Inspired

Winter Solstice and The Shift

She Embraced Life 

Digital Mediea with ink drawing (stars and moon)

My thoughts on the day:

It's December 21, 2012...the winter solstice and the end of the Mayan long point calender.  And no, I don't believe the world is ending today...but it may be the beginning of the end of the world as we've known it!

I'm all about the energy.  We are energy and everything is made of energy.  This date has been super-hyped for years in both positive and negative ways.  It's neither instant nirvana nor the end of the world...it's a gateway opening.

My intuition/inner knowing is telling me this; the end of 2012 is a very energetically potent time.  We won't truly understand just how potent until we see from a new perspective what has expanded out from it.

I believe we're perched at the unfolding of a new understanding of who we are and what we're capable of as human beings.  

I also believe that what has looked like the "falling apart" of our society for the past 15 years or so, has actually been the "dismantling" or shifting of an old system that isn't working for the positive growth of humanity.

 

Our purpose here is to add light to the world through our emanations of love, compassion, joy and peace and anything that blocks us from doing this needs to be cleared. As the ancient Hopi prophesy says "we are the ones we have been waiting for".

I'm fairly sensitive to energy, as are many of you and I've personally noticed a marked intensity in the energy over the past couple of weeks.  For me, the intensity hasn't been negative...physically, there's a lot of pressure and tingling on the top of my head (crown chakra) and some dizziness. Emotionally, I've been experiencing feelings of deep peace, bliss, excitement and anticipation. 

I've also been thinking a lot about change...what I want it to look like and how I might direct it. Not huge change but subtle changes both within and without, that can affect a trajectory signifigantly over time.  I've also been thinking about words...as in "my word for the year".  How did this years word work out and do I really want to do this again?  More on this to come.

Sending hugs and blowing kisses to each and every one of you. Have a lovely weekend dear friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

12-12-12

Whispers

Digital Media with pen/ink daisies

 

12-12-12.  The last triple number of this century.  What does it mean other than the obvious?  

I don't really know although much is being said about it.  I believe that when meaning is attached to something...an event or "thing"...then the energy around it becomes stronger.  I'm focusing my conscious intent on peace, love and oneness...the triad...and I'm listening to the whispers. The whispers tell me that this is an important time in the world...individually and globally.

It's been a time of quiet for me recently.  A time of rest and rejuivination where words have left me.  The exhaustion that I'm feeling has drained me and the words not only don't make it from my brain to my mouth or my fingers (to type), they don't even fully form in my brain! They're half there...and then gone. It's a temporary state I know, and the tropical warmth and sunshine that January will bring is eagerly anticipated.  

Meanwhile I'm listening to the whispers of insight...I will be back soon...

 

Sending hugs and blowing kisses dear friends,

 

Life's Storms

Life's Storms - mixedl media: digital collage with hand drawn ink raindrops

...end of year...dark december...sideways rain...black clouds...

...(glimpse of) sunshine...monster puddles...hot mocha's...

...torrential downpour...christmas carols...

...wool scarves...coffee/bailey's...

...full moon...sweet hugs....

...peeking sunbeams...

...more rain...wild wind...

...big umbrellas...

...warm fires...

pots of tea...

 

...repeated daily...

 

...sitting quietly...walking briskly...breathing deeply...

...sleeping lightly :(...smiling widely...:)

...singing softly...

...creating happily...

...hugging tightly...

 

...repeated daily.

 

My life in a nutshell these days. 

 

Sending huge hugs and blowing kisses to all of you across this big wide world of ours

and thank you for taking the time to stop by.

New Eyes

Seeing With New Eyes

Mixed Media: Digital collage with hand drawn ink feathers

  No matter the deviations, all things come full circle.  You begin and end your journey in the same place, but with a different set of eyes.

Jennifer DeLucy

It's been almost two weeks since I last posted...I've been away again.  Dad's home is fully cleared out now and thankfully that job is finished!  We had hoped to get to the interior of the province and back before the winter weather arrived with it's trecherous road conditions, but snow descended on the mountains the day we drove over them to come home.  The drive was slow but happily uneventful.

