Reflections From My Camino

My Camino

The following is a reflection from my experience of walking across Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago. 

It is likely you will find these words incongruent, disproportional and mostly inadequate as they stumble along the kilometers of questions. These moments elude the security of sterile boxes labeled with neatly printed identification cards. These moments live only within the pause, between the words. This is why only now I begin to write my thoughts over a month after the walk's end and why even today the story continues to take its shape.

I first offer a few facts about our trip. A “few” facts, partially because recall can only pry selective bits from my memory's tight grasp, but mostly because the trip contains more questions than answers, more feelings than facts. But I know we strongly desire the facts and details that can be catalogued and neatly stored away. Cataloguing helps us forget for a moment that we don't know everything, and makes us believe that even life's uncertainty can be contained with certain labeling. So here are a few:

After spending the night in Barcelona, my wife and I took a train to Pamplona and a bus to St. Jean Pied de Port, France (the start of our foot journey). Here we receive our Pilgrim Passport Booklet, later to be stamped by each hostel and many cafes along the way, and a shell to hang on our backpack – the shell being a symbol of St. James (Santiago). We begin our walk early the next morning.

The path over the Pyrenees was closed due to the late, firm hand winter still held over the mountain range. So, much of our first day's walk takes place on the road. The asphalt road is long and tough on the feet and psyche. The morning is steep with traffic streaming by and rain playing peek-a-boo with the sky only to forfeit to the snow as we reach higher elevation. Towards the top we join the path off the road. Mud, rock, steep snow, legs hurting, cold... very cold. AND, so amazingly beautiful!

It begins snowing heavily after we settle into the hostel for the night. Day 2 we awake to over 2 feet of snow and its accompanied stillness. By the end of the day we will have climbed out of the worst of it and begin our several day thawing period as it gradually gets warmer and greener along the way.

Mountains, hills, long stretches of flat newly-sprouted wheat fields, rocks, dirt, mud, gnarly old hands of grape vines and olive trees bare, sprouting, budding... the path is varied.

Snow, sleet, rain, mist, fog, sun fading contrast in the horizon, windy, breezy, stillness echoing with the sounds of our footsteps, cold, warm, hot sun... the weather is vast.

Retired, sabbatical, wandering, lost, old, young, transitioning, adjusting to a new life, grandparents, grandchildren, mothers, fathers, couples, married and on their way to the altar, Central, Eastern, Western European, Asian, North, Central and South American... the pilgrims are diverse.

32 days of walking 6 – 8 hours each day (with a couple days rest along the way) we arrive into Santiago. Some of the pilgrims' faces - a reunion; while others are new to the community of our shared experience. Unplanned (by us) the Pilgrims Mass we attend the following day happens to be the day of Ascension, May 9, 2013. We arrive at the beginning – the beginning of a new, transformed life.

Facts told, now I share some moments of clarity, inspiration, epiphany, wisdom... These “moments” continue to present themselves to me and shape my steps.

• Everyone has their own Camino to walk. An individual's walk/life is theirs alone. My wife and I choose to walk the camino together, but we walk it as individuals. I play witness to her joy and pains and they are hers to bare. Just as she witnesses my experience. She cannot take my knee pain. We are here on this walk for our own growth, happiness, and our own trials and tribulations. To truly listen and witness the walk of another we only need to “show up” and be present with them. Truly listening requires me to be open and non-judging as others share their journey. Non-judging means that I can listen without the need to “repair” or “fix” the other person. Listening and allowing others to walk their own camino is the most incredibly loving gift I can give.
  
  
• Sometimes the way is cold, snowy, slippery. Sometimes it is sunny, breeze to the back and downhill... muddy, rainy, rocky... Regardless, all of the way moves you in the same direction – forward. The camino reminds me to respect and love all conditions along the course for they all are moving me in the same direction. I find comfort in the appreciation of all paths and conditions. Instead of judging them as good or bad, I thank them for moving me forward. I am defined by how I take the journey, not by the journey itself.
  
  
• I learn to slow down, look around and enjoy the way and to embrace friendship with other pilgrims and nature herself. I listen to those moments that ask me to linger. A bird springs out of the wheat sprouts and hovers as she fights to take flight against the wind. This is the reason I am here, right now in this moment to witness this event.
  
