Creativity

The following excerpts from books were collected by Jill G, who led a lively discussion on them at housechurch last Sunday. Maybe there's something here you can connect with.

"The extravagant is the very stuff of creation. After one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down the aeons of emptiness, heaping profusion on profligacies with fresh vigor. The whole show has been on fire since the work go….

The world is full of creatures that for some reason seem stranger to us than others…hagfish, platypuses, lizardlike pangolins, butterflies emerging from anthills…spiderlings wafting through air clutching tiny silken balloons, horseshoe crabs….the creator creates. Does he stoop, does he speak, does he save, succour, prevail? Maybe. But he creates, he creates, he creates everything and anything…….

This, then, is the extravagant landscape of the world, given, given with pizzazz, given in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over."
From "A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” by Annie Dillard.

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the object it loves.”
Carl Jung.

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
Pablo Picasso.

"Straightaway the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God."
Brahms.

"The creative person is characterised by…acceptance of ambiguity and uncertainty….flexibility…tolerance of complexity…curiosity….non-conformity and reasonable risk-taking.."
From a counselling textbook by Gerard Egan.

"When you surprise yourself, you are being creative.
When you can look at something outside yourself and experience its unique reality, you are being creative.
When you can see a challenge, and are prepared to adapt yourself in order to meet it, you are being creative.
When your imagination ticks as you do boring work, you are being creative.
When you shift awareness from what is frustrating you (waiting for a bus) to what is all around you ( human life) you are being creative.
When you are ready to absorb new information and allow it to change you, you are being creative.
When you approach a familiar person as though for the first time, you are being creative.
When you approach a familiar task as though for the first time, you are being creative.
When you experience adversity as a challenge, you are being creative.
When you can identify with someone else’s experience and add it to your own, you are being creative." Stephanie Dowrick.
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