Creativity and the Butterfly Life Cycle

Creativity and the Butterfly Life Cycle  by Margot Cioccio 

Thanks to Unsplash photographers: Nathan Dumlao, Yoal Desurmont and Boudewijn Huysmans.

I dreamed about a beautiful butterfly. It was like a family pet that followed us around. One day it became weak and was no longer thriving. I decided to released it in the yard and hoped that nature would revive it, and it would not stepped on or eaten by a dog. 

Most often we think of butterflies in their adult glory as they grace the fields and flowers with their marvelous beauty. I generally think of butterflies as a representation of transformation taking place in the lives of people. The well known story of how the ordinary, even ugly caterpillar eats and eats and one day becomes creates a cocoon from which it eventually emerges as the delicate beautiful butterfly. We celebrate the butterfly for emerging from the mundane. The mundane process is all to soon forgotten and rarely celebrated. 

The butterfly can represent freedom. Having made it to the 4th stage of its life, its purpose at this point is to find a mate and reproduce. We so often celebrate the glory in our lives or in the lives of others but forget that it is just the last of the four stages of an on going cycle. The average life span of a butterfly is only about a month.The four stages are the egg, the larva, what we generally call the caterpillar. Then the Pupa or the Chrysalis stage and finally the  graceful butterfly. 

There are goals at each stage that must be met. If they are not met the generational future of butterflies are in danger. Thankfully that future is not left to one individual butterfly. The Monarch will lay 500 eggs, one egg at a time on the underside of many leafs. She must lay those eggs on the kind of leaves that the new baby caterpillar can immediately eat. Food must be readily available for that tiny baby. It is too small and vulnerable at first to travel to find food. 

I’d like to look at butterflies as creative ideas. The life cycle of a butterfly is filled with obstacles. In the egg and caterpillar stage a hungry bird might eat you. I suppose there is wisdom in not putting all your eggs in the same basket or on the same leaf if you are a butterfly. 

As I go about my day what ideas am I laying into the lives of others. Perhaps my ideas will simply be food for others to help them grow. I don’t know when an idea may spark something or what eggs may hatch and become hungry caterpillars that might one day become butterflies that help to encourage and inspire others. 

I have always struggled with what I want to be when I grow up because I have so many avenues of interest. It has always been hard to choose. While in art school my professors advised that I pick one medium and work to develop it as my artistic expression. I seem to be like that butterfly I go through cycles where I gobble up a subject, experiment, turn it over and over in my mind and then finally create something beautiful. Then I move on to a new idea. 

If you were to look at my desk you might wonder how I get anything done. I have stacks of papers and books and stuff all about. I realized that I am more creative with in a slightly messy environment. When I look at nature I don’t see tidy rows, I see randomness, an organic messy kind of beauty. When my desk is too neat its like that blank canvas or white piece of paper. It leads to instant creative block. If it is all clean and tidy I don’t want to mess it up. There is something comforting and inspiring about my slightly messy desk.  It represents a multitude of ideas and projects.  Some mundane like bills and taxes and others creative like journals, song snippets and drawing ideas. In some ways my bits of paper and clutter are like the multitude of leaves the adult butterfly has laid a huge variety of ideas upon.

Some of those ideas may one day become something. Others are just part of the creative process. They needed written down to make room for creative space within my brain for other ideas to grow and develop. When I am working on big projects my brain is constantly churning. The creative process is almost like being pregnant. Then giving it birth and raising it up so that others may be inspired by it. 

I generally don’t like the time that is in between creative projects. I feel like that Chrysalis just hanging around that is seemingly doing nothing. I have noticed for myself anyway, that I need some people time but I also need quiet alone time. If I can keep a healthy balance than I continue to be creative. The Caterpillar represents the social out in the world eating up stimulus and ideas. The Chrysalis in many ways represents that quiet time that I need to process all that I have consumed. I have come to terms with my feelings of having to always be producing to be of value. I had to get past my mindset that said I needed to be good enough to earn the attention or favor of others or even God. I have had to accept that my creativity goes through cyclic seasons. I have had to learn to guard the secret quiet space of my mind and heart. To not get so busy that there is no time to process or create. Resting and processing is part of the creative life cycle of an idea as well. 

The pet butterfly in my dream shows me what happens to an idea if I keep it to myself and don’t allow it to be free to soar. It dies and does not get the chance to inspire others and to reproduce. 

