Category: Unit 07

1. How do you define “spirituality”?

Spirituality has different meanings for different people. I feel that the generic meaning that most people have for it is the continual practice of your inner religious beliefs. For me, I would define it as the defining strength that gets me through each and every the day. It gives me meaning and a purpose to life. It reminds me that no matter what types of things that happen throughout my life good or bad, God is in control and His plan will work out accordingly.

2. Does Spirituality differ from religion?

I believe that spirituality can indeed differ from religion. For example, before our family turned Christian we were catholic. My parents had been raised catholic their entire lives and that’s all they knew. But for some reason when they went to mass they weren’t feeling anything. They felt like they were just going through the motions as we were told without any true involvement with the creator. Now I’m not saying that this is the case for everyone because everyone is different but in the case of our family we felt that we needed a change and eventually tried out some Christian churches. This is how I believe spirituality differs from religion in some senses. One is more ritual based and the other is more personal based

3. How do you define “creativity”?

For me, I define creativity as the inner source of our artistic nature. As Grey mentioned in our previous reading, we all have the ability to be artists, we just need to see rather than look. Creativity helps us with this because when we define our art whether it be a sport, painting or something else the work that evolves is the physical piece that develops when we receive an inspiration. It’s what helps us express ourselves by taking what we feel on the inside and bringing it to life.

4. What is the source of creativity?

The source of creativity comes from within our spirit when we “see” something and get an inspiration. I also feel that the amount of creativity that we have as an adult is directly related to how we were raised as children and how many times we were given the opportunity to express ourselves as kids. For example, when I was a kid a played with legos every single day. I didn’t need instructions or a map I would just build and let my creativity take over. Most of the time the end result wasn’t a thing of beauty at least to the outside eye but to me it was a master piece. And I truly believe that it was times like this that helped me develop my creative nature and set me up with the creativity that I have today.

One of the really interesting pieces that Grey touches on is the idea of inspiration. He states that, “every artist has his or her own unique process of inspiration…some people receive full blown, detailed images in a flash during the guided visualizations or shamanic drumming. Others may receive only the briefest glimmer or feeling and it is not until their pencil touches the paper that the imagery comes flooding through”(Grey,80). I could not agree more with this statement. As I mentioned earlier in the term my dad is a carpenter and can make amazing things out of wood. But it was not until this certain project that I could see how truly gifted my dad was. I went to a Christian elementary school and the principle came to my dad and asked if he could make the school a life size Bible all out of wood with the stories from within coming alive in the form of shapes and people.

Instantly my dad got what Grey refers to as visualizations. He could instantly see how each piece was going to look and where he was going to place each one. He carved out each piece with premier accuracy and painted everything with intense precision. Each piece was just the way he had envisioned it to be. It was a 6 year project that he worked on and off on but he finally got it done.

In addition, the night before he was going to present it he got another vision of how to make it better. I can still remember him working all night on it trying to make those last minute changes that he believed was going to put it on top. Grey refers to this in his article when he states that, “pressure is a great catalyst. Important ideas can come at the last minute under a deadline. Often as a painting is coming to completion, I will have to change an entire section because an essential insight suddenly arises” (Grey,80). This is exactly what happened to my dad. The deadline approached and all of a sudden he had new ideas of how to improve it. Its funny looking at it now how many comparisons I can draw from Grey’s article and the process it took for dad to complete it. Everything layed out exactly as Grey explained. He had an inspiration, envisioned it, made it, tinkered with it at the last minute, then presented it to my school.

It was such rewarding project to see come together because you could see how passionate my dad is about wood working and the extents he goes to make the details perfect. He’s a perfectionist and you were really able to tell when it was complete.