Seeing The World Through Turquoise Colored Glasses

This will not make any sense right now, but it will shortly.  Ideas being integrated for inspiration in the studio include:

• Thinking with the heart - combining left and right brain functions inspired by Jesus 
• My Own Darling Place inspired by Edna Ferber
• Turquoise Thinking inspired by Clare Graves' waves of existence.

Do other artists synthesize ideas for inspiration like this?  Does the muse bring you books, words spoken in conversation with others, a longing to drink a color or untangle a secret?  So you study before you create?

Does anyone else examine the world through turquoise colored glasses?

Power of Love vs. Love of Power

"...The church faces a choice between the love of power and the power of love. Inevitably when the warfare image is deployed we begin to speak about power. The church must beware that in the struggle for society we are not struggling to maintain the powerful position that we have traditionally occupied. Part of what has called forth a more militant Christianity in recent years is not concern for the kingdom of God but the fear that we are losing control and not getting our own way. But when we play the world at its own game of being hungry for power, for cultural dominance, have we not already lost the battle? Power corrupts. A symptom of its corruption is when we find ourselves using the world's weapons. When Christians, or their organizations, bend the truth, massage statistics, use sensational headlines, deal in rumors, despise their enemies, behave aggressively, use the levers of power to their own advantage, they are behaving no differently from the rest."
~From A Theology of the Dark Side: Putting the Power of Evil in Its Place by Nigel Goring Wright

Love and the Restraint of Power

The Christian mantra to "love your neighbor as yourself" is an interesting one.  In my opinion it is also completely and totally misunderstood and practiced less in church settings than anywhere I know.  That is because so much of church "politics" is power mongering, and the church is just a xerox copy of the world with pious-sounding accompaniment.  It is mongering with a mantra; crawling over people to stand big and tall on platitudes.

Love is not only about what one does; it may be about what one can do but does not do.  Working in the justice system, I have known this for a long time.  I finally found a Christian writing that recognizes the value of some things left undone:    

"While reactive victims are primarily known by their 'against' stances, proactive people do not demand rights, they live them.  Power is not something you demand or deserve, it is something you express.  The ultimate expression of power is love; it is the ability not to express power, but to restrain it.  Proactive people are able to 'love others as themselves.'"

From Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

Mist and Fire

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

"There is a powerful kind of silence that engages my consciousness during my most centered and productive moments.  This inner space has a quality of active, very alive, utter stillness.  It is where I hear the voice of my creative muse most clearly."

~Leslie Montana

There are not enough days of stillness, but when they come, my insides hum with clarity and ideas.  The dogs sleep, the TV sleeps, no music floats on the air.  Only the gurgling noise of coffee brewing and a train whistle in the background can be heard.  I wear my robe all day; I forego makeup; I have never been more beautiful.  I cannot say that I am at peace, but I am at something somehow better...a joy of clarity.  I know things I have not known and am grateful for the insight.  I am a crucible of creativity, and there is mist and fire in the crucible. 

Our Finest Moments

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." ~M. Scott Peck