As most of you probably know, I’m an artist. I don’t just cartoon. I also paint and draw.
I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.
Now, I always used to draw and paint and just enjoyed it. I thought I was doing it just for the pleasure of it. Yes, as an artist, I get caught in the paradox of painting for pleasure and painting for profit. But the truth is I always enjoy it. I always derive great pleasure not only in the process of painting, but in showing and and selling it.
It wasn’t until I did the Sophia drawings that I realized something else, and something very powerful, was going on.
I started drawing this young woman, or even a girl, a year or so after I left the ministry in 2010. The first one I drew was “Fearless”… the one with the girl holding up her teddy bear to a huge standing grizzly bear. Even Lisa remarked, “What is THAT about?!” Because I’d never drawn anything like this before. It was totally unique for me, totally out of left field, and totally unrehearsed.
Over the next two years I drew a total of 59 images… which now, along with 59 meditations…compose my most popular book, “The Liberation of Sophia”.
It wasn’t until about the tenth drawing or so that I suddenly realized something else was going on. I noticed some things that day:
1. I was compelled to draw them.
2. I had no idea what I was going to draw until I sat down to draw.
3. It always was about this young woman or girl on a journey.
4. I was totally absorbed in the drawing as if I was in deep meditation.
5. They always made me very emotional and I wasn’t sure why.
6. So many people, especially women, identified with her.
I had a kind of revelation: Sophia was me! This was me. My journey! This was totally about me drawing from my unconscious my own spiritual journey out of bondage and into my own spiritual freedom and independence!
What a thrill that was to realize it. So, even though I’d already drawn ten or so, I kept going. I just let it happen. Even though I now consciously knew what was going on, I became intentional about it. I would sit down (usually after Lisa went to work on night shifts), and just start to draw without engaging my conscious mind. I would just let it flow. I was sometimes surprised by what I was drawing, but I was always moved by it, and always further educated about what must be going on inside of me.
By the time I was finished drawing the series, I realized I had gotten to the place Sophia had: she knew, with deep joy and even embarrassment, that she was an angel… meaning she was free, independent, beautiful, awesome, and powerful.
You see, I’m still a little embarrassed to say that, because I’m saying it about myself.
I believe my creativity not only expressed my spiritual journey, and not only fueled my spiritual journey, but in a very deep way, WAS my spiritual journey. Like I can point in a mirror and say, “That’s me!”, I could point to “The Liberation of Sophia” and say, “That’s me!”
So I always encourage people to find a creative way to express themselves during their spiritual transitions. Why? Because it will:
1. Help you express it. It really does take the steam off and help you progress to the next stage.
2. Inspire you to continue. It will actually give you the spiritual energy needed to move on.
3. Reveal to you what’s going on.
Also, it not only documents your inner journey, but plants it in your body. The drawing and drawings helped me pull the spiritual journey out of the clouds down into what was going on in my body, on the earth, right here right now. It became visible and tactile. It made it real and not imaginary. It gave me a product that I could hold in my hands so that I could say, “My spiritual evolution isn’t just in my head. Look! I made this!”
I believe there are all kinds of ways to be creative in spiritual evolution.
What about these?
1. photography
2. interpretative dance
3. poetry
4. song-writing
5. sculpture
6. knitting
7. cooking/baking
8. architecture/design
9. conceptual/performance art
10. writing
There’s just so much to choose from. Just create something and document/record it. It’s a very powerful way of not just noting your progress, but of fueling it.
And what you end up is absolutely you… free, independent, beautiful, awesome, and powerful!
I’ve actually been thinking about doing some kind of course in this… Creative Spirituality. Because I don’t think I could have done what I did without Sophia’s guidance.
Actually, Sophia is me! So what I’m saying is I don’t think I could have become David without David.