Right now, though, I feel as though I am emerging from a 4 hour deep dive into another dimension. First, I met with my supervision group and we enjoyed more than 2 hours of what was basically group spiritual direction, as we caught up with one another. As we get to linger in the place of listening and wondering, I tune in to places in my heart that would otherwise remain unheard. I realise things about what I am thinking and perceiving that helps me make sense of life 'on the surface,' or as I live it in my flesh and blood.
Going from that time of deep listening and noticing, I joined an online gathering of artists and creatives for a time of creative processing; it was all the richer because I was already in a place of awareness. This is a group that usually meets up in a café in Glasgow every alternate week. As a result of this lockdown, they are meeting over Zoom and opening the time up to others. So we were 14 people from as far away as South Africa, Spain and Ireland, along with the usual Glasgow crew.
This kind of creative processing is not altogether dissimilar to the way I would lead people on a retreat, or in an individual time of spiritual direction. That is, the focus is on what comes to the surface during the art-making process, rather than on the end result or product.
I am finding there is a deep seam to be mined around the notion of bringing to birth that I began exploring yesterday. And I am glad for these scheduled times in which to process and think - like many people who are used to facilitating a process for others, I find it hard to set aside the time to do this sort of processing alone. Yet, as ever, I find the physical act of taking up paper and pen (or oil pastel) to be grounding, releasing a wave of discoveries that are as yet not ready to be expressed in words.
How are you finding creative expression is therapeutic for you at this time?
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