Dorcas McPhee copied the sentence into her sketchbook: “God spoke today in flowers and I, who was waiting on words almost missed the conversation.” And then, around the quotation she painted delicate stems and buds, opening petals. She showed us the beautiful result during a talk at a local church on the place of creativity in her life as a Christian.
“I’m an artist,” Dorcas told us, “a spiritual director. I lead retreats. I’m a mother.
” And she added very bravely: “I’m a widow.” For her, each of those roles involves a creativity which brings healing both to her, and to those who know her or see her work. Creativity is important as she seeks to be still in God’s presence.
As she daily writes in her reflective journal, words and thoughts well up from deep within her. Soon she finds herself praying. • • • She paints and draws regularly in her sketchbooks, she shares work on Instagram ( ), she writes poetry and creates pottery.
As a trained spiritual director, she will sit with someone, creating a hospitable space where they feel utterly secure and accompanying them as they reflect on their journey and ponder the way ahead. Dorcas prays for insight, and for wisdom to know when to speak and when to be silent - and this too is a creative process. As a retreat leader, she encourages people to use metaphors, words and art to connect with themselves, and with God.
As a mother, her creativity ensures her three children have a stable environment where playfulness and joy are not strangers. Dorcas describes her husband Kevin’s long illness, his ultimate death and the resultant fracturing of the life she knew. She explains how her own creativity, and work by others facing similar anguish help her during the long period of grieving.
“Grief has no end,” she says. “It’s an ongoing part of life.” Dorcas believes that to be truly alive is a creative act.
In a world with so much darkness and despair, creativity brings life and hope. She urges us to be attentive to beauty - fixing our eyes on what is lovely, and encountering nature as a poem without words, the work of a God whose creation we are. And she urges us, in all our daily actions, conversations and practical tasks as well as the things we specifically call ‘creative’ to find ways of adding to the beauty thereby enriching ourselves and others.
I believe God is forever speaking to us - through words, sometimes, but also in the everyday wonders of nature and through other people, for we too, despite our flaws are God’s creation. God, the artist stepping into the canvas, the playwright mingling with actors on stage, patiently waits to meet us. Let’s not miss the conversation!.