  
• There are always pilgrims in front and always pilgrims behind. The camino is not a race, competition or a challenge to be overcome. It is a moment to be understood.
  More on learning to listen – Listening is the greatest gift you can give others AND it is also the greatest gift you can give yourself. My relationship I have with the body shifted during the walk. Very early in the walk the knee of the right leg started hurting, pain left over from a running injury years ago. The pain was so intense that I feared I was fated for a long, slow shuffle over the next several weeks.
  Then the shift.

A man who we happen across imparts a transformative truth that forever changes the way I interact with the body. He tells me that my knee isn't causing me pain, because the truth is I have no knee. He says the body lies to me in an attempt to convince me it is me. “Don't believe the lies your body tells you,” he says. He goes on to say the body (with all its ills) is only a manifestation of the inner self. I decide to jump in and take off my knee brace and forget about the lies. The seed is planted.

As we walk, this seed is nurtured into a seedling and eventually a full-blown oak tree! As I settle into this way of thinking I realize that we aren't our body, not entirely anyways. At best we have a lifetime lease. The body, its parts and pieces, came from the sun, plants and animals of the earth and when we are finished with it, the body will return to the earth and its elements will be used again. Remember science class, “matter cannot be created nor destroyed” – therefore, our bodies are recycled or upcycled from the earth and again back to the earth. We don't own it and it doesn't own us, nor do we own its pain. The pain that comes up only wants to be listened to, not identified with.

I can't say much more about this other than it helped me. I now practice being a witness: observing and listening to the body and its pains, joys and continuing aging without judging or identifying with what comes up. And by listening without judging I get to hear the lessons the body is teaching me. Listening shows appreciation to what is coming up and through this practice, the pain turns into a lesson and dissolves into personal growth.

The Camino de Santiago is an ancient pilgrimage, thousands of years old. A walk that hundreds of thousands of pilgrims begin each year from their homes to the remains of a guy who knew a guy that rubbed shoulders with the Creator. This is not a walk of religion, it is a walk of faith.

Faith that the walk in our life is significant, no matter how many steps it takes.

Faith that we are all part of a network of paths that intertwine and connect us together.

Faith in the small and invisible moments that speed by in the blur of modern life.

And faith in our resolve to walk our own camino.

Want to see more? See our video slide show here – www.robfannin.com/Camino_Movie.html

El Camino Hiatus Until Mid-May

Tomorrow, my wife and I leave for Spain for our month plus hike along the el Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James).  This is a ~550 mile walk through medieval Spainish towns from the French Pyrenees to the Atlantic. We are SUPER EXCITED and a little nervous.

We will try to create a blog and post along the way, but it is likely that you won't hear much from me until we return.  I wish you all well.  See you again mid-May.

Developing Your Creativity = employing the i3 model.

Developing Your Creativity = employing the i3 model.

After 18 years of learning, researching, creating and applying various creativity and innovation models I have found the i3 model to be the most flexible and consistent to individual and team success. The three “i's” include: inquiry, interaction, and innovation. I developed this model a few years ago and use it as the foundation for my creativity consultancy, i3 insight, LLC (www.i3insight.com).

While i3 insight leverages the process for the creative problem solving of business/work teams, individuals learning and practicing the i3 model will also facilitate innovative solutions through their own creative development. Here's how...

Let's begin with the often overlooked step of inquiry. Inquiry is about digging deeply into the question(s) and converging on the “right question” to explore. Inquiry is NOT about having the right answer. I will shorthand all of the reasons why we don't spend the necessary time in the inquiry step by asking you a question, “when was the last time you were rewarded for not having an answer?”

The inquiry in the i3 model is full of questions. Exploring all areas within your issue through questioning is THE MOST IMPORTANT step in developing your creativity. If you want to get to meaningful innovation, don't short change this step.

The inquiry process -

Begin by thinking about your issue or situation (this process can be applied to ANY issue):

• What do you want?
  • Why?

An example to show you what I mean about digging deeply into the questioning: Let's say you want to eliminate cigarette butt waste on the roadway because you believe it is harmful and disrespectful to the environment.

• How are the butts getting on the road? People throw them outside of their car windows...
  • Why? Because they smoke them in their car and don't want to keep the butts
  • Why? Because they don't want people to know they smoke
  • Why? Because they are embarrassed
  • Why? Because they have tried to quit and don't want to appear “weak”
  • Why? Because their self-esteem is strongly linked to what others think

• Who else thinks this is a issue? What are they doing/not doing about it?
  • How?
  • Why or Why not?
    
