“If we take up the ideal of being servants of the world, rather than creators, we may find a path toward self-knowledge and a middle way that serves all of humanity and the earth’s inhabitants We may not be ‘great’ in the sense of superiority to others but rather in the humble greatness of openhearted relationship to the world and search for self-understanding” (“Provincials in Time: The Provisional Life” by Marita Delaney, p.221, from Perpetual Adolescence: Jungian Analyses of American Media, Literature, and Pop Culture).

The above quote is part of Delaney’s answer to the implied question embedded in the title of her subchapter: “Solution to Puer Psychology.” The eternal child or Peter Pan syndrome is ubiquitous in America. Part of the cure for this syndrome may be a better work ethic and an altruistic heart. This would help transform the puer in everyone.

Grow

Growing an attitude to serve the world, humbly and yet with great zest, would reduce the rampant rise of egocentricity in our culture. We as writers, especially, are called to give–unselfishly and prolifically– our insights to the world community.

An Alien Community

Speaking of an expanded community, in a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone, a seemingly benevolent alien race shared technological secrets with the earth. They left a book in their language entitled To Serve Man at the United Nations. The aliens transported shipload after shipload of humans to the alien’s planet. A U.S. code breaker translated the book and ran out to an alien ship which her boss was just boarding and yelled to him, “It’s a cookbook!”

Worthy Words

Maybe such a joke should make me want to “eat my words,” but I would like you to digest them instead. Worthy words, after all, should be thoroughly assimilated like a fine meal. And words surrounding serving the world openheartedly are indeed worthy.

Seeds

Serve the world. Share your talents with the world with a pure and open heart. Let your ideas proliferate—spreading through the world like seeds. And after a fresh rain, smell the sweetness of your ideas blossoming.

Photo Credit: Photo by NASA on The Commons from Flickr Creative Commons.

Linked to Thought-Provoking Thursday.

each of us
like the water
of a melted snowflake

a tiny lake
existing
for a moment
–Terry Chitwood

Impermanence

Meditating on impermanence, my ideas dissolve in the sunlight of a new dawn. My thoughts like shadows scatter before the approaching light. A temple bell rings inside my heart. The song of the skylark resounds inside my head.

Life and Death

Do scattered moments swept into a pile define a life? Do crushed leaves under a shoe define a death? Life and death—the brackets of an existence. Can a life or a death be defined or are they beyond definition? Perhaps, description is a better vehicle to be used in discussing life and death.

Poetry

Enter poetry. Poetry turns words into song—lyrical poetry. Is each life a song? Perhaps a life is a series of songs describing the life’s phases. Like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

Each Phase a Poem

Experiment with writing a poem and/or a song about each phase of your life. Start with the most emotional phase first. Don’t be bound by chronology. Be expressive. Be creative.

Photo Credit: Photo by Karen Dorsett at Flickr Creative Commons

“Solitude has a double meaning for Jung in The Red Book. On the one hand, it suggests the need to distance oneself from others in the pursuit of one’s work, one’s individuation, and one’s soul. On the other hand, it suggests the capacity to ‘live with oneself,’ after scrutinizing and critiquing oneself in the most honest and direct manner . . .” (Reading the Red Book: An Interpretive Guide to C.G. Jung’s Liber Novus by Sanford L. Drob, p.199).

The Desert

A synonym for solitude is desert. This reminds me of the Christian desert fathers and mothers who went into the Scetes desert of Egypt to seek solitude and pray. This implies that to be closer to God and your own soul, you need solitude. These holy men and women had their faith tested by encounters with demons while praying in the desert.

The Traumatic Test

You have been thrust into an inner desert when traumatic events have bulldozed into your life. At these times of immense suffering you will feel alone . . . separated from others. It’s easy to say that these events can further your individuation, but that doesn’t reduce the unremitting pain. These agonizing events may force you to turn to God for relief—and release.

Your Guide

Another synonym for solitude is wilderness. You are called to enter the wilderness within. You need courage to wrestle with your inner demons and come out transformed. Your hermit inside can help you navigate the pathless path through the dark and difficult trials that await you before journey’s end. Praying the prayer of your heart while you travel the inner terrain will give you peace. Discover your heart’s prayer . . . and pray unceasingly. .   

Photo Credit: Photo by Riccardo D’Angelo at Flickr Creative Commons.

