 In
Reflection:
Approaching Life as Art:
Crafting a Day, a Year, or a Lifetime
Dear Friends and
Colleagues,
Happy February!
As many of you know, I write new articles every other
month, using the “leap month” to respond to questions
and comments from past articles and suggest ideas in
preparation for those upcoming. This is a leap month!
For those who did not get a chance to read last month’s
issue entitled, “Approaching
Life as Art”, you might want to check it out
before reading this issue.
Bringing
vitality and authenticity to a bureaucratic role.
Dear Denise, in a nutshell, what is your advice in
helping those of us who are in bureaucratic type jobs to
bring the creativity and artfulness you so eloquently
wrote about in your last issue? I believe it is
possible, but I admit to be dumb-founded as to what that
would look like. Thank you for the on-going inspiration
and guidance provided in your newsletters.
-
Mental Health Case Manager, Grand Forks, Minnesota
Within any
position we take in the world, there is room for
creativity in the manner and spirit in which we inhabit
that role. There is a distinction between what we are
obligated to do within the confines of a position or a
role, and who we are obligated to be. Clearly
there are institutions in our society that operate on a
hardnosed, pragmatic level, devoid of the more personal
or spiritual elements that would/could transform them
from being purely functional entities into ones that
embrace a more humane, dare I say – people-friendly
approach. We have all been on the receiving end of
governmental, bureaucratic “services” from which we
walked away feeling far more abused, ignored, and/or
disrespected than we did feeling “served”! I would
venture a guess, however, that we have all experienced
or witnessed a situation in which a person serving in a
most bureaucratic role, found a way to bring humor,
humility, or just enough compassion to significantly
alter or totally transform our experience.
Even within the
most stringent of jobs we need to look for ways to
express ourselves and communicate our root values in
terms of how we operate within the confines of that
position. From how we dress, greet people, decorate the
cubby or office we inhabit, spend breaks and lunch
hours, to how we express ourselves in meetings, respond
to emails, and operate in the various functions of the
job, there is opportunity for authentic expression and a
creative response to circumstances. Let me offer a few
examples.
I remember a
friend who worked in a welfare-to-work program at a
community college and completely transformed her
institutional-looking cubby into a veritable living room
with the help of a small Oriental carpet, a
stained-glass floor lamp, and colorful pillows set upon
the chairs. Her philosophy was that by making the
physical space if her office more inviting, people would
feel more like a ‘guest’ than a client, feeling more
comfortable in sharing their dreams and desires, as well
as their fears and concerns. Suffice it to say, she
worked magic with the people lucky enough to be assigned
to her caseload!
I was inspired by
another colleague who worked as an Eligibility Worker
for the Department of Social Services in California who
ended each interview by asking her customers to make a
suggestion of how they would change or improve the way
they were being served by the system, promising to share
their ideas anonymously on a bulletin board in the staff
break room. For those who wished, they could write
their suggestion and drop it in a box, but she was
surprised at how many people were willing to voice their
opinion aloud. She reported that this was a most
important step for her take for a few reasons. First,
she felt that asking people their opinion to share with
management and staff was a way of giving people a voice
and honoring their perspective. Secondly, she thought
it was of utmost importance for her and her colleagues
to be receiving this kind of honest, ongoing feedback
from the people they were there to serve. Thirdly, she
felt a sense of personal pride for having found a way to
bring more humanity to the bureaucratic system of which
she was a part.
In next month’s
issue I will share ideas on how to further explore
opportunities and expand possibilities by releasing our
vision and imagination from the gravitational pull of
familiarity and habit. For now, I challenge you to
begin looking at the differences in the manner and
spirit in which people in your workplace currently
inhabit the roles they play. Among other things, you
will notice that no two people respond to the same
position in exactly the same way, and even in the
smallest spaces where those differences exist, there is
room for the creative spirit of the employee to
breathe.
Fueling the
fire of creativity.
Dear Denise, I have heard
you speak and have been an enthusiastic recipient of
your newsletter for the past three years. You appear to
have an endless stream of creativity from which to
continue your writing and speaking. Where does it come
from, and have you ever found yourself in a so-called
“creative drought”? If so, what do you do to get out of
it?
-
Life and Career Coach, Halifax, Nova Scotia
I wouldn’t say
that I experience times of creative droughts, as much as
I would say that once in a great while I am blessed by a
creative rain, when the skies open up in my mind and I
am released for a short time from the fog of more
conventional thinking. I envy the artisans, writers,
musicians, and dancers who live in concert with their
creative muse, like a guardian angel at their
shoulders. That is not my experience. However, I love
to write, I love to teach, and I really love to fashion
ways of communicating thoughts and ideas in a way that
might inspire the reader or the listener to look at
themselves or their circumstances in a fresh light.
That work is the place of my passion and my deepest
enthusiasm, and as such, it is also the area where I
apply my greatest discipline and my constant
attention.