• Who opposes your point of view?
  • Why?
  • How?
    

• What is standing in the way to resolving this issue?
  • How?
  • Why?
    
• Continue to dig by asking WHY to each answer that is uncovered. Ask WHY at least 5x (or until your questions become too vague to address)
  Next, compile your exhaustive list and sort. You will sort in a 2 step process.

1. From most related and/or important to your issue to least
2. From within your sphere of influence and/or interest to least

Are there problems within the problems? Refine and Restate by asking WHY. You may need additional information. If so, do the needed research to ensure you dig deep enough into your issue. Your problem should be so well defined that the answer is nearly obvious. That is the great thing about a well-defined problem. Otherwise, your answer is always “42.”

By now you should have a group of refined areas that best address your issue. Select one of these areas and you are ready to move into the process of interaction.

In interaction I will show you how leveraging analogies and the help of others will further refine the challenge and explore potential solutions. But let's not jump ahead. Spend some time with the above process and let me know how it goes.  

Developing your Creativity by Finding True Love

Last time I spoke of the brain's role in developing creativity, this time I go to the heart.  In the following post I explore the heart's point of view on creativity and how to work with creativity to bring about growth.

Everything in existence is being created, maintained or destroyed. While these states may appear quite different they each share the same infinite and perpetual source. That source is creativity. How can creativity, the quality of bringing something into existence, be the source of destruction, you ask?

Creativity is the source of all manifestation, without judgement or labels. Therefore, creativity manifests destruction as equally as it manifests construction. Hurricanes and tulips are “brought into existence” from the same source. True Creativity comes from within and expands outward in all directions. Creativity is always in the state of becoming. From within we begin as cells dividing and expand outward in all directions (space and time). Coded into this beginning is our own destruction.

The most important point about Creativity is it is activated by LOVE.

Love is the energy that puts creativity into motion. This is where our limited understanding of True Love trips us up. This isn't flowers and chocolate and stars in the eyes kind of love. Nor is it necessarily “feel good” kind of love. The love I am talking about encompasses all of that, but is not that – just as the ocean can't be defined by the drops it is made of, it is those drops but so much more.

True Love is selfless devotion, right action and discernment.

Example –

Through love a farmer plants a seed.

Focusing his attention on the seed and devoted to its growth.

His caring action and wisdom feeds and waters the seed.

The creativity of the seed moves outward in all directions in search of the best conditions that will encourage (or love) its creative process.

The love of the sun, earth and farmer spur the process. Without this devotion and attention the tiny sprout would be destroyed.

The sprout grows to a tree, develops fruit and seeds and through love begins its destruction.

Through love the tree returns to the earth feeding the sunlight of its existence to the soil.

The soil, in turn, provides its love to other seeds.

Becoming more creative is simply remembering that we are IN creation sourced from LOVE.

• Love your problem. It exists to help move you into new areas – why not love it for that. Consider that for a moment. Feel the difference between loving the problem as something to move from vs. viewing it as something to get rid of. Feel the spaciousness that provides.
  
  
• Love the space between the problem and the eventual solution. This means loving where you are in the process of becoming. Continue filling that “place” with love and be fully present during the transition from problem to solution. Do this and you will find the stumbling blocks are there for you to stand on so you can see farther and greet the solution with open arms.
  
  
• Love whatever is offered during this transition phase - from problem to solution. Imagine this transition is improvisational theatre. The golden rule of improvisation is you MUST use everything. Accept whatever is given to you and whatever you “discover” during this time. Ask yourself, “how is this related to my problem” and, “how can I use this as a tool to take me somewhere closer to a viable solution?”
• Let go! Accepting and loving where you are in the process is critical. By loving where you are you are letting go of any expectations of where you “should” be. Without expectations you freely allow the solution to come into existence.
  • Observe more vs. do more
    
    
• Use catalysts to encourage solutions
  • (This topic requires its own blog entry... details and specific tools/techniques to follow)
    
    
• Love all solutions that come up. This doesn't mean that all of the solutions are right for the given circumstances and criteria. It only means that all of the solutions are gifts created from love and therefore should be met with that same loving energy. This is where we can get really confused about what is meant by “love.” Remember that love is also right action and discernment. If you are truly devoted to the problem love will converge on what is right for it in the present.
  • Also, note that love is the energy behind creativity and creativity is the source of creating, maintaining and destroying. Therefore, even the best solution will eventually come to an end so it may love what is next. It is also likely that some problems will need to be creatively destroyed through obsolescence or restatement.    
    
    
    
    

Developing your Creativity: Step 1) Remembering.

Developing your Creativity: Step 1) Remembering.

Remember when you were a child? When everything was new and exciting and you weren't afraid to take risks? Can you remember when you first came to know your parents and when you first knew you were a part of them? What about the moment you discovered that you were born out of their act of creation?

Let's go back further... where were you before the cells dived, sperm met ovum? Just as you existed (at least physically) in the sperm and the ovum before you were created, you also existed (in some manner) in the act of the creation itself.

Now let's look bigger picture – before energy came into existence and before matter was formed, the act of creation was present. Call it God, Divinity, Boson Higgs Particle, doesn't matter because it can't be contained in a label anyway. Just as you were present in the act of your physical creation, you were also present in the act of the creation of everything we know and feel. In other words, you are and have always been part of Creation... YOU ARE CREATIVE.

It is important to remember this point, that you are part of and are - creative. This is important because one thing we like to tell ourselves is that we “are not creative.” I hear this all of the time, “we don't have anyone creative on our team” or “I am not as creative as her.” Impossible! Sometimes we trip ourselves up by forgetting where we came from and what we are a part of.

You don't have to understand any of this on an intellectual level, just try to accept the premise that you are creative.

A little closer to the present time, let's us go back to your childhood. Would you agree that you were creative back then? Maybe more so than you are today? Why? How is it possible that as you aged and amassed new knowledge and experiences, you actually forgot how to be creative? Think about this for a moment.

There are many reasons why we choose to forget we are creative. One reason is neurological. Our adult routines form habitual pathways in our brains protected by what is called, the myelin sheath, making detours in regular processing very difficult. For example, we learn and accept from our experiences that to get to point C you must start at point A and go through point B. Our brains are designed to store information in the most efficient way possible to recall it, stripping all unnecessary data away and “automating” the many tasks of our lives. This is a very important function of survival mostly left over from early evolution of the human brain, when quick, autonomous action was critical.

Myelination occurs in the brain from birth until about age 20. Up until around age 20, vast areas of the brain are not yet myelinated. Is this why we are “more” creative as children? Picture a water hose. When the hose is intact, water goes in one way and comes out the other. However, imagine the hose was full of holes, or that the hose doesn't exist at all... water goes in and follows any number of paths. You can see with this example the usefulness of myelin and the limitation it may pose in divergent thought (divergent thought is part of creativity).

The good news is we CAN rewire our brain. We know now that the brain is continuously creating and destroying neurons and neural pathways. It does this with the help of our input in the form of needs and experiences. Therefore, we can shape our brains in the following ways -

1. Age. As we age, the myelin sheath begins to degrade. The degradation opens up others ways of thinking and likewise behavior. This may be why many of us go through mid-life questioning (crisis) and why many seniors begin to enjoy the creative arts.
   
   
2. Form new habits. This one is difficult for many of us in the instant gratification world. We expect to be able to read top 10 tips and then change our lives. Top ten tips do work (I will even provide my own list of tips at some point in this blog), but will not provide sustainable change to your creativity development. Habits can be formed and replaced through continual practice. It takes 20 – 30 days to form a new habit.
   
   

If you have ever began a new workout regimen you'll know how difficult it is to form a new habit. Everyday, going to the gym, working hard, uggghh. Then, almost suddenly, you find it is actually more difficult NOT to go to the gym than it is to go there. In other words, you have formed a new habit.

Are you ready to create the habit that will lead you back to your own creativity? Tune in to my next blog on Developing your Creativity and we will get started.

Resources -

For more on how the brain affects creativity listen to the interview of neuropsychologist, Rex Jung on On Being - http://www.onbeing.org/program/creativity-and-everyday-brain/1879

For more information on developing a Creative Habit, read Twyla Tharp's, “The Creative Habit.”

Opening Talk for Exhibit at Carrboro Century Center

Last night, March 8, 2013 was the opening for a group show that I was part of along with 2 other wonderful artists.  I am grateful to the Century Center for providing us with such a nice space to exhibit and separate rooms for food and presentations.  I am also grateful that I had the opportunity to show with 2 talented artists, Lisa Parrott and Marsha Zwikker.

