Resilience - Creativity born in times of disaster
You can listen to this article if you prefer -
In the photo you can see-
A beautiful embroidery of the Jacobean ‘Tree of Life’ It is ‘Crewel Embroidery’ done by my grandmother.
My monkey, I painted in acrylic.
A card depicting a Bodhisattva drawn by Yukari.
troubling times
The serenity prayer embroidery was made for me by my Aunty Eileen
she gave it to me when I first started to raise awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong in 2011
it gave me strength and encouragement
Today I have been thinking about certain aspects of life.
Devastation, war, destruction, pain, suffering, chaos, lack of control, hopelessness, loss of freedom, loss, the feelings evoked such as ‘what is the point?’, ‘what difference can I make?’ All of these feelings may pop up from time to time. For some, living in war zones or locked up without freedom, it may be that this is a constant fear. A constant reminder of the impermanence of life. Yet, whilst we endure such incredible frightening and difficult situations, life still goes on amongst it.
Over the years, I have been surprised time and time again reading stories of resilience. I’m hesitant to share links to media which illustrate this, as I don’t want to make the wrong step and it become political and these days you can end up promoting propaganda or an agenda you would rather not be propping up unwittingly. There seems to be so much misinformation and disinformation around. I’d like to avoid that.
resilience
There is always an agenda or some sort. Mine is about bouncing back from adversity. What I want to focus on is resilience. People have shown resilience no matter what side of the political spectrum they’re perceived to be on. What springs to mind are stories and images of musicians playing in war torn devastation, bombed apartments collapsed around them, tattered curtains blowing in the dust filled air. Some play to comfort themselves and those around them, others to make a statement of opposition or defiance.
Although I don’t know anything else about this man, one such story I came across was of Karim Wasfi, the conductor of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra who played at the site in Baghdad where a car bomb had just killed at least 10 people and injured many more. He turned up, took out his cello, sat down on a chair, and started to play. Images and video clips went viral around the world. In his words ‘It was an action to try to equalise things, to reach the equilibrium between ugliness, insanity and grotesque, indecent acts of terror – to equalise it, or to overcome it, by acts of beauty, creativity and refinement.’
When asked if the act of playing the cello was the opposite to the act of detonating a bomb he answered; ‘Yes. Creating life, basically. I don’t want that to turn into an inevitability of the situation in Iraq: death experienced on a daily basis. No, I want to do the opposite. Life is experienced on a daily basis. Even though we don’t experience normalcy. When things are normal, I will have more responsibilities and obligations. But when things are insane and abnormal like that, I have the obligation of inspiring people, sharing hope, perseverance, dedication, and preserving the momentum of life.’
It seems like a good intent and answer to me. (Please let me know if you know more about this story.)
Other images that stick in my mind are of people playing the piano; a man in his bombed out apartment in Syria, an image of the pianist of Sarajevo, a man in a photo of the London Blitz playing a broken piano perching on the top of a pile of rubble with the silhouettes of collapsed buildings in the background.
The story of the band playing as the Titanic sank is one we are all probably more familiar with. Some of the survivors later reported that the ship’s string ensemble played a hymn as it sank; It was said that on 15 April the eight-member band, led by Wallace Hartley, assembled in the first-class lounge in an effort to keep passengers calm and upbeat. Later they moved on to the boat deck where they continued playing as the ship sank and all members perished. They sang “Nearer, My God, to Thee”.
More recently, if you do a quick search on YouTube for ‘Italians singing in lockdown’, it takes you to people singing on their balconies to lift people’s sprits. There are other videos from around the world with people singing, playing music, violinists and flautists playing classical music with an audience of silent people listening from their neighbouring balconies. I saw a lady in Wales singing to her neighbourhood from her garden using a microphone and her amp, a gesture of kindness and it was certainly appreciated going by the cheering and clapping you could hear at the end of her performance and the comments people had left on her video.
There are so many stories like this. It doesn’t take long to find them if you look.
china before communism
Quite often I mention Shen Yun Performing Arts, my all time favourite show, who are on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture - ‘China before communism’. Shen Yun was set up by professional artists; dancers and musicians some of whom who had fled China escaping persecution and assembled in New York to continue their beautiful arts and skills, and with this noble mission. I’ve been enjoying listening to some of the audience reviews and interviews as they tour the world in 2022. So many people are inspired by their message of hope in these difficult times.
Shen Yun’s mission is to help save the world’s people, it is helping people see the importance of Divine culture in our lives, that of higher morals and universal principles such as truth, compassion, honour, and reminding us that there is a much higher arrangement than we realise, and people have said they leave the performance feeling much more hopeful about the future. Many state that they dream of a better world where people return to a more traditional way of life embracing kindness and all those good values and morals.
