Creating Amidst Impermanence

Everything is impermanent.  

This does not mean we should constantly mourn that everything is changing and fading and decaying, and throw up our hands in dispair.

Click to read more ...

Just Another Beginning

Well, the interview is over!  And yes, as I knew logically pre-interview and have confirmed now, I over-did my nervous stress.

Mark was a wonderful host (alongside Jeff).  I'm honored to have been on the show.  If you missed it, you can still listen by looking up Creative Mojo on Itunes (podcasts) and subscribing for free OR by going to the website (http://toginet.com/shows/creativemojo) and clicking on the May 16th episode in the right sidebar.

I left the show with so much I wanted to share with you, my dear fellow travellers.  

I. GRATITUDE.  

While I remain grateful to have been invited to and participated in the show, you know what I am most thankful for?  The responses from you.  I am still brought to tears by the support and kindness that was offered to me before and after the show.  I was reminded that...

II. TRUTH OVER NUMBERS.

 ...it will ALWAYS be more important to me to connect with even one person on an honest, open level than to connect with hundreds on a superficial level.  

To think that my interview is out there reaching hundreds or thousands, that my website attracts dozens or hundreds in a week....yes, truly I am honored.  But it means little if those people are faceless followers.  After this interview, I have confirmed beyond any doubt that I would rather honestly and lovingly journey with 20 people than "followed by" 20,000.  I have also confirmed that...

III. FEAR IS AN OPPORTUNITY.

...I can do this.  I compare it to running the half marathon: Now that I've done 13.1 miles, running 3 seems easy.  Likewise, if I am ever invited to do a live interview again or to speak in person in front of hundreds, I know I can do it.  

Fear is an opportunity for us to step into a new experience, to expand our comfort zones.  

IV. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

 Needing to be ready to address almost anything, I admit to jotting down several notes before the interview.  When I don't know what to expect, I want to be ready for it all.  (That's a whole other trap we can discuss later...)

In contemplating almost every part of who I am, what I do, and why I do it, I clarified many things about my business and myself that I didn't even know before!  The best part?  During the interview I hardly used my notes.  I was able to answer each question because I just knew who I was and what I was doing.  It is another confirmation:

That label of "Awareness Artist" I gave to myself many months ago?  I no longer have any doubts.  It isn't just a label. I AM ONE.  I am living it.

And if what I do speaks to you, let me know...I'm going to start branching out in this fantastic journey and want you along with me.

Thank you for journeying with me thus far.

Namaste.

p.s. Don't forget!  The giveaway for my encaustic painting, Nothing But A Story, valued at $250, is STILL OPEN!  Go check out my GUEST POST to enter and BLISS HABITS to learn more!!

Gratitude, A Guest Post, and a Giveaway!

What if gratitude is a way of being in abundance,

a recognition that we always have enough,

that we always are enough? 

(In fact, that we are more  than enough.) 

Today I am honored to be guest posting over at Bliss Habits.  (If you are venturing over here from there, WELCOME!)

I invite you over to Bliss Habits to read more about my exploration of gratitude.  For those unfamiliar with the site (*gasp*), Kathy explores 13 different virtues - including gratitude, creativity, order and more - related to Bliss (one per week).  From delicious posts of her own to wonderful invited guests, her site explores the concepts and practical ways to experience BLISS through practices in the virtues.  (Learn more about the reason behind all of this and more about Kathy HERE.)

Kathy is the real deal - a kind-hearted soul exploring the world and sharing her stories with the rest of us.  

This week is Gratitude week at Bliss Habits and I am thrilled to be able to add my voice to the discussion.

GO HERE TO READ THE POST BEFORE CONTINUING BELOW

Filled with gratitude?  Ready to take the next step?  Just looking for the giveaway?

Continue on.... 

The Next Step

Two kinds of gratitude:  The sudden kind we feel for what we take;

the larger kind we feel for what we give.

~Edwin Arlington Robinson

I invite you to take the next step beyond reading these words.  I invite you into experience. 

Practices like gratitude journals or thanking those with whom you interact can be beneficial.  But in the spirit of oneness, I invite you to experience the gratitude of another.  The next step?

Do something for someone else that might make them feel grateful.

We’re not getting attached to the outcome here, so if they don’t express thanks – don’t worry about it!  You are simply offering an invitation to experience gratitude.

This can be a small act or a large one.  Offer a dollar to a child in a store.  Invite someone into a discussion and truly listen – offer them the opportunity to be seen and heard.  Hide a favorite quote in a library book for the next patron.  The possibilities are endless.

Share what you did in the comments section of this post.

Read what others have done.  Celebrate the kindness that is being spread in the world and the possible experiences of gratitude that are being lived.

I will pick one winner at random from all of the acts of shared gratitude

next Wednesday, April 11^th. 

The winner will receive a 6x6 print of my recent encaustic work, Gratitude.

(You can enter TWICE - once by leaving a comment HERE and once by leaving a comment on my guest post over at Bliss Habits.)

Gratitude, 6x6, Encaustic on wood panel

Gratitude is a reminder of the radiant peace that is at our core.  Even in swirling confusion, even amidst tremendous fear of not having or being enough, even at the bottom of this seemingly endless pit of "not enough" is that peaceful light.  When we strengthen our awareness of that center of being, we become free to make choices that reflect that nature. 

Now go.  Be grateful.

Namaste.

Answer The Phone

The other side of the taffy pull. 

(See this post if that makes no sense to you.)

It’s enough to make a girl want to never answer her phone again.

It was Indiana University calling.  This is nothing new.  Our kids frequently participate in research studies through the Psychology Department and are invited to do more.

I recognized the woman on the phone.  She was the lead researcher for a study my son had gone through a few months ago and a professor at the university.  That particular study was one in which the participants got an MRI.  (Our son was hesitant at first but got a kick afterwards when he got a $25 gift card to Target and got to see pictures of his brain!)

I was washing a dish while she talked.  She asked how our son was doing and thanked us for our participation in the studies.  I finished the last dish while she talked about his most recent study with the MRI.  I had just turned off the water when I caught the last part of her sentence,

“…we found something.”

My mind shut off and my body went on autopilot.  I knew I had to find a place to sit down.  I recall the hallway.

“…protocol states we send the image to a radiologist”

 then the edge of the bed,

 “..so we just got his report back today”

 and the weight of my own body, ……the weight.  The wait.

“He has a cyst near his brain.”

I’ll spare you the details.  If your heart sunk into your stomach and then fell to through your feet when you read that, I don’t need to share the details.  If it didn’t, any details I share of what happened next won’t come close to explaining my experience.

My heart has returned to its proper home in the past few days and, thankfully, I can breathe again.  Allow me to extend the same courtesy to you:

Our son has an Arachnoid Cyst.  Apparently this is fairly common.  He has no symptoms and, unless it grows, he can expect not to have any.  Without his participation in the MRI study we might never have known it was there.  He is just carrying a fluid-filled sac in his skull near the base of his brain.  As I understand it in our current stage of online research and multitudes of doctor-conversations, we will just monitor the cyst via  a new scan every couple of years to make sure it isn’t growing.  Otherwise, there is nothing about which we should be concerned. 

The End.

Except that isn’t the end, is it?

In tales that are told, The End is when the book pages run out, the credits roll, or the curtains close. That reality ends.    

I wouldn’t have shared this story with you had I just wanted to tell you a tale that gets nicely wrapped up with two simple words.

I have tried for nearly two hours to determine what words to use, then, to wrap it up.  If two simple words won’t work, two hundred won’t do it either. 

So instead of trying to wrap this up, I decided to open it up.  I extend to you a few invitations.

I invite you to practice being grateful.

After I had a few hours to process the information after the initial call from the university, the irony that this coincided with Gratitude Week (in the Wild Elephant Project) hit me.

As I hugged my son after he got off the school bus that day, tears filling every cavity in my head but not yet to my eyes, I WAS GRATTIUDE.

I don’t mean I was grateful.  I mean every cell of who “I” am was pure gratitude.  There is a chasm of difference between feeling grateful for my son when I sent him off to school that morning and the gratitude I became as I watched my baby boy hopping down the street towards our house after school.

I invite you to practice being aware.  There is so much more than what we can see.  There are so many more perspectives than those that we choose to see.

That little boy who got on the school bus and the one who got off was the same person.  I simply saw him differently.  My precious son, that black hole on the MRI, the baby I held in my arms, the very young man bounding off the school bus, the scruffy hair that needs a bit of a cut…  I felt like I was seeing so much.  And yet, I was only seeing what was always there.   

I invite you to practice just being.

We might be able to hold awareness of the suffering and joys of billions of beings or the many facets of suffering of even one while on the meditation cushion. (Might.)  But this would certainly get overwhelming while trying to navigate through rush-hour traffic. 

We can hone in this awareness through mindful existence, through dropping into our bodies, through intimate connection with what falls into our attention in this moment.  No judgment.  Just breath.  Just my son’s description of the school day.  Just the traffic.  Just being.

With that, I leave us to our stories

and a wish that we always find the strength to answer the phone.

The Magic of Encaustics

What is, changes.  What isn't, awaits in the shadows of possibilities created by this change.

I must start off this post with a gratitude deeper than a post can express.  Several weeks ago, a beautiful creative soul named Kym  (find her at Bliss Artworks Studio) released materials she was no longer using.  Through her kind heart, she sent them to me...

From wax to pots, brushes to oil paints, books to DVD's, ...I'm still working my way through all of the goodies.

Not only have the materials found a new life, but I have as well.  (And I remain humbled by her generosity. Kym, thank you again and again and again.)  (For those curious, my work with acrylics and some with watercolor does continue!)

While I've been playing with encaustics (melted and fused wax) for awhile, I simply haven't had the proper tools to fully explore the medium.  (You may recall some of my fun attempts with crayons.  Don't worry...those experiments will continue too.)  

Through this gift, my creative spirit is again enlivened.  Possibilities for creations now have become probabilities.

Why do I enjoy encaustic work so much??

Working with encaustics demands mindfulness.  Without it, you might (quite literally) get burned.

Working with encaustics also requires the ability to go with the flow.  Wax in its liquid form can have a mind of its own.

Working with encaustics makes me face my fears.  I had to play with fire.  (Again, quite literally)

Wax asks the artist to have a sense of humor.  Something that goes from solid to liquid to solid in a matter of seconds is like playing peek-a-boo with potential.

Encaustics promote the ability to work with layers and depth.  You can build onto what you have or dig deeper into what is there.  Either way, those layers are what create the beauty.

Encaustic work can be done with almost any other material.  The creative potential is endless.

Playing with encaustics is a very sensual experience.  The sweet smell of beeswax, the smooth finish of a layer of wax, the beckoning translucence of rich color....

Beeswax (a primary material for encaustic work) invites the artist to be mindful of nature.  Upon reflection of the process through which beeswax is obtained , the sheer miracle of the creation, the number of steps and bees and flowers required to make what the artist holds in her/his hands, one can only smile in awe of the surrounding world.

I could go on.  And in my studio area, I will.

The preparation:  Canvas covered with scrapbooking paper (for proper adhesion for the wax) then several layers of beeswax.  (For those encaustic artists out there, I know canvas isn't a rigid medium.)

 Acrylic & stucco edge

I'm quite curious:  In what ways do you find to mindfully dance with your creative soul?

Namaste.