 

 

 

I'm still focusing my creativity on the digital "She" art series.  With this one I wanted to convey how important it is for me to be open to seeing things in different ways.  It's about adjusting our perspective to see the magic in the ordinary and knowing that the glass is constantly full of new potential, rather than just empty of what we've always known and been comfortable with. 

It feel's good to be back into the world of digital again and it's worked well for me while I've been away from home so much since August.  I'm waiting for my "shedio" to be finished before I do any more painting...my little creative corner in the den suddenly felt very confining and was spilling paints, paper and canvas all over the place.  Right now the shedio looks like this...

 

...but I see so much "potential" here for many happy hours lost in paint and canvas. The ceiling slopes from 8'(at the back) to 9' at the front and there are will be 3 windows and a glass door for lots of light. Mr I hopes plans to have it to "lock up" by the time we leave for sunnier climes and then finished in the spring.  Progress has been stalled for the past several months but considering what's been going on, plus all the rain we've had, it's not too surprising.

We're a little less than a month from the winter solstice now and with it, the return of the sun...an important date for a light seeker like me!  

I hope this finds you all basking in your own beautiful light dear friends, where ever you are...

Sending hugs and blowing kisses...xox...

 

 

 

Weekly Fav's

I never seem to have my Friday Fav's done by Friday so in the interest of letting myself off the hook, I'm now calling it my "weekly" fav's...it's amazing how a slight wording adjustment can make a big attitude adjustment!

 

Weekly Fav's...November - week 1

 

Favourite purchase:

This week I became the thrilled owner of a MacBook Air...it's tiny, it's light and yes,it's almost as light as air.  When my old laptop had it's final gasp and shuddered to a halt, I wanted to replace it with something powerful enough to handle Photoshop, yet small enough to carry easily when traveling. This lovely little machine is seductive perfection. It's also challenging my brain with the switch from windows to Mountain Lion OS.  I can almost hear the new neural pathways firing (and sputtering) as they break new ground.

 

Favourite quote:

I saw this on a friend's Facebook page and almost squeeled when I read it....you know how some things just "speak" to you?

 

 

Favourite Music:

Immersing myself in a live musical performance of vintage Patsy Cline music in a local production of "A Closer Walk".  I'm not normally a country music fan but I do love me some Patsy Cline heartbreaker-drama-rama.  

 

Favourite Artist:

I'm absolutely mesmerized by the installation art of Brazillian artist Ernesto Neto.  This work was shown at the Faema Museum of Art in Buenos Aires last year  and was an extravaganza to say the least!

 

Installation work created by Ernesto Neto at the Faena Arts Center in Buenos Aires 

I've felt drawn to travel to Buenos Aires for some time now and if I had known about this show which was held last fall, I would have hitch hiked and swum my way there to see it!  

Can you imagine?...it must have taken an army of people to crochet this work...yes, it was all hand crocheted...and the beautiful colours plus the the hands on/tactile aspect of it have me wanting to reach out and play in it!

My years of gallery work have left me with an huge appreciation of instalation work like this.  Check out this link to the Faena Arts Center to see more shots as well as this time lapse video of the impressive installation.

 

Favourite moment of joy:

Waking up feeling rested after sleeping for a full 9 HOURS...after two long weeks of 4 and 5 hour nights.  Oh bliss and Joy!  Sleep deprivation is so, well..exhausting, and waking from a full nights sleep felt so heavenly.

 

Favourite "Good Feeling"

Helping our friends from Melinda's Biscotti move their bakery and cafe on Saturday morning.  It was done in 4 hours and finished by noon.  The amazing part is that it was their customers arriving with their own trucks, cars and SUV's who made it happen.  In fact it all happened so fast, it looked like a fast forward video!

Thanks to all who stop by here to my little (online) corner of the world.  Sending big hugs and blowing kisses to everyone and I hope November is being kind to you.

 

 

November Thoughts

 

November...already...can you believe it?