People are amazing, I hope you remember this, we are all amazing. Never lose hope, and never give up.
I inherited some beautiful pieces of embroidery (you can see these beautiful pieces of birds and flowers my Auntie Eileen did).
This depiction of trees and hills was done by my grand mother, possibly of Scotland with purple heather in the distance, and was her first embroidery which she made during the York blitz.
My Auntie Eileen, dad’s sister and my grand mother had been evacuated from York during World War II and sent to live with a couple in their home belonging to the Rowntree Family. They lived for some time with this family, a man and his wife. Even there, my auntie can remember hiding under the table as bomb sirens sounded.
They’d had to move out of their home for some time after a direct hit from a bomb at the end of their street had damaged their homes. My Auntie remembers some shrapnel bursting through the wall above her head, next to her wooden cross of Jesus Christ hanging above her bed, as she lay there. It was embedded in the wall at the other end of the room. She was a devout Christian and believes that God protected her. We still have the cross and the shrapnel. It’s a pretty horrifying thought that something so small can inflict so much devastation, and unbelievable that she wasn’t hurt.
Past Times. Pass Times
During that very unsettling and perilous time, life still had to go on. She told me that during these times, many people gathered together to make things, to be creative, to sing, to play music and a lot of the schools and Church halls, which were closed for safety most of the time, had gatherings when it was a bit quieter.
Her mother took her to a school hall to learn embroidery, and this is where both my grandmother and aunt began to learn their skills. How amazing. Up until her death, my aunt created some beautiful pieces, some small contributions are part of the Leeds Tapestries still displayed today. I have also saved many other pieces, and some are even from my Uncle’s parents, some are really old, passed down, their makers now unknown, but as time goes back, the skills in exhibited in this collection were more exquisite and intricately dainty.
My grand mother continued embroidery and also played the piano until she could no longer use her fingers due to arthritis in her old age. She died at nearly 80, my aunt was 82. I truly believe whatever experiences they had in their earlier lives made them tough.
In fact, in our home here, I have a beautiful oak bureau which belonged to my dad’s parents. It is a constant reminder of how fragile life can be - it has been repaired badly from a direct shrapnel hit right in the centre of the folding down door. It happened in the blitz in York during World War II.
Let us not forget. Life is so precious.
moving forward in difficult times
On a more personal note, since 2011, when I found out that the Chinese communist regime are harvesting organs for profit from Falun Dafa peaceful meditators and others in China, the Uighurs, house church Christians, Tibetans, and many, many others, I have worked really hard to make sure people aware of what is going on there, and to alert people about the ties and connections all around the world, in every level of society, to this evil regime.
Forced, live organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience started in Wuhan, China - the origin of the covid19 CCP virus. There are so many other dark secrets yet to come to light, that I know will shock the world to it’s core. The level of complicity is utterly disturbing.
So I’d say, to get through these times, and the times ahead, it is really important to find some solace.
My way to do this is like my ancestors - In between the dark work I’m doing, to highlight atrocities, I get creative.
In fact, that is actually how Carry Forth Tradition came to life. As you may know, I started it at the beginning of lockdown in 2020 when I was staying with my parents. In the summer of 2020, poor mum fractured her spine and found out she has osteoporosis, she was crippled with pain for months, and at the same time, my dad needed emergency spinal surgery. We were just on the way out of the door to the hospital, when he was called and told he had cancer of the oesophagus. He was then later told he had 6 months to live. I took care of him with mum until he died at their home.
Now, I know this may seem bizarre to many, but the pressure and stress I was under, not to mention the fear levels we were all breaking through due to constant bombardment and reminders of the pandemic, actually helped me to focus on being creative. In fact, aside of my practice of Falun Dafa; the daily meditation and exercises I do, being creative at that time was the only place left to go which didn’t hurt, or wasn’t scary. It was light relief that kept me going, and still does. I really value the importance of being creative. Since then I have bought and am learning to play the harp!
And now a little confession - the photo of the black work embroidery is something I still have yet to complete. I started it for my husband’s 40th and now we are both 50. I made a promise to my dying aunt to finish it for him, so I will make sure I do. Funnily enough, I started it in times of adversity - when I was suffering with M.E. before my recovery. At the time, it took me a few hours to do only a few stitches. Needless to say as I deteriorated, I sadly put it away in a drawer. It took me a long time to get it back out.
When I did, over the years more stitches were added, and bit by bit it has grown. It’s a work in progress and is very much linked to whatever is going on in my life. But I am determined to finish it - now all I seem to lack is time. Or maybe that is an excuse.
I truly believe that we are creative beings.
So please let your creativity come through in times of adversity, it is such a good thing to do.
Maybe it is waiting there for you to set it free.