Linked with Thought-Provoking Thursday

barren branches

bathed by moonlight

light-blue sky

alive in the night

barren branches

reaching

for the mountain

paths not taken

–Terry Chitwood

Withered Fingers

The spiritual path through life has many branches. Some barren . . . withered fingers pointing in many directions. A crooked path . . . beckoning. The black, barren branch—night coursing through its veins . . . thrumming, humming blacklight.  This dark branch is bent, not broken.

Shrouded

The mountaintop is shrouded in white mist . . . and night mist. The moon illuminates the path only so far. The rest remains hidden. The way is hidden . . . cloaked in mist. The mist-filled way.

Night Eyes

The barren branch is not dead. It has vibrant life inside its disguise. A path not taken because of appearances. False assumptions stopping the journey. Embrace the barren, vibrant path. Use night eyes . . .  see the light.

Artwork in photo: Spirstep 3 by J Brock

Hi! Welcome to Spring Snow Publications and the Ultimate Blog Party 2013! I’m Deb Chitwood. Along with my husband, Dr. Terry Chitwood, I co-founded Spring Snow Publications.

I’m a Montessori educator and author. I blog at Living Montessori Now  about Montessori education, homeschooling, and parenting. At Raising Figure Skaters, I create word-art freebies and blog about inspirational quotes, parenting, encouragement for parents and athletes, posts on character and gratitude, motivation for life, and ways to make a difference. I was a Montessori teacher and school owner before homeschooling Terry’s and my two children through high school. (They now have college degrees.)

I’m the author of a 1983 children’s book, The Magic Ring. We plan to convert it into an eBook. We’re also publishing a new eBook I wrote called Montessori at Home or School: How to Teach Grace and Courtesy. It should be out later this month!

Terry is a Jungian psychotherapist, trader educator, and author with a blog at Trader Educator Online. He’s been a Jungian psychotherapist in private practice for over 33 years. Terry’s previously published books are now newly published eBooks. His books are How To Defend Yourself Without Even Trying (1981, topic Aikido), Meeting Force With Silence (1985, topic Aikido), and Death: The Beginning of Life (1988, topic Jungian Psychotherapy). Death: The Beginning of Life should appear on Amazon any day!

At the Spring Snow Publications blog, we write mainly inspirational posts about writing and blogging. Most of the posts were written by Terry, with lots of writing insight and inspiration!

Check out some of our most popular posts in the sidebar and in our Top 10 Posts of 2011 and Top 12 Posts from 2012 on Spring Snow Publications.

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I wrote an article titled “The Christian Trader: God’s Money” on 3/19/13 for my trading blog, Trader Educator Online. Today, I was inspired to revisit the topic.

Recently, I refinanced my house at a great interest rate. During the closing, the bank paid one-half of my real-estate taxes out of escrow. Yesterday, I called the governmental agency responsible for real-estate taxes. The following describes the salient points of a discussion I had with a very nice government employee with an interesting perspective:

Terry: “I just refinanced my house and want to check that the bank paid the first half of my real-estate taxes.”

Nice Lady: “The owner paid them.”

Terry:” I am the owner and I didn’t pay them.”

Nice Lady: “The owner paid them.”

Terry: “I am the owner and I didn’t pay them. The bank paid them.”

Nice Lady: “No, the owner paid them.”

Terry: (thinking) By now, I feel like I am in a new episode of The Twilight Zone. So I say, “I guess it doesn’t matter who paid the first half of real-estate taxes, just that they’re paid.”

The nice lady agreed. So we discussed the second-half of the real-estate taxes while I felt a sense of lingering weirdness.

In God’s Hands

When I told this story to my wife, Deb, we both laughed. Then I had a spontaneous thought that the dialogue works if the owner is God and if it’s God’s money. I needed to be reminded that all my money comes through the grace of God. Since we were just guided by God to take a financial risk in our lives, we needed this reminder.  Now we are living on the razor’s edge (paradoxically, the safest place to be) and our fate is in God’s hands. I guess this isn’t different from any other day.

Background Image by Helder Almeida.

Linked with Thought-Provoking Thursday.

I am the wind

that moves my pen

across the page

I am the wind

that blows

letters into words

I am the wind

that falls like a waterfall

off my mountain mind

Bringing the scent

of lilacs

to the valley below

–Terry Chitwood

A Living Connection

This poem is an expression of Celtic thought that presupposes a living connection with all things. The following are selected verses from a poem by Amairgen that inspired my poem:

I am the wind that breathes upon the sea

I am the wave of the ocean

I am the vulture upon the rocks

I am a beam of the sun

I am the point of the lance of battle

(Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue, pp.96-97)

An Inclusive Worldview

This sacred inner connectedness flows through Celtic spirituality. Note that ancient Celts don’t reject the darker aspects of life (vultures, points of battle-lances). They include them in their spiritual worldview. The point is not to lose yourself in the Other–be it an ocean wave or a person.

