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Reflections

Category: Creativity

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Being an artist means. . .

Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: patience is everything! -Rainer Maria Rilke from Letters to a Young Poet I am a pretty patient person.  I usually don’t mind the periods of

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The Promise of New Beginnings

Sometimes the light of the new day feels faint like the late December sun rising over Chesterman Beach in Tofino (above).  There is mist around us, we can’t quite make out the shape of the future, but we place our hopes in the faint glow making its way upward across the sky. While I have some mixed feelings about the celebration of New Year’s, I also find hope in it as a way for people to recollect and renew.  Like Thanksgiving, I appreciate the importance of secular holidays that celebrate important values like gratitude and remembering.  While resolutions often seem to lead to unrealistic

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Inspiration

The word inspiration comes from the Latin root spiritus which means Spirit or breath.  To be inspired is to be filled with the spirit or to be breathed into.  This is what happened when Mary received the Spirit of God into her womb.  The Spirit continues to move and breathe into each one of us, each moment of each day.  Are you willing to receive?  Have you made a welcoming space for the Spirit to move within you?  In my blog journeying today I discovered some poetic and visual inspiration: Cathleen at Back Road Journey writes about Dreams of Darkness, an invitation to “sing from deep within.”

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Just a few simple offerings

Michelle has left a comment under my previous post of her Litany for the Wounded with ways to help support the work she is doing, so please click here to go read! (scroll all the way down)She is doing such meaningful work and Michelle is a woman with a passion for justice and being present to those on the margins. And once you have read that, go over to Story Midwife and read the incredible post Trish has written about creating an Altar of Attending for women who are dying.  I drink in great writing about grief and dying like wine and

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Living Between the Ancient and the New

A simple post tonight as I am very tired from two full days of teaching.  Our first session of Awakening the Creative Spirit was wonderful with twelve holy women participating.  This first session focused on an overview of all the arts and we had everyone use a collage process to focus on the question “What does your soul long for?”  Such richness revealed in that exploration.  As I made mine, a very simple one weaving together images of rootedness and the flow of ocean, I was tempted to add more images to it.  But, it felt done with all that spaciousness and simplicity.  While

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WARNING: Artist Colony

All occupants have the terrifying tendency to think artistic thoughts, be out-spoken, intelligent, pro-active, outside-box thinkers and other dangerous habits. If you can read and are a pro-crastinator, close-minded person and such stuff, YOU MUST STAY AWAY. Prolonged exposure to the personalities of the colony’s inhabitants can lead to coating surfaces in colors, mimicking sounds and voices, impersonating other people and losing oneself in the thoughts of fictional and non-fictional characters. FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY, STAY AWAY. This great warning was shared at our Gathering last Friday by Anna Curtiss, daughter of Lew, who was also in attendance.  It was

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The World Needs You

There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy,a quickening that is translated through you into action. And because there is only one of you in all of time this expression is unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.  The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open;whether you choose to take an art class,keep a journal, record your dreams,dance your story

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