10 Wisdom Dancer

exploring the rhythms of creativity

Questions for reflection

Do you ever see wisdom role-modeled in children?

What creative ways can you seek after and share wisdom?

When in your daily life are you most creative? What things most block creativity in your life?

Look at the life of Jesus and how he weaves creativity and wisdom in everything he does. In what ways is Jesus like an ‘Adbuster’? A chess player? A guerilla gardener? A comedian?

Further reading and further thoughts

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” – Edward De Bono

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” – Aristotle

“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” 
Proust

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” Jimmy Hendrix

“The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious, the desire to reach hearts is wise” – Maya Angelou

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso

Read: James 3:13-18

Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way: a course in discovering and rediscovering your creative self, Pan 2011 (7th edition)

Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation, Picador 1975

Calvin Seerveld, Rainbows For The Fallen World, Paternoster 1996

Edward de Bono, Serious Creativity Harper Collins 1995

Edward de Bono believes that creative thinking can be taught: we can develop our ability to think and act creatively. His website edwdebono.com has an overview of his work. There are many resources and techniques online that can be used to help us look at familiar, sometimes wearying, problems in new ways. Why not try some of them out, first in a playful way, and then maybe applying them to problems in your community?

A peacemeal idea

Cook and eat a meal together – it could be baking bread together and then serving it with soup, making individual pizzas with a range of toppings, or decorating cakes. Enjoy both the creative process, and eating the results! You might want to reflect why we often limit creativity to ‘experts’ in the field, rather than allowing everyone to participate.

Living it out

Creative wisdom requires you not only to think differently but also to have the courage to act differently. Make the determined choice to engage with the world in this fresh way. Take time to look at the world and see it from fresh perspectives and angles. How does an adbuster, chess master, guerilla gardener or comedian see the world? Fearlessly asks questions and make connections in a way you would not have done before to produce life-giving liberating results. Record your encounters in a journal and talk them over with people you trust. Invite others to join in. Bring a lighthearted joyfulness to the whole experience.

Ask why children see things in a different way from adults? Give some quality time to exploring this question and seeing where it leads you.

A meditation

Read Proverbs 8:22, 30-31, using the translation on p.152-153, as stimulus for an imaginative meditation. Visualise a child at play, symbolising the childlike presence of God. How would the child react with joy to the natural world? What would delight her?