When trouble comes -- sickness or sorrow -- turn on a country song. Do what artists like Loretta Lynn did.
"If you listen to country-western, they'll turn tragedy, like divorce, into a song," said Jan Phillips.
If you go
* What: "Releasing Our Creative Potential" workshop with Jan Phillips* When: Friday, Feb. 20 at 6:30 p.m. and Sat., Feb. 21 at 8:30 a.m. * Where: Chattanooga Workspace, 302 W. Sixth St. * Cost: $80, which includes catered lunch. Go to eventbrite.com or call 706-820-9042.
In other words, the bad doesn't stay bad. With intention, we can turn the bitter parts of our lives into sources of meaning and wisdom.
First, we have to recognize suffering for what it can be.
"The grist for your mill," said Phillips.
She would know. Phillips is an expert on redefining the stories of our lives. An award-winning author and director of the Livingkindness Foundation, Phillips leads workshops -- here and abroad -- on the inner arts of creativity, spirituality and expressiveness.
Years ago, she rode her Honda motorcycle across the U.S., and then took her own peace pilgrimage across the world.
Friday, she travels here, to begin a two-day workshop on creativity and spirit. The event is sponsored by Chattanooga Stone Soup, a group of women committed to the beautiful ways that transformed individuals can lead to transformed communities.
We spoke by phone. Phillips lives in San Diego, where the weather is sunny and "perfect."
Q: What's the purpose of your workshop?
It's about the action of creating perfectly joyful lives for ourselves. It connects the dots between our own personal mission in life -- what we are here for and the best ways to express ourselves -- and our impact on the world.
Part of the work of creativity is retraining ourselves to think about the events of our lives as the seeds of the stories that really define us in the world.
Q: What is the connection between creativity and spirituality?
Creativity is your spirituality in running shoes.
We all have spiritual beliefs and commitments, but they are pretty moot and meaningless unless exercised or expressed in the world. And the way we express our creeds, beliefs and commitments is through our creative expression.
Spirituality and creativity are like non-identical twins.
Q: How do you define creativity?
Creativity has less to do with being artistic and more to do with the way we create lives that have purpose, meaning and joy.
Creativity has to do with creating your life. Every day you wake up and it's an empty palate. You make choices and have intentions and affirm things and exchange ideas, and you crawl into bed at night and evaluate the day. Was that a masterpiece? Generally, it's not. Because nobody's trained in consciousness and intention.
It's about being and speaking. It's about speaking out who you are and not hiding because you're afraid. We have to be really counter-cultural. That is what is being prophetic. The movement of prophets did not stop with Isaiah. We are the modern day prophets; but only those who speak out at any cost.
Q: You have traveled the world. What's at the heart of human nature?
Somebody once said the line between good and evil runs right down the middle of our forehead. Each of us has the capacity for terrible action and each of us is part divine. It boils down to consciousness. Wars begin at home.
We're in the grip of terrorism. My only response is to be more creative, to counter it with my own form of goodness, and to put more good and light into the world.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.