by Dave Wiles
After several years in a creatively barren place I have just begun to re-connect with a creative seam in myself. There have been many reasons for this but one significant reason came from an 8 week sabbatical in which I found my perspective refreshingly renewed by a pilgrimage wandering the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain and spending time in solitude in a hermitage on the West Coast of Scotland.
It was as I sat looking out over Loch Shiel that my imagination hooked into a conversation with God that went something like this;
“ Look at the amazing hills you have made, the colours are changing constantly, they have stood there for thousands of years, you don’t need me at all, do you?”
In the quiet moments that followed I felt a stirring in my imagination that seemed very much like the voice of God -
“You are right, I don’t need you: but I do want you.”
I have to say that the afterglow shivers down my spine that I felt were not all related to the glass of single malt that I was enjoying at the time!
I wanted to share a summary of the things that I learnt on my sabbatical with you – just in case there might be some resonance for you:
Allow time for creativity in its broadest definition
Be in the moment with just enough cares for the future
I am a co-worker with God – He is the senior partner! I am not responsible for everything!
God created the world for me/us – I will enjoy it slowly
Some of my decisions need to wait so that my responses mature
People are first – I will listen
Every day tasks can be sacred – practice the presence of God
I am unlikely to say ‘I wish I had worked more’ on my death bed!
So the creativity has continued to flow in several ways since my sabbatical: photos, water colour painting, lino printing and even some poetry. Here is one of the recent poems I have written; I hope that you enjoy it and that it will nudge you in the direction of your creative other…
WINTER
Locked earth tight eyed frost bitten dreams of summer
Fractured light in frozen pools, stars reflecting quiet narcissism
Slow motion clouds riding the dark wings of night
Nature’s breath held while moonlight, oblivious of entropy, gropes for morning
A black and white movie landscape flickering in sharp relief
Broken moments pierced with futile colour
Silent predatory vapour caressing hills with shrouded grief
Death gently unfolds her tireless arms to embrace life’s last stand
Only to be confused at the magnitude of spring
Thank you Dave, beautiful and thought provoking.
By: soniamain on March 2, 2009
at 8:32 am
Thanks Sonia. Re-read it myself today and hope to keep applying the learning !!
By: Dave on March 2, 2009
at 10:15 am
“God created the world for me/us – I will enjoy it slowly”
clare and i had a couple of hours of this yesterday. the ivy growing through the row of barren trees with the sun on them glinted like diamonds. if you squinted at the the row of trees it looked like a river was flowing through them. magical.
clouds changed from horses, to camels, to tigers.
clare commented on how hard the sheep were concentrating on grazing.
creation is a gift we seldom look at in detail. clare found a bug that was new to both of us. little, skinny, bright red with six legs. why?
all day, everyday, creation serves up magic and we miss it. heads down, in our own world, forgetting we are part of the bigger world.
come spring, come blossom, come lambs, come warmth and cool, light and shade, come lord jesus.
By: jonbirch on March 2, 2009
at 12:52 pm
cheers Dave, it’s just lovely to read of the restoration this sabbatical bought to you. I think I just assume a pilgrimage should be about penance, or serious reflection. having read this, I now feel called just to rest in God’s love.
By: subo on March 2, 2009
at 3:07 pm
Creativity and creation are totally fundamental to my faith – my conviction that God must exist comes largely from observing the way the world has been designed with such love and care. If I believe nothing else about God, I believe he is the creative life force behind the universe. If we are really made in his image as the bible tells us then it follows that creativity is a key part of our make up. And yet so often it is seen as a luxury to take time to explore our creativity – when surely it should be top priority? Good for you Dave for making the time in your busy schedule to do this. I am challenged and encouraged in equal measure!
By: Clare on March 2, 2009
at 6:19 pm
Thanks Dave – great musings, love the poem & photo – timely reminder of importance of just being…just trying to re-assess my own creativity and where I should focus…
By: robin on March 2, 2009
at 10:22 pm
Thank you Dave for this. It is really inspiring to hear of your thoughts and communication with God. Inspiring because it makes more sense of God for me and this is great, especially when sometimes I don’t ‘get it all’. Thanks, See you, Phil
By: Phil Merchant on March 3, 2009
at 11:29 am
This is a quote that I came across only a couple of days ago. It seems appropriate to what Dave has said:
When a person begins to see all goodness as being the goodness of God, all the beauty that surrounds him as the divine beauty, he begins by worshipping a visible God, and as his heart constantly loves and admires the divine beauty in all that he sees, he begins to see in all that is visible one single vision; all becomes for him the vision of the beauty of God. His love of beauty increases his capacity to such a degree that great virtues such as tolerance and forgiveness spring naturally from his heart. Even things that people mostly look upon with contempt, he views with tolerance. The brotherhood of humanity he does not need to learn, for he does not see humanity, he sees only God. And as this vision develops, it becomes a divine vision, which occupies every moment of his life. In nature he sees God, in man he sees His image, and in art and poetry he sees the dance of God. The waves of the sea bring him the message from above, and the swaying of the branches in the breeze seems to him a prayer. For him there is a constant contact with his God.