Reclaim Your Originality

Experience a living connection with the Other without losing your individuality. Thus, you gain an infusion of energy and a unique, larger perspective. If you write from this perspective, your writing will become original.

Photo Credit: Photo by Beverly & Pack at Flickr Creative Commons.

“In the words of novelist James Carroll, ‘We tell stories because we can’t help it. We tell stories because we love to entertain and hope to edify. We tell stories because they fill the silence that death imposes. We tell stories because they save us’” (Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, p.273).

How can our stories save us? They save us when we have an urgent, deep need to express ourselves creatively and we do so willingly . . . completely. Sometimes, it’s as simple as write or get sick . . . emotionally, or even physically. If certain emotions need written words in order to express themselves accurately or to personify themselves in a story, then set those emotions free. Characters in a story can say things we need to say but don’t because of repression, suppression or even oppression.

A Need to Write

Why do you need to write? Perhaps your calling demands it. Do you feel a restless energy at night that doesn’t let you sleep until you write? That’s your deeper self playing hard ball with you. No writing, no sleep. The Self may send more varied symptoms your way if you continually resist your writing. You may ask, “Is my writing that important?” The Self values your creative expression.

Stories are Generative

But what about the world? Does it value my writing? What if your writing is part of the tapestry that sustains the world’s story? Creativity is generative. Creativity expands what it touches. Your writing can expand your world and possibly the world. Feed the world with your creative stories.

Photo Credit: Photo by Bart at Flickr Creative Commons

“In Catholic mysticism there is a path known as the via negativa—the practice of emptying the self of its own will, desires, and even knowledge, in order that the soul may be filled by God. Poetry offers a similar path, rich with nondoing. It is found first in the relationship between speech and its steady companion and shadow-side, silence” (Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, Essays by Jane Hirschfield, pp. 169-170).

Silence

Silence as shadow. Words dissolve into the dark silence. Silence enters the space between written words . . . the space between spoken words. In the space between, silence speaks; [In] “the space between, the tears we cry” (“The Space Between” by the Dave Matthews Band). Silence between tears. Silence punctuates . . . between our fears. Silence congeals in the breath between our screams.

Shadow

Our shadows scream for our attention. The disowned parts of our personalities weep loudly in the dungeons of our own creation. Parts of us are crippled through our own neglect. Our ego’s tyrannical rule cuts us off from feelings and attitudes that we need for our spiritual growth.

Love

Meditate on silence. Shut our egos up and let God speak in the depths of our souls. Empty ourselves. Let the diversity inside have a voice . . . many voices. Perhaps, the voices of angels. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love . . .” (1 Corinthians 13).

Photo Credit: Photo by S John Davey at Flickr Creative Commons.

“Creativity is not a talent for the few, but a central trait of everyone. Deep down, our self is alive and craving to express itself, to improvise, and to play like a child. . . .  It is worth remembering that the creative impulse taps a deep source. When we express ourselves in an original way, we are not scraping the surface. We are reaching to our deepest roots, to an ancient need” (Beauty and the Soul: The Extraordinary Power of Everyday Beauty to Heal Your Life by Piero Ferrucci, pp.98-100).

One of a Kind

Creativity expresses who you are at the core of your being. It reaches down to your bones to extract your essence in a tincture of words. Your essence insures that the creativity is original. The pulse of an ancient drumbeat guides your hand to reveal your original voice. You’re a creative writer . . . one of a kind.

Emergence

One of a kind? Isn’t that grandiose? Not at all. An original work is one of a kind—as is the originator. To recognize your individuality and to express it is a courageous act. Let your writing emerge from the mist-filled jungles of your deep unconscious mind and birth a unique work of art.

Free

Express the rivers of words that emerge from the beginning of time . . . from the being of language itself. Don’t confine yourself to modern thought. Use your own version of Dr. Who’s police box (The Tardis) to travel into the limitless future as well as the ancient past to discover new ideas and bring them home in the form of your original writing. Be fluid. Have courage. Write from your essence. Be free.

Photo Credit: Photo by Toni Verdú Carbó at Flickr Creative Commons.