Making wholeness heals the maker

People are deeply nourished by the process of creating wholeness.

If a person dedicates himself to making the field of centers, to making things whole, the more he or she does it, the more whole he or she becomes within him- or herself. Even one act of making this field of centers, a few minutes, or an afternoon, done honestly and in full pursuit of the real thing, changes a person and brings a level of calmness, quietness, and peacefulness which is quite unusual into that person.

The more I began to understand the field of centers, and the more I was able to make it in material objects, the more I found a deep satisfaction from the making of these objects, which left me happy, sane, clear headed, and light of heart.

It remains true. When I manage, at some level, to make life (in a big thing or a small thing), I feel more alive. I feel more whole, myself. On the other hand, so long as I am making stuff that does not have life in it, I feel dull, listless, oppressed. And even then, when I am feeling dull and listless like that, because of not making anything alive, the tiniest success, even in a tiny thing — it may be a painting, a detail of a building, a building plan, even just locating a building correctly in relation to a certain tree — all at once I wake up, I feel joyful and happy. The happiness lasts, sometimes for several days. It seems that the smallest success in making life extends and fills my experience for hours or days. The absence of it starves me.

(Pages 263-264)