Making the Most of It

This has been an interesting vacation. Everything we've planned has need cancelled because of the weather--even church yesterday! A hugh storm dropped about a foot of snow Sunday morning and it knocked out power to the church house. So we had church at home, All we have done is relax and cook and eat. I'm taking home five extra pounds and I don't mean in my luggage! But it has been fun to visit and play with the grand kids! We just hope we can fly out today!

Sabbath Scripture

My grace is sufficient for thee:for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Lessons in Seattle

Seattle is beautiful. Trees, rolling hills, beautiful architecture. But the people here must have to learn to live with the knowledge that the sun is out there someplace rather than actually seeing it. That makes for strong people. Being here has made me think about how much the way we react to our environment shapes us. We can wake up each day and tell ourselves a story such as,"Oh no, another dreary day!" or we can tell ourselves a story such as "I know sun is up there someplace because it is light and I am excited to see when it will peek through." It reminds me of a woman who was a little older than I am who had never married. She told me that she wakes up every morning excited because she is one day closer to meeting her eternal companion! Hope is an essential ingredient for a joyous life!

Improvisation and Truth

I'm in Seattle visiting D8 and her family! They are treating us like royalty. I may never go home! Just a short thought today. While I've been pondering and writing about the relationship between Living in Truth and creativity, I've realized that Living in Truth is like improvisation in acting classes or performance. When improvising you just have to take what comes, take what the other actors give you, and then make the most of it all the while working and contributing to make the outcome something delightful. Have a great improvisational day!

Daily Ceativity

I’ve been concerned for two days that when I wrote aboutcreativity the thought would come into your mind of painting pictures, or writing music, or creating books. That may be part of the creativity that ensues, but the creativity I’ve discovered from Living in Truth is much, much more extensive than that.

When we Live in Truth the blessing of creativity is something that exists in every moment. It is part of everything you do. Children are bickering and you suddenly have a creative idea as to how to stop them in a way that teaches instead of reprimanding.  You encounter a very grouch clerk at a store and you suddenly have a creative stroke of genius as to how to interact with him in a pleasant way that you can see influences him for good. You encounter a situation that is usually very boring like waiting in a long security line at the airport and instead of stewing and fretting impatiently you suddenly have a creative idea as to how to use that time in a pleasant and profitable way. 

As I said before, creativity is the ability to take two things and make something new out of them. In the last example, you take time and the long line and instead of enduring a nuisance you create moments of learning or making new friends or spreading goodwill to those around you. You create something new in that moment that didn’t exist the moment before. That’s the blessing of creativity that comes from Living in Truth. The poem, story, picture, music you may also create is icing on the cake, but not the cake!

Jazz and Truth

As I talked about yesterday, when we Live in Truth one of the benefits is that we experience more creativity. Often this happens because we are more spontaneous. When we live in the Pit of Illusion we don’t see or recognize the opportunities or even the wonderful things that are happening around us and therefore it is impossible to take advantage of them or to build upon them. We can’t dance with life because we don’t hear the music life is making for us.

But when we are Living in Truth we are fully in the present and therefore we hear the music and sense the tempo and are able to waltz or rumba or tango to whatever music presents itself. That’s the spontaneity part, and the creativity follows as you make the dance into your own—something new.

This semester I discovered that before one of my classes someone is teaching the History of Jazz. I love music but know very little about jazz. So I decided to sit in on the class. Today we talked about Country Blues and I had a delightful hour on a Mississippi levee listening to extraordinary people discuss the blues in their lives and listening and learning from them. It was delightful!

One more benefit of Living in Truth! Life is so much more fun and exciting when you Live in Truth.

Creativity

The last few days I’ve been reminded of the many benefits that come from Living in Truth. I’ve talked about a lot of those benefits here, but there is one I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that is one of the most surprising and exciting. Benefits like happiness and peace and love, I expected to find when I began Living in Truth, but this one amazed me. It is the gift of creativity.

As Elder Uchtdorf said at the Relief Society Conference in October 2008, “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.” He goes on to say that everyone can create, and I know that is true. However, when we Live in Illusion and because of the life experiences all of us pass through, we tend to forget that we can create and therefore we don’t. But creating, taking two separate things and making something new out of them, is deeply satisfying. It is what God does. He is a creator and as His children we are meant to be creators.

This brings me back to Living in Truth. When I Live in Truth, I reside in the same realm God resides in—the Realm of Truth—and in that realm creativity abounds in everyone who resides there. It just happens naturally. Whatever people do they find themselves creating as they do it and that creativity brings them great joy. Instead of going through a day weighed down by burdensome tasks, a person Living in Truth is constantly creating new ways to do things, gaining new insights, and creating their lives with exciting new possibilities.

There are many benefits of Living in Truth, but this gift of creativity is one of my favorites. Watch how it works in your life when you are Living in Truth.