I have experienced creativity at a deep level, a healing level, but I could not have pinpointed what it healed, why or how. I just knew that Art Quilting was key in making me feel better...I can see how it had its hand in helping me become more wholehearted...or perhaps to hold my heart, while my life was falling apart...and continued on expressing me.
In reading "The Gifts of Imperfection" by Brene Brown, she talks about Wholehearted people and what role creativity plays.
"Let me sum up what I've learned about creativity from the world of Wholehearted living and loving:
- "I'm not very creative" doesn't work. There's no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don't. Unused creativity doesn't just disappear. It lives within us until it's expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment and fear.
- The only unique contribution that we will ever make in this world will be born of our creativity.
- If we want to make meaning, we need to make art. Cook, write, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild an engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing -it doesn't matter. As long as we're creating, we're cultivating meaning.
"I also realized that much of what I do in my work is creative work. Writer William Plomer describes creativity as "the power to connect the seemingly unconnected." My work is all about making connections, so part of my transformation was owning and celebrating my existing creativity."
"Letting go of comparison is not a to-do list item. For most of us, it's something that requires constant awareness. It's so easy to take our eyes off our path to check out what others are doing and if they're ahead or behind us. Creativity, which is the expression of our originality, helps us stay mindful that what we bring to the world is completely original and cannot be compared. And, without comparison, concepts like ahead or behind, or best or worst lose their meaning."
"If creativity is seen as a luxury or something we do when we have spare time, it will never be cultivated. I carve out time each week to take and process photographs, make movies, and do art projects with the kids. When I make creating a priority, everything in my life works better." Brene
I know being creative or continuing to quilt when my life was falling apart was crucial, but what I couldn't articulate was why. It brought meaning, expression and a familiar place I could be me without judgment or ridicule and anger.
Most folks have a hard time presenting their Art, for they fear the critics. My critics were in my personal life, like it itself was a work of art, open to criticism...and my quilted art was ignored.
I was more expressive and controversial in my daily living life and it was totally reflected in my art....yet my life was actually leading the charge.
The harshest critics I have faced are related to me...
To live wholehearted, to be vulnerable, open and expressive of your emotions and feelings, you will be living, loving wholeheartedly.
I don't know what I thought wholehearted living was in the past, perhaps a pure, kind and nice person...maybe embracing of all things, accepting without limits.
Now, I view it totally different. I see it as being honest and sparing no feelings, not yours and certainly not theirs. To live with your whole heart means to go where it is uncomfortable and to erect boundaries, to walk away with your whole heart instead of allowing others to rip it apart.
Wholehearted living is a work of art itself...it will cause controversary, it will not be easy, and yet it will bring back into yourself your whole heart.
While I was bringing my heart back to me...I would return to quilting where my free and open heart could play without fear of rejection. Creativity was a safe place to express me....to be me.
“Here's what is truly at the heart of wholeheartedness: Worthy now, not if, not when, we're worthy of love and belonging now. Right this minute. As is.”
When I was rejected on the outside, I was welcomed in my Art.
It didn't care about the tough choices I was making in my real life, it didn't want or need me to be different than I was, it accepted me as I am. And, through creativity I accepted me as Art.
