With springtime and flowers blooming, Connie and I have been working on our back deck.

There is a bird that comes to visit us in the springtime, and it stays through the summer. It’s a very distinctive bird, a disturbed bird, with a chip on its shoulder. It is a neurotic little bird! This bird perches on the edge of the canopy that is over our porch swing. It sees its own reflection in the window next to it. And thinking the reflection is a rival, it flies into the window.

And not just once. For hours, it bangs its head against the window, attacking its rival. Both cats in our home get worked up when this bird comes around. This bird gives new meaning to the concept, "bird brain."

I admire its persistence. It seems never to give up

And I admire its courage. The enemy bird fights back just as hard, but this little soldier remains undaunted.

What I don’t admire is that he never gets the idea. If it doesn’t work, he’ll try it again.

This spring, we first noticed this bird’s return when we saw him out in front, attacking the rearview mirror of the van. The analogy is obvious. People are sometimes like this bird, batting their heads against the wall.

Sometimes when people get into an argument. It’s often the same argument, with the same pattern, but with different issues.

Sometimes when we try to make life work out.

Sometimes when we try to overcome a health issue.

If we try something that doesn’t work, over and over again, we’re most likely to try it again.

What we need, more often than not, is a creative way of trying something different. Indeed, there is a whole school of psychology built on this very principle. NLP, euro linguistic Programming. The idea is that when we have a problem, or a difficulty, to "reframe" it, to see it in a different way and try something different. There is nothing to say that this will work any better … but it has a much better chance than doing the same thing, over and over.

Matthew Fox writes much about the theology of "Creation Spirituality." Indeed, he heads a university devoted to it down in Oakland. He has a book entitled, "Creativity, Where the Divine and the Human Meet." His point is profound. The idea that God lives in each of us is something most of us belief. Where that becomes manifest is in our creative moments. Creativity is where the Divine and the human meet.

Creativity, he says, is our very nature. It’s like there is a little artist within each of us. So many things happen to us to inhibit the artist, so he or she hides and doesn’t want to come out. Matthew Fox invites us to discover the "Artist’s Way." There is no human potential more important for our lives or the life of the planet than our human ability to create.                                                                                [TOP]

We are literally, co-creators with God. Chaos is disorder, a mixed mass of meaningless nothing. But within chaos, there is an "ordering principle." Naturally, swirls come together and form eddies. All things feel this deep urge to come together and be something. Within the heart of each of us is this same sense of ordered meaning. To take disorder, chaos, pain, hurt … and touch it with love. To create a better world. To create a more wholesome life.

Creativity keeps us young. Studies in aging have shown that people who create live longer and stay healthier than those who sit around and do nothing or those whose life is habitual routine. Painting. Pottery. Crafts. Dancing. Many activities invite participation during our retirement years.

If people take advantage of them, they become more fully alive. For it is the very nature of life to create. And to re-create. "Re-creation" is the whole underlying meaning of "recreation."

Pondi, our yoga instructor, has the habit of dropping words of wisdom during his class. We are in various postures, feeling the stretch and struggling to relax. And these quips sometimes drift over our heads. The other day, in class, he gave one of his sayings, and I caught the last phrase, "Like a clock during a thunderstorm." I didn’t know what that was about, but it was intriguing, so I emailed him. And he sent me back the quote.  From Robert Louis Stevenson: "Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

"Like a Clock during a thunderstorm!" That image says a lot. Most things are rattled during a thunderstorm. What makes a clock keep steady time during a thunderstorm is that it is driven by its own internal mechanisms. Therein lays the secret not only to inner peace, but also to our creativity.

The creation story in the Bible is one of the most controversial of all Bible stories. Much energy has been expended and separation of fellowship has occurred negotiating the contentious ways people approach this story.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

And God said, let there be light.                                   [TOP]

And God said, let the light separate from the darkness.

Day one. Day two. Day three. Six days of creation and one of rest."

Some people pick up their Bible and think they are reading history. They believe this is how it happened. In six days, God did it all. Some people, after studying evolution, dismiss the creation story as a myth. As an etiological myth … a story designed to explain the origins of something. All cultures have them. They satisfy the uninformed mind.

Debate over these two positions is well known to all of us. The Scopes monkey trial. In parts of Kansas today, at school boards and city council meetings, this debate still rages. More progressive approaches to the Bible look at isolated parts of the Creation story to derive meaning.

"God created people in God’s own image." This has become a church doctrine, the "Imago Dei", the belief that each one of us has an incarnate piece of the Divine within us. And in the context of the story, this is our capacity to create. Seven times in the story is the word "Tov" used. Day one, it is good. Day two, it is good. Seven times. And on the seventh time, the idea is accented. "And behold, God saw all that he had made, and it is VERY good."

We get the affirmation that how ever it was done, this world that we live in, is intended to be VERY good. While I affirm these teachings, the problem of the progressive approach is that it loses the unity of the story.

When Kehilla left Northbrae for their new synagogue, Rabbi David and the congregation gave me the first two volumes of the Zohar, and an introductory book. The complete set under translation will eventually comprise a 23 volume set. It’s a massive work. And what a wonderful gift! The Zohar is a 13th century commentary on the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. It is the foundation of Jewish mysticism, known as the Kabbalah. And its view of the creation story reflects a highly symbolic interpretation while maintaining a profound unity of the story.

It is about the mysterious process of creation, itself. How God did it. And how God continues to do it, in each moment. And more, about how each of us creates our worlds. Ten sayings through seven stages. Seven "heavens." The tree of life. The down-flowing of Divine energy unto manifestation.                                      [TOP]

It’s complicated. It’s intriguing. It’s tear-evoking with inspiration even in a want of understanding. And bottom line … we are literally CO-CREATORS WITH GOD. Whether we realize it or not, we are making and remaking this world in which we live.

If my memory serves me, Walt Disney’s Sword in the Stone contains a creation story. I haven’t been able to locate the source. This is from memory, so apologies for any discrepancies. It seems that when God created the world, all the little embryos about to be born marched before God in succession. God asked each little embryo in turn, "What do you want when you are born?"

One little embryo puffed out his little chest and said, "I want big teeth!"

So God created the saber toothed tiger.

One little embryo stood tall, and said, "I want to be big and imposing."

So God created the wooly mammoth.

And so with all the little embryos as they marched before God. Each selected from among all the characteristics and traits that make up the animal world. Finally, the last little embryo shyly stepped up before God. "There’s nothing left," protested the little embryo. "Indeed," replied God, "there is nothing left." So God said to the disappointed little embryo, "I’ll create you just as you are, and it will be up to you to create yourself." And thus God created human beings. With God’s help … And a heart surrendered … We create the world within which we live.

                                                                                                         [TOP]