SoaringDragon: The value of creating

We all know that creation begins in the mind. And some of our creations remain in our minds, as imagined worlds, imagined characters, imagined lives. I should know - I wrote a fiction story that was published in 2014, titled Salle and the Alien Invasion. It's a wonderful story about the enduring bonds of love that create a family - specifically a child adopted by a father of another race - and how two nations come together to save the world from ecological disaster. So, yes, I know and value the creations that come into being only in our minds.

There is a special type of spiritual growth and healing that comes from creating real-world tangible objects though.

When you create something tangible, you are bringing something into existence that has never existed before. You are in a real sense creating something from nothing, in the same way that all the world's religions explain the creation of the world - a god who makes worlds by speaking them into existence. Pure creation.

I didn't always understand this. Before I began my own spiritual journey thirty years ago, I didn't think in these terms. I didn't know why physical creation was so satisfying, I just knew that it was. There is a stage of child development in which we have to be given raw materials, because we have a deep and furious need to create. In the US, kids get LEGOs, and building blocks and erector sets. What we forget is that even when our brains mature and we CAN create entirely in our minds, our need for tangible creation never goes away.

When we create something from nothing, time ceases to exist. The developer of the Flow concept, Dr, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains this as our brains de-activating brain areas that control the demarcation between ourselves and the outer world.

In a very real sense, we cease to exist as separate entities in time and space. Time stops. I have worked on books or I have been building furniture and only "woke up" because I was so hungry, the hunger broke through the alternative reality that I was in.

So I create things, some of which are shown here. I crochet healing shawls that have Reiki healing energy in them; when you put them on, the Reiki activates and you feel wonderful. I create plush toys for adults and children, with Reiki as well. I crochet placemats for the dinner table that use buttons to show accurate constellations - such fun! I used to build furniture. I paint. I used colored pencils to work in adult coloring books of great complexity. Tangible things. Beautiful things.

You are invited to purchase any of the shawls, astronomy place mats and plush toys. You are also invited to make time for tangible creation, at least every week if not every day. Your soul and spirit will soar like a dragon!