the 7th C....creativity

living in the pandemic times, creativity is demanded of us if we are to stay engaged, active and evolving, and, in fact, surviving. this seventh aspect of being human (in matthew fox’s “10 Cs of being human”) asks us to open to what jung called “the realm of the mothers”. it is the feminine in women and men that allows creative energy to be born. this is the realm of the imagination, where something previously unmanifest/unborn becomes manifest/born.

mihaly csikszentmihalyi, the author of the book “creativity: the psychology of discovery and invention,” gives a startling definition of the word.

“creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives … most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity… [and] when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.”

it is the last phrase of this definition that is intriguing…living more fully than during the rest of life. this could also be seen as a definition of elderhood! in this last phase of life we can find the meaning in our life by tracing back to our innate creative source and giving birth to what is “interesting, important and human”. we can make the choice to live fully, moment to moment, in order to create our personal vision of ageing and eldering.

“creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives … most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity… [and] when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.”

it is the last phrase of this definition that is intriguing…living more fully than during the rest of life. this could also be seen as a definition of elderhood! in this last phase of life we can find the meaning in our life by tracing back to our innate creative source and giving birth to what is “interesting, important and human”. we can make the choice to live fully, moment to moment, in order to create our personal vision of ageing and eldering.

contemplation

we now consider to the next ‘C’ in matthew fox’s “10 C’s of being human.”

learning to make silence is one of the many gifts we might cultivate as we grow into our elderhood. this is the process of calming the reactive brain and making way for the brain of our humanity.

contemplation and meditation are not the same practice, though they both lead to moments of inner silence. contemplation is the focus of the mind on a train of thought. for instance, the mind might begin with a bit of sacred text and follow the thought process in examining that text.

sandra anderson, of the himalayan institute teaches that, “meditation is training the mind to rest in a particular focus that leads to a connection to the source of consciousness itself.”
(while there is a clear difference, for the purposes of this blog post, i will use the words interchangeably because both practices support our humanity and our elderhood.)

“We must spend a couple of hours each day in receptive silence—any silent spiritual practice that brings awareness and equanimity to our hearts and minds—and put the inner revolution and the outer revolution together….Sometimes the most radical thing to do in a polluted violence-based system, is to be still.  The mud settles to the bottom and we then have a clearer vision about our next steps—for example, facilitating the growth of the communities we want to live in or realizing that the most efficient tools against a system based on greed, fear, hurry, and violence, are generosity, courage, slowing-down, and loving-kindness.” ~~~Pancho Ramos-Stierle, a Mexican-born former astrophysics student turned full-time community activist and humanitarian.

while we may not “spend a couple of hours each day” in meditation, we certainly can devote some time to our inner silence. from this open, receptive inner space we can step out into the world refreshed and revitalised. we can, from this quiet, look with compassion at our lives, the past/present/future with the eyes of an eagle. we can see the big picture, knowing that all the experiences of the past have led to the elder we are today.

those moments of contemplation also provide fertile ground for creating the future we wish to occupy. while our circumstances vary…emotionally, educationally, financially, physically…the space of quiet is universal. it is here we can find our truest inner elder, the one that guides us through the challenges and joys of this phase of our lives.

it is from this silence we can take action and shift the paradigm of being human, ageing and eldering.

chaos

the fourth of the 10 Cs of being human is chaos.
chaos screams disorder and discomfort.

chaos energy creates a dance between order and disorder. chaos can teach us to recognise this dynamic, moving force is intrinsic to nature. could it be that too much order is as dangerous and deadly as too much disorder? do we need to be shaken out of our complacency? this time of pandemic has upended our normal routines and challenged many long-held attitudes. can we, within chaos, also prepare new visions and new habits of dwelling on the earth—a “new normal” where we can become more human? 

gabrielle roth, the creator of “5 rhythms dance” tell us that chaos “is the gateway to the big mind.”

she goes on to say that chaos “liberates us from all ideas about who we are.” this freedom allows us to live from our big mind, that spacious, open-hearted space of love.

as elders we have the opportunity within this chaos to remain poised and to find the still-point at the centre of our being. with fewer distractions we have more quiet time available to let go of the known and receive the unknown. our decades of life experience enable us to sense new possibilities. because we have lived long enough to have known many changes, we also know that life rarely disappoints us in providing opportunities to grow. when we surrender to the rhythm of chaos we find a growing comfort in life itself, in the simple joy of being alive.