I rarely take a
break from reading and writing on the subjects and
themes that captivate me. My greatest source of
inspiration is from remarkable writers and thinkers
throughout the ages, particularly those from the great
spiritual traditions. It’s strange, but my need to read
rich, poetic and thought-provoking writing feels much
the same to me as needing water when I’m thirsty or
bread when I am hungry. It’s like oxygen for my creative
body. You can bet that before I sit down to write an
article or design a workshop, I will have feasted for a
few hours on the writings and ideas of those I consider
my creative and spiritual mentors.
I know that it is
different for every person, and as such, it is the
responsibility of each of us to know and to attend to
that which will fuel our creative fire! For me it’s
reading, but for others it is music, movement or being
in nature. What kinds of guidance do you think you
need? Who are your guides? Be open to having them show
up in any number of ways: teachers, parents, relatives,
neighbors, friends, colleagues, communities, support
groups, spiritual teachings, works of art, plays,
movies, books, radio and television broadcasts, Internet
browsing, or chat sessions, or any other encounters of
what you find inspiring and enlightening!
Perhaps what
would best serve to get your creative juices flowing is
to acquire a new skill, to research a particular
subject, to take a class, or join a group of some kind.
Maybe you need to recruit a creative buddy or a partner,
a mentor or a role model, or a creative coach. Take the
time to ponder the times in your life when you have been
most productive in a creative way and consider both the
internal and external influences that assisted or
carried you through that time. See if you can’t recreate
some of those circumstances that invited and welcomed
your own muse!
In celebration
of the strange, the unusual, and the little bit whacky!
Dear Denise, Thank you
for acknowledging the importance of bringing our
individuality to the work we do. I treat my life as if
it were an art project, although my family and friends
would tell you that it is a rather “abstract”
rendering. Still, it is my life and I wish that people
would have less judgment and more appreciation for the
choices I make, even if I do not always choose a
conventional path. Have you noticed that people who
live in a creative way are often the ones who are
criticized as being strange, unusual or a little bit
whacky? I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I
bet you get your own share of criticism along those
lines. Maybe that’s why I enjoy your newsletter so
much. Keep up the good work!
-
Director of Employment Services, Toronto, Ontario
Not only do I not
take offense at the implication that I might often be
perceived as somewhat unusual or whacky, but I accept it
as a true compliment! I say that in all earnestness for
this reason: people are often perceived as strange or
unusual solely by comparison to what is considered
“usual” or “normal” by the standards of the mainstream
culture. If the requirement of “normalcy” necessitates
thinking and acting within the confines of what the
status quo considers to be appropriate, I am happy to
join forces with the strange, the unusual, and the
little bit whacky!
We live in a
culture that likes people who follow the party line. We
live in a culture that places a higher value on
conformity than controversy. We pay a high price,
however, when we listen more closely to the voice of the
culture than we do to the sound of our own hearts. By
definition, a culture comes with a particular set of
colors that can only be used and mixed in certain ways
and under certain conditions. It’s like choosing to
live in a paint-by-number life rather learning to paint
freehand, with colors, images, and in a style of your
own choosing. Living according to the party line gives
us security and comfort, but it also creates selective
blindness, narrowness, and rigidity that do not welcome
the spirit of creativity or authenticity.
In his book, “The
Original Self”, Thomas Moore describes our need to
be “normal” as the predominant anxiety disorder in
modern life. He says, “Who really is insane? The
person who sacrifices deep desire for the sake of
propriety and respectability or the one who risks
disapproval in the name of vitality?” Interesting
question! It is important in our desire to appear well
adjusted, to ask what it is we are “adjusting to”. Are
we, in fact, conforming to a mode of being that limits
our heart, mind and soul while they long for new
possibilities of vital expression?
Trust me, the
more authentically and creatively you live your life,
the more people will suggest that you calm down or not
rock the boat. But telling the human spirit to calm
down is like asking water to run upstream. The nature
of the spirit is not to withhold, but to lavish its
exuberance. It’s like other forces of nature that will
not be contained, like fire or ocean, like wind or
rain. It is taught in the Native tradition, “We were
once wild here, don’t let the world tame you.”
Our lives ask
that we seek the clay at the core of them and sculpt
something beautiful. That we find the words that
breathe just beneath our careful thinking and give them
voice, be it in a poem, a prayer or a shout of protest.
Our lives ask to be lived in a way that, as I express in
this month’s Poem of the Month, “Green Fields”, we do
not serve any more time in our self-made prisons, but
rather give ourselves to that which is life-giving,
life-affirming and worthy of our time and talents!
To the “green
fields” in each of our lives,
~ Denise
© Denise Bissonnette, February 2008
(If not used for commercial purposes, this article
may be reproduced, all or in part, providing it is credited to
"Denise Bissonnette, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com." If included
in a newsletter or other publication, we would
appreciate receiving a copy.)
Read Denise's
previous (January 2008) newsletter...
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