Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

Hopping through the Blogosphere

September 20th, 2008

Ok, so today I have spent a lazy morning/afternoon catching up on blogs from some of my favorite bloggers. Because the rhythms of my life have changed a lot since the end of July I haven’t spent as much time reading people’s blogs and I realized today that I have missed out on a lot of great thoughts and ideas. It was fun to rediscover some blogs and to see what God is stirring in people. So, here’s a little round up of some of my favorite blogs from this week:

I was very moved by this Broken Blessing posted on Jonny Baker’s site. I have always been inspired by Jonny and his community’s creativity in engaging with God and with each other and I was especially touched by this blessing which was improvised during a gathering they had where they gave each person a broken piece of ceramic and then had them put it on a table making a table top out of all their broken pieces. They then served communion from the broken table. I just loved this imagery and loved the idea of giving tangible expression to inner truth like that.

I love anything that speaks about community and ways in which community is formed and things that contribute to authentic community, so it’s no surprise that the post “How Do We Form Community?” on Christine Sine’s blog caught my attention. Just last night Bryan and I were talking with some friends at dinner about interdependent in community and what community can look like. I don’t know exactly how community is/should be formed in this unique urban cross-cultural setting we live in, but I think that Christine points to a good starting point that works in any setting – cooking and sharing a meal together.

I recently read “On being a Neighborhood Church” on Jesus Manifesto where Mark Van Steenwyk explains their rather “narrow” ministry focus. They have chosen to focus their ministry on just one neighborhood in Minneapolis and I found his explanation for why to be really interesting. The thought of living in close physical proximity with the people of my spiritual community has always been appealing to me. The other day I was talking with a friend after yoga and she made the remark “it’s too bad that we don’t all live closer to each other” and I realized that it really is too bad. Engaging in true authentic day-to-day interdependent community becomes a lot harder when your community members are spread all over the city, even when that city is a city like Prague, which is fairly small and manageable with great public transportation.

I also discovered today that Amber at Homeschool Diva is “Calling All Artists”. She wants to start an Etsy store with a collection of creative work from different artists and then donating the proceeds to Lemonade International. So, if you like creating things and are interested in an opportunity to collaborate with other artists in creating for social good, check out her site and drop her a note.

Here are two companies that I found today that I thought were interesting. The first is an accessory and jewelry seller, called Sweet Notions. They clean up and repair old donated accessories to resell and then they donate the profits to charitable and socially responsible, sustainable enterprises. The second is an eclectic enterprise call The School of Life which I found INCREDABLY interesting. They describe their shop by saying it is “a place where you can try out a variety of cultural solutions to everyday ailments.” They “sell books, artworks, courses, holidays and therapeutic services.” They even offer something they call Bibliotherapy – where they will meet with you and recommend/”prescribe” books that they feell will be perfect for you. They also offer organized group meals with strangers, because they believe that “knowing how to have entertaining and meaningful conversations is a skill worth practicing.” During these dinners they provide a “specially-designed conversation menu, an easy to use guide that helps you get the most from talking to a stranger.” I found their site and the concept very entertaining and interesting.

 Well, that’s it for now. Enjoy blog hopping! J

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

Never Miss A Post – Receive free updates via RSS or Email

If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)



Yoga and Prayer: Creativity

September 18th, 2008

I believe that God is immensely creative, that seems so clear to me as I get to know him better and see how he works in people’s lives. And I also believe that we, as his creatures, are each and every one of us, creative beings. We were created to create (among other things). Lately, I have deeply desired to create. I feel like there is all this pent up creative energy in me that is pushing to be let free. So, as I designed the yoga routine for our women’s time of prayer this week I really focused on poses that are suppose to inspire creativity and productivity.

We did the whole asana series with Bach playing in the back ground and smiles on our faces. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did J

Sun Salutations (2 sets)

Crow Pose

Kundalini yoga chair pose

Kundalini Yoga Jesus Pose

Cat Cow pose

Child’s pose

Bow pose

Child’s pose

Bound Angle Pose  - from this pose we grabbed our angles and made circles with our bodies, first one direction and then the other

Neck rolls

Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose (with right leg straight)

Head-to-Knee forward bend (with right leg straight)

One-legged  King pigeon pose (with right leg straight)

Half lord of the fishes pose (with right leg over left)

(Do the last four poses on the other side)

Seated forward bend

Wide angle seated forward bend

Bound angle pose 

Then we did THIS sequence of poses working up to Blossoming Lotus Pose 

Forward bend in Bound Angle Pose

Bridge Pose

Kundalini Yoga Stretch Pose

Half Shoulderstand

Plow pose

Corpse Pose

After a little while in Corpse pose we came up to Easy Pose and had a short time of meditation with our hands making a circle on our laps (right finger tips rest on top of left finger tips and thumbs touch lightly making a circle). During this time of meditation we focused our attention on the spot just below our belly button – where our wombs are and the place where life is created. Lord, make our whole lives fertile with creativity.

