Society encourages us to pursue marketable things at which we excel. Is there value in pursuits that challenge our weaknesses?

The weeding and winnowing starts when we are very young. What was it for you? Too short to play basketball. Can’t color inside the lines. Can’t do math. Can’t visualize. Has no rhythm.  Can’t sing. Might as well give up now. We’ve all fallen victim to such pronouncements, whether they come from peers, parents or other authority figures.  It is incredible how powerful they can be, lodging themselves deeply inside our psyche, shaping every though and action that comes after them.

It Could Be You © Stuart Richards with CCLicense

Many of these pronouncements come at a young age, but there is one type that we usually deal with later. I’m speaking of those related to health and wellness. Some of these things we cannot change; there is an intersection between perception and reality…

Public Domain Image via Pixabay

Would you like to be more creative? How do we access the kind of inspiration that enhances and unlocks imagination?

As I begin to write this first blog post, I slow down, take a deep breath and reach for inspiration. It hits me… breath. Inspiration. These things are intertwined from their deepest roots.

The Latin word “inspirare”, “to breathe into”, was used to paint the creation of humanity, not as a dusty golem or empty thing without consciousness, but as a living creation animated by the inspiration, the breath, of God. Regardless of your religious tradition, this is a stunning poetic image. It implies that inspiration is special and unique and the same time basic and universal.

Historically, inspiration and creativity have been lauded as divine processes, processes which we cannot control. Even in the most secular circles, they remain numinous, mysterious, supernatural. For this…