When I introduced this topic last month, I shared my personal acquaintance with grief through the loss of many loved ones over the last few years. The loss has left a mark on me psychologically and spiritually. Those lost had been and continue to be a constituent part of my journey, my psyche, my whatever, because of the relationships, thankfully built on the love that I had with each of them.

As Cage and O’Hagan discussed, everyone who goes through grief must come to a crossroad where they either turn inward and isolate, seeking comfort in what was lost, or they turn outward and put something into the world that is a testament to that story, that loss. Those poor souls unable to climb out of their grief harden and become further depressed. Angry even. They seem stuck in that place of grief and may even start to prefer it. This, in a way, makes the relationship that was lost a little less meaningful as the living simple turns toward themselves more. Those who are able to focus outward, however, are still left with the loss but out of it something new can be created.

Think of the song It is Well With My Soul by Horatio Spafford, written after he lost all four of his daughters in a horrible accident while crossing the Atlantic. Left behind in the United States to take care of what remained of his business that had been lost in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, his wife and daughters had been traveling to Britain when the accident occurred. While his wife survived, the girls did not, and he had to deal with their loss alone. Out of that loss, and horrendous grief, Horatio pens one of the greatest hymns of the 19th century, in which he can say in spite of our situation here in this life, his peace comes from Christ and the finished work of the cross. Despite losing his business and children, a truly devastating and horrible situation, he chose to deal with his grief and pain through creation.

I need to stop here and recognize that turning outward does require courage. A courage to be raw with one’s emotions, to be genuine in your self-assessment, albeit recognizing this is all a work in progress; we simply do not have the ability, nor would we want to, disconnect ourselves from our own experience to examine things clinically. I state this because there is grace in this process and you must give allowances to yourself and others as things are processed.

In dealing with my own grief, honesty is paramount. So I am making myself vulnerable. This is part of the process, being vulnerable. Sometime in the last decade I stopped being as creative as I had been. Of course, I continued to make music as part of a worship team, but there was no interest in writing or making my own music, even doing any sort of creative artistic work outside of work. I think some of that came from a place of simmering grief, having lost a few family members, finding out we would not be able have children, career plans falling through. Recognizing my own talents, I turned my efforts into helping others do well. However, it was with the loss of my mother that I really sensed a shift. You see both things are good, they do not need to be mutually exclusive, things could be done collaboratively, even while working out one’s grief, recognized or not.

Being creative does not specifically have to be tied to an art form, like drawing or music or dance; although those are really good practices to get into. Creativity means to bring into existence something new or a new application for something else. It can be a new way to deal with a problem just as much as it can be a new artistic product.

With my own grief, I was struggling to find meaning in my work. While fairly successful as an archivist and well-regarded by those who know me in that field, the work was no longer satisfying. The loss of my mother and the lockdown of the pandemic brought about a shift in how I focused on my life; to the point that when discussions came up regarding helping the Almond Branch, my home church, I saw it  as an open door God had provided to move beyond my current place professionally and spiritually. One that would give me an outlet for my creativity in a unique way that I had never done before.

Back in August 2022, we had been discussing a new strategy for discipleship and how to communicate and establish the theological foundations that the ministry was operating from. We had been talking about cairns in a related discussion when the idea was birthed to create a cairn of sorts with these foundational concepts carved into it. Now I am not a professional stone carver. I am not mason, and I’ve only rudimentary skills in sculpture; but the opportunity to be creative intrigued me, and so I shared that I would like to take on the challenge to make it. The main reason, however, for taking a full year to carve these stones is that it was for the congregation who had taken in my parents as they retired from ministry and cared for my widowed mother soon after. I recently completed the 13th stone of the set and it has been a catalyst for my creativity in other ways. These other ways aren’t only with stones and carving (and the risk of breathing in silica dust), but writing, just as I am now, with music, and who knows what else. Furthermore, since that first cut into stone, there has been healing and a release from grief. I still miss those that I have lost, but things are different and finding that creative outlet helped.

With all of the above, I have to add that creativity doesn’t have to come from a place of grief. Our God is a creative being and he made us in His image; therefore, we have been designed to create. For some there has been a long season of dormancy on your talents. I would encourage you to get those creative fluids going again. Find an outlet, like Elisha’s Riddle, to start making something. For those who say you aren’t a writer…hogwash! Don’t get hung up in forms. If you happen to be a musician or visual artist, start writing. Being creative in one form opens up new horizons in general that can then be applied to whatever medium you prefer. If you are a writer, I would encourage you to learn how to dance, or draw, or make music . . . do something nonverbal and engage a different neural pathway in the creative process. Fulfill your destiny and create.

Next month I’d like to go further into this topic of creativity, so until then dear friend, God bless!

Cover Art: “Kaleidoscope Rebirth” AI-Generated by Mic.