After a little while my friend, Elaine, led us in a beautiful prayer and then I closed with Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

But, I think my favorite part of the morning was that after we were done we sat around and talked for a while and then as some concerns and issues were shared in the conversation we just naturally jumped back into prayer – it was beautiful. I feel so blessed to have this time with these wonderful women! Thank you, Lord! Thank you!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

Never Miss A Post – Receive free updates via RSS or Email

If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)



Roundup From Around The Web: Extreme! :)

February 19th, 2008

Do you ever have days when you just feel inadequate… un-used… un-creative… out of the loop? I feel a little bit like that right now…
I worked a ridiculously long day yesterday which was not fun, but some good things came out of it I think… well for one I got a lot of hours out of the way and a lot done, but maybe more interestingly I was able to spend a lot of time blog hopping and reading articles and watching interesting video clips (my job requires me to spend a lot of time on the computer but often the work is rather monotonous and can be done while listening to lectures, half watching video clips, etc – I still struggle sometimes with whether or not it is ethical for me to do these things while working but then I think that if I couldn’t do them I would probably go insane from the monotony and end up quitting my job which I don’t think is what I or my employer would want…so, I continue). Anyway, I found a lot of interesting posts and articles and videos that I would like to now share…

First, some stories…

Here is a story about a female referee that one school wouldn’t let ref because they said they didn’t believe women should be in authority over men – personally I thought this was ridiculous and I was very proud of her male co-workers who, when they heard about what happened, decided to protest by not working for refereeing for this school  

This post gives a beautiful and extremely challenging picture of what it means to really follow Jesus and what it means to follow Jesus despite our clumsy and often broken efforts.

I have been reading this blog off and on for a few weeks now but this particular post really stood out to me. It is a beautiful story of history and love. Reading it made me cry.

Second, some challenging discussions…

In this post an introvert wonders about hospitality and what radical hospitality should look like. “I wonder if stretching myself in this area is good discipline, or if it is actually being untrue to the person I am? Is it more genuine to just let my friends know that I am introvert who enjoys their company, but needs to get away, or should I look at pushing thru this and learning how to live in a different way, while still being who I am?” The comments here are also really interesting.

Sarah at Accidental Blog discusses whether or not there is a “right” expression of ecclesia.

Third, some other interesting thoughts…

Theopraxis discusses Isolation and the Suburban Condition – I found this to be an interesting post giving me a lot to chew on.

I just found this blog today and came across this post about this families “consumption fast” very interesting and challenging. The idea is that they aren’t going to spend any money (no shopping, eating out, movies, etc) except for paying bills and buying necessary groceries. Bryan and I have gone through periods where we have basically unconsciously done this because of necessity for a week or two here and there but I was really intrigued with this families goal of doing this intentionally for months straight (until July). Check it out to read his thoughts on the idea.

Here is an interview with N.T. Wright discussing Heaven… Interesting stuff.

Fourth, some very interesting videos…

This video is a clip of David Fitch talking about Church Planting Via Missional Orders. I found it very interesting and challenging.

My friend recently told me about TED and the videos that are now being shared from that gathering of people. I haven’t watched that many of them yet but they are FASCINATING. Basically each video is about 15 to 20 minutes long and they are little mini lectures about a variety of topics given by a variety of people (business professionals mostly it seems) – seriously very interesting videos. In this one Hans Rosling debunks common myths about developing nations using some fascinating media and enlightening statistics. In this other video John Doeer talks about climate change and green technologies (I personally found him a little extreme to listen to but I agree that we need to take better care of the earth that has been entrusted to us and I really do think that greentech can not only be good for the planet but can also be profitable and economical. In this video Larry Lessig talks about how creativity is being strangled by the law and talks about how we need new creative laws to deal with the advancements we are facing.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on any or all of these!  :-)

 

Rejoicing in the journey –
Beth Stedman

Never Miss A Post – Receive free updates via RSS or Email

If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)