I Want My Childish Ways Back

We will not gather in-person on November 23.

DIY WildWood originated during those months of Zoom gatherings as an opportunity to encounter the Holy wherever you are. I offer some things for your consideration and reflection. As with most things with WildWood, there are no expectation take what you need.

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Yesterday my kiddo performed at her school’s Maker’s Market. In her Cinderella dress and sequined jacket, with her Kitty Piano (a kitty shaped keyboard that plays meow sounds), she was focused and vulnerable and as her teachers said, she took a brave risk. It was a JOY to see, to witness. I got really anxious beforehand, I was afraid that kids were going to be mean about it; but as soon as we got there I realized those were my own fears, learned over decades of wanting to “fit in” and belong. She’s young and maybe she will end up learning some of those fears too, I hope not, but right now her family sat in the front row and everyone clapped and she PLAYED that Kitty Piano and it was great.

Last Sunday I set out all of the art supplies in our closet. Paint, glitter glue, chalk, crayons of every color. We talked about imagination as resilience and creativity as resistance. While we talked and reflected the kids just created. They sat down and instantly got to it. They didn’t wait for instruction, they created without hesitation.

In the oft quoted Matthew 18, we get Jesus' advice for conflict and reconciliation, the chapter begins with the question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” To which, Jesus calls a child into their gathering;

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

Last week in my email reflecting about witnessing divine grandeur I quoted Corinthians 13;

“For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then, [when Jesus returns] we will see face to face. Now we know only in part; then we will know fully, even as we have been fully known.”

Only in the fulfillment of the Kin-dom of God can we see the Divine face-to-face. The sentence right before this,

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see only a reflection, ….”

So often this is read with the assumption that to reason, speak, and think like a child is a bad thing. It’s used to encourage a “mature faith,” to grow-up. That with a mature faith we will know and see the divine fully.

Yet, read through the lens of Matthew 18, “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Whoever becomes like a child, whoever reasons, thinks, and speaks like a child will know the Kin-dom of Heaven, will known the Divine.

I wish I could stand up in front of a crowd of people in a tiara and a perform self-composed kitty synth music or create art without the cloud of perfectionism. I wish I could think, speak, and reason like a child. I wish I had not put an end to childish ways.

Author Ursula K. Le Guin, primarily labeled a science fiction writer, suggested "social science fiction,” because much of her work explored alternative social and political systems. She wrote in her collection of essays; The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination

“The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary.”

Creativity and imagination, beyond artistic products or endeavors, are the foundation for transformation, for hope, for dreaming. We can’t live into a world we can’t imagine.

This week, find an opportunity to practice child-like wonder, creativity, or reasoning. Create without hesitation, perform with abandon, allow your imagination to lead you into worlds unknown.

🖤 Liz

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• The creative process allow your hands to know what your heart is holding long before your mind does. "The sensory feeling of the materials, the rhythm of your hand moving, the colors you’re drawn to, the pressure or softness of the lines you make, all of this gives your inner world a way out." – Discover Art Therapy

  
  

• Austin Channing Brown, A Weary World As I prepare and plan for Advent Austin's words hit deep. "We have gone to battle this year. We battled in Home Depot parking lots trying to protect people. We battled to plan rallies and go door knocking and make phone calls. We battled to feed our community. We battled against book bans. We battled against a political reality that seems hellbent on destruction and fear. Many of us faced our own personal battles, too. We battled grief, or illness, or pain or loneliness. And we are weary... waiting for the rejoicing."

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