And here they are… Day 8. The Hobies. A mushroom, actually. My grandparents were always out Hobie hunting. I don’t ever remember seeing a mushroom- I think they just enjoyed the day off alone rambling around the countryside together. A happy relationship with your partner as you both grow older together is a precious gift, one that requires nurturing in order to encourage a second bloom late in life. The blooms are exquisite, the color magnificent and the aroma heavenly. So my grandma said.
Day 7. The Magic Door. I always wanted to wander across a hidden door in a tree. I knew that I would open the door- that was never the question. The question of what was inside never really bothered me either, I just knew it would be somewhere better than school, or homework, or sleepless nights – whatever darkened my days. Years later, after being married, raising children, saying goodbye to loved ones, growing older – I stand a pretty good chance of actually finding such a door. Before, it was all about me. Now, I have gifts to give, stories to tell, songs to sing. I will be far better company for whomever lives here. I might even get invited to tea.
The key. Everyone is looking for this key. Do you know who holds it? Whose hands it has always been entrusted to? The artists. The writers, the poets. The creative. Across the centuries creators have held the key to the imagination. And the key to the imagination is the key to everything. Writers imagine whole worlds. Poets catch verse out of thin air. Artists shut their eyes and see an apple in their mind. Spots, colors, size, wormholes; every part of that specific imaginary apple. And if you can do that, conjure up an apple in your mind, imagine what type of world you could create- if you put your mind to it. It all starts with you. Internally. In your imagination. So let your vision flow forth, into our vision starved world and begin the most human and divine experiment possible. Creation. It’s what you came for.
Ok. Day 5. The Finch. Bright cheery happy little birds. All over the garden this time of year. ‘bless…
A rare glimpse into the secret undertakings over at Triskele Moon Studios. Leanne is preparing for a big show tonight at The Starline Gallery. So my drawing for today, Day 4, is in honor of the trusty little minions that help us do what we do. Those clever little helpers- seen and unseen- that guide our hands to just the right gemstone, the perfect word, or the snappiest color. Never resting, always waiting on our call for help and guidance. Of course they can be angels. Yet in the work space of a master jeweler? I somehow think a crow to be much more appropriate. What’s his name Leanne?
The Milky Way. A sight that has vanished from most of our skies, but was an ever present source of awe, wonder and inspiration for our ancestors. We exist in a world full of magic, just as they did. The joy of a child’s smile, a lover’s glance, a job well done, and the marvel that is life itself – these and infinite other causes for gratitude have stayed the same across the millennia. In order to see this incredible celestial light show, we have to be surrounded by the utter darkness of night. And so it goes for us too, the darkest conditions often reveal our most extraordinary light.
Cairns are markers of an ancient sort. Over the millennia they have marked roads, burials, buried supplies, boundaries and countless other things. Here is a cairn to mark today as a special day – a marker for whatever needs celebrating, honoring or just a plain old mini monument to elegantly proclaim ‘I was here!’ Which you are. You are alive. Full of possibilities. Mischief. Life. What kind of mark will you make?!
The key is to anticipate, to be in a state of thanks, a state of being called grace. Expectant, fired up about what the day will bring. When you are being ‘excited expectancy’, you will attract experiences equal to the vibration of these tessellating, radiating thoughts. This is the way to do it. Choose your state of mind; change your experience.
The other way is to flat-line, to sit in the stagnant waters of same old same old, literally dying for something new, something real, some experience of being alive. Addicted to the habits of our daily life, repeating the same choices, we insanely hope that something really BIG will grab us from the outside and make a difference. When it doesn’t, ever desperate, we grasp at things and experiences, aching for an encounter with something other than what we’ve become. We are bloated, fear-filled and sick, clinging to our sinking life raft of comfort and security.
Comfort and security when grasped from outside us do not predispose us to bliss. They are experiences already spent; last year’s harvest. They can’t feed us. They are attempts at control, ways of saying, ‘no, life must be like this’. You, the limitless, have limited the surge of life, closed off new possibilities, kept the magic at bay. Not understanding true power.
Close your eyes and feel the terror of losing control of who you think you are. With the delight of a child, spin round and round in circles until you collapse in ecstatic dizziness on the ground, letting the universe flow with you, swirling around you and in you. The center will hold. It is you. Home.
If you want to experience the extraordinary, then you must become open to the extraordinary. You must be present at the very edge of your awareness, willing to expand beyond all beliefs and welcome the unknown as a beautiful, mysterious lover who gathers you to her with wide arms full of comfort and receives your open breaking heart in exchange for the security of boundless joy.
Your willingness to walk in grace, to embrace the unknown, creates a space for life to surge into with all the beauty and exuberance of a newly formed universe. This is the power that longs to dance with you. The power of creation. Expression. What will you experience from a place of belonging, healing and potential? As always, the choice is yours.
I have a new show called “Keep Making Love” going on for the month of August at Le Petit Marche in downtown Crystal Lake. If you’re around, stop in and say hello!
The Journey 