"The world is too much with us....getting and spending we lay waste our powers" - Wordsworth
I found that in an old book that I love called Simple Abundance by Sara Ban Breathnach. Sara talks about people being so spread thin that they can not find their authentic self. That got me thinking about when I create with people, that I feel like the place where they are "making" art they are actually being "made" themselves. The very act of being creative stirs a powerful healing to the maker not just the tangible of the art which was made. The potter on the wheel creating a pot from nothing to something...made. The painter who comes into the studio to make something with their children, leave the studio more sewn together. The choice to sit and knit on a very tired afternoon, will give life and energy rather than put someone to sleep. People leave the studio more connected to themselves than when their frazzled ends came in. Let's face it, life unravels us. Spending, getting, striving, meeting, driving, figuring, deciding, disciplining, cleaning up all the needs of the world...leaves us spent. Wordsworth was talking about the world's demands bringing us to a place of depleted empty but POWERFUL beings. The powers we have to create and love and be in this world are pulled apart by the demands. Our call, as we try to live in this world, is to own our power and own who we are.
How could you spend your time so that you feel more "made" and more powerful?
What are you wasting that is powerful within you?
1 comment:
It can be hard to fight depletion and dive into an activity that will recharge and enrich, but we must try. I get what you describe from working in my garden and creating plant life.
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