Monday, April 15, 2013

Conversations With The World

11"x14"  acrylic on canvas - Geography of Moss

I woke this morning to a phrase whispering in my head "everything is sacred".  I have been holding up words to the light as potential talismen and good travelling companions, but perhaps I have a phrase, instead?  The impatient me is apparently on holiday and I am happy to roll things around a bit and swish them gently to get a feel for them.  Perhaps sometimes when you look for something, what you find is a little different than what you went in search of.  To find what you really need, you require the gift  of openness.

Often we're so busy looking for answers and solutions, that we can't see one that hovers slightly outside our line of vision.  I imagine this happens to me quite a bit because I often charge off with fixed ideas of what I'm looking for and I'm very often in a hurry to find my "answer" and get on with the next thing on my list.  Life is always holding out valuable little lessons on in it's gentle palm, along with our solutions if we can just scrunch up eyes the right way and pull the slightly ethereal into focus.

On this grey, rainy morning other seemingly wise words floated up, cloud like  "Everything is whispering to you".  This made me think of David Whyte's poem "Everything Is Waiting For You" and then I thought of how he speaks of conversations.  Yes, we are always having conversations with the things around us and with the thoughts that manifest. Often we do all the talking (we're a bossy lot, us 21st century, logic addled peeps).  What if we could get really quiet and listen a little more (says she to herself. Always what we write is what we most need to hear).

11"x14" oil and cold wax on paper "Travel Diary"

The veil of sleep was lifted off ever so gently this morning because I was treated to a little snippet of dream.   In my dream there were rows of u shaped hoops in a garden. Each with a small rose plant by it (bush would be too large a word here).  I was going along the rows with cuttings and tying them carefully with a twist tie to the hoops.  Trouble is I was tying them up in the air, not at ground level, so they had no access to the nourishment of the earth.  I took this as a conversation about projects I have been engaged in and ones I am eyeing on the horizon, the rows and rows of things. It seems I am being  reminded that  even if I work very hard at something, if it is not rooted in some ground that can nourish it, how can it grow.  I hear whisperings about wasted effort, about more care and attention to what is truly important.  I hear whispers about being "grounded".  Often I find my dreams are very literal with a slightly funny edge to them.

So this seems a little Monday reminder to us, as we walk into a new week, to see everything as sacred, and as a conversation.  Everything is whispering to you, even the parking ticket, the plugged sink, the steaming cup of strong coffee you are drinking.  What if we took time to really listen and see?  How would our week unfold? Come tell me the stories of you conversations and I will tell you mine. Happy Monday.

16 comments:

  1. ah, carole, 'travel diary' is magnificent...

    xoxo

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  2. Most definitely "Spirit" speaks to us through so many avenues: life, nature, art, music, meditation, others words, etc, etc. We just need to be listening, aware. I love that you are hearing the whispers! :) You already know my story :) We always get the words/phrases we need, in the way that we can hear them... I imagine your "inner voice" speaks to you through your paintings as well...

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    1. I know you are always listening! You in fact put the bug in my ear that it might be phrase, rather than a word I might find.

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  3. These two mossy beauties and the blue one last week are so so beautiful. Speaking of sacred...the mystery in the lines and wax and color speak of all levels of sacred! I know I would enjoy getting lost in all three if I were up close...layers, levels and surfaces!
    I like the phrase that has found you and will do my best in my 'stillness' to listen and report back!

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  4. Thanks, Mary Anne! Looking forward to popping over to your virtual studio and hearing more about your listening!

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  5. "Everything is sacred"... I like that!
    ...and "the gift of openness". Taking the pressure off myself and being open to whatever presents itself has made a difference to my state of mind. Giggling at "The impatient me is apparently on holiday" ..... sometimes it is good to let things happen. I've enjoyed letting ideas make themselves known to me rather than my going off at a tangent and hunting for them (a bit like my fox terrier frantically trying to chase after a mole down a mole hole).

    Loving this trend of thought. I enjoyed David's poem too

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  6. Now I am the one giggling, imagining myself a bit like your fox terrier often times, wanting, chasing.... Yes, it is a more relaxed way of being isn't it; letting things come to you. Doesn't mean we don't take action, but we are listening and not without that air of desperation. And so nourishing for the body too, I think, to put down the stress.

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  7. The work is boss, like poison gas cloud abyss.

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  8. yes, direction from the work, listening to the work, that will lead us where we need to go.

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  9. Great post! I'm a fan of David Whyte's poetry too. The hardest part of listening well is learning to take "no" for an answer!

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  10. thanks, Marie. It's true, we do like the answers to turn out in a way that "seems" good to us! Hard for us to let go of that control button! Sometimes I get glimpses of the "greater" things at work when I have no option but to take no for an answer.

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  11. I love the sentiment that unless something you are working on is not grounded where it can get nourishment how can it grow. I interpret the ground here to be our internal compass, our personal map of our strengths, our anchor. One has to know about themselves at a conscious level in order to work as an artist.

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  12. Yes, that's it and in reading your words about"conscious level" it makes me think that as well as ground, we need the light (of conscious awareness) to help whatever needs to grow to get off the ground, be it a work or art or some other life project.

    Thanks Donna, for adding light to the conversation!

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  13. btw, thank you for leaving such a wonderful supportive comment at my blog post on artist block. I am starting to see a glimmer.

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  14. Glad for your glimmers! Wishing you more signs of Spring.

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