Creating art and craft that benefits others is life-giving.
The artists at Moscow Clay Works http://www.moscowclayworks.com/ create pottery bowls and donate the proceeds to Haiti.
I have made dolls to increase awareness about Breast Cancer, and now Cancer Support.

I read Sue Benders 'Everyday Sacred' several years ago. It was a transforming experience.

 Elif Ekin in http://mostlyhappyjourney.wordpress.com/tag/sue-bender/ wrote a review ...

March 11, 2011
The book is about one woman’s journey to take a step back and see the sacred and the wonder of everyday happenings. Sometimes when we are so caught up in ourselves and our problems, we forget to take a step back and look at the beauty, not the struggle of our lives. So many of her ideas really hit  home for me and resonated on a deeper level. While writing this journal, I feel as if I have kept saying that some circumstance has come “full circle” and not I can release and let go…

Wow! There are so many lessons in this book, but there is one portion of the book that gave me an idea about how to destroy and rebuild myself in an artistic way. The author meets a potter who makes cracked bowls. He creates the bowl, destroys the creation, and then pieces it back together into something even more beautiful. It is somewhat of a reference to the practice in many Asian cultures which revere cracking and chipping teacup by filling the cracks with silver, thereby celebrating the journey. Being cracked, chipped and pieced back together only enhances the beauty of the cup and ourselves. Where would we be if we were not cracked or chipped along the way? It is what we use as glue that sets us apart: Do we fill in the cracks with love and seamlessly piece ourselves back together? Do we haphazardly fill in the cracks with anger and frustration and create a seam that oozes out the sides, creating a lumpy, bumpy, uncomfortable union?

 "Pieces, Pieces Pieces…life is all about pieces, be they cracked or broken pieces or puzzle pieces. We build ourselves up one piece at a time." {page 194}