"I came in here thinking creativity was a kind of talent some of us have and others don't. The readings hammer the point that it's God's reflection."

"We do have a part in it, don't you think?"

"Sure, in the sense it's our choice to be an outlet for God and not close down. The paragraph about closing our eyes and dreaming we see a flower — what part do we play in that? We close our eyes, think flower and an image appears in thought. Is it divine or human — or both? Who created it?"

"And who created the flower we see in our waking life? It's concurrently plant consciousness, human perception and divine idea."

"After my brother died I met him in a dream. He said he was doing just fine, and not to worry. That was a huge relief and I moved forward to embrace him but he said, 'No, no,' and vanished. Was it merely a dream I manufactured to soothe myself or was he actually there? Whichever, it was certainly a healing vision."

"My sister died when she was 12 years old and I was 11. After lots of grieving by my parents and myself, there was a common belief in the household that her spirit moved into my body and merged with my spirit. Today you're looking at both of us in one."

"Wow. You could write that up for Almodóvar — he'd love it!"

"A member who couldn't be here sent us some links to articles on Spirituality.com (Oscar Light and Creativity for Everyone) and a copy of the September 27, 2004 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, all on our topic."

"Oh, that reminds me — another member asked me to tell the group about some of her recent creative breakthroughs. For a long time she'd been suffering on the job, being very insular and trying to do her own thing. Success eluded her. Also for years she'd kept herself a safe distance from her mother who had neglected her and treated her roughly as a child. As our member prayed for insight into how to get her life moving, she reached out to God without preconceptions and suddenly saw what she was doing to herself with all the separation and apartness. She immediately reached out to colleagues at work for help and landed some choice contracts. Then amazingly an opportunity presented itself for her to interact with her mother. This was accomplished with wonderfully loving results. She says she was surprised by these healings. They were definitely a 'God thing' — 'I couldn't possibly have gotten here without divine help.'"

"Boy, that's inspiring! I've been getting a lot of help from a book: It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now, by Barbara Sher. She's a 70-year-old woman who's been knocked around and triumphed. It's helped me address family problems and get closer to my parents and my brother. Also I've gotten the necessary courage to call attention to some infractions of the by-laws by members of a group I belong to. I'd been looking at legal action, but this approach seems the right way to go. I'm continuing with my daily dance practice, working out emotional baggage through movement. Oh, and I haven't had a cigarette since December 27th. I've been working with the idea that every time I want to smoke, I'm really seeking a closer relationship with my Source."

"Hey, I wonder if I could work that same idea sort of backwards. I really hate that my boyfriend smokes. What if I transform my condemnation and judgmental attitude into a desire for my Source? When he lights up, I'll hold us both in the Light of God's love."

"I can't get over how many changes are going on in the group. And I changed my job this week."

"In the hospital — or did you leave?"

"I left, and the last day was a horror. A methadone pill was lost and the whole place went crazy. We searched everywhere and finally started filling out the forms to report the loss. I prayed for harmony and as I was leaning on a desk saying goodbye to my co-workers one of my fingers touched something and it was the lost pill."

"Whew! Where is your new job?"

"I'm a field nurse. I'll be working with HIV and AIDS patients at their homes. I'm excited about the change. It means more flexibility in my work hours and more money. I'm in orientation right now and it's tough, but it'll become much more enjoyable in a week or so."

"Have we got any other healing experiences?"

"I've got one. This week I worked with a practitioner about relationships. I feel I'm hitting my head against a wall not only in the romantic department but even with friendships. The practitioner pointed out that we're infinite — the sky's the limit. We don't have to see ourselves as burdened by previous relation-shipwrecks or childhood traumas."

"I couldn't deal with that. My whole life is built on bad boyfriends and parental outrages."

"I understand completely. I had a very disturbing dream the first night of working with the practitioner. A fat man was killed and stripped down to his nervous system and bladder. When I woke up I asked God, 'What the...?' and the meaning unfolded. It was based in Chinese medicine terms. The bladder is about fear. I have a deeply embedded fear of relationships, right down to the level of my nervous system. A statement came roaring through: 'Cut the bloat and the guff.' I take this to mean not only to get down to essentials humanly, but to translate these into divine ideas. Later that day I managed to flirt with a straight man at the gym."

"And that's progress?"

"Yes. They do it so well. I was able to take it for what it was and let go. Later I had very good sex with the man I see for that — and we were able to say some extremely revealing and intimate things to each other. A measure of bloat receded."

"I want us to think about the negative potential of creativity. Probably our most creative politician is Karl Rove. The all-time most creative movement was the Nazi Party. They far outshone their colorless competitors, because they knew just how to rake up the most reptilian levels of hatred, fear and rage and parade them about, in snappy attire, as national treasures."

"This last election made me wonder whether we'll ever again be able to vote simply and directly on what's best for the nation and see through all the, well, bloat and guff."

"You know both Jesus and Mrs. Eddy gave us the answer. It's the Golden Rule. How would we like to be treated?"

"I ran across an article by P. L. Travers, who wrote the Mary Poppins books. As she investigated the source of her imagination she remembered as the eldest of three kids comforting her siblings during family crises with fantasy stories. She recalled a specific incident, after the death of their father, when their mother 'lost it' one afternoon and rushed outdoors, apparently to commit suicide! Travers stayed with the kids and calmed them with a story of a magic white horse, all the time thinking desperately of the mechanics of drowning and whether rich relations would take them into their homes. The article is in the Spring 1988 issue of Parabola called 'The Creative Response.'"

"Did the mother kill herself?"

"No. She was merely trying to manipulate the kids into showing more love to her."

"How ghastly!"

"Yes. But remember the poor woman had just lost her husband and was desperate for love. It was her own creative response to a bad situation. The two youngest kids rushed to welcome the mother back and love her. Travers saw through the manipulation and remained aloof."

"And she got a world-embracing career out of it. How does Mrs. Eddy's hymn go: 'O make me glad for every scalding tear, For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain! Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.' (Christian Science Hymnal, 207:3)"

"Travers' experience reminds me of my own. Even when I feel emotionally or physically drained I get up and move. In my case dancing and singing help. I'm like the actor Mrs. Eddy describes in Science and Health: 'This old man was so lame that he hobbled every day to the theatre, and sat aching in his chair till his cue was spoken, — a signal which made him as oblivious of physical infirmity as if he had inhaled chloroform, though he was in the full possession of his so-called senses.' (pg. 261:15)"

"I'm finding if I get things right in my creative life, writing sci-fi, everything else falls into place. I've been getting deep into the writing lately, and as a compensation or response or whatever, I'm also having a lot of fun dancing with the salsa group here and losing all inhibitions in the swirl at Splash Bar."

"My New Year's resolution was to develop my creativity. Do you know what happened? My income skyrocketed, I have a new relationship — he wants to see me every day — and I'm losing weight."

"You certainly are. I noticed it right away. You look great."

"We've gone into overtime. We need a topic for next week."

"Let me just mention two book reviews about Gay creative icons in the current New Yorker. They're about Leonardo da Vinci and Christopher Isherwood: 'I, Me, Mine' and 'Renaissance Man'."

"Back to next week's topic. It's Martin Luther King Day Monday — could we have something referring to that?"

"Freedom?"

"Well, he was certainly about freedom, but more than that I think he wanted us to accept and celebrate ethnicity."

"Ethnicity?"

"Do we want to take up Ethnicity?"

"Let's do it."

"Yes."

"Fine."