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Restless, But Reading

/ still a dreamer / 8 Comments

Do I write this post with a tad of guilt? I do. I feel like I have neglected my wonderful blog and disappointed … who? I notice that many of my contemporaries in blog posting have not been writing either. Hmmmmm …. (* Please see P.S. below.)

An effect of the pandemic? Are we all on to different things? Just not writing?

In the kitchen, keeping Jazzy company while she ate her lunch, I realized how restless I am. I want to do everything, but yet I really want to curl up with a good book and do nothing (but read). Life had been so crazy busy for so long, and then I left my very-often-intense work in the humane field. It was exactly what needed to be done, and along with some of that work was the pandemic. Working from home, staying at home for my safety, getting all too used to being home. Not liking it. It’s very comfortable and I live in a beautiful part of the state, but needing more. Restless.

Now that I can actually think, what do I want to be when I grow up? (You may have read about my ponderings on this subject in previous posts.)

Working on that, but meanwhile … I am always reading and always listening to music. Two constants. So while I work on the direction of my life, here are my 2023 reads so far, and all recommended unless otherwise noted. Not in order of being read.

The London Seance Society – Sarah Penner (currently reading)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer – Excellent!
The Lost Apothecary – Sarah Penner
The Lost City of the Monkey God – Preston Douglas – didn’t finish, non-fiction, but not my type.
Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng – Excellent!
The Book of Longings – Sue Monk Kidd
Now You See Her – Linda Howard
Night Music – JoJo Moyes
Secluded Cabin, Sleeps Six – Lisa Unger

Perhaps you will find something of interest. Perhaps you will share something of interest, as I know any followers of mine are also readers. Whatever you may be doing, I hope you are happy in your days. I am always hoping you are as content as possible in our so-often-challenging world, and finding the small and simple joys that are right there in front of us, waiting to be noticed. Till next time …

* p.s. In reading a comment on this post, and following up, I see that I have not been getting any notices of posts from my blogging buddies. Went into my settings and see something different than I remember. I hope this solves the problem, and my apologies to my friends who may have thought I was not reading and responding. That explains what I wrote above!

My New Website – Tada!

/ still a dreamer / 6 Comments

To be truthful, this is long overdue; however, I am just so happy and so grateful that it is here and up now.

With the new site, I can better share with you the work that I do, and even how some of it may help you! I’m thinking of graphic design, self-publishing, or art projects.

It’s all so shiny and new!! Please take a look and thank you for checking out my new website.

Missing Writing

/ still a dreamer / 6 Comments

The fact is, I write every day – I journal – but I miss writing. I want to say “real writing”, the kind that isn’t just one’s personal ups and downs, the efforts to figure things out, the daydreams and fantasies. (Because none of that is real, right? Haha.)

Maybe a year ago, needing to become more active on social media to promote my children’s book, I discovered Instagram. I love IG because it feeds the visual aspects of my heart, my mind, my soul in a very different way than writing does. So I’ve been hunkered down over there for a bit. (Please come visit me on Instagram @jeannebalsam )

An extremely simple example of AI art using Midjourney and the prompt “A swimming pool filled with stars on a moonlit night.” Image courtesy Wikipedia

And what have I found? A community of children’s book people, an immense amount of positivity, and an endless treasure trove of art that is firing up my brain. Some of it is illustration, some is videos/reels, but a great source of fascination is the AI art (Artificial Intelligence) – see above. People using programs such as Midjourney are creating often fantastical images, but to my mind, I see magic.

I love that in every way – art, writing, music – and it seems that some magic is calling to me. I want to be where the magic is, for it to take me and my art to some new, unexpected places. It sparkles.

Still, I miss writing. I feel like I am being readied for some new union between word and image. After being absent for a bit, I also miss my friends here on WP who inspire me, too. (But I’m getting to you …)

Where is your magic? Is it dancing? Is it calling you?

A little inspiration of late – 51 minutes of uninterrupted beautiful music that fills me with dreams. Maybe you, too.

Where We’re Going

/ still a dreamer / 9 Comments

More and more I realize how everything we choose is moving us forward on our path. Whether it’s who we meet, what we read, what we listen to, where we go, what we dream about … it’s all moving us forward and serving our mental, spiritual, and emotional evolution.

For example, this month, I have committed to Inktober, an October challenge to create a new pen and ink drawing each day and post it on Instagram. I am sharing four with you, but I have faithfully drawn every day. I’m using this to get my creativity going, to get the feeling of what it’s like to draw on a regular basis, plus I love pen and ink. There are things I plan to do, and Inktober appeared to me. Right on time.

I have been trying to see more art, and have finally been able to get back to Grounds for Sculpture, a 42-acre outdoor museum for contemporary sculpture and arboretum. I’ll share a few of the beautiful pieces i saw …

And when I can’t get out to see art, I am finding it online, especially on Instagram. Instagram, of all social media, is highly visual and a great fit for me as an artist, photographer, and illustrator. But it has also been a constant source of positive and inspiring messages that uplift my mind and spirit, and I try to share them with whoever stops in and visits me. If interested, I am @jeannebalsam.

In reading, we also grow. I have picked up four books recently, and left off on three – I chose them at one time, but they are not where I am now. The fourth, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, is written in letters back and forth between characters in the years following WWII, and about how life was affected in the Channel Islands by the German occupation. It’s rich and funny and heartfelt, and also about how reading connects us all. It received unanimous glowing reviews. Go look; it’s excellent.

And music – finding and listening to new, all that speaks to me now. Music is so healing, whether music for meditation or Indie/pop, whatever it is, keep music in your life. And dancing … mostly in the kitchen, to my phone. It makes me happy. Tried it?

When I don’t post for a while, it does become an epistle, so I’ll leave you here with the thought to remember to feed your life well in all you do. And also a video – Dancing with My Phone. This is from HYBS, a duo you will see in the odd (and inexplicable to me) Christmas moment. I hope it makes you smile … and turn up your phone.

Time Passes ….

/ still a dreamer / 11 Comments

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to write when a month or two has passed. It’s not that I don’t have something to say – I am never at a loss for words – maybe how much to say? Or how to put it?

I’m moving into a new phase of my life. It began last November when I chose to leave the organization and work that I have done for over three decades. It was the right time and the right choice for me. I am grateful for the opportunity to have saved many thousands of lives and raised many millions of donation dollars for this organization. It was wonderful. But now, I have other things to do.

Almost all work in my life has involved healing others, whether humans or animals. I believe it’s why I’m here. I recently spent a period of time needing to take care of and healing myself after some medical procedures and the accompanying stress, but I feel myself pulling away from that period now and re-focusing on where I’m going.

In a sense, it’s a question of `what do I want to do/be when I grow up?’ from a whole new perspective. It’s challenging and occasionally a little frightening, but I feel myself, from someplace deep inside, starting to gather strength. And I am seeing myself unfolding in ways that would not have been possible those three decades ago. And it’s all good.

My first children’s book is now released, and I will be promoting that and hopefully, meeting lots of excited kids and more. I am soon starting some workshops in helping people self-publish, and plan on advancing other graphics skills I have to help people. How this will all come together is still unknown, but I trust it will be exactly as it should be.

One gift I have been given and which inspires me is, believe it or not, Instagram. I am an artist, but also a photographer, and have loved taking pictures all my life. Now I have the opportunity to be yet more inspired and post my images. All my life, I have also loved music, and over the last 7-8 months or so, this has been expanded immensely. And for a major portion of my life, I have loved going to museums, and recently I have been inspired to get out more, once again, and see art, which feeds my soul. And to do my own art, however that seems to be making itself known, and surprising me as much as anyone.

Some days feel a little shaky, occasionally outright scary, but others are just glowing with promise. All is well.