“When I came to Quakerism, and I sat in a completely quiet, silent meeting, I didn’t know what to do with myself,” Lynette Davis recalls. “I was so used to being preached at, being told what to do, being told that ‘God told me to tell you…'” That history had put her at odds with the church she grew up in, rebuked every time she dare to ask a question.
“When I left the church, I was kind of done with religion, but I wanted to know who God was, for myself,” she says. Quakerism helped her understand that she wasn’t done with God—and that God wasn’t done with her. Realizing that God’s creative spirit was present in the sacred silence helped her better understand her own creative practice. “Even when my writing seems secular,” she says, “it is always a process and a journey that I articulate in communion with God.”
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Transcript:
Writing, for me, is a spiritual practice. It is a practice that I do with God, which I look at God as a God of love and also a creative spirit.
My name is Lynnette Davis. I use she/her pronouns. I am recently relocated to western Mass and I am a member of Ujima Friends Meeting. At first, when I came to Quakerism and I sat in a completely quiet, silent meeting, I didn’t know what to do with myself because I was so used to being preached at, being told what to do, being told that “God told me to tell you”. I felt like I was always at odds with the church of my upbringing because I couldn’t just accept things at face value. I was not really allowed to question without being rebuked for my questioning.
When I left the church, I was kind of done with religion, but I wanted to know who God was for myself. I wasn’t done with God, that was one of the first lessons that I learned within Quakerism that taught me about the way that God can speak, that God can actually speak to me through the silence as well as in the silence itself.
That silence became very sacred ground for me because it represents a blank page. And sometimes we’re intimidated by the blank page. What do I do from there? What do I write? How am I supposed to create with this empty canvas? But when it’s sacred and you know that there is this creative spirit in the midst of that silence imploring you to reach into your heart and to listen from that silence and to hear what is really authentic. In that silence, that you can be so touched by God, God who is always speaking to you — sometimes In that whisper of the wind, the drum of the heartbeat that you forgot that was beating because we’re rushing so much that we don’t take time to feel our face, feel our breath, feel the movement of our feet on the ground.
It’s a very embodied faith. Even just sitting in silence. And that embodiment pours out as creativity The same way you dance with a partner I feel that I write with God as my partner with that creative spirit. If God did not imagine me, then perhaps I could not imagine God, and that there is this co-process type of relationship that we have with one another. Even when my writing seems secular, it is always a process and a journey that I articulate in communion with God.
All writing essentially taps into that creative spirit. Because otherwise, where do the words come from? Where they form from? Why do we come up with the ideas that we come up with? Why are we curious about the things that we’re curious about? Why do we want to go deeper? These are also the same questions that we ask about spirituality topics. To me, there is no separation. When I’m looking to write something, even if it’s a general marketing copy, I’m thinking this is a story around this and how does it touch your heart? How does it call to action? How does it move us? How can we move with it? How can I paint with words? If God is a poet and we are God’s art, then I think it’s a beautiful experience to know that we’re art that also creates art. And it’s like, a cycle that is circular and there’s no really one particular opening or ending, but a process that continues and continues to shape and move and make more things, make more words, make more life.
Discussion Question:
- How does Quakerism inform your writing?
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
This is such a beautiful message Lynette. I reasonated with God as an artist and a poet, in the midst of creation and creating together. This: God is a poet and we are God’s art, then I think it’s a beautiful experience to know that we’re art that also creates art. And it’s like, a cycle that is circular and there’s no really one particular opening or ending, but a process that continues and continues to shape and move and make more things, make more words, make more life.” Thank you!