When I first create something there is a tendency to want to keep it to myself. To look at it over and over again. It represents a part of me. I have to decide if I will share that part of myself with others. It is easy to become critical as a creative person. To say to a creative thing, “I’m sorry you are just not good enough”. I have to push past the fear of exposing myself to the critique of others. It takes courage to release a creative endeavor and allow it to soar. I have to leave it in the hands of God. I have to let go of control at that point and realize it is part of His story written though me that now must take on a life of its own.  For the creative cycle to continue to be birthed in myself and in others I have to be willing to share my creation even with what I see as its flaws. Those very flaws are like foot prints others are able to follow. Its ok if its not totally perfect it is totally real and raw expression of my journey. As I bid it farewell, I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced along the way that I will carry on into future projects. I am thankful that my Abba Father is creative and I have been made in His image as a creative person to express His love to I release yet another idea into the winds of His Spirit. 

“I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!”                                   Philippians 1:6 (TPT)

Xis for Xerxes' New Queen

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio 

I have been doing a lot of soul searching today. I have been using my own version of creative therapy. I got a blank sketch book and a black sharpie marker and some colored markers. There is stuff that gets locked inside of us that we just can't seem to put our finger on. I hate the unsettled feeling of not knowing where I'm heading. I feel the stress of it when I am between major projects. This is a major life change of direction - let me tell you it has been unsettling.

This one is a little out of control

Anyway I have included some of the drawings that I have done as I have been trying to wade through the swirling sea of possibilities. You will notice that the drawings are not dark and hopeless but they feel a bit out of control and there is a swirling sense of change and a fair amount uncertainty.  Anyway this is a journey to discover God's path for me.  I'd love to have this figured out yesterday. Seems it is a process. 

I'm the kind of person who locks stuff away, then I throw away the key and the path back to those places is often long forgotten and overgrown with weeds. I find it almost takes a trigger of sorts to even get back to most memories. 

For years I have approached life by looking around at what needs to be done and trusting God to help me do it. The problem is that I have a lot of skills as a result and it is now very difficult for me to see what the real gifts, passions, talents and calling actually are. I have probably ended up doing things that perhaps God had intended for others. I have allowed faithfulness and loyalty to trump anointing a calling. Now tools like spiritual gifts tests are kind of messed up for me because I have done so many things. I score pretty high across the board which in the end does not help one to narrow the focus of their life. 

At this point I am probably most interested in Art Therapy but it takes a Masters Degree and I would have to finish my Bachelors Degree first. It will be interesting to see how well three years worth of credits from thirty years ago will transfer. I did apply today to one school that offers a Bachelors in Christian Counseling.  They seemed to think any work I had done that was above a C should transfer. I recall doing mostly A and B work, well except in math and logic.  So my thought is that perhaps I could employ a very creative art approach to my Christian Counseling practice.  The Christian Counseling path would take me 2-3 years to complete. 

I've been asking God for new dreams because the old ones are broken. 

I found a quote I liked today. "At any point, an artist can change the painting. So can you. You are the artist, the designer, of your own life." ~ Gerrie-Ellen Johnston

My other thought was Massage Therapy and adding to that practice creative art things to help people with stress and problem solving. That is a 9 month program. 

At almost 52 the idea of going back to school for 4 - 6 years for a Masters Degree would put me at age 58 to start may new career. If one hopes to retire by age 65 that leaves me only 7 years to work and pay back loans if I don't get grants and scholarships. 

So I probably should have been thinking this way by age 30 but I've been busy helping people and trying to support my ministry endeavors with art work sales and music lessons. Maybe you've noticed I'm pretty stubborn and don't give up on things easily. Actually I have a tendency to pick things that are on the brink of failure and try to save them. Why? Because people say it can't be done and I do like a challenge. Those things have made me stronger and from an eternal perspective I have made a difference in the lives of many people. Just nothing that translates or looks like much on to a resume.  

So anyway today I was supposed to write about Xerxes New Queen - please tell me you know who she is. It is a real Cinderella story. The King must replace the previous Queen who I wrote about for letter V. He decides to invite the most beautiful women in the realm to the palace and he will choose one to be his new queen. So a beautiful young Jewish girl lives with her uncle. It seems her parents have died. She does not have a fairy god mother to fix her up with a bibbity bobbity boo wave of the wand. But her uncle encourages her to go but not say where she is from. She of course it the belle of the ball and does become the new queen. It is a tremendous story of courage that can be found in the book of Esther.  There you have it, Esther is our bible woman of the day. I encourage you to check out that story if you've not read it for yourself. 

I have one more drawing in my transparant approach to blog writing. It is what I will call the poison flower of fear. These will all make great activities to use in my coaching / counseling at some point. You will notice my box of fear is really not that big. I've worked through most of these things at this point and I generally recognize them when they raise their ugly head. I've traced most of it back to its roots and have figured out why those things are issues for me.

I guess at this point I don't want to live behind the walls of my own making. I would rather be transparant about my struggles. I have been surprised to find that lots of other folks struggle with the same stuff and its somehow helpful to know we are not alone. 

