Creativity: The Joy of Beauty and Transformation

This is a year of completion and the seeds of new beginnings. I’m a numerologist and 2016 can be calculated as 36/9, the numbers for both words, completes and endings.  We will all be completing various elements in our lives which will include relationship endings at various levels and various giving personal meanings. Within all endings are the seeds of new beginnings, regeneration and personal renewal. It is the release of an old way of life to enter a new way of being and seeing. Therefore, endings are releases that are not to be feared, for it is only through these releases, we call endings, that one can be released from one phase of life in order to enter the next new phase of being and a new life.

The butterfly reminds us of the cycle of creativity, the slow process of renewal and resurrection. It is within the Spring that we have a wonderful anticipation that April brings, the resurrection in the Northern climes of the cycle of the various new seasonal sprouting bulbs, plants and new spring clothing that give us that feeling of true newness and renewal.

Also what sprouts within is the desire for renewing our environs with new colors and textures which will express something wonderfully new within, telling us who it is that we are within!

The Japanese culture have a wonderful sense of seasonal and artistic expression within various aspects of their culture that honors this personal inner renewal both within the self and within their homes. They have the traditional obi which is pictured above which the Geisha of their culture will express through the obi they will wear depending on the season.

We can utilize the many obi available to express our appreciation of a different kind of artistic expression. I do this by hanging various obi on a Japanese shoji screen in various rooms of my home, switching them for the various seasons. I also place them over a door that remains open all the time, as a change of décor. I store the various obi not in use on protected hangers and simply put them neatly in a closet for other seasons, switching them through out the years.

In many traditional Japanese homes there is an alcove called a takonoma” specifically designed and built to express each season, wherein is placed a scroll (an obi can also be used like a scroll in places like this), some other artifact, and seasonal foliage or flowers as illustrated below:

Here you see displayed a cherry branch, with the beloved cherry blossoms of Spring for the setting in a room specifically, a ‘tatami’ room, with tatami covered floor (which is usually a wood plank floor). The sitting cushions you see are the traditional-style table seating. The beauty of this particular creativity is the serenity it brings to one’s essence and is wonderful for times of personal contemplation.

Grace, beauty, inspirational experience and living is what the universal consciousness and the omniscient creativity within all of our lives expresses in our own personal and various ways through all of the various cultures of the world.

In Asian culture and astrology each year is signified with the first new moon, this year was February 8, 2016, The Year of the Red or Fire Monkey.

This can be the red chimpanzee or any of the ape family. These animals are very creative and have a great deal of ingenuity. There are many very interesting documentaries available on both Netflix and You Tube that show how the infringing metropolis in many countries that have these animal populations (the monkey is considered sacred in some spiritual traditions and therefore some temples are dedicated to them).  Overtaking the habitat of these creatures forces them  to survive, by infiltrating the metropolis to steal food stuffs to survive the infringement of a spreading metropolis onto their own shrinking food supplies and seasonal changes.

So, what we all have in common is our need for survival, our individual ingenuity to survive and to be as happy as we can be within the world of various nationalities and species of this world.

The nations of the world are releasing old ways to embrace new ways in order to survive. This need for change is scary, but we all must put our hearts to rest, and to merge and flow with the slow, necessary changes our societies are engaging, so that we all can enjoy the essence of our individual lives, the lives of other cultures, and the beautiful essence of our plant, animal, and oceanic kingdoms.

Let’s journey together, utilizing our individual ingenuity to create our new kingdoms with the wonderful ideals of love, beauty, compassion and helpfulness toward others as each of us struggles through the requirements required of us to be as positively creative as we can through our transitions from one phase of life and living to another!

La Vern De Wilde