As I sit here looking out the window at the wind blowing in the trees and the blue sky beyond that, I can't help but feel that we've moved into a whole new ball game. Things feel different. We're still carrying on with our daily lives, but there's a edginess.....a fragility even...and a overwhelming feeling that maybe the rules have changed.  It almost feels like the beginning of a new year.

The US elections affected the whole world.  People in every country were holding their breath to see which way the wind would be blowing in the world the next day and even though Obama was re-elected, things have changed. There's a knowing that no matter where our personal philosophies lie, there's no going back to the way things were or that it's business as usual.  It's crunch time.  We no longer have the luxury of time to play old games of divisiveness.  As Rumi said,

 

Out beyond ideas

of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field...I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down

in that grass

the world is too full

to talk about

ideas and language,

even the phrase 'each other'

doesn't make any sense.

 

There's a younger and very different population moving into adulthood.  They have different expectations and different ways of approaching problems. They see the world differently...power and responsibility for them isn't in the hands of government leaders but rather something for each of us to embody.  They don't as easily accept the status quo and are constantly looking for newer, better and more innovative ways of living life.

 

 

They see the world changing...climate, earth and economic changes...and they're not happy that my generation is attempting to use the same old solutions to fix new problems.  We're in a time of radical transparency now where many most of our current world leaders haven't quite realized that the job calls for nothing less than honesty and integrity.  It's a new game with new rules.

Energetically, the world around us is changing and it's requiring nothing less than the same from each of us.  It's time to let the November winds blow away whatever no longer serves us and likely hasn't for years.  It's time to begin...individually...to embody our own truth and live up to our amazing potential.  

 

(she steps down from her soapbox now)

 

Stay in wonder dear friends...there's so much to be in wonder about.  Sending hugs and blowing kisses to each of you all over this big, beautiful world!

Friday Fav's - November '12 - week 1

My Friday Fav’s for this week…

Satisfied Moment: I realized earlier this week as I was wandering around a local shopping center that I hadn’t taken any photographs of the fall colour this year. It’s been a particularly beautiful fall, but most of it escaped me. I pulled out my point and shoot, turned around and snapped the picture below. So now I had one.

 

 

Then I looked up and there above me was a beautiful red maple, so I took a picture of that too and with those two photograph...both taken within 10 seconds...I felt so much better. With these quick shots I felt that autumn could move on, the winds could blow and the leaves could fall. All was OK...I had recorded at least a moment of it.  Weird, but I felt content.

 

 

Happy Moment:  watching my 7 year old grandson design and carve his Halloween pumpkin.  I loved watching his own delight in his creation and the fact that he didn’t for a moment doubt that it was anything other than a perfect work of art.  This confidence is so beautiful to see and I pray that nothing will ever dampen it for all 7 of my grandchildren.  The world can, and often does so easily, crush a young heart and as parents and grandparents, our mission is always, always, always to support and nurture their self esteem and self worth.

 

Quote:

 

(again, wish I could give credit where credit’s due but I can’t chase it down :(

We’ve spent the last week or so planning our winter vacation and it was the perfect antidote for the damp, rainy weather we’ve been having since we returned home.  When all the cards finally fell to the ground, we ended up with places to stay in three lovely towns/villages in Mexico...two of which we've never been to before. Sounds muy perfecto to me!

 

Art:

This week, I’ve been enjoying the work of Elizabeth LeCourt…a French artist, now living in London.  I love her Les Robes Geographique series…

 

 

She folds maps into beautiful, tiny dresses (and men’s shirts too).  Art made of maps intriques me…so much so that I have a Pinterest Board dedicated to map art.  Doing something creative with maps is on my “to do” list when I get some more working space (my studio is a work in progress!).  I’ve already begun to collect a nice stack of maps for this purpose. (I just noticed that the image with the quote also has a map…I can’t seem to help myself!)

 

Fun: An evening of shared laughter with girl friends…a book-club-with-no-book this month, just laughing and talking which = good medicine.