Anyway I was praying on Friday and the Lord said go get a sketch book and markers and start doing these drawings. 
Some are things I see in my head others are things that start with words and then images grow up around them. 

Maybe you are stuck - most people don't function from their creative side of the brain so you might be surprised what answers you find there if you sit down with paper and makers. Anyway I am finding this process to be helpful and I am feeling much more hope and peace where I was previously feeling anxious and discouraged. 

I liked this quote from the International Art Therapy Association

"For that reason art therapists are trained to recognize the nonverbal symbols and metaphors that are communicated within the creative process, symbols and metaphors which might be difficult to express in words or in other modalities. Art making is seen as an opportunity to express oneself imaginatively, authentically, and spontaneously, an experience that, over time, can lead to personal fulfillment, emotional reparation, and transformation. This view also holds that the creative process, in and of itself, can be a health-enhancing and growth-producing experience."

The River Project

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio 

Revelation 22:1 

Then the angel showed me the river  of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne  

of God 

and of the Lamb

  

Psalm 46:3-5  

³ though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.  

Selah

 ⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
   the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
   God will help her at break of day.

Today is Monday and I am off to a slow start. Monday's tend to be my day to rest and regroup. My weekends tend to be busier than my week. I know that I need a day of rest somewhere in my week - so for me Monday becomes that day. This weekend was particularly busy with hosting a leadership training event on Saturday, and then going to get the materials needed for "The River" project in the late afternoon. Sunday is always a busy day,  after helping with the church service, I was not needed in the kitchen to help prepare the meal for the homeless so I started work on the river project.

I thought about a number of things to write about in this post but settled on telling you about the river project.  It is funny to me how I can suddenly see things. I think God just kind of drops them into my head. I think of Bezalel and Oholiab who I have written about in other posts. They had the task of creating articles for worship for the tabernacle of God. I think they came to the project with some level of craftsmanship and skill but I also think that God anointed, gifted and prepared them for the task they were given. To be able to create something I have to be able to see it in my head before it exists. If I can see it I can then see the pathway to make it become a reality.  So recently I saw how our prayer loft could be made into what looked like a river bank. It has to have a frame work built and my friend Donnie is taking on that part of the project. So the frame will contain the sand and rocks on top of the chest high counter in the prayer loft.  The smooth river rocks will have prayers or prayer topics. There will also be small glass gem that will have the bible address for various promises in the bible. The rocks and gems and candles will be scattered through the bed of sand. In a sense in finding the gems it is like finding treasures from the Word. The whole River project is an interactive or hands on worship and prayer experience.  So I shared my idea in staff meeting last Tuesday and everyone liked the idea and said can you have it done by March 25th to go along with a sermon our new intern Ryan Mahoney will be doing on the use of arts in worship. They mentioned that the back drop banners should be changed to go with the project. At that time I had not looked beyond the river bank and had not yet seen the bigger project. So in my prayer times I began praying and I began to see what looked like banners of flowing water. Almost like a waterfall or river. In the river there are fish and water plants. You can see my rough drawing at the top of the post.

So Saturday afternoon I went shopping to discover the materials to make the banners. I knew I wanted the base to be gold and for it to be layered with sheer blue fabrics to sort of give the feel of the clear water mentioned in Revelation 22. 


It was fun explaining the project to the woman who cut my material for me. She was very excited and said she wanted to come see the project when it was complete.  I am hoping that his project will give people reason to invite their friends to visit the church and experience "The River". 


Sunday afternoon I set up big 8 foot tables and began work in the back of the sanctuary on the project. 
It was a quiet location and gave me room to spread out to work on such a large project. The banners are each 20 inches wide and about 80 inches long. It took me a while to get the slippery gold fabric cut in to three 20 inch panels. This fabric is stretchy which will present some challenges. I am realizing that I will probably have to attach them to something with a bit more stability so they will hang strait. Still thinking on that part. These bigger projects seem to develop as they progress. I go with what I can see and sometimes have to go look closer or think and pray about how to solve various issues that arise as I go along. So I am now looking into a more sturdy backing. Which will mean another trip to the fabric store. 

On my first trip to the store I was really challenged to find something to make the water plants. I looked at all kinds of ric-rac and silk plant leaves and finally settled on a dark green black textured yarn and another that had lots of strings coming out from the it.  I thought I would find a way to combine the two to make my sea weed.  You can see from the photo the two materials that I chose and how I was able to combine them through what I will call finger knitting. A skill I learned as a child, that has finally come in handy.  I took the seaweed that I created and cut it into three lengths so that I would have enough to use on each of the three banners. 

I gave the materials for the fish to my friend Lisa to come up with some edgy fish. I know she will do a great job. I am in this project trying to include others as a way to create community. I will take the banners to our Wednesday craft group once they are laid out and pinned in place and see if the ladies will help with the hand sewing. So by 8pm Sunday night I decided I was tired and needed to go home. So after having sewn some of the sea weed into place, I folded and straitened up my work space and headed home. Here is a photo of the progress made to this point.