By: Cliff on March 3, 2009
at 11:46 pm
wow Cliff!! where did the quote come from? deep stuff…
By: Dave on March 5, 2009
at 10:54 pm
you hippies you!!!
only jokin’, great quote.
youtube is amazing!
by the way, just in case anybody doesn’t revisit the last thread, here’s a link to cliff’s story in walt disney form. i remembered it, it’s title and the theme song, even though it must be 35 years ago that i last saw it!
By: jonbirch on March 6, 2009
at 7:39 pm
Jon you’re a genius!! But we’ve hijacked Dave’s comments. Shall we continue this just over there…?
By: Cliff on March 6, 2009
at 9:49 pm
Dave, are you Dave Wiles as on the FYT site? If you are, I’d like to ask some follow-up questions to the ones on your web page.
By: Cliff on March 6, 2009
at 10:42 pm
Cliff, these words are really beautiful. I look forward with hope to the day when ‘great virtues such as tolerance and forgiveness spring naturally from (my) heart.’ !! haha. bit of work to do there I think. On a more serious note, gosh, I am not sure if I can take in the ramifications of God being present in all of creation. It makes the way we treat the environment seem not only irresponsible but sort of – well – blasphemous – doesn’t it? Suddenly the stewardship of the earth seems like a responsibility way, way beyond what I am competent to cope with.
By: sanctuarybath on March 6, 2009
at 10:59 pm
Clare – thanks for helping with the account by the way. Still haven’t worked out about the photo but never mind, I now have a blog.
Yes I agree, seeing God in all of Nature makes you think hard about wrecking the place. But each person should react to this according to their own conscience. For some this will mean being Vegan, for others it could mean buying organic. Everyone can express their faith in their own way. The best thing you can do is just to appreciate the beauty.
By: Cliff on March 6, 2009
at 11:21 pm
Hi Cliff – I am dave wiles of the FYT site – am on wiles119@aol.com if you want to chat outside of this blog. I thought that your quote was profound and very insightful – reminded me of Brother Laurence or Kahil Gibran – and connected with the Christian Mystic in me – rather than the ‘Hippie’!! John Birch is soooo disrespectful!!
Understand Clare’s comments re creation but my experience of God tells me that the grace, understanding, forgiveness, tollerance, love, understanding of God (that I experience on a daily basis!!) are as prominent/evident in creation as they are in God – which remains a source of comfort, relief and appreciation! and keeps me on my toes in terms of not taking Him or His creation for granted in terms of my beliefs and actions.
By: Dave on March 7, 2009
at 12:33 am
Dave, lovely wise words from you there. Creativity certainly needs to find the space to flow – so often it is stifled by the rigours of life. I can empathise with your experience as you looked out over the loch. For me, when I am alone with nature, it is when I feel closest to God. I often feel that what we know as organised religion is a bit artificial – an attempt to summon up God in a human construct – trying to make God dance to our tune. I only occasionally get a sense of God in those situations.
By the way, I so envy you your sabbatical experience. I have, for many years, wanted to walk the Camino. I now fear I may, at worst, ’shuffle off this mortal coil’ before I get the chance or, at best, shuffle on a couple of plastic hips…
By: Carole on March 7, 2009
at 12:38 pm
yep… sorry for the hijack. just over keen to show people the link. glad to see it back on track.
i too struggle to find god in the formal construct of the ’service’… that’s probably my problem, but even so, i feel less and less willing to do the ‘church’ thing. i find myself suffering from all the opposites of what dave’s beautiful words are about. i want to be outside, unfettered, enjoying god in the creation and in my own creativity. i think that’s what i’m supposed to do, even though convention says otherwise.
one day maybe i’ll do something like walk the camino… but in all honesty, i still think i’ve achieved a lot when i make into and back from the city centre. so it feels like i still have a way to go.
By: jonbirch on March 7, 2009
at 1:18 pm
the one good thing about church (OK, there are probably others!) is that it happens every week at the same time, so there is a discipline about putting that time aside for God. If I felt that I was able to impose that discipline on myself to go for a walk every week and spend time with God that way, I guess that would be just as good if not better. But I am not disciplined and without others around me soon fall into forgetting about God altogether and becoming absorbed in the busyness of life.
By: sanctuarybath on March 7, 2009
at 3:20 pm
but isn’t the busyness of life still infinitely preferable to sitting around being bored and feeling irritable?
By: jonbirch on March 7, 2009
at 3:24 pm
Nice one Carol – so agree re conventional religous services and experience – Mike Riddel said ‘who constrained a red blooded faith to a set of religous conventions’! (or something like that!)
Trouble for me is I suspect that even if I committed to the idea of going for a walk each week (as Clare suggests) to commune with the Almighty it could become just as fettered – it seems to me the defining, constucting, limiting, knowing, organising, controlling, rota…ing etc etc of ‘God experience’ often leads to a sense that he has left the building!
Think I find Him in the surprising places, in mystery, in good questions, in a lot of people, certainly in service of others and service from others, in risk, in play and especially when ever I touch on love.
