A playlist of all Sunday Lessons is on YouTube or can be found here on UNSC website.
September 27, 2020
Dear Unity North friends,
The lesson title for this week is “Creativity & Birth: Via Creativa.” You can find the Sunday lesson by clicking on the link near the end of this letter.
This Sunday we are in Week 3 of a 4-week Sunday talk series on Creation Spirituality so that you can have more understanding of Dr. Matthew Fox before our virtual event with him on Saturday, October 3.
Matthew Fox wrote the following in his book Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet: “To allow creativity its appropriate place in our lives and our culture, our education and our family relationships, is to allow healing to happen at a profound level. The intimacy of creativity corresponds to the mystical experience itself. Mysticism bespeaks union, and there is an ongoing union of us and the Divine precisely during the process of giving birth in any form whatsoever. We lose track of time and of place; we move into a timeless time and a placeless space when we are in a creative state. Afterwards, we know we have tasted something worth remembering, something that will last. And often we have a special gift to bestow on others because of the journey we have undergone in our creative work.”
I always liked both art and English ever since elementary school. English was a favorite because I could immerse myself in a good story but also because I liked to write. For some reason, my parents encouraged writing more than art, and it has served me well not only in school but in my life work. As a minister, it is the primary “work” that I do, from newsletters to creating classes to Sunday lessons. In that sense it is the gift I have “bestowed on others.”
Art has been a missing piece for me, though—an unfulfilled longing. Several years ago, I took several classes in oil painting and surprised myself with paintings that brought me some joy. Even then, I did not take the time to immerse myself in art, but this week in my spare time I began an acrylic painting class. I can only take three out of the four classes because of my schedule, but I am committed to going forward with this long-suppressed creative expression. I won’t stop at three classes either but will keep on painting!
Whether your gifts are in the arena of sewing, cooking, fixing cars, painting houses, planting a garden, making furniture or a meal, take the time to be creative! Take your creativity off the back burner, if that is where you put it, and feel the power of the Via Creativa in your life. Experience your union with the Divine as you give birth to something that comes not from you but through you. God is the great Creator, and “we are made in the Creator’s image and likeness.“ To allow creativity its appropriate place in our lives is to allow healing to happen at a profound level.” This is a time for us to create!
Love & Blessings,
Rev. Kathy
Here is the link to Rev. Kathy's talk: https://youtu.be/rUk4kClr7qM