The following article was originally published as part of the incredible community writing and art compilation project entitled Gifts for an Emerging World, organised by InterGifted.
The Gifts for an Emerging World compilation is a powerful collection of contributors' visions of how we can, individually and collectively, bring our gifts to bear to lead and transform generations of ecological disconnection—spanning dimensions physical and non-physical—into an emerging future of intra- and inter-species harmony and collaboration for all beings on this planet, and beyond.
Credit for this amazing project goes to Jan Provoost, Jennifer Harvey Sallin and Karin Eglinton, who devoted huge chunks of their time and energy in 2020 to birthing this, and last but not least, to the many contributors who shared so deeply and intimately of their hearts and souls, hopes and dreams for our shared future with our planet, and all beings upon and within.
Yet if we gifted people are going to contribute to helping form the emerging world into one that is friendly for our thriving, we need (and deserve) access to our highest creative capacities. So, I decided to share my story of creative reawakening with you, in all its tenderness, as a simple roadmap for how any of us—even the most disconnected of us all—can start the process of reconnecting with and reawakening our creative agency and full engagement in our developing world.
In my explorations, I had to define creativity for myself, in terms that make sense to me, my experience and process. I currently define creativity as the impulse to express and capture the experience of play in tangible form, for the pure fun and pleasure of it. In other words, creativity is the Do to the Be of play. The joyful and pleasurable impulse to capture a tangible snapshot of the joy and pleasure of play. Playing with play! Meta-play!
Here are the steps I took to start to embody that definition as a daily lived experience and reality:
Identify and work through wounding with a gifted somatic therapist.
Along the way, we uncovered many different aspects of wounding that were locking up and blocking my innate ability to tap into my natural wellsprings of resources. Over time, we worked through them one by one and I was supported to re- integrate each one in a loving compassionate way.
As this happened, more and more intrinsic flow naturally opened up in my system that allowed for spontaneous healing to occur on multiple other levels and dimensions without my direct intervention. And slowly, I began to feel different. Freer. Lighter. I had more space for curiosity of a different kind. Sensual curiosity. Imaginative curiosity. Play didn’t seem like such a painful thing anymore. I started to feel the impulse to, metaphorically, bounce like a happy baby goat, and follow that impulse I did!
Follow the impulse. Titrate the impulse.
I made a gift of an iPad to myself as a start, to honour this new phase of my journey. That was the first and strongest impulse to come through, to equip myself with the right tools, that best suit my needs, to take myself to the next level of this process. Then I followed the harmonic impulse some more to equip myself with the apps I needed. Journalling and sketching apps soon filled my iPad’s screen and I started to explore the use of each one, bit by bit, every day. I started a new digital handwritten journal and continued my journal practice there, from my previous digital text journal app. I played with the different brush types, sizes and colours and soon I had a colourful digital journal filled with all manner of daily scribblings.
Fictional sample page representing a typical page from Silver's digital handwritten journal.
Another fictional sample page representing a typical page from Silver's digital handwritten journal.
Expand capacity.
A sample of Silver's digital cursive handwriting, comparing her beginner's progress before and after a month of practice.
A scanned page from one of Silver's old sketching journals from 2010.
Another scanned page from one of Silver's old sketching journals, featuring a brush pen practice sketch of Michael Bernard's Shades of Night.
Screenshot of a page from Silver's digital sketching journal, early in her return to sketching in 2020.
Another screenshot of a page from Silver's digital sketching journal, showing Silver simply playing with Procreate brushes for fun.
Another screenshot of a page from Silver's digital sketching journal, featuring a field painting of ibises in the summer sky.
Another screenshot of a page from Silver's digital sketching journal, featuring a visual and metaphoric representation of Silver's therapeutic process.
Another screenshot of a page from Silver's digital sketching journal, featuring a painting that Silver made for a friend.
Another screenshot of a page from Silver's digital sketching journal, featuring a visual and metaphoric representation of Silver's therapeutic process.
Creativity grows with you.
Creativity was and still is, for me, a journey of profound self- care and self-love. It is being the infinitely patient and encouraging parent and mentor, as well as playful and enthusiastic peer and friend, for myself that I never had. Most importantly, it has reopened my ability to connect, interact and co-create with the many dimensions of my being, and that of the multiple other dimensions of Earth, human and non-human, seen and unseen, and I am discovering and exploring more every day.