Category: spirituality and creativity
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On Ecclesiastes, Creative Block, and Taking Next Steps
I don’t believe creative block is limited to artistic work. Simply managing to live our lives can require all kinds of creativity and leave us facing many versions of feeling stuck. I’ve felt it when facing organizational projects, gatherings of people (have I mentioned I’m an introvert?), house cleaning, degreasing my bike chain, and visiting…
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On Ecclesiastes and Women
I’m trying to imagine myself among those gathered to hear Qohelet speak. (Qohelet, Koheleth, the Preacher, the Teacher – different translations of the Bible refer to the author of Ecclesiastes in different ways.) Would there be any other women there, and would we even have opportunity to experiment in the ways Qohelet says he experimented,…
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On Ecclesiastes and Hope … or Not
Does a story (or any other creative work, for that matter) need to evoke hope if it’s to be life-giving? Or liberating? Or beautiful, true, or otherwise “good”? I’ve been pondering this since a conversation with colleagues a while back. As I’ve mentioned, I’m in the middle of something called the Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Seminar (RSA),…
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On Ecclesiastes and Pushing Back
What if I told you that all your efforts amounted to no more than a mere breath? And not even to a deep and life-giving breath, but only the weak vapor of an exhale? Hevel – breath. It’s the Hebrew word the King James Bible translates as “vanity.” More recently, Robert Alter has translated it as “mere breath,” like…
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On Difficult Legacies: A Reflection for All Saints’ Day
All Saints’ Day gives us opportunities to grapple with the sometimes-complicated legacies of important figures in our lives. These people were not, after all, perfect. The person who inspired us may have also disappointed us. The figure who exemplified love may have also exhibited spectacular dysfunction. To reflect on sorting through these difficult legacies, I…
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Living in Color: Working with the Difficult Parts of Our Lives
In “Quietness” the Sufi mystic poet Rumi speaks of taking an axe to one’s prison wall and walking out “like someone suddenly born into color” (trans. by Coleman Barks). It’s left me thinking of how many prisons humans build – both literal and metaphorical – and how often they do not serve the purposes of…
About the author
Callie J. Smith writes about women who, like her, are finding themselves. Her stories and essays explore everyday things like hope, creativity, and grief.
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Callie J. Smith 