This week we welcome Rev. Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes for a conversation about sustaining creativity. In our first conversation last week we talked with Cláudio about how he created the play “When Wajcha Meets Pachamama.” Watch or listen to Episode 245 to learn about Cláudio’s creative process.
This week I asked Claudio about how he sustains his creativity. He has written seven books in English and almost as many in Portuguese. He teaches worship and liturgy at Union Theological Seminary. Claudio is widely called upon to preach, lecture, facilitate, and consult with groups in the US, Brazil, and many other places globally. Just last week he was a keynote speaker at a regional Cooperative Baptist Fellowship gathering in Texas. Learn more about his work.
Then watch my latest conversation with Cláudio. With the outpouring of his work in so many forms, I wanted to know (don’t you?!) what sustains his creativity?
Cláudio’s imagination about what is needed to sustain creativity is splendid. He says it all with his full self and not just words!
Wonder | Discovery | Joy | Openness
Creating a world in which we want to live!
Climate Crisis
I thought of Cláudio’s work on climate crisis this week while we watched hurricane Helene race across the southern US, leaving a path of destruction, loss of more than 60 lives, widespread flooding, tornadoes, and landslides creating property destruction for over more than 800 miles. As much as 29 inches of rain fell in the Appalachian mountains. This created devastating effects on life and property. People are still trapped without food or water or electricity or cell service or Internet. The only mercy is that it is neither too blisteringly hot nor too freezing cold at the moment.
But lives cannot be replaced. The emotional cost cannot be calculated. Repairs to major highways and infrastructure will take months and years. The total loss of people’s homes, business, hospitals and buildings throughout their communities will simply never be restored in some cases. The cost of recovery and construction has not yet been counted.
When I consider the power of a hurricane, it does inspire awe and wonder and also terror. Water has so many purposes. As do fire and earth. These elements along with gravity hold us here on the planet, and they support, nourish, and give us shelter and sustenance. These elements also can turn on a dime to become weapons of destruction.
Prayer and Questions
I have been praying near constantly for the safety and well-being of so many friends and colleagues across the region. But we have to do something more than pray with our words in our hearts. It is the place to begin, but as my congregation asked this morning in worship, Where do we go from here?
The scripture text we heard this morning was from the book of Ruth. In the story, Ruth declares she will follow her mother-in-law Naomi to a new place for a new life, and she makes her choice out of a deep sense of loyalty and love.
As we respond to the climate emergency, we need to begin with life and love and loyalty to one another’s well-being.
As Cláudio points out, we know the climate science. It is not hard to learn, despite public doubts and climate denial. It doesn’t take long to see the changes and the predictions for future. But knowing the science and the factual basis of what may be coming, is only a start. It is not enough to set a pathway to change.
Climate Calling
What is the calling of the church and people of faith to respond to this crisis? Maintaining a sense of creativity as Claudio suggest today in our brief conversation is essential. Without creativity and engagement our responses will be meager indeed.
One of Cláudio’s responses in writing the play “When Wajcha Met Pachamama” was to use humor and childlike wonder to address the crisis.
There’s plenty of doom and gloom about the climate crisis. Of course, we are in a very scary situation. But constant pessimism does nothing to fix the problem; it simply breeds anxiety and paralysis. By bringing this issue to the theater in a fun, relatable way, we can inspire people to feel hopeful and take action.
–Rev. Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes
Part of the message of the play is that human beings need to recover their sense of belonging to the Earth and to each other. Cláudio’s wisdom about maintaining and sustaining a creative life is equally wise for strengthening our connections with each other and our planetary home:
Wonder | Discovery | Joy | Openness
Creating a world in which we want to live!
Calling to Write?
If one of your responses to the climate emergency is to write, and raise consciousness for others and to recommend life-giving solutions, then I want to invite you to write with me.
Already people who come to the Writing Table are writing about the climate crisis — among many other important topics. I want to support people who write about faith and spirituality and the practice of ministry. And for whatever calling God has offered to you, I want to invite you not to go alone. But to join me and other writers in the work of supporting each other in our habits, so we can put more good ideas and rituals and inspiration for change into the world.
Join me in October for a four-part workshop on “How to Write and Publish for Faith, Spirituality, and Ministry.”
If you want to know more about the workshop series, please watch this short video. I’ll tell you more! But registration for the workshop ends October 7! So jump in today!
