This is the my recount of what happened at Inner Space
Manila, September 18, Saturday.
Gaggles of laughter streamed out of the
room as I entered the studio of Inner Space Manila. A comfortable atmosphere welcomed
me and my classmates as we fell in line to register our names on the front
desk. We chose our seats and started joining the talking and laughing that
filled the room. The noise stopped when Sister Lucy Perez went in front &
introduced herself. When she started talking, the students became quiet to
listen to her. On a light tone, she asked why we suddenly seemed shy when we
were already enjoying ourselves talking to each other. She continued addressing
us, talking about how Inner Space Manila was formed. Inner Space Manila is a
branch of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. It is a place where
you do meditation, knowing yourself, and such. Our purpose at that time was a
creativity workshop. Sister Lucy noticed me smiling and asked me to stand with
her in front. She asked me why I was smiling and I told her on the microphone,
that it felt good being there. She asked me why I was there, at Inner Space,
and I answered truthfully that it was a required activity that our professor
prepared for her art studies classes. She did not take in the answer negatively
(I assumed that she knows that, too.) and addressed the rest of the audience
about how it is good that I told the truth. Then, she said something
encouraging: that it was still our own choices that brought us to that place.
If we did not want to, even if it was an academic requirement, we would not
have come. That was true. And it felt good to hear her saying this. She continued addressing us and asking other
students after I returned to my seat. After a while, a song played as Sister
Lucy persuaded us to dance and move our bodies to practice being flexible, a
characteristic of someone creative. Inner peace lets you flex with changes.
Even in dancing, it can be seen how deep you are at peace. (Let me explain that
I call her Sister Lucy because they treat each other as brothers & sisters
in their institution.) Ma’am Corpuz came in with the rest of her students and
the place became more lively as some of the students went in front and showed
their dance moves. Sister Lucy told us to do other dance moves, show our
originality. Originality develops creativity, you see.
Wonder Child
Do you remember
when you were still seven-year-olds? Do you remember the emotions you feel? The
curiosity that wells up inside you? How do you express yourself?
Sister Lucy
asked us to group ourselves into three, all the members from different classes.
She asked us to think as if we were seven-year-olds. The she asked us to think
of a name we would have preferred as seven-year-olds. The names are our very
own wonder child.
When we were
just seven-year-olds, we always wanted to create. Whether by drawing or
painting, by sculpting using play dough, by using our imagination. We express
ourselves loudly and in a wide range. Our movements are not limited. We feel
happy with just what we have. We still have inner peace. We are still
ourselves.
As we grow
older, we forgot what we used to do. Our actions became limited. We became
conscious of the social realm where our movements might be judged. We stop
being creative for fear of criticism. We stopped being a person. The society
shapes our being by stripping us of our creativity. Sure, we still draw. We
draw using rulers, stencils, and other tools that make our lines limited. The
infinite possibility of what we can create on our drawings when we were young
became bounded by the characteristics of materials things. For example:
I got an example from ‘The Little Prince’ by
Antoine de Saint Exupéry. See
how a child can transform a seemingly ordinary material to an unusual one? This
is the power of the wonder child.
Listening and
Imagining
The old version
of the song “When You Wish upon a Star” from the Disney movie Pinocchio played.
Pieces of paper containing the song were given to us as we listened, followed,
and sang with the song.
To appreciate
further our being wonder children at the moment, Sister Lucy read us a story.
“Joni is an elf. Being an elf, he knew all the secrets of ‘being’.
Because he knew all the secrets, he was given a mission. He needs to share it
to the snamuh. The Snamuhs are selfish. They only care about material things.
Joni was given a snamuh family where he should share his secrets. He was born
in a royal family of the snamuh and given the name Farquhar. Now Farquhar tried
to share his secret to his parents. But they were always busy ‘doing’. They
would always send Farquhar to his room. They would even hit him when he forced
them to try to listen to him. Farquhar’s parents had curses. His father was
always being bothered by the little ghost of Harriet perched on his shoulder.
Harriet is his father’s mother. She always commanded him to DO. When Farquhar’s
father stops, Harriet would scream continuously until his father returns to
doing. Farquhar’s father grew restless so he did everything to acquire a potion
to stop his heart. Because of the potion, his father did not feel anything even
from Harriet’s demands. On the other hand, his mother has a lightbulb on her
forehead. The lightbulb always flashes to remind Farquhar’s mother to DO. Soon,
Farquhar grew and forgot about his mission. He grew and did. Then he tried
using his father’s potion. Because he was using this potion, he was sent to a
Snamuh hospital. As he lay down at the hospital, his memories of being an elf
returned to him. He remembered his mission. When he opened his eyes, Joni had
his soul back.”
The story was
left open ended for us to continue it. Different outcomes came from the groups.
The general ideas were similar but the details had variations:
One group said:
“No longer Farquhar but still in a Snamuh body, Joni started to continue his
mission. First, he went to his mother and smashed the lightbulb on her
forehead. His mother would not be reminded anymore about doing. They went after
his father and took the rest of the potion from him to give it to Harriet.
Harriet would stop feeling so she would not bother his father any longer.
Because his parents did not need to DO anymore, they began to listen to him.
And Joni successfully shared his secrets to his Snamuh family.”
Another one
said: “Farquhar went to his mother and broke he lightbulb. Then he faced his
father and broke his potion container. He picked up a shard piece and stabbed
Harriet. Then, his mother and father listened to him and he completed his
mission.”
Another said: “Farquhar took the rest of his father’s
concoction and gave it to Harriet. Then he told his secret to his father.
Together, they went to his mother just as the light out of his mother’s bulb
went off. Then they shared the secret to his mother and he completed his
mission.”
Hearint the
different versions of the continuation of the story entertained us and even
made us laugh. See how creative we can get if we wanted to?
Creativity on paper
After the
storytelling, was the most prepared for segement of the workshop. The one we
thought we would be doing the whole time we were there: painting. Sister
Lucy asked us to each paint a tree
before she bid us goodbye early because she had another important meeting to
deal with. We bid her goodbye and continued thinking how to start. Using
watercolor on watercolor papers, we painted our trees. Different colors,
different shapes and sizes. All creative. One looked like it was burning. One
looked like an ice cream. One was portrayed swaying with the wind. Another
looked like it was running with the
wind. Another was done on crumpled paper. I remember a pink tree with a yellow
trunk. The colors of the leaves were taken from cherry blossoms. My tree was
colored brown, green, and blue.
Now those trees
are what we call the products of our creativity.
As a parting
present to all of us, we each received a quotation, either an affirmation or a
reminder for us. We listened one last time to “When You Wish upon a Star”, now
the version by Jesse McCartney.
When You Wish
Upon A Star
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will
come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star as
dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fufillmetn of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