I was talking to someone yesterday about how we are created in the image of God. You know how when a child is born to a family people will say oh thats her mother's nose and her fathers eyes. In each of us there are bits of the likeness of God that should come through in who we are. I look around and see the finger prints of God and the wonder of the things that he created. I think we each have a bit of the Father's creativity though it may be expressed differently. Mine comes out in the ability to create beautiful things. To like Bezalel and Oholiab , be able to create things to help people pray and inspire them to worship and praise God. To be able to in an artistic way communicate some truth that I see in the word. I guess in this project I am expressing that we each need to go to the source of the living water. To Jesus himself. Sure we can get water second and third hand from others who are wells of salvation or who carry a bit of water to share with others.  The best thing is to go to the source and get the water as it flows from the very presence of God. Jesus told the woman at the well John 4:¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  If you would ask Jesus he would give to you living water. 


Dear Lord, 
Come refresh us with your living water. We live often in a dry and dusty barren land. We can eek along in our spiritual desert looking for the next oasis. We run from place to place in search of revival and refreshing when we could just come to you and know you and abide in you and walk in the continuing filling and refreshing of you abiding presence. Sadly we too often keep you as God in a box and rather than walk with you all the time we take you out when we need you, like our personal geni in a bottle. Lord forgive us and help us to invite you to be part of every moment of every day.

Think Out Side Of The Box

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Source: helloyoucreatives.com via Margot on Pinterest

Ephesians 2:10
"For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
 which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

I suppose for anyone who knows me - it is probably obvious that I see the creativity of God written everywhere. I see it in the faces of people, in sunsets, in the blanket of snow that lays out sided. In the amazing flight of a humming bird. I believe that woven in to each of us is the power to create. It may not be artistic work, or grand musical pieces but we have the power in us to create daily what our life will be like. There may be circumstances that are out of our control but God gives each of us choices with in our circumstances to figure out how we will go through them. 

Deuteronomy 1:21
 See, the LORD your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

There are things that you know that God has given you to do. Some are things that you have a natural tallent or aptitude for, others are thing you discovered you enjoyed doing and you have developed those skills. Some things may be gifts that God has given you.

 1 Peter 4:10-11
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (NIV)

I found out at a very young age that I enjoyed everything to do with being creative. I have spent my life making time to do the things that I love to do.  I found this quote on Pinterest yesterday.

Source: squid81.tumblr.com via Margot on Pinterest

I have to give it a hardy amen! Yep I believe it is true. I can choose who I will spend time with. I can surround my self with people who are inspiring or I can spend my time with couch potatoes, or I can spend my time with the grumpy and negitive folks. Jim Rohn said: ” we become the combined average of the FIVE people we associate most with” Yikes who are you hanging out with. Hopefully Jesus makes your list.   Heres another similar quote "The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are. ~Malcolm Gladwell

In thinking outside of my own box - I am mindful of the people around me and their influence. I try to surround myself with people who are problem solvers, over comers, those who care for others, thankful people. You might want to take a look at the folks in your life and decide who are your positive people, the one's who inspire and encourage you.  Make more time for them and less for the energy vampire folks. The ones who suck the life right out of you with their negativity. 

So hears my outside of the box part of this discussion. What about you - who would have to put you on their list and are you effecting their life in a positive life giving way.  How can you change to become a life giving person?

I like this blessing from Day 17 of Blessing Your Spirit by Sylvia Gunter and Arthur Burk
 " I bless you, ________, with being a leader in your community of faith so that other people spontaneously come to you when they have needs. I bless you to be a wise life-giver, not an enabler who inappropriately meets needs that people should take care of for themselves." 

I have had to learn when it is my place to pray and encourage and when it is something that I am to do something about. I have to believe that people are capable of solving the problems in their own life with God's help. Sadly many are lazy and are looking for others to give them a free ride. They want someone else to tell them what do do when they should be seeking God for them self and taking steps of faith to change.  Change takes courage and faith. It takes making adjustments along the way. It takes trying something and failing repeatedly till you get it right. Think out side the box and give yourself permission to try, to experiment. If it does not work consider it part of the learning process and adjust and try again.

Prayer:
Lord I pray that you help us to make sure you are on our "five" list. That we would make time in our life for you. I pray that you help us to become a life giving not a life sucking person. I pray that you put in us the courage and faith to try and to be over comers as we look at the trials that we face during the course of daily life. I pray that you would surround us with life giving people who inspire and encourage us to be all that you have called us to be. That your hand would be upon us and that we would grow in wisdom, favor and stature and be a blessing in our world and bring glory to your name.