At the centre of everything we call “the arts,” and children call “play,” is something which seems somehow alive.*
Lynda Barry

*From Lynda Barry’s What It Is.

It’s a thing that worries me sometimes whenever you talk about creativity, because it can have this kind of feel that it’s just nice, you know, or it’s warm or it’s something pleasant. It’s not. It’s vital. It’s the way we heal each other.*
Ethan Hawke

The world needs your pictures.

*Quoted in Sam Radford‘s blog: The way we heal each other.

The purpose of life is to see.*
Jack Turner

Why else would we be here?

*Quoted in Terry Tempest Williams’ The Hour of Land.

Sometimes [viewers] resent being in contact with something that they could “theoretically” physically do themselves.*
Keith Haring

*Keith Haring’s Keith Haring Journals.

Quick!
You have 5 minutes to create a doodle:
You don’t need much time to have fun.

You’re welcome to send me your doodles
and I’ll post them here.

This depressing truth – everyone suffers – led to [George] Vaillant‘s first revelation, which is that our mental health is defined by how we cope.*
Jonah Lehrer

Drawing is so much more THAN GOOD OR BAD. IT IS A language from another part of you.**
Lynda Barry

Writing is one of the best ways to work through the difficult things that life
simply is.
And when we add some pictures, it becomes even stronger.
Indeed,
when words are difficult to find,
Drawing something out –
Not in some fancy, polished way,
But in a scratchy, playful way –
May be the place we need to begin
finding the words.

Lynda Barry is doing just this in What It Is,
Julia Cameron offers us morning pages,
There are many different ways.
I began journaling every day some twenty five years ago
to help me figure things out,
accompanied by my higher being,
like Journaling Anonymous,
And I keep on developing it.

It’s just a simple thing I thought to
offer up this morning,
Simple and inexpensive,
Simple and immediate,
Simple and significant.

*Jonah Lehrer’s A Book About Love;
**Lynda Barry’s Making Comics.

Revision isn’t only the act of composition.
Revision is thinking applied to language,
An opening of discovery,
A search for the sentence that says the thing you had no
idea you would say
Hidden inside the sentence you are making.
…
You’ll never know what you think until you escape
your outline.*
Verlyn Klinkenborg

Discovering your Self in language is always an epiphany, even if finding the words to describe your inner reality can be an agonising process.**
Bessel van der Kolk

Just yesterday,
I had been asked about dreamwhispering,
So I went back to the 90s,
Describing how I knew back then what I generally should be doing in my work,
But wanting to know what I should specifically be spending more time on:
Out of the outline and into my passion,
One might say.

Over the ensuing years of exploration, trial and error,
What has emerged is dreamwhispering,
the contribution I love to make beyond all others.

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.^

Life is about finding our specific words and language,
And then creating our stories.

They don’t have to be many,
But they do have to be ours:

Theodor Seuss Geisel wrote The Cat in the Hat with only
250 words,
He then went on to write Green Eggs and Ham with
50.
It’s about having the
right words.

You’re welcome to get in touch and find out more about
dreamwhispering.

*Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several short sentences about writing;
**Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score;
^Albert Szent-Györgi, quoted in Rohit Bhargava’s Non Obvious 2019.

Some people as they grow up become less … . Other people as they grow up become more.*
Eugene Peterson

Today I am 63 years old and I am determined
to grow up,
For the contents of my life and the state of my heart
to outweigh my possessions.

I am my weaknesses,
I know this so well,
I am more than my weaknesses,
And this is my exploration.
May those stronger parts in me become
denser, thicker.

The wanderer becomes one with himself or herself and the universe. We connect with the energy of all living things. We live according to our inner nature.**

*Eugene Peterson’s Run With the Horses;
**Keri Smith’s The Wander Society.

Every life is a piece of art, put together with all means available.
Pierre Janet

In the presence of the God of Beauty our own beauty shines.**
John O’Donohue

This and that.

But we cannot do “anything” and we cannot do
“everything” –
This is the deception of “And.”

This or that.

We can do “something” and we can become “someone” –
This is the freedom of “Or.”

We will know this path by its heart, service
and suffering,
But it is our home.

When I connected dreamwhispering with my university’s^ list of
student attributes, I selected identity, resilience and creativity for their resonance.
Only this morning,
I found myself connecting these to Erwin McManus’ three human quests
for honour, nobility and enlightenment^^

The quests lead us firstly through
Humility, gratitude and faithfulness,
helping us to determine identity.

These in turn grow
integrity, wholeness and perseverance,
All necessary to resilience, a garden of possibility.

The fruits of which are
courage, generosity and wisdom,
The gifts we bring to others.

*Quoted in Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score;
**John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty;
^The University of Edinburgh;
^^Erwin McManus’ Uprising.

It is where the synergistic interplay of courage, wisdom and generosity make us most creative.*
Erwin McManus

No-one was sent into the world without being given the infinite possibilities of the heart.**
John O’Donohue

For Erwin McManus,
Courage and generosity and Wisdom
are the result of three quests
or journeys
that we make.

Courage is the product of integrity,
Which is in turn the result of
humility –
A response to pride.

Generosity is the product of wholeness,
Which is in turn the result of
gratitude –
A response to greed.

Wisdom is the product of perseverance,
Which in turn is the result of
faithfulness –
A response to foolishness.

We can be creative at any point along the way,
But if McManus is right then each of us is capable of even greater creativity
if we keep moving.

This will look different for each of us,
But my guess is,
You will know what you must do.

*Erwin McManus’ Uprising;
**John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty.