Holy smokes, we’re halfway through May already! Geesh, feels like we just started down this month’s theme of the Path of Creativity. It brings to mind the lyrics in “Mother Spirit, Father Spirit,” the hymn that we sang on Sunday: I am empty, time flies from me, what is time? The picture in the book “What Do You Do With An Idea?” of time flying off through the stars corresponds to the imagery the song invokes, as well. (It’s why the ritual artists put Roman numerals, stars and planets around the chalice table.)

As I think about it and explore the pictures on a deeper level while Norbert Capek’s hymn sings along in my head, I realize that the storybook and the hymn correspond in many different ways.

I’m not quite sure what to make of the phrase “I am empty”. It sounds rather Buddhist, but I’m not sure Capek was referring to that specific theology. It seems as though the hymn is meant to resonate with those very deep and timeless questions that we ask about god, spirit, the larger meaning of life and this universe.

When I look at this picture:

I see the child standing in the empty space, in the circle of time, life encircling them. I see time flying from the idea- the idea that had belonged to the child and is in the process of becoming a part of all that is. And isn’t that what we all are? A part of the process, the becoming of many events and experiences. Perhaps to think of ourselves as empty is to remember that we are because we are a part of all that was, is, and will be, and that we are nothing by ourselves. Our ideas are not entirely our own, but are a process of the becoming of the creative spirit that resides within all. When we recognize that we are empty unless we call upon the spirit– god, creativity, interdependence, whatever name you may give it– only then can we be filled and become an integral and creative part of life.

Mother Spirit, Father Spirit, take our hearts.

Take our breath and let our voices sing our parts.

Take our hands and let us work to shape our art.

Take good care. Heather