to Write

There are two essential ingredients to creativity that cannot really be shared in a workshop, cannot be learned in a classroom or from a book, cannot be handed down from mentor to apprentice: the gift of TIME and SPACE.

Time is something we swim in every moment of our lives, yet it is the one thing above all that we never truly seem to have enough of, not for everyday tasks or extraordinary adventures, not for practical pursuits or chasing dreams. Not even for doing nothing at all.

One thing we learn as we spend it, though, is that not all time is created equal. For creatives, uninterrupted time is precious.

Learning to manage time, to shape it in such a way that we have a reasonable “chunk” to devote to our craft is something we can learn. But, ultimately, it is up to us to navigate our days and to determine how and when we can focus on creating. The reality is, some days that time might need to change. Being flexible is important.

But even more important is the act of giving ourselves permission to devote TIME to our calling!

Inside Roofless Church

Robert Coles writes, “We all need empty hours in our lives or we will have no time to create or dream.” Don’t mistake the word empty to mean worthless or wasted. It simply means time where we don’t have to think about a dozen things at once. Time where we don’t have to think at all.

Because it is in the silence, in the quiet of that empty time, when the magic happens.

In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, creativity expert Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes that “It might be true that it is ‘quality time’ that counts, but after a certain point quantity has a bearing on quality.” One of the best aspects of New Harmony is the slow down, get unplugged, pull back from the everyday routine of it all.

As Csikszentmihalyi states, it’s not just the quality of uninterrupted time, but the quantity.

According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow occurs when we are fully immersed in what we’re doing. As writers, it’s that time when we slip from the conscious self directing our thoughts to the unconscious revealing the story, the verse, the words.

Although we might be able to learn ways (or techniques) to help get into a creative flow, to engage our muse, it won’t matter if we don’t have the time to actually become fully immersed. Interruptions, which are part of daily life, can keep us from getting into that single-minded focus and flow.

That’s why it’s important to designate a set amount of time for your creativity and to let others know that time is sacred.

Like I said, some of the techniques for taking advantage of uninterrupted time can be learned, sure, but it still comes down to us shaping our day so we have that time. While you’re in New Harmony, determining what time you’ll spend on your art becomes an easier choice. In part because you’ve allowed yourself to step aside from most of your daily responsibilities. But there’s also something about the creative energy of the place, whether you are here for a guided retreat or merely on your own, that lends itself to becoming fully immersed in creating.

How Does It Feel to Be in Flow (from one of Csikszentmihalyi’s Ted Talk slides)?

Completely involved in what we are doing – focused, concentrated.
A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality.
Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing.
Knowing that the activity is doable – that skills are adequate to the task.
A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.
Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present . . .
Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes its own reward.

Most people who have spent time creating (whether it’s at the page writing, at the easel painting, at the piano playing) and who have slipped into FLOW understand how amazing it is. That’s the state we’re constantly seeking to get back to and the only way to do that is with some of that empty time to which Cole alludes.

As Robert Henri puts it – “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”

But in order to make the most of that time, we also need space.

We need a spot where we can immerse ourselves for however much time we have, uninterrupted. I read an article recently that stated, our creative lives aren’t like DVD’s that can be paused every time there’s an interruption and then just started again seamlessly returning to the flow.

Fountain by Sandy Spencer Coomer

Think of FLOW as a literal thing, as a stream, that is fluid and moving, and each interruption is like a damn, like a fallen tree blocking the way. Yes, water is usually able to find a way around, eventually, but that often takes time.

And the direction the stream was flowing in often gets diverted, at least temporarily.

I live in a town where Mark Twain spent much of his adult life living and writing about Huck and Tom and Becky, and he had a special octagonal study built that stood away from his home, complete with fireplace and lighting and other comforts. He’s not alone when it comes to writers who have created their own separate writing space.

For a writer, being at the page is a sacred space. But so too is the actual tangible place where he or she writes. And the value of such a space shouldn’t be taken lightly. As Joseph Campbell put it, “Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again.”

Tranquility of the Labyrinth Fountain

Finding or creating such a space in our daily lives is important.

Now, some writers find that space on the train commuting to and from work. They’re able to tune out the world and tune into themselves. Others have offices or nooks or, like Twain, separate studies devoted to their writing.

Places like New Harmony offer a variety of wonderful nooks and hideaways, parks and benches and other outdoor spots, nestled right in among the natural world with the soothing music of fountains and birdsong.

But there’s also a desk in your room. Where no one will find you. Where no one will ask you to do this or to do that. It’s a sacred space where you can fully immerse yourself for large chunks of time. You will find that New Harmony is a place of quiet, of calm, of serenity. And that is conducive for writing, for drawing, for creating.

“You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet, and 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.” – Kafka

Here are a few articles on the value of solitude for creatives:

Part of the benefit of taking a retreat is the gift of time and space. But it’s important to also find ways to create your own mini-retreats each time you want to create. In order to do that, you need TIME and SPACE.

