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“There is something greater and purer than what the mouth utters. Silence illuminates our souls, whispers to our hearts, and brings them together. Silence separates us from ourselves, makes us sail the firmament of spirit, and brings us closer to heaven.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

No, you are not losing it. Yes, it is Friday. Yesterday, I lost it and took a much-needed hibernation from everything. I was physically and mentally exhausted and aside from a previously scheduled appointment, I took a day off — a “mental health” day, you might say. I took a day off, from not only blogging, but the art challenge and my yoga class. I answered my body’s call and I rested. After a good night’s sleep, I feel more like myself, and ready to re-enter the world. I apologize for the delayed post, but what can I say, I only human.

Being Fully Present: Summon Your Aliveness

When we are fully present, we offer our whole selves to whatever it is that we are doing. Our attention, our integrity, and our energy are all focused in the moment and on the task at hand. This is a powerful experience, and when we are in this state, we feel completely alive and invigorated. This kind of aliveness comes easily when we are absorbed in work or play that we love, but it is available to us in every moment, and we can learn to summon it regardless of what we are doing. Even tasks or jobs we don’t enjoy can become infused with the light of being present. The more present we are, the more meaningful our entire lives become.

Next time you find yourself fully engaged in the moment, whether you are making art, trying to solve an interesting puzzle, or talking to your best friend, you may want to take a moment to notice how you feel. You may observe that you are not thinking about what you need to do next, your body feels like it’s pleasantly humming, or your brain feels tingly. As you enjoy the feeling of being located entirely in the present moment, you can inform yourself that you may try to recall this feeling later. You might try this while driving home or getting ready for bed, allowing yourself to be just as engaged in that experience as you were in the earlier one.

The more we draw ourselves into the present moment, the more we honor the gift of our lives, and the more we honor the people around us. When we are fully present, we give and receive aliveness in equal measure. For today, try to be fully present in your daily activities and watch a new reality open for you. ~ Madyson Taylor, Daily Om

How timely this article is! It comes at the exact time when I can truly identify with it. Yesterday, I dropped out of the world, away from its demands and expectations, away from to-do lists and away from my blog. I had no choice. The moment required it.

In my case, I’d been totally wrapped up in an art challenge in which an artist friend nominated me. I thought that the challenge required that I create three pieces of art each day for five days. The point of the challenge is to share your work with other artists. (I later learned that it was not necessary that the three pieces be newly made, only completed pieces.) Although it was “challenging,” I ended the first days, tired but with a feeling of accomplishments as I’d created nine new pieces. The fourth day was different.

The frenzy of the first three days finally hit me all at once. Exhausted though I was, I managed to complete two new pieces. Before I started the third, I received a phone call informing me that a friend from high school was dead. She was not a close friend, but she was kind, graceful and liked by all. She had sickle-cell anemia, long before I knew about the disease. At the time, those with sickle-cell rarely lived past 20 years of age. She, however, survived almost 20 years longer.

Because she was the fourth or fifth person from my high school class who’d died within the last year, the news hit me particularly hard. I was tired physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I just felt numb. The art challenge was far from my mind and all that I could think of were those days, so long ago , when we were young and innocent, with our whole lives ahead of us. In my case being fully present made it a reality that my youth was behind me, and the specter of death nearer. The fact is that there are times when the present moment brings with it pain and sadness, but as they inevitably go by, also the certainty that “this too shall pass.”

Yet, that is not the norm. As the article points out, it is in the present moment that we are fully engaged with our lives and all of its wonder. Neither the past, nor the future affords us this gift. In the present, our focus is on what is around us, not the past that we can’t change or the future that remains a mystery. In the present moment, we glimpse the funny dog-shaped cloud that rushes by overhead, the way the light travels through a prism causing an explosion of color, the hummingbird as it stops to quench its thirst, and the perfect flower that we walk by, as we moor thoughts in the past. In the blink of an eye, the present becomes the past, and it can never be reclaimed. The present holds the promise that guides us through the difficulties that are a part of life, and with it comes the assurance that it is okay to stop and rest, if only for a time.

Yes, it’s true that time waits for no one, and that is why every moment is so precious. Awareness ensures that we are participating in each moment of our lives, and seeing it as it is, the beauty, the sadness and the joy. Engaging in those moments are a valuable part of our journey.


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“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama

 

Wow, I am beat! I admire all the artists who seemingly effortlessly, create multiple works of art a day. It is only the second day of the five-day art challenge  and I feel like I’ve been rode hard and put away wet. (For those of you with dirty minds, (You know who you are.) the saying is referring to a “horse.”) It is exhausting work! If you are scratching your head wondering what I am talking about, read this post from yesterday.

Every day, I am learning something new. For example, I love mixed media work, as opposed to simply painting. Don’t get me wrong, most of the artists that I truly admire are painters and they do incredible work. For my weird personality, however, I find that it confines me. Although I don’t claim that this is the “accepted” definition of mixed media, I see it as a marriage of a variety of artistic expressions; for instance, paints (it can be a combination of acrylics, watercolor or others that work together), stencils, crayons, stamps, inks, markers, chalk, pens, collage, pencil and more.

Today, I realized that I love working with inks, spray and otherwise. I also learned that I don’t care much for “soft” bodied acrylic paints, even though I have a s**t load of them. I’ll use them sometimes, but for the most part, I’m sticking with the “heavy”  bodied acrylics.

I finally understand that over the last 1 ½ years, I have learned a great deal more than I thought. I am thankful that I’ve taken courses from artists with varying styles, because, as a result. I have a huge arsenal of techniques from which to choose. However, my groupings of paintings tend to look rather schizophrenic, but they are the result of what wants to come out at the time of creation, so I am just going with it. This challenge is proving to help me to winnow out those techniques that do not work for me, while at the same time, to embrace those that will ultimately become a part of my own unique style.

Most importantly, the pace is allowing me to let go of the need to both be “perfect” (whatever that means) and paint for others. I have a tendency to worry about whether others will like my work, instead of focusing on whether I like it. I’ve found that the pieces that I like most, are those when I simply zoned out and created from my heart. Sure, not everyone will appreciate the outcome, but then, that’s art, it is open to interpretation. This is a lesson that I will practice every day.

And now, I will stop yapping and get to the point of this post. These are my three pieces for Day 2 of the challenge: