I've been glued to one of the many books I picked up at Hearts and Minds Bookstore last week. The excerpt below is from, "Creativity and Divine Surprise" by Karla M. Kincannon. As I read through the chapters, I plan to post her thoughts and my reflections as, hopefully, an encouragement as we walk this journey with God.
"Creativity is so much more than art making. It is the tool for navigating through everyday experiences to find the sacred in each God-given moment....The need to rediscover our creativity is more urgent than we might think. When we exile creativity to the corners of our existence, our ability to perceive the things of God in our life and the life of the world radically diminishes...Creativity fine-tunes our listening. By focusing our full love and attention on the creativity buried within, we train our awareness to see the Spirit's subtle stirrings over the waters of that which wants to be created in us."
Yesterday the flowers in my back yard looked so pretty, the colors seemed vibrant, more than usual - I had to see them up close. I grabbed my camera, screwed on my (cheap) close-up lens filters and headed to the Shasta Daisy's in the corner of the yard. I squatted down low and came in close to one particular flower. The sun was setting but one lonely ray of sun light found its way through the neighboring hedge and landed right on my daisy. It sparkled in the warm evening sunbeam. I was so enthralled that I almost forgot about my camera weighing heavy in my right hand. Bringing it up to my eye to frame the shot, I could see through the lens the delicate beauty of this creation initiated by God. A simple white and yellow flower, I see them everyday as I walk across my yard. But today, because I took the time to slow down and observe, really look at the flowers, I was in awe of God's creative work. I lingered there with that flower for what seemed like forever when the thought passed my mind that my neighbors must think I've lost it. But I tried not to let that matter to me - and just relaxed there in the garden of flowers, watching the bugs pass over by flight. 
Photography is a love of mine. I enjoy capturing something usually left unseen or unnoticed. I can peruse our tiny back yard for hours, never becoming bored of the limited subject matter. There is always movement or change to capture. The sunlight dances differently in the evening then in the morning. Certain bugs, like glo-bugs, come out at dusk and without a care in the world they hop, bounce and hover over each plant in the garden as if making a new friend for life. Birds gather up worms and then look around hoping no one is watching as if they are a cat burglar at an expensive high end jewelry store. Take a close look at the butterfly below. You can see the long proboscis extending from its head as it busily sucks nectar from the flower.
Photography is a love of mine. I enjoy capturing something usually left unseen or unnoticed. I can peruse our tiny back yard for hours, never becoming bored of the limited subject matter. There is always movement or change to capture. The sunlight dances differently in the evening then in the morning. Certain bugs, like glo-bugs, come out at dusk and without a care in the world they hop, bounce and hover over each plant in the garden as if making a new friend for life. Birds gather up worms and then look around hoping no one is watching as if they are a cat burglar at an expensive high end jewelry store. Take a close look at the butterfly below. You can see the long proboscis extending from its head as it busily sucks nectar from the flower. 
When I'm doing something creative, like using my camara, it's an adventure, so much to take in. The whole time, I'm fully aware and enter into God's presence, taking in His creativity and then using my creativity to capture an image that will last longer than the blossom at the height of its glory. In these moments, I feel closer to God and have an intimate encounter with my Creator.
Creativity does fine-tune our listening, or seeing, the things of God. It also sparks something within us that leads to an awareness of the Spirit's movement in our lives. Again, here is a line from Karla's book, "As we engage our creativity in the service of our spirituality, we discern the frequency of our soul's yearnings and the deeper currents of life."
May you live with full awareness God's presence and follow His lead towards your creativity. Listen to that still small voice that patiently waits for your hearts attention and courageously dive into your God given gift, the gift to create.
Grace & Peace on the journey ~ deAnn
To share your creativity through the art of photography, visit VC::Photography (an extension of this site.)
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This is my first attempt at trying to share my thought via a blog. Heck, I’m not even sure I know what a blog is. It sounds like something from a horror movie. You know something like “Return of the Blog!” Any how, here goes. I was intrigued by deAnn’s blog on creativity (being a creative person myself). I love old wood. Love may be a strong word for old woods appeal. Let’s just say I have a passionate attraction for old wood. I like to take old wood that some may consider useless and create something from it. To me old wood has a character, a charm, a personality that new wood has not yet developed. The nicks, the nail holes, the marks and stains from years of use make its appeal irresistible. Recently I was at my brother-in-laws house collecting some wood he wanted to throw away. Some of it was an old tongue and groove garage door he had replaced. My wife received a phone call from our daughter and I heard her say, “We’re over at your uncle’s house, getting wood. You know how you dad is with old wood, he just can’t see it go to waste”.
I live in an old home and several years ago I needed to replace the roof over the rear section. Because of additions over the years the roof was in three sections. One section over what we call the “back room”, one section over the porch and one section over the patio. I decided to replace the whole thing with one roof. No, I didn’t use old wood. I purchased all new materials for the new roof. But, when I tore down the old roof, I did find several old pine boards 12 inches wide and 16 feet long. To me this was like finding hidden treasure. There must be some use for this incredible find. And sure enough there was. Having completed the roof project, I decided I was going to build a bar area on the back porch. I used two of the old porch posts and some old skid wood I collected from my place of employment to build most of it. For the countertop I glued some of those beautiful pine boards together and finished them with spar polyurethane which brought out the deeper beauty of its years of use. That old wood continues to give us pleasure as we use in a place where we now spend most of our leisure summer hours. We eat breakfast and dinner on that old wood every day we can in the warmer seasons. And use it in entertaining friends and family on occasion. I have used so much discarded wood to make things that a friend of mine calls my fence (which I made from discarded skid wood) “Skid Row”.
As I am reflecting on the use of old wood, it occurs to me that our society and even our churches have discarded a lot of “old wood” as useless and ugly. I’m talking about our seniors. They may have been pillars of our community or just another plank in the building of society, but in them is years of service, the mars and nicks of the tears, pains and joys of life. There is a deep inner beauty that can be seen by one who pauses long enough to see it.
Is there a piece of “Old Wood” in your world waiting for you to enjoy its hidden beauty?
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