 

Movie:  Argo…a great perched-on-the edge-of-my-seat thriller. Although it wasn’t completely historically accurate (the story of six American hostages that were hidden by the Canadian Ambassador in Terhan) it was very well done. It's a good movie when you know that everything turns out all right, yet you're still holding your breath and hiding your eyes!

Sending lots of love and prayers for those of you on the east coast who have been affected by "Sandy" in any way.  I hope that you're getting all the help you need and that things contine to improve for you very quickly. 

Sending hugs and blowing kisses dear friends.

 

Friday Fav’s–October, Week Four

I haven’t been on my computer much for the past three weeks…not blogging and not commenting much either.  The truth is, it’s been a hard month.  I’ve just returned from my Dad’s home again after an intense week and a half of arranging and holding a celebration of life gathering and then clearing out his house. 

Dad lived in the same home for almost 50 years and as a child of the depression, he didn’t throw much out. Going through his belonging was a huge physical and emotional task and felt a little intrusive. 

Before he died he asked my brother and I to be careful of what we threw out and ( I quote here) “it may look like junk to you but it’s my junk!  He kept a lot of historical memento's, so I’ve been going through boxes and drawers and very carefully weeding through papers, photographs, old documents, journals, letters and more...much, much more…all the while, talking to my father as I sort.  I apologized a lot (Dad, I can’t keep everything…I’m sorry, but this has to go).  As you might imagine or may know from personal experience, it’s a difficult task of balancing practicality with integrity.  These things were all important to my father.

And because it’s Friday and because I haven’t had the time or the energy to do anything creative and because my thoughts are scattered and swirling around in my head from all this emotional intensity, I thought I’d do another “Friday Fav’s” to help sort the past week out….

 

 

This week’s Friday Fav’s...

Favourite moment:  Listening to each of my three beautiful and all-grown-up children, speak at their grandfathers celebration of life gathering.  I’m proud, inspired and awe struck by the amazing love, wisdom and clarity that they each hold and emanate into the world.

What's making me happy: Listening to Eloheim's weekly online meeting. This week the question to ask (ourselves) was “What is it about being human that I love the most”? For me: shared laughter, deep connection with others, creativity and being in nature. We were asked to narrow it down to one (deep connection) and then ask ourselves to notice how we might be limiting this in our lives. (ie, worrying, or spending time watching TV rather than being with others or working through a lunch hour rather than going out for a walk in nature, etc). This work with Eloheim is literally making me a happier person as I shed the dross.

 

Quote of the week:

(don’t you think it’s easier to hear the truth when Johnny is the one telling it to you?)

 

Source of creative inspiration:  I love this little tutorial by Judy Wise on how to make a paper bag art journal.  It's not too involved and paper bags are easy to find!  I think I’ll save it for next spring/summer when my studio is finished and I have the space.

 

Great source of laughs this week:  In a moment of frustration, Mr. I grabbed my father’s “Dammit Doll” and wacked it against a chair, saying “dammit, dammit, dammit”!  It completely cracked us all up!  It was the end of a long week and we were physically and emotionally exhausted.  The perfect release valve! 

(if you’ve never heard of a Dammit Doll, it’s a stuffed doll, about 10” long (it has long legs which make it easier to hold on to it while you’re whacking).  They come with these instructions:

Whenever things don't go so well

and you want to hit the wall and yell,

here's a little Dammit Doll

that you can't do without.

Just grasp it firmly by the legs

and find a place to slam it,

and as you whack it’s stuffing out,

yell "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!"

...It felt so good, he brought the doll home!

 

Image of the week:

Freedom

acrylic painting on wood by Duy Huynh

 

I love the magic in this image and the sense of lightness and hope.

Surely a dress made of beautiful white doves is possible? Surely this dress will lift me and carry me into places and opportunities yet undreamed of, curiosities yet unimagined?

Well of course it’s possible…If you believe….and oh yes, I do believe!

 

Best blog post of the week:  In The Transition.  I’ve “known” Rox for several years now, via the internet, ever since her “Beach Walks with Rox” vlogging days.  I love this post. 

 

Have a beautiful weekend dear friends….sending huge hugs and blowing kisses to you where ever you are in this big, amazing world.

Head First Into the World

She Dove Head First Into the World

 

Do you ever feel like you’re tiptoeing around something that you’d really love to do?  Is your heart calling out to jump in…feel the fear and do it anyway?  Or maybe the timing hasn’t been right and still doesn’t feel quite right. And how does one tell the difference between fear and knowing the timing isn’t right?

For me the answer comes when I’m in tune with my heart.  I now know the difference between the two but for years, I hadn't a clue.  I do know that even if we can’t eat the whole enchilada, we can take one bite and then another and another.  Rather than feel overwhelmed and unable to act, take it step by step…dive head first into each small step. 

Life is mostly a series of small steps and then when looking backwards, we can see how each step...put together...made up a leap.

 

 

On a totally unrelated topic, I’ve really missed doing my Friday weekly summaries…there’s something quite satisfying about looking at the week and saying “yes…this was a moment worth thinking about, reflecting on and even recording”.  I’m going to try and be more regular with this for my own sake (regular" being a term I use very loosely) and hopefully you won’t get heart palpitations reading about my highly intense and extremely exciting life! (ha!)

So even though it’s not Friday, I’m doing a version of Friday Fav’s (on Sunday):

 

My Favorite’s:

Book: I’ve just finished reading “The Beekeepers Apprentice” and enjoyed it. a lot. It’s the story of a young 15 year old girl who meets the retired Sherlock Holmes on the Sussex Downs and he takes her on as his apprentice.

 

Music:  I’m a “cool/smooth jazz” kind of gal and I’ve begun listening to “Live 365” online (free) which has many genre’s to choose from.  My current fav is Forever Cool.

 

Quote of the week

 

Image of the Week

 

…I love this…everything about it…and wish I knew who to credit it to. I’ve looked everywhere but it came from Tumbler which seems to be prone to “losing” art work credit’s in it's tangled web of re-blogging.

 

Big moment this week:

It’s been an odd week.  I’ve been incredibly tired and busy making arrangements for my father's celebration of life gathering next Saturday…making cards and doing the really hard stuff like writing his obituary for the paper. An emotionally draining week.  I’ve had a meltdown or five but there have been peaceful moments and laughter as well; walks between rain showers, lingering over coffee, soaking in the colour and talent of an art exhibition, meeting friends for dinner and others for brunch, touring a neighbouring island with more friends on a gorgeous sunny Sunday and putting heads together with Mr. I to plan our winter sunshine escape.  There was no “one-big-moment” but lots of little moments that felt very satisfying and a few that were less so...more like I'm-going-to-pull-the-covers-over-my-head-and-go-back-to-sleep-for-a-week.

 

Great source of laughs this week:

 

I kept coming back to this picture and laughing all over again…there’s just something about this that cracks me up. (I think it reminds me of my kids when they were young ;)

I hope this leaves you with a smile to head into your week.  Sending hugs and blowing kisses dear friends...

Write What You Want To Write

 

…not what you think others want to read.

  

She Wrote

Mixed Media:  Digital collage with pen/ink drawn pencil

The inspiration for this work came from a quote that I read here.  At a recent book signing, Molly Ringwald, actor and now author of When It Happens To You, gave aspiring authors this advice… “write what you want to write, not what you think others want to read” .

It stuck with me.  And it’s not true just with writing but with speaking our truth as well.  How often have each of us “adjusted” what comes out of our mouths to please those around us. Thankfully, as I get older, the need to please has mostly disapeared.

Food for thought, no?

(The girl in this photograph caught my eye.  Although the quality of the picture wasn't great, I loved her clear and steady gaze which seems to exude confidence at such a very young age. My current obsession work with "she art" all start with vintage images that are either in the public domain or purchased stock photo's and then I go to work, adding, deleting, layering, adjusting, drawing etc.)

Thanks to all who stop by and btw...I'm amazed when I look at my stats just where everyone comes from...at a 100 plus "hits" a day...from all over the world!  So glad you stopped by!