The title for this inspirational piece came from a wonderful reflection I read in a periodical I regularly read online. It comes from Joni Woelfel, whom I have never met even though we have communicated with each other. I hope someday to meet her and have that face-to-face conversation that I am confident will be very good. I am sure I have things I can learn from her and that it will be fun.
The enticing title of Joni’s meditative reflection is “The good that rises when the bottom falls out of life.” I am confident that most of us who live beyond adolescent years know what life feels like when the bottom falls out. It can come through a variety of causes. Special lover dumps you; you get sick; you lose the job you like or don’t get the job you covet. Any disappointment triggers the bottom to fall out. Of course, some things are much worse than others.
Joni begins her meditation by recalling the time she came home from the hospital. She was a young mother, but was not in any condition to do anything---from the kids to work. I was touched by the poignancy of an earlier sentence in her reflections. She says, “However, I was filled with the need for creativity, along with the desire to be able to control at least something!” It intrigues me that sick and incapacitated, she still felt a need to be creative. She wanted to be able to control something.
Joni turned to some favorite words of Julia Cameron. I did not know these words, but I was struck by their profundity and appreciated being led to this author’s thoughts. Cameron insightfully notes, “The creative process is a process of surrender, not control…” I never thought about creativity in this manner. Creativity is a process---that makes perfect sense to me. Creativity is not momentary. Our course our idea or insight might come in a flash. But creativity is the unfolding of an idea or insight. And that is a process.
The significant thing about the Cameron quotation is the recognition that this creative process is a surrender. It is not control. No doubt, this is what hit Joni, too. Like her, I seldom have surrender in mind. I much prefer control! Facetiously, I have often told students that control takes away the need to trust. And I recognize the pernicious side of control is manipulation. However, when the bottom falls out of life, we realize we are not in control. We cannot manipulate circumstances or our situation to control the outcome.
Surrender is the only thing left. And paradoxically, in surrender we are open to the creative possibilities we might never have been given. When we surrender circumstances may take us places we would not otherwise go and, surprising, new possibilities emerge. I have thought about and written some on post-traumatic growth. That is a good example of growth through surrender. No one wants a trauma, but the trauma does not have to kill us. We can grow from it. Growth is one form of creativity.
Joni talks about the frustrations that came because she could not do the things she loved---like gardening. But this frustration drove her back into the wisdom of Maya Angelou, who offered this sage advice. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." What Angelou tells me with her words is you typically have choices; you just do not have the choices you may have wanted. I want to remember this and incorporate it into my life.
Joni offers analysis that makes sense to me. She talks about how our desire to control and to manage life is a desire for empowerment. We want the power to do things the way we want. Surrender threatens this and feels like I am impotent---powerless. But this is the creative crack into this logic Joni offers. She notes, “The answer is that we learn a deeper kind of empowerment that doesn't depend on external conditions so much as on inner strength, faith, optimism and hope.” I never thought about a “deeper kind of empowerment.” The level of empowerment comes through surrender and takes us to the spiritual place in our heart and soul. Joni says it very well when she observes, “When we see through the eyes of the soul…”
I realize I want this kind of vision. I want to see through the eyes of my soul. If this comes through weakness and surrender, so be it. I think it is inevitable at some points in our lives, the bottom falls out of life. But not everyone necessarily learns to see with the eye of the soul. I want this. I finish the line from Joni: “When we see through the eyes of the soul, we learn that God's guidance and consolation through prayer, patience, a lot of adjusting and love empower us.” This is the kind of power that ultimately makes the difference.
All this leads to the last line from Joni’s reflection and I can do no better than to share it as the ending of my own musings. She closes by noting, “For many of us, this is evidence of the divine presence always there, filling the spaces between control, surrender and letting go all our lives through.” I delight in the fact that the divine presence is always there. And there is evidence of this presence if we have but eyes to see---the eyes of the soul.
The enticing title of Joni’s meditative reflection is “The good that rises when the bottom falls out of life.” I am confident that most of us who live beyond adolescent years know what life feels like when the bottom falls out. It can come through a variety of causes. Special lover dumps you; you get sick; you lose the job you like or don’t get the job you covet. Any disappointment triggers the bottom to fall out. Of course, some things are much worse than others.
Joni begins her meditation by recalling the time she came home from the hospital. She was a young mother, but was not in any condition to do anything---from the kids to work. I was touched by the poignancy of an earlier sentence in her reflections. She says, “However, I was filled with the need for creativity, along with the desire to be able to control at least something!” It intrigues me that sick and incapacitated, she still felt a need to be creative. She wanted to be able to control something.
Joni turned to some favorite words of Julia Cameron. I did not know these words, but I was struck by their profundity and appreciated being led to this author’s thoughts. Cameron insightfully notes, “The creative process is a process of surrender, not control…” I never thought about creativity in this manner. Creativity is a process---that makes perfect sense to me. Creativity is not momentary. Our course our idea or insight might come in a flash. But creativity is the unfolding of an idea or insight. And that is a process.
The significant thing about the Cameron quotation is the recognition that this creative process is a surrender. It is not control. No doubt, this is what hit Joni, too. Like her, I seldom have surrender in mind. I much prefer control! Facetiously, I have often told students that control takes away the need to trust. And I recognize the pernicious side of control is manipulation. However, when the bottom falls out of life, we realize we are not in control. We cannot manipulate circumstances or our situation to control the outcome.
Surrender is the only thing left. And paradoxically, in surrender we are open to the creative possibilities we might never have been given. When we surrender circumstances may take us places we would not otherwise go and, surprising, new possibilities emerge. I have thought about and written some on post-traumatic growth. That is a good example of growth through surrender. No one wants a trauma, but the trauma does not have to kill us. We can grow from it. Growth is one form of creativity.
Joni talks about the frustrations that came because she could not do the things she loved---like gardening. But this frustration drove her back into the wisdom of Maya Angelou, who offered this sage advice. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." What Angelou tells me with her words is you typically have choices; you just do not have the choices you may have wanted. I want to remember this and incorporate it into my life.
Joni offers analysis that makes sense to me. She talks about how our desire to control and to manage life is a desire for empowerment. We want the power to do things the way we want. Surrender threatens this and feels like I am impotent---powerless. But this is the creative crack into this logic Joni offers. She notes, “The answer is that we learn a deeper kind of empowerment that doesn't depend on external conditions so much as on inner strength, faith, optimism and hope.” I never thought about a “deeper kind of empowerment.” The level of empowerment comes through surrender and takes us to the spiritual place in our heart and soul. Joni says it very well when she observes, “When we see through the eyes of the soul…”
I realize I want this kind of vision. I want to see through the eyes of my soul. If this comes through weakness and surrender, so be it. I think it is inevitable at some points in our lives, the bottom falls out of life. But not everyone necessarily learns to see with the eye of the soul. I want this. I finish the line from Joni: “When we see through the eyes of the soul, we learn that God's guidance and consolation through prayer, patience, a lot of adjusting and love empower us.” This is the kind of power that ultimately makes the difference.
All this leads to the last line from Joni’s reflection and I can do no better than to share it as the ending of my own musings. She closes by noting, “For many of us, this is evidence of the divine presence always there, filling the spaces between control, surrender and letting go all our lives through.” I delight in the fact that the divine presence is always there. And there is evidence of this presence if we have but eyes to see---the eyes of the soul.
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