While events didn't allow for our artist talks, I came prepared with some talking points that I would like to share here.

I begin with a Poem about one of my paintings from my son, Brandon Fannin:

Poet Brandon Fannin's

interpretation of the painting

Shipped Wrecked on

the Island of Consciousness -

it grows within us
this thing-
untitled

a surrealist dream-
this thing

there's the hand that reached to hold mine
there's the tree I passed too quickly
there's the eyes that looked to me for help
there's the story I interrupted or ignored

all the times
there was something
I should have said
something-
I should have done

a mix of all these things
behind a peaceful scene
I see them all-
engulfed by the sea.

Poetry by Brandon Fannin

The work I have hanging now until March 18 is a part of a series of paintings that explore the darkness inherent in all of us and each situation.  I explore darkness, not as a means of suffocation, but as a balance with peace and beauty.  I believe that DEstruction is inextricably linked with CONstruction.  Both are equally as beautiful.  

As eluded by Brandon's poetry, there is a calmness or peacefulness that follows and is part of the chaos of a storm.  Think about the ocean.  It has the power to destroy countless lives and property, yet within it also contains peace and calm beauty.  This is the story that my paintings play with.  The story that in the midst of the storm, of the darkness, there is light.  They are always in balance.

I call this series my "Dream Sequence."  You have seen dream sequences as part of TV and movie entertainment.  You know the kind: harp music plays as wavy lines move side to side on the screen.  And after this moment the character in the scene will experience some alternate, dream reality.  There is a moment, between reality and the dream scene (when the harp is playing) that we are free to use our own imagination to explain what will happen next.  What incredibly funny, scary or tense situation will the character be pushed into.  At that transition moment, we make up the dream.

In this painting series I invite you to dream up your own story.  Go from viewer of the art to narrator of the story.  What characters and situations do you see?  Where is your darkness and how is it becoming peaceful beauty?

This is not only true for this painting series, but also for life.  We are ALWAYS in between reality and dream.  Always free to dream up our own world and our own existence.  Of course, just like dreaming, we may not always be in total control, but we are always a co-creator in the process.

What story are you dreaming up today?

You can see more photos of the Exhibit on here - www.facebook.com/art.robfannin

It's The Question That Drives Us

I begin now with  series of posts that will explore the massively vague, complex and reasonably mis-understood term "creativity."  It these posts I intend to open a dialogue about what it is to be creative, how can we be more creative everyday, and the role of creativity in today's world.  Each week I will add another installment to help facilitate the discussion.  If you are so inclined, please add to the dialogue, for creativity is not an individual sport.

Let me start with a little background...  I am a visual artist, fine arts painter.  I also teach creativity and innovation to individuals, businesses and corporations.  Yes, creativity can be taught, or better said, the process to help you remember can be taught...but more on that later.

My paintings are sourced from my own experiences and colors.  It is my intent to take the viewer on a journey where they become the narrator of the story.  Art, as in life, is a series of adventures all part of a continued journey of our collective imagination.  Therefore, art is never finished - it is always in the process of becoming.  Different experiences give different perspectives and different meanings to the same work of art.  Check out my work here - www.robfannin.com

I use the process of my art and my 16 years in marketing innovation in corporate America as tools to help others learn to BE more creative and APPLY more creativity into everyday life.

Yes, I did say, 16 years in corporate America (13 of those with the world's largest marketing and consumer goods company).  Now before you curse me and stop reading this blog, let me say that corporate America is Extremely Competitive.  And Extreme Competition requires Extreme Creativity.  It is here where I learned to package and train the process of creativity and applied innovation.

I provide the above as background only.  It is not intended to make it appear that I have unique ownership of creativity.  I have only been fortunate enough to have the experience that helped me to remember that we are all the manifestation of creativity itself and that I can teach others to recall this fact as well.  Or at least I can help lead the dialogue so that we may learn from each other.

Before I get too far ahead with this blog, let me pause and engage you the reader and fellow creative being.  

What do you think of the concepts I am approaching above?  

What are your thoughts on the ideas of - 

 - Remembering to be Creative

 - Creativity as a process that can be learned

 - We are all manifestations of Creativity

 - Life as a series of adventures on our way of becoming

Please provide comments.  They will be used to direct the overall dialogue as I go into more depth about how you can be more creative everyday.

Thank you. 

Rob Fannin

www.robfannin.com