the ancient greeks saw khaos as the first of the primordial goddesses. she is
the vacant and infinite space which existed previous to the creation of the world. it was within this infinite space that all was created.

today we see chaos theory as an interdisciplinary theory. according the font of all contemporary knowledge, wikipedia, the theory states that, “within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnectedness, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, and self-organisation.”

within the spaciousness of chaos there is order and connection. there is communication and familiarity. there is our internal organisation that can keep us poised as the world we live in continually offers us change.

elders are best poised to maintain balance in chaos between the known and the unknown, the finite and the infinite.

courage

the root of the word courage is cor – the latin word for heart.

john benitez on unsplash

courage originally meant "to speak one's mind by telling all one's heart." over time, this definition has changed, and today, courage is more synonymous with being heroic.

the courageous elder is both…an heroic person who speaks from the heart. it takes courage to be a compassionate, visible older person in a society that holds the olders with what borders on contempt, certainly with little or no respect.

to be bold in telling the truth of our experience takes enormous courage. it demands a big heart, one that will step into its own place of fear and act from the deepest places of inner peace. whether we step into a protest march for what we believe or speak our truth to those we love, a big heart is often called upon to act.

and, like other aspects of our being, courage takes practice. this practice asks us to find our voice, a voice full of compassion and caring while expressing its strength and commitment. we can also grow our courage in quiet ways, finding the voice of calm and solitude in our meditative/contemplative practice.

we can find our heroic, truthful self in community. sharing together, knowing you are not alone in speaking your truth, makes space for our courage to emerge. not only that, finding a courageous community of like-hearted people increases the joy and fun of taking action, whatever that might be.

cosmology/ecology

we continue our exploration of what it means to be human, with inspiration from matthew fox and his “10 Cs”. we next approach cosmology/ecology…our place as humans on Mother Earth.

as elders we often have the luxury of time…fewer responsibilities and more time to go inward. part of the inward journey can include waking up to the love of our Earth home with greater depth. this might lead us to understand the need to adapt our needs to Her needs. is it possible that we, as humans, have misunderstood our place in the cosmic order of things, and, therefore, misunderstood our relationship with this special planet? can we elders re-frame narcissism into community, individualism into co-operation?

robin kimmerer, an elder of the potawatami tribe (an algonquian-speaking people who live in northeastern united states) asserts “We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world.  We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of earth’s beings.” 

restoring honour to the way we live is essential to the work of a spiritual elder. to be honoured firstly means we honour ourselves as humans who have deep experience of life on Earth. we have seen many revolutions around the sun and, hopefully, we have learned many lessons about how to restore inner and outer balance.

simple, conscious acts each day may not heal the planet or avert climate catastrophe. instead each small act keeps us in tune with Her rhythms, allows us to live with respect and to minimise the desecration of Her sacred ground.

part of being a human elder is to live with a greek proverb: society grows great when elders plant trees whose shade they will never sit in.

we might actually plant trees or we might live this proverb metaphorically by planting the seeds of love for Mother Earth in those that come after us. then we can sit in the shade of the trees planted by our forebears knowing we have honoured Her and acted as human…heads held high.

character/moral development

inner work is essential to developing our full humanity. so we come to the fifth of the 10Cs…character. we might see this ‘C’ along with moral development and integrity.

this inner work is particularly important in our elderhood. we have the opportunity to acknowledge our fallibility, our imperfection and mistakes… the times we acted without integrity, outside our moral code of right and wrong. we can make amends for the times we acted unjustly or without compassion.

all of this is a vital part of the elders’ process of life review. this process liberates us from the guilt and pressure and shame of some of our words and actions. with the inner work done, we can open our hearts to the present moment.

buckminster fuller is said to have valued “the power of personal integrity as a force in the world, available to each of us, that transcends our ‘position’ in life, our particular abilities and skills, and the specific circumstances in which we find ourselves.”  only such a force was   “capable of steering humanity towards the realisation of a world that truly works for everybody.”

a grounding in our personal integrity, in our moral values, allows us to take part in community, being a force for compassion and a force for shifting the paradigm of ageing. integrity, in addition, denotes soundness, the quality or state of being complete, undivided. our integrity guides us to self-respect and self-care. from this place we can care for others.

our elder wisdom, and the wisdom of the ancestors, can exemplify for those who follow us, the lessons of history as we solve today's challenges. it is the soundness of our wisdom, the integrity of our being, that opens a life of joy, and the choice to love and live as complete humans.