Unlocking the Creative

Grace and Peace Friends,

I know that I have mentioned this quote by Niels Bohr before, however, it is one of the foundational thoughts by which I navigate my life. Several years ago, I came across an article about Rick Warren who wrote Purpose Driven Life. He made a comment on life that still challenges me today. He shared how life has two rails to it. In the season that the article was written, he was in a season of financial success that he had only dreamed about. They had paid their church back all the years that they received salaries and still had resources to live their lives, driven by purpose. But, at the same time, his wife found out she had cancer and had to fight that battle. Rick’s point was that the good and the bad did not cancel each other out. They were both fully true and existing at the same time. So many times, I want to make things all bad so once I get through them there will then be a season where everything is all good. But life just doesn’t work that way.

One of the greatest gifts over the past several years has been the opportunity to work with my sister, Jessica. We may be sisters, however, our talents and personalities are basically the opposite of each other. We started working together full time in 2006 and life was great. Up until that point, we had not had an argument (except for a fateful card game). But finally we reached the limits of ourselves and how we operated together and were challenged with where and how do we go from here? It is one thing to operate as two individuals working on one task versus a team of two distinct individuals working towards one goal. During that season, we had to be committed to our relationship first and we had to be willing to change and take ourselves on.

There are many lessons from this season but one of them really highlights this principle. One day Jessica and I were talking and she shared this thought (or at least this is what I got out of the conversation!): Many times in life we are in a space of tension of two competing thoughts and we work so hard to get rid of the tension but the truth often lies in the midst of the tension. So instead of working on getting rid of the tension, figure out how to best operate in it. We need to live life between the tensions of two profound truths that may seem contradictory instead of trying to reconcile or dishonoring one of them. (BTW, this is different than the tension of issues being unresolved in a relationship, etc.)

A good example of what this tension looks like is Rick Warren experiencing his greatest joy and greatest pain simultaneously. It’s both Jessica’s gift of infrastructure and my gift of creativity that gives Carpe Diem its capacity to grow. This gift of balance in the midst of the tension is what produces healthiness. It allows space for agreement in the midst of the complexity of different perspectives and different frameworks. It honors the unique workmanship we all bring to the table. It’s the space that allows the sum of the whole to be greater than the individual pieces can on their own.

I remember a key turning point when we were working on the wording for our Carpe Diem company car wraps. We had tried different things on our own but they just didn’t sing as the right wording for us. So, we decided to spend some time together working on it and through that process we got the slogan-“ We’ve got Housecleaning Maid!” Neither of us would have come up with it on our own. It was a mix of both of our insights. you could not say: “This word was Jessica’s idea and that word was Wendy’s idea.” The sum was greater than the parts.

If I had to summarize this idea, I think it is better to find the both/and in life versus the either/or within the boundaries of truth.

If by Rudyard Kipling 

If you can keep your head when all about you 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; 
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
But make allowance for their doubting too: 
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, 
Or being hated don't give way to hating, 
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; 

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master; 
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim, 
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 
And treat those two impostors just the same. 
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken 
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, 
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools; 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 
And lose, and start again at your beginnings, 
And never breathe a word about your loss: 
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 
To serve your turn long after they are gone, 
And so hold on when there is nothing in you 
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, 
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch, 
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 
If all men count with you, but none too much: 
If you can fill the unforgiving minute 
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, 
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, 
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son! 

Blessings,
Wendy