I saw this beautiful passage the other day. It’s all over the internet but unfortunately, I do not know whom to attribute it to – maybe the artist/writer did that on purpose??? The other day, I purchased a fabric/textile piece of art on eBay. I haggled with the seller because as much as I was intrigued by the item, I did not recognize the artist’s name. The eBay seller had a lot of flea market, vintage type items and I assumed that this piece was something which they had picked up at a yard sale or such. The seller sold it to me at a lower price, but when I received the gorgeous, one