Start with What Is
The great thing about process play is that all you have to do is start where you are. My invitation to you yes you today is to start in any channel that calls to you, and begin with “sketching” or describing whatever’s present for you right now, whatever’s largest in your experience.
As you begin to sink into (synch into) what you are able to get ahold of right here right now, as long as you give it all the time and space it needs, the process will eventually begin to flow a little (or a lot). In the beginning your goal is to simply describe or touch base with the reality you’re in right now, or the theme that‘s front and center for you.
After a while you may feel impulses to change, to move into different territory - in short, a journey may begin. You may even discover a “someone” inside you - who you realize felt like she/he was you, but maybe isn’t the whole you - in other words, a part.
Whatever the channel, if you are looking for them, you can see that creative process play unearths parts - characters within you, pieces of you. Once you have seen them and come to know them a little bit, you can direct healing energies towards them, or engage with them out of the kindness in your heart.
I find that this pattern is not uncommon in creative process play
Right Now it’s Like This
I wish It was more like this - wouldn’t that be nice?
But for now let me come back to reality - it’s this this this.
But…maybe I could get some help for this…maybe this isn’t my whole experience. Maybe this is a part who needs some love.
What process “story” comes out of your process exploration?
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The following poem is an example of process play in the creative writing channel, in this case poetry. You can see how beginning with how I feel now shifted into description of a better feeling state, a dream/desire, then shifted back into “but for now, this” and finally uncovered a part, for whom I was able to feel compassion and on whose behalf I could ask the universe for some help.
Overcome with Love the One Within
No matter how you slice it,
I'm just not that happy to be here
in this world, where everything is
corroded, buckled under
like a shoddy road.
I welcome the vast terrain that wants to rise up
from underneath it - that kind of a sea
I could embrace with my arms wide open
hoping for oblivion at last.
But just to be here, day after day
during an interminable decline
a beam dissolved from within
by the termites of divine work, no...
To be in the wilderness, yes
to be a sash, a swath of light-glowed lands, yes
to be wide open and filled with wind, yes, of course
To be there for the resolution of the bell
when the dissonance resolves into harmony, thirteen-parted
richer than anything I ever dreamed -
richer because of the body in it
more tender because of the fragility in it -
of course in those times,
gratitude flows wildly in my heart
and I am like the ice that feels herself
happy, melting in the big salt sea.
But for the rest of the time, in buzz, in turmoil, at climb,
grappling resistance, fighting jangle,
I have no taste for it
no love for it,
I say darkly,
ashamed,
but speaking true.
How long it feels, this dusk voyage
counting endless dim landmarks, lightless forms, shadow shapes
not ready to illumine.
Where does the joy come from,
living in the land of deep-buried seeds, long dead of heart,
where bud and bloom are
rarely known, fleeting and not enough,
just not enough to fill me.
I ask for courage,
your strength to go on,
spirit of celebration,
some will to be in love,
will to love the shattered,
to see the wholeness it once was
and will again become.
To overcome with love the one within me
who lost her will to live,
who would rather close her eyes forever
than take one step further through this barren,
desecrated land.
Give her rest. Give her a break.
Allow her to get over it all. Allow her to receive
again the gentle spark of life, the life that loves
itself, that naturally loves
all life,
make her life-facing
Rethread her.
Because the tear
is not her fault, no matter how she bears it, poorly or well
Go to her, she needs you now,
please.
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Would you like to send me examples - recordings, drawings, videos, writings - of your process play? If so, I would be beyond delighted to receive them and I will cherish them a lot. Think about it.
Have fun!
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Thumbnail image reverently appropriated from John Alcorn’s illustrations for The Fireside Book of Children’s Songs