"The Ways of the Creating Life" a workshop at Arti Gras 2016 in Columbus Ohio

 

 “The Ways of the Creating Life, a contemplative workshop”    

The Ways of the Creating Life are often contradictory.  They seem to lead us in opposite directions. At times we are certain we are being led in the wrong direction, but it turns out, we were wrong about that.  There are long curves, U-turns, sudden endings, unexpected openings.  And yet our life unfolds many of us find their lives become more creative and daring.  We have a deepening sense of a presence that is carrying us. 

Here is an example.   Clarity and murkiness can be lively presences in our lives at the same time, and yet somehow we lean forward and create with an energy we didn’t know was in us.  We “take our hands off the handlebars,” letting our imaginations lead us toward new horizons. 

Using quieting music, the poetry of David Whyte, and evocative photography, we will lightly touch two questions we can take home as we create a new story for our lives. 

1.      What do we want to stop doing and stop saying (that old story), because it is keeping us from the creating which brings us alive?  That old story is too small for us.

2.      What do we want to try, which we’ve never done before? 

What to bring:  a playful spirit, a journal, and an open heart and mind.  You might just start writing a new story for your life. 

 

The bio of John Holliger

John Holliger comes alive walking the Lake Erie shore, slogging through wetlands, learning the habitats of forests in Ohio, the stories the rocks are telling, watching the movement from starry nights to the first light of day.

A graduate of Oberlin College and Yale Divinity School, John is an Episcopal priest who served parishes in Connecticut and Ohio.  Laying down that work at 58, John is a self-taught nature photographer with an animated curiosity for how potters, painters, poets, and classic photographers approach their art—always on the creative edge, taking risks, asking “What’s next?”