peace

Coping

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

In times of stress, it’s important to maintain our balance, and keep as much love flowing as possible. It’s not always easy, but here are a few things I do to stay steady. I’m sure they would help you, too.

Journaling …

I have been writing like a madwoman in the mornings. In part, to clear my head, but also to sort out dreams, and make plans about where I’m headed with important aspects of my life. If you don’t journal, I highly recommend it.

Taking pictures …

Photography lifts me up. I love taking pictures, and I know that expressing ourselves in whatever form of creativity we love is always a bonus. Think about making a little time for your own creative endeavors. It doesn’t need to have a purpose.

Baking/Cooking …

I don’t have a lot of time to bake (or sometimes, even cook), but whenever I do, it’s always so rewarding. Taking the time to nourish ourselves properly and well is important. Isn’t there something you want to make?

Creating for others …

I enjoy creating memes and sharing poetry and music on social media. It is always my hope that I can put a smile on someone’s face, or inspire them in some little way. I’m sure you have ways of doing the same. Do it!

Pulling back from the news …

I have found, for my well-being, I need to seriously cut back on how much news I’m exposed to. The sheer negativity of what is transpiring right now is soul-crushing. We can rarely change what’s going on, but we can change how we react.
We are entitled to some peace in our lives, and one way to find that is to limit fear, especially in overwhelming doses. Prioritize your peace.

And please keep waving.

Music Makes It Better

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

It can’t make it all better, but it definitely does make it better.

In the morning, when I settle down to do some follow-up on my recent posts on Instagram; add a couple stories; check in and read recent updates of those I follow; it is largely a very positive experience. Often, in these meanderings, I find new music, posted through one avenue or another.

It’s hard these days to read much, though, without running headlong into posts on IG or Threads of the chaos that is consuming this country. It’s deeply disturbing, beyond saddening. And then I came across this song, Sand Drawing. A beautiful respite.

Judah Earl is a young American composer, arranger, and producer. He plays the cello, and in this song has woven in strains of calm and peace, a refuge from the daily assaults we are now subjected to. I dare say that it has something almost holy about it.

Music somehow always makes it better. I know, because a lifetime of leaning on its shoulders, bowing my head into notes that are timeless, tell me so.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”
~ Osho

And so it begins …

/ still a dreamer / 6 Comments

The end of the Thanksgiving weekend, and it all goes into full swing. For all the things I both want and need to do, this is my goal:

But rarely how it ends up. I’m an organized person, but somehow all that I have to do for the holidays still sneaks up on me, and I am immediately overwhelmed. It’s not just the personal cards and gifts and plans that I have in front of me, but what should be one of the busiest times of the year business-wise is looking me square in the eye as well.

I should have already done more to get my Etsy shop noticed, but this year, I’ve been working on self-publishing my beautiful picture book, Where Do Butterflies Go at Night?. Sadly, the small company that published it went out of business and recycled all copies. I decided to invest the money and purchase the gorgeous original art and the rights; I just couldn’t see my first published book disappearing off the face of the earth. I’m working hard to reformat the entire book (particularly all the artwork), into a size used by self-publishing platforms, as they don’t offer the original published size. Tick, tock, can I get it up on Amazon in time for holiday sales?

Or for my other commitment, as a vendor at the Christmas Market in my own town? Everything seems like it should take an hour or two, and that’s never the case. And then there’s this guy …

You couldn’t ask for sweeter, but Charlie experienced a traumatic event earlier in the year. Too long a story, but he has PTSD, and it expresses itself in his obsessively moving things, pulling things, breaking things. Imagine a cat in a new home expressing his natural curiosity in everything, and then crank it up to mach-speed. With patience, strategic re-arrangement of furniture, and the help of some flower remedies in his water, he’s calming down. I’m surviving, always loving him, but there have been days …

And so the holidays begin. Still aiming for that goal above.

Hoping your holidays are calm and (relatively) stress-free!

The Conundrum of Being A Creative

/ still a dreamer / 8 Comments

For those of us who create, whether we be writers, artists, musicians, etc., we face a particular challenge. When creating our work, we want to feel that we can express all the richness of our hearts and minds, to bring to the world the best of who we are in any given moment.

But … suppose what we create is how we make our living? Assuming we’re not famous and a household name. How can we create freely when we know that people must like our creation, and want to buy it?

This is the conundrum I faced recently when deciding to create a new Christmas/holiday card for my Etsy shop, which focuses on Frenchies. I have a small following who have purchased my cards over the years, and loved my style of drawing. But I have been longing to do something new and different.

I decided to follow my heart in the message, the urgent need for love today, which I believe will resonate. We are all deeply saddened, frightened, and upset with what is going on in the world. But I also wanted to do something new artistically. I created an image that is a combination of my own watercolor painting and digital art, quite a digression from what people have seen from me in the past.

How will this work out? I’m promoting as fast and wide as I can, but I won’t know for a while yet. The question remains … how does an artist balance doing what they feel is their own personal creative truth with the need to make a living? Dare we believe that expressing ourselves fully and completely will be rewarded in every way?

See both cards and details in my Etsy shop.