Went to a friends funeral this week (with Jon and Claire) and was moved to tears by a powerful spiritual experience (in a church building!) – guess what struck me was the honesty, love, art, happiness, people, good memories.. etc that Jan left behind – it was so moving to hear such lovely facets of her Godlyness… Miss her xx
By: Dave on March 7, 2009
at 3:32 pm
jon – I do feel bored and irritable in church a lot but it is a choice, one can choose to commit the time to God or to being cross, last time I was bored in church I decided to spend the time doing Jesus prayer instead of cataloguing all the faults of the service/vicar/institution as is my usual wont. I don’t worry so much any more about having to do what everyone else is doing so if I don’t want to sing I don’t. If I think the vicar is talking nonsense I think about something else. We don’t have to be fettered by these contructs, they are supposed to be there to help us meet with God and if they don’t, I think its OK to ignore them (as long as you aren’t disrupting other people!) I’m NOT saying it is OK for church to be boring by the way, just saying there are ways of dealing with it!! I just haven’t really found an alternative to meeting regularly with other christians for worship, whether that be sanctuary or anywhere else.
Dave, I thought Jan’s memorial was one of the best experiences of church I’ve ever had – and felt a real sense of God’s presence there. Honesty definitely played a big part, but also the sense that everyone was gathered with a shared sense of purpose, if that is the right word – sadly both these things are often lacking in conventional worship!
By: sanctuarybath on March 7, 2009
at 6:43 pm
my way of dealing with it is not to attend. it works very well.
the service for jan was the most amazing experience. possibly because it didn’t conform to the usual conventions and there was a focus on people and things that were just so intensely real. we sang one song, the much maligned and misunderstood ‘jerusalem’… how good was that!? a proper tune with proper poetry being sung in church. poetry, good music, people speaking about real things from the heart. i was touched in a way church never normally touches me.
the only down side, which can’t be ignored was when the short (thankfully) address was given at the end. the institution, it’s ways, it’s intolerances, it’s simplistic certainty squeezing itself into a shape where it didn’t fit. honest questions and quiet, personal reflection, which is real, dangerous, and rare must somehow be wrapped up neatly, with the answer being ‘jesus’.
it didn’t spoil it for me, as too much had been said and done to override it. but the problem is, every other sunday, that’s all we get and we don’t get the ‘real’ stuff. i don’t need that.
By: jonbirch on March 7, 2009
at 7:46 pm
Well – for my 10 pence… I like church where people eat together, drink beer together (why is this so high on my list!), laugh and cry in good measure, tell jokes, listen to each other, care in real ways, walk together, talk together, argue and make up, tell stories, read poems and bible stories, meditate and stay quiet, light candles occasionally on dark cold nights, listen to silence in an active way, draw pictures and make pots, take holidays together (well with some you really like!) and probably above all – know what it is to serve and love people who don’t yet belong. I like the street pastor philosophy on mission and church – we want people to Belong then Believe then Behave – trouble is much of what church does is ask people to Behave; Believe and then they can Belong… I guess I am into Messy Spirituality, Scandalous Grace and a journey with the God of Surprises – to list a few of my favourite books! dave xx
By: Dave on March 7, 2009
at 9:55 pm
Ah, Gerard Hughes. I’m sorry didn’t mean to become a kind of walking book of quotations, but Hughes has one of my all-time favourites:
Walk to Jerusalem (extract)
Gerard Hughes
“The source of most pain is in the conflict between the reality we would like to encounter and the reality in which we find ourselves, in our inability to shape reality to our own requirements. Yet the obdurate quality of reality, its refusal to be shaped to our demands, is a blessing., because it forces us out of the prison of our own conditioning, our narrowness, and frees us from the grooves of our habitual thinking. The raising of Lazarus is not only telling of a physical miracle performed two thousand years ago, it is describing a present reality for all of us. The God who raised Lazarus is the God now holding us in being. He is constantly saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will never die.” And he constantly calling each of us by name and saying “Arise, come forth.”He calls us through the facts in which we find ourselves. Every situation is an invitation to arise out of our imprisoning tomb and walk into freedom. Our problem is our love of the tomb, our preference for the familiar, our fear of freedom and terror at change. In pain, fear, anxiety and failure, perhaps especially in those states, we need to ask, “What is God saying to me through this?” Even in the darkness of despair, if we feel life is no longer worth living, we have to ask what the darkness is saying. God is not saying, “Take your own life,” but he is saying, “Your present way of life is intolerable. Change it and live.”
By: cliffsmudge on March 7, 2009
at 10:27 pm
Nice one Cliff – love the notion of resurrection life calling me from death!
… Which reminds me of a great Jim Wallis quote re the resurrection, my paraphrase … the resurrection was an act of civil disobedience in that the Roman seal on the tomb was broken by someone other than the appropriate Roman official – this act was punishable by death, therefore the resurrection was an act of civil disobedience punishable by death!
… there’s a radical thought for lent!
dave
By: Dave on March 7, 2009
at 10:59 pm