Living a Labyrinth

March 27, 2014 By Terry Price Leave a Comment

Today I did a walking meditation on the seven circuit labyrinth at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville. It’s been too long since I’ve walked a labyrinth and I’ve known that for awhile but, to be candid, neither the weather nor my personal circumstances have been ideal this winter for walking a labyrinth. Upon approaching the entrance ‘neath the warm Tennessee sun, I felt as if I were entering the doorway of an old friend with whom I had lost touch.

I use labyrinths for different purposes. For the uninitiated, a labyrinth is a circular pathway, with no predictable route, that leads to its center. It differs from a maze in that there are no decisions for the traveler to make and no dead ends. It is the absence of duality, of right and wrong. Once you understand this, you are able to lose yourself in the walk to the extent you are able to trust the pathway. When I say “lose yourself” I’m speaking to the conscious, logical, left-brained you. One foot in front of the other, again, and again, you find your pace, your rhythm which can very easily be different every time you walk a labyrinth. You feel your breath, you feel connected to the ground and disconnected from all that pulls you from your life. Or at least that’s how it works for me.

Anyway, I use the labyrinth for a creative tool to help me with inspirations for my writings. I use labyrinths to help me think through issues whether spiritual, emotional or physical. Or all three. The walking aspect of the labyrinth makes it easier for me to meditate than sitting does. If the weather is decent, I will remove my shoes and socks so I can feel the grass and dirt or the stones, depending upon the surface of the labyrinth.

So today I walked. And I pondered.

I pondered life and death. Relationships. I walked and ruminated about my novel and what I am to learn, not only by writing it but through the process of writing it. I meditated on the retreat Dave and I are leading in June and asked for inspirations and ideas that would excite others about living a creative life.

And while I was walking I suddenly had an epiphany. It became clear the walking of the labyrinth was very much like the living of my life when I am in the midst of doing that which I am supposed to be doing. When I am following my bliss. During those times, it is as if I am living a life path where all along, just waiting for me to enter and trust. Decisions and stress are minimized. I am able to let go and move along until I reach the center which, in this case, is my center.

As I reached the center of the Scarritt-Bennett labyrinth, I clearly saw the path I had just traveled and how, in spite of its meandering appearance, it led me, perfectly, to where I was, where I was supposed to be. It made me think of the essay by Arthur Schopenhauer, “On an Apparent Intention in the Fate of the Individual,” in which he talks about reaching a point when you look back over your life and find a consistent order and plan that transcends randomness, a life that appears to have been composed by a novelist.

I’m not saying that it’s easy as you live it. I’m not even saying that it makes sense at times. I am saying that, for me, trusting there things bigger than me, that are wiser than me, things grander and more magical than my imagination, has brought me to this point. And it is this realization that fuels my passion for my creativity and my art. For it is through my art that I ask the big questions, dream the big dreams, believe the unimaginable. And I do it one step at a time. One breath at a time. I keep following my path. The one that has been there before I was a whisper in a womb, waiting just for me.

Mystery and Art

March 14, 2014 By Terry Price Leave a Comment

“I never know when I sit down, just what I am going to write. I make no plan; it just comes, and I don’t know where it comes from.” ~ D. H. Lawrence

[There is] “the edge between what is known and what is never to be discovered because it is a mystery transcendent of all human research.” ~ Joseph Campbell

More often than not, when we seek answers we immediately grab our smartphones and Google or use other search engines to find the concrete, to learn the facts. Our science is advancing so rapidly that new facts replace old in the matter of days instead of centuries. Our access to information is unlike anything dreamed of fifty years ago as we read our newspapers, listened to radios, and watched televisions.

There is a story, however apocryphal, that in the 1950’s, then President Eisenhower was led into a room with was completely filled with an enormous computer. The engineers challenged the President to ask a question to the computer. The President thought, then asked the engineers to program in the question, “is there a God?”

The computer whirred and hummed for about ten minutes, which was considered to be quite fast in the day. Then lights flashed and a buzzer sounded and a card spat out…”there is NOW!”

Although I laughed at the story, to some degree, information has become a god. To some degree, technology and science have become gods. We live in a time when we believe everything can become known…will become known.

Don’t misunderstand. I love to study and learn. I want to know more. But adding to my accumulation of information does not lessen my wonderment or belief in magic, in mystery. Neither science nor technology can explain love. No amount of research can explain why people will sacrifice themselves for others whom they do not know. There are things so beyond our understanding that we cannot even begin to describe, what Campbell calls the “what is never to be discovered.” In essence…the mystery.

And just because we cannot see, because we cannot describe or articulate something beyond our conscious ability, some would argue this as the evidence that it does not exist. But artists know better.

