Creativity | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

The Life-Changing Practice of Meditation

Anita Mathias — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 18:24:05 +0000

So, a couple of years ago, almost on a whim, my husband Roy and I took an intensive eight week course in Mindfulness at the Oxford Department of Psychiatry! (and at the famous local psychiatric hospital, the Warneford!!) I didn’t really know what Mindfulness was, but I “knew,” we should do it. You can imagine […]

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On Breaking the 22 Minute Mile, and Stumbling on Happiness

Anita Mathias — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:09:16 +0000

When I was 12 years old, I read Roger Bannister’s account of breaking the 4 minute mile, pushing himself to the outer limits of human possibility, “collapsing almost unconscious, like an exploded light bulb”. I was inspired–and astonished. Run a mile in four minutes. The thought of it still baffles me! I walked a mile […]

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When Shackles become Wings: On Domesticity, Creativity, and Me

Anita Mathias — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 13:13:51 +0000

I was married 25 years ago, while in a Ph.D programme in Creative Writing at the State University of New York Binghamton. I had just earned a BA and an MA in English from Somerville College, Oxford, then an MA in Creative Writing from Ohio State University. My husband probably hoped for a traditional marriage, […]

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In which Rest is an Essential Part of the Creative Process

Anita Mathias — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:25:31 +0000

The first chapter of Genesis explodes with creativity! God creates sun, moon and stars; banyans, baobabs and butterflies; macaws, mice and mastodons from a smile in his brain. He creates the world in exuberance because that is his nature. He is a Maker, a creator. And all of us are inherently creative, because we all […]

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I don’t have time to maintain these regrets

Anita Mathias — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 21:12:09 +0000

My daughter Zoe introduced me to this song by John Mark Macmillan: I don’t have time to maintain these regrets I am a memoirist (and also a restless, tiptoes person full of hope for the future). However examination of the past is rarely without regret. If only. I wish I had But that’s it!! No more looking […]

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When, After a Long Drought, Words Come like a Sudden Flood: Lessons from Blake, Milton, Rilke, and Julia Ward Howe

Anita Mathias — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 20:20:36 +0000

William Blake, Milton I love The Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe. The rhythm, the evocative lyrics, the allusions, the beautiful language create a loveliness greater than the sum of its parts. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath […]

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Visiting Blenheim Palace: Thoughts on Creativity, Envy and the Good Life

Anita Mathias — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 19:01:24 +0000

View from the palace, showing the island. Image credit. I’ve lived in Oxford for 14 years now (in two instalments) and try to walk around the Blenheim Gardens and grounds once a year, if not once a season. I love the lakes: they get me. And, often, when I visit the gorgeous gardens of stately homes, […]

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In which God Multiplies Our Creativity, Our Time and Our Talents

Anita Mathias — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 10:25:23 +0000

Image Credit I have no difficulty in believing the Gospel accounts of healings, but the feeding of the 5000 leaves me dazzled. Now how exactly did that happen? However, it’s easier to believe it than to believe that Matthew, Mark, and John, eyewitnesses, were deliberately lying. So, though my rational mind boggles, yes, I believe it […]

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Writing with the Wind of the Wild Goose of the Holy Spirit in your Wings

Anita Mathias — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 19:44:53 +0000

Wild Geese fly in a V formation. The lead goose reduces the wind resistance; the others glide, almost effortlessly, in the currents she has created. During a storm, the eagle waits perched on the edge of its nest for the wind to gain sufficient velocity. Once she knows the direction in which the […]

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I Said to the Man who Stood at the Gate of the Year

Anita Mathias — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 18:42:11 +0000

Image credit I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God That shall be to you better than light and safer than a […]

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