"The Soul Tells a Story"

I recently finished reading "The Soul Tells a Story" by Vinita Hampton Wright. She is an editor and writer who is exploring the connection between creativity in spirituality. You can read my full review of The Soul Tells a Story on my website, but I wanted to share with you a few quotes from the book that really resonated with me.

In one section, Wright discusses the challenge of making time for creative work while raising small children:

"Anyone who has brought up children understands how slowly the balance can shift. For years you have to steal moments, an hour here or there, a weekend when you are lucky, to pay attention to your creative work, while another very creative work absorbs most of your energy -- helping little people get a good start in life."

While I can certainly relate to the idea of needing to squeeze in creative work, I had never thought of raising my children as an exercise in creativity, but I guess that it really is. Every day brings with it new circumstances and it does take creativity to respond to them!


I quoted part of this in my review, but here is the whole quote on the calling to be creative:

"God doesn't call you to be successful, only faithful . . .You are called simply to do the work. You give your time and energy to the work. You can't worry about the outcome or how much money you'll make. You can't worry about other people's opinions of the work. What's important is your conviction to engage in the work."

As a struggling writer, I think I will post this saying on my wall! The work is what is important, not the results!

And lastly, "Your primary job as an artist is to seduce other people into paying attention."

Art and Spirituality do have much in common. One of the primary things is that both invite us to take a closer look at life. I hope through my website and blog that I help some of you to pay a little bit closer attention to this wonderful world around us. God is in the little things, if you just take the time to notice.