That is why the artist is just as important as the scientist or the engineer to our cultures and civilization. Because no matter how much we learn, how much we can know, even if one day, everything in the sensory world is explained, there shall always be the ineffable. There shall always be the mystery.

This is what the poet understands and conveys through imagery and metaphor. This is what the painter knows and illustrates through strokes and colors. This what the storyteller learns through the telling of her story which when revealed from the depths, the land of dreams and visions, resonates from soul to soul, revealing a collective consciousness, always there but never experienced.

Art is a tangible through which the heart feels and knows and experiences the mystery. It is all we have and yet it is more than enough. We do not need mystery to be explained or understood. We just need to experience transcendence. We need it as much as we need air and water and food. For without transcendence, there are no breaths, there is no refreshment, there is no nourishment. Without transcendence, there is no ecstasy, no amazement, no wonder, no mystery. No awe.

Celebrate that within you that keeps your eyes open, your heart vulnerable, your imagination free and wild, your belief in magic and mystery active and alive, and that keeps your inner child at play. That is your artist within. That is who you truly are. And that is why you were created.

To create.

The Power of Rituals

February 27, 2014 By Terry Price 1 Comment

I love coaching creatives and being part of their creative journeys.

And the best part of the coaching, so far, has been to see writers smiling and saying they are writing again, creating again. Because, I believe, that is our natural state. We are all creators. That is part of our collective myth. It is at the heart of our individual myths.

Your personal myth is your story, the story of who you really are, the center from which you live, love, and create.

One of the initial reasons people come to work with me is that they are simply not writing, not creating. And they are frustrated. They feel guilt. They are stressed. The clock is ticking and they have nothing to show for their time. Because they are not creating, they doubt their abilities, citing the lack of productivity as clear evidence they are not writers. Some even go so far as refusing to acknowledge they are really writers.

The first step in working with creatives is helping them learn their own story, their own myth. Remove the world’s expectations. Remove the parents’ hopes and dreams. Eliminate the well-intentioned third grade teachers admonitions and directions. Remove checkbooks and mortgages. Quiet the voice without and within. Who are you? Now…who are you, really? And there we begin on a journey to you.

Joseph Campbell says that a ritual is the enactment of a myth. I like that. It is a tangible way of participating in the myth. In the life of a creative, a ritual is a practice you establish to participate in who you are as a creative. In essence, a ritual becomes a entryway to your practice as a creative, regardless of how you express your creativity.

Think of the other areas of your life in which you participate in rituals. Our religious lives are filled with rituals we observe to connect us with the sacred. Think of your family, especially at the holidays, when we gather and do things a certain way, whether knowing where everyone will sit at the table, how we open our presents, stories always read or shared, movies always watched, whatever. These are all rituals that give expression to the myth we live, the myth of our life.

A ritual is sacred in the sense that it leads you to something greater within you. When created according to your own personal myth, a ritual leads you to…well…you. Because at your very essence, your very core, you, my dear friend, are a creative.

A lot of creatives just catch snatches of time here and there, plop down, and expect Faulkner to pour forth in about the same time your barista can whip up a double espresso and you consume it. When you make time for your art and approach it with your rituals, designed to help you participate in your own myth, your own life, the results are different. The critical, doubting voices all creatives hear begin to fade. The world is put back into its proper perspective. Expectations and demands are not allowed. Through our personal ritual, we prepare ourselves, full of wonder and anticipation, to just express. You deserve no less my friend.

It Really Is About Creative Living

February 12, 2014 By Terry Price 2 Comments

Creativity is at the root of everything we do.

Our Western culture tends to compartmentalize art and creativity and, in doing so, minimizes their value. But life itself is created and nurtured through childhood. Creativity and art, imagination and exploration, are encouraged during these years.

But then we’re taught that we must get serious, be serious about life. And most of us leave our art and creativity behind. As Wordsworth writes, the “Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy” and we follow what our culture tells us is right, what we must do, how we must “grow up.”

Writing, painting, photography, sculpting, weaving, and all of the many other forms of artistic expression are ways we learn who we are, are ways we process these lives we lead. They are expressions of our essence, our very souls. Joan Dideon said “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.”

Art is about expressing the inexpressible. Art is about metaphor through which we sense and feel that which we cannot express with words. Art is beyond language, beyond borders, genders, religions, beyond anything that separates us. Art is that which resonates so deeply we begin to understand that on that level, we are all truly one.

And so we find ways we can come together with others of like mind, to get away in an idyllic setting, away from the routine, the requirements, the numbing repetition of existence, to find and reclaim our art and, therefore, ultimately our lives. And once reclaimed, we can return home, knowing that the magic was never in that location but rather, is within each of us. It is us and is wherever we are, whatever we do, and is part of that essence that this world has never seen before and will never see again. And ultimately we realize that by retreating we are never “getting away from” but rather, if we are lucky, we live a life in which we are always following our own sacred path toward who we are meant to be.