May You Live in Interesting Times

Can we truly be hopeful in this season of looking ahead to the new year?    I haven't done the research I would normally do before sharing a link, but this is the second time today that people I generally trust have posted this stuff.  If anyone has further insights or comments to share on this subject, I'd be glad to hear them.

http://www.thrivemovement.com/when-enforcers-become-allies.blog

Be Brave lol

I loved the latest video from artist Donna Downey. Regardless of whether or not you are into this style of art journaling, I recommend you watch this video. If you have lost your mojo, are too afraid to just try a new idea, or forgotten how to inspire yourself, this video should be helpful to you.

As a commenter posted, "At first I thought you were sniffing something-". This is how it feels to get carried away with the joy of the moment.  Donna inspires me because she is one of that breed of video bloggers who shares her process with us. 

Effie Wild, Christy Sobelowski, Rhomany Scattergood, Patti Parish - these are a few of the names that spring to mind, who also are great at sharing their process. This is so helpful for both novices and experienced creators who have become stuck.

Anyway, try it - you may enjoy it too :D
 Inspiration Wednesday 12.11.13

Unblocking my Creativity

Finally this weekend, with the full moon, I've started to clear and organise the clutter I've been living with, since moving to this house in September.  This beauty emerged from the pile of books where they'd been dumped, behind my art journaling "ephemera" box. I resolved to get over my startled feeling, and embrace it as a personal symbol for restoring my creativity.

Having this cup & card to hand* from the clear-up process, I was able to remove the spider to an outdoors location, without harming it.

*I always have what I need.

Read it or Forget It

New Moon in Libra

Make the World a Better Place

Wherever one is in this world, space, time, and any other dimension for that matter, one can become distracted from what is really important. I only know how I feel, and that is how I determine how far or close I am to what I should be doing. 

Waffling again, leads rise to feelings of having too much to do - all imperative to get finished, in order for me to reduce stress; yet in reality, this is the very time to slow down and breathe, to let go and learn from that  moment, what really is important. Like missing a best friend's birthday, a brother's or a grandaughter's next milestone.

Phong in India

"Spend one day in India and you could write a book about it,
spend one week and you could write an essay,
spend one month and you could write a paragraph,
spend one year and you could write a sentence...
spend any more than that and you'll be speechless."
http://podcollective.com/fora/viewtopic.php?t=1172&highlight=

Gratitude for Mystery

What about us, drifting in a tide of changes, unfathomable, mysterious. Be aware that there is mystery beyond your words, beyond explanations on YouTube, viral on Facebook. Be aware of the mystery of where you are at this moment. Be aware that you always have what you need, and be satisfied with that.

Inspired by Lodestone, from The Mara Crossing by Ruth Padel

A good day's work

This new house has plenty of good light. It has inspired me to get my sewing machine out - a rare occurrence and something I do usually, only under duress.

I took it out yesterday and did a couple of repairs and altered some curtains. Today I up-cycled some lace and made a sexy top, altered a frumpy dress into a top, repaired another dress and started up-cycling a couple of sweatshirts.

T. S. Eliot

"Only those who risk going too far, can possibly find out how far one can go."

Preface to Transit of Venus poems by Harry Crosby (1931)

DOWN THE SIDE OF THE SOFA and other dark places (Bringing your shadow into the light so we can all have a laugh!)

A split keyboard hampering my PROCESS I struggle to get these first words down, a Start in the battle with my shadow who I've called GODWIT. I debated whether old shads should be named Godwitt or maybe Godwyt to make it read like a like a Kindle "freebie", but then the majesty of my life jolted me from my self- importance.  The family of Booted Eagles passed overhead again.  Sat in a hammock in a forest, the Truth of my everydays, this family have been calling and circling overhead for the last week, their instinct finely tuned, as mine was in that moment, to the wheel of the year. The psytrance season almost over, while soon, only echoes will remain, of the tasteless sounds of Pimba music from the sanatario (sanctuary). Soon nature itself will show its feral under belly, and the Hag of Yntall will crawl again from the shadowy earth.

Stream of Consciousness at Full Harvest Moom

This is where my thinking is heading; so, "I ALWAYS have what I need" at any given moment, any given circumstance. No need to stress, be anxious, fret for something not at hand. Work only on what is to hand at any moment. In this case, my iPad, my sofa, my dog, the full moon light, my smoking bag. So the Internet is really getting boring - at any one time, bored with the endless round of email, Facebook, YouTube, Ravelry ... - Pinterest, Twitter et al. These are all inputs and they bore me. Yet, the iPad is the only tool I have to hand right now.No pen or paper, collage or glue, wool or needles. All I have that I can use, all that is keeping me from my pipe and horizontal on the sofa is the iPad. Even the full moon light is behind me. So I decided, new dog at my side, to capture this moment, just this moment, in my blog. Perhaps it is time for a little output, processing, digesting and reinventing every that I have taken in, have taken in, until now.

What All The Fuss Is About...

From A Caring Frend

things are ok with us. I completely understand your reticence to take another dog into your lives. I think a period of mourning and adjustment is necessary, but sometimes the animals find you rather than the otger way around. She's come to a lovely home.
 
And, how sad for you to be leaving the house you like so much and for such sad reasons. I hope it's a happier place in your new location. If you need any help moving, let me know.  have lots of time.

AS ONE DOOR CLOSES ...

Cat + Knitting

GM asleep, moments ago on my knitting bags. I'm afraid I'm keeping him up, so he's making rather a point.

In Memoriam...

...of two lovely dogs that should not have died. 

Never explain, never apologise. Your friends don't care and the rest don't matter

I feel like I'm looking like Milliande in my cotton sweatband. Maybe now it is time to have the wacky hair colour. Suggestions on a postcard please ...

Cut-up More

I'm a great believer in telling people who your influences are, not pretending that everything is divine inspiration and unique, and your own personal prophecies... you're just part of an ongoing formula that's all integrated, it's a tapestry, it's woven together into this fantastic fabric. So I think anyone who makes sure that the importance of their proselytizing of cut-up, of random chance, the whole depth of the third mind, but most of all the cut-up, the idea that linear thinking and linear time and linear explanations and linear existence are both a fraud and pointless way of envisioning our experience of being alive. Anything that keeps their message alive or expands on it is a good thing.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
The Wire 2006
Alan Licht interviewing Genesis Breyer P-Orridge