My favorite definition of the word inspire was shared with me by a brilliant educator, mentor and guide to so many, Fleurette Sweeney. She founded Education Through Music now called SongWorks and the Living Language Institute Foundation, not to mention being a founding member of the SelfDesign Graduate Institute. She shared with me the spiritual nature of the word. I went looking for this definition, and found it in the entymology: inspiration (n.) c. 1300, "immediate influence of God or a god," especially that under which the holy books were written, from Old French inspiracion "inhaling, breathing in; inspiration" (13c.), from Late Latin inspirationem (nominative inspiratio), noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin inspirare "blow into, breathe upon," figuratively "inspire, excite, inflame," from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit (n.)). , And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. [Genesis ii.7] The sense evolution seems to be from "breathe into" to "infuse animation or influence," thus "affect, rouse, guide or control," especially by divine influence. Inspire (v.) in Middle English also was used to mean "breath or put life or spirit into the human body; impart reason to a human soul." Literal sense "act of inhaling" attested in English from 1560s. Meaning "one who inspires others" is attested by 1867. Retrieved from: https://www.etymonline.com/word/inspiration I am convinced today that as we engage in creative pursuits we connect to our highest nature. In creative expression we become channels of something greater than ourselves. I don't believe this is necessarily anything reserved for an elite class of artists, but rather a natural capacity of being human. The ability to create is divinely human. It seems to me that we tend to shut down our natural creative inspired self, and replace it with a more stereotyped version of what we think we are supposed to be. When we are creative we are tapping into that original free self of childhood. As adults Maslow called it a type of "second naivete". Here is Maslow's description: “Another observation was that creativeness SA was in many respects like the creativeness of all happy and secure children. It was spontaneous, effortless, innocent, easy, a kind of freedom from stereotypes and clichés. And again it seemed to be made up largely of unmoved freedom of perception, and innocent unihinibted spontaneity and expressiveness. Almost any child can perceive more freely without a prior expectation about what ought to be there or what must be there, or what has always been there. And almost any child can compose a song or a poem or a dance or a painting or a play or a game on the spur of the moment, without planning or previous intent. "It was in this childlike sense that my subjects were creative. Or to avoid a misunderstanding, since my subjects were after all not children, they were all people in the 50s and 60s, let us say that they had either retained or regained at least two main aspects of childlikeness; namely, they were non-rubricizing or “open to experience” and they were easily spontaneous and expressive. These are certainly different in quality from what is found in children. If children are naïve, then my subjects had attained a “second naivete” as Santayana called it. Their innocence of perception and expressiveness was co-mingled with sophisticated minds." So what shuts it down in the majority of us? I would say it is fear of judgement. We become restricted and worried about how we should act. As Maslow points out, children can make up a game or song or dance in the moment, without hesitation. Why do adults shut down when asked to be creative? This signals to me that we have lost our connection to that source of infinite possibility. But all is not lost. We can reconnect. We can move into our own era of creative, inspired living. We can have a second naivete! Just give yourself permission!
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Abigail LarrisonEducator, Scientist and Art Maker. The purpose of all life is to spread joy. What brings more joy than making art? Archives
November 2023
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