“Creativity has the power to look pain in the eye and turn it into something else.”
This one especially speaks to me today. Thanks for this. I feel inspired to look embarrassment, loneliness, shame, anger, disappointment and feelings of being pathetic in the eye and turn them into value-creating things.. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽💜💜💜
Amazing words. I use #6 daily. I'm an Introvert and Bipolar. Writing has always been my go to outlet for expressing how I really feel. Writing goes beyond my standard, "I'm fine." reply when asked, "How are you feeling?" Sometimes I feel like my truth is too much for many and is something that I can only share with my two, long term best friends, my husband and my therapist.
oh Susan. 4, 5, and 9 all resonate. My father passed away on January 29, his viewings & mass & celebration was February 3 and 4. The flowing & chasing watercolor type bleed of joy, grief, sorrow, laughter for hundreds of people was (still is) incredible, humbling, grounding, infuriating, overwhelming, glorious. The timing of the email was in the midst of all that - when I was glancing in on my life - and the truth of bittersweet was all around me. Seeing the words stopped me, paused me is more accurate. I couldn't absorb them, but they resonated, stayed with me in the background. I just read it this morning from a bit more calmer place, but not yet fully absorbing or able to read it completely.
We are in the Philly area, my dad was a 'uge Iggles (translation: huge eagles) fan; ribbons on his flower displays said Go Irish and Go Birds; my 2 brothers and I each did a brief eulogy, and at the end of the final one - people in the church were reciting the eagles fight song with us.
Community, creativity, music / words definitely transcending grief even as people were sobbing.
while I take comfort in the list, I’d like to comment on the rustic boots!
I think the photograph is perfect for the Bitter-sweet book title. Some may cringe at the traveled feet resting on the pure white cushion but isn’t it always in the mix, bitterness, alongside sweetness? and vice versa? The eye sees the warmth of the boots (the roads we’ve walked) and travels to the top of your golden head, (our thinking) leading us to the feminine bronze figurine, now at peace within the bittersweet world. We decide what we want to see. 💕
I feel the ideas on this list can all correlate with each other in some way, profundity within each one of them is quite lovely. Just want to marinate in them... Longing always been in me and I feel it always will; it's the way our souls speak to us, road to transcendence is within our longing heart...Some of the most beautiful things came through the pain of another longing, Unfortunate pain of tragedy, open soulful depths, tapping beauty of our longing wake...
Thank you for this! Grief has been my pain since my dad passed in August (6 minutes in “Grief time”) and I can feel it opening up my creativity to express sadness and help others honor theirs. Thank you for the additional inspiration today! And I also appreciate the explanation of the boots - they are lovely.
Number 5 jumped out at me - "Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, make it your creative offering." It's only as I get older that I realise how helpful creativity is in helping me process and then understand pain and life's challenges. It's a truly healing balm for me. Oh, and also a good dose of Number 4 - Music! ☺️
“Transform your pain into beauty, your longing into belonging.” << I have often heard advice akin to the first part of this lesson, but the latter is such an essential part of a whole.
I love, "Whatever pain you can't get rid of, make it your creative offering." It makes me think of my weird hobby of photographing rural and urban decay and how there is a part of me in these photos of homes and buildings in ruins. It's as if I have photographed my own feelings of abandonment, fear, grief, longing and loneliness, whether it be in the past, present or concerns about the future.
Number 5 Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, make it your creative offering.
This resonates deeply with me in my life. I’ve discovered that writing, in particular, has been a profound source of nourishment. I’ve overcome some of the barriers of judgment and let go of the need to produce a “product.” Instead, I write until I’m completely empty, and if there’s a gem in that emptiness, I expand upon it. I’m grateful for this beautiful reminder.
I live in Vienna, where the Albertina is showing an exhibition of Chagall's work. I just went this afternoon. Talk about turning pain into a creative offering! I was thinking of that the whole time
. He was from a very poor family, grew up in a Shtetl because in Imperial Russia Jews didn't have the right to live where they wanted, made it to St. Petersburg to study art on fake identity papers, found a patron to pay for time in Paris, loved Paris and was very successful there, went home for the summer and got stuck in Vitebsk because of the First World War. He did make it back to Paris eventually, only to be driven out by the Nazi invasion. On to southern France and then Switzerland and finally New York, where he never felt at home and his beloved wife, Bella, died of a virus. All the while, he painted his fantastical pictures and has given us all joy.
“Creativity has the power to look pain in the eye and turn it into something else.”
This one especially speaks to me today. Thanks for this. I feel inspired to look embarrassment, loneliness, shame, anger, disappointment and feelings of being pathetic in the eye and turn them into value-creating things.. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽💜💜💜
Love this:
“Creativity has the power to look pain in the eye and turn it into something else”
So needed this morning.
Amazing words. I use #6 daily. I'm an Introvert and Bipolar. Writing has always been my go to outlet for expressing how I really feel. Writing goes beyond my standard, "I'm fine." reply when asked, "How are you feeling?" Sometimes I feel like my truth is too much for many and is something that I can only share with my two, long term best friends, my husband and my therapist.
Thank you for the kind call to welcome our deepest sorrow and grief into our world as a precious gift.
oh Susan. 4, 5, and 9 all resonate. My father passed away on January 29, his viewings & mass & celebration was February 3 and 4. The flowing & chasing watercolor type bleed of joy, grief, sorrow, laughter for hundreds of people was (still is) incredible, humbling, grounding, infuriating, overwhelming, glorious. The timing of the email was in the midst of all that - when I was glancing in on my life - and the truth of bittersweet was all around me. Seeing the words stopped me, paused me is more accurate. I couldn't absorb them, but they resonated, stayed with me in the background. I just read it this morning from a bit more calmer place, but not yet fully absorbing or able to read it completely.
We are in the Philly area, my dad was a 'uge Iggles (translation: huge eagles) fan; ribbons on his flower displays said Go Irish and Go Birds; my 2 brothers and I each did a brief eulogy, and at the end of the final one - people in the church were reciting the eagles fight song with us.
Community, creativity, music / words definitely transcending grief even as people were sobbing.
thank you for your beautiful comment, Kelly. We're so sorry for the loss of your father - and, amazing to have such a celebration of his life.
while I take comfort in the list, I’d like to comment on the rustic boots!
I think the photograph is perfect for the Bitter-sweet book title. Some may cringe at the traveled feet resting on the pure white cushion but isn’t it always in the mix, bitterness, alongside sweetness? and vice versa? The eye sees the warmth of the boots (the roads we’ve walked) and travels to the top of your golden head, (our thinking) leading us to the feminine bronze figurine, now at peace within the bittersweet world. We decide what we want to see. 💕
I feel the ideas on this list can all correlate with each other in some way, profundity within each one of them is quite lovely. Just want to marinate in them... Longing always been in me and I feel it always will; it's the way our souls speak to us, road to transcendence is within our longing heart...Some of the most beautiful things came through the pain of another longing, Unfortunate pain of tragedy, open soulful depths, tapping beauty of our longing wake...
“Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, make it your creative offering.”
And “Sad music makes us want to touch the sky”
So simply said (the most difficult thing to do) and so profound!
Thank you for this! Grief has been my pain since my dad passed in August (6 minutes in “Grief time”) and I can feel it opening up my creativity to express sadness and help others honor theirs. Thank you for the additional inspiration today! And I also appreciate the explanation of the boots - they are lovely.
“Our oldest problem is the pain of separation, our deepest dream is the desire for reunion.”
Hopeful that my creative “art” will bring me home, and that someone besides me will be there.
Number 5 jumped out at me - "Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, make it your creative offering." It's only as I get older that I realise how helpful creativity is in helping me process and then understand pain and life's challenges. It's a truly healing balm for me. Oh, and also a good dose of Number 4 - Music! ☺️
So much of this reminds me of my own experience of grief, worry, hopelessness and my path of healing through stitching.
“Transform your pain into beauty, your longing into belonging.” << I have often heard advice akin to the first part of this lesson, but the latter is such an essential part of a whole.
I love, "Whatever pain you can't get rid of, make it your creative offering." It makes me think of my weird hobby of photographing rural and urban decay and how there is a part of me in these photos of homes and buildings in ruins. It's as if I have photographed my own feelings of abandonment, fear, grief, longing and loneliness, whether it be in the past, present or concerns about the future.
Number 5 Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, make it your creative offering.
This resonates deeply with me in my life. I’ve discovered that writing, in particular, has been a profound source of nourishment. I’ve overcome some of the barriers of judgment and let go of the need to produce a “product.” Instead, I write until I’m completely empty, and if there’s a gem in that emptiness, I expand upon it. I’m grateful for this beautiful reminder.
I live in Vienna, where the Albertina is showing an exhibition of Chagall's work. I just went this afternoon. Talk about turning pain into a creative offering! I was thinking of that the whole time
. He was from a very poor family, grew up in a Shtetl because in Imperial Russia Jews didn't have the right to live where they wanted, made it to St. Petersburg to study art on fake identity papers, found a patron to pay for time in Paris, loved Paris and was very successful there, went home for the summer and got stuck in Vitebsk because of the First World War. He did make it back to Paris eventually, only to be driven out by the Nazi invasion. On to southern France and then Switzerland and finally New York, where he never felt at home and his beloved wife, Bella, died of a virus. All the while, he painted his fantastical pictures and has given us all joy.