Creative Picnics and Pots of Tea

This day really began the eve before. My partner and I took ourselves on a river picnic to get the creative juices flowing. We were blessed by a visit from a little friend along the way.

This morning I woke up with a good idea. There is a pile of sketches in the corner of my studio that seems to multiply day by day. I can't find a place for them and yet can't bring my self to throw them away. I decided it was time for transformative action!

Anyone who knows me also knows that I like to drink a lot of tea. It keeps the creative juices flowing. A pot of tea, like creativity, is best shared with another and so I invited a dear friend to join me in making. Several pots later, we had made many paper beads out of the sketches. These beads are fun and very relaxing to make by tearing the paper in strips, wrapping them round the end of a paint brush or knitting needle and sealing it with glue.

I added words on some of them to tell a story. Now I can wear my drawings and carry with me the intentions, conversations and fun experiences I had in making them.

An afternoon's muse

Being in flux....feeling those parts in life that are constantly changing, and those that are always moving but shifting so slowly the movement is barely perceivable. Feeling the way in which these aspects of life move together, like in a dance.

This is a piece I am working on as I muse, made from leaves, seeds, rocks, flowers, earth and cut up images from around my home.



This morning I listened to a beautiful talk by Jaya Ashmore. It begins with this poem by Chinese poet Zi yi.

All night I could not sleep
because of the moonlight on my bed.
I kept hearing a voice calling.
Out of nowhere
Nothing answered,
Yes.

I really resonated with this poem and with Jaya's thoughts about this poem. Among many points in her talk she suggests Zi yi is speaking about tuning into what the most subtle voice inside of you has been saying all along. Lying sleepless in that still moonlight is about listening to that Something beyond comprehension that pulls you quietly away from habitual life. Allowing oneself to be carried by what can't be easily grasped. Resting in this support we can feel such a vivid sense of our potential for transformation. I'll be enjoying musing over this today...