Overview
Amidst the difficulty, there is always beauty – the beauty that sustains us, and as Terry Tempest Williams reminds us, it isn’t optional, it’s survival. Here we reflect on ways to hold both the beauty and the fractured nature of our lives in creative tension.
Full Group Zoom Link:
https://cornell.zoom.us/j/92111264804?pwd=b0hZcUZ0bFcxVGsweUVxN2l5TTBqUT09
Community Circle Zoom Link:
(see Community Circle tab for link by community group)
Invitation to Reflective Writing
“There are random moments – tossing a salad, coming up the driveway to the house, ironing the seams flat on a quilt square, standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the delphiniums, hearing a burst of laughter from one of my children’s rooms – when I feel a wavelike rush of joy. This is my true religion: arbitrary moments of nearly painful happiness for a life I feel privileged to lead. Think of the way you sometimes see a tiny shaft of sunlight burst through a gap between rocks, the way it then expands to illuminate a much larger space – it’s like that. And it’s like quilting, a thread surfacing and then disappearing into the fabric of ordinary days. It’s not always visible, but it’s what holds everything together.” – Elizabeth Berg, excerpt from the novel The Art of Mending.
Today you have had a chance to engage in reflection about the creative tensions in your life – the way in which those tensions are an “on-going, always” part of life in the manner of paradox. It’s possible to hold both the beauty and the brokenness all at once – just as Berg’s character, above, is able to pause to witness beauty, even in the midst of the fullness of her life.
This is an invitation to ignite a spark of creativity and play with the themes that have percolated up for you today. Please begin by looking through your notes thus far. What do you notice? What words, phrases and images jump out at you? Where does the tension holding seem to be the greatest? See if you can pull out and capture what was most vivid for you, creating a short list.
Next, we’ll invite you to create a short Haiku which captures what you want to remember from today as an important reminder of healthy, creative tension-holding in your life. Although we purposely offer this form as a container – the way in which having limits can actually free up the possibilities (another paradox!) – you may use any form you wish.
Five syllables
Seven syllables
Five syllables
You may choose to share what you have written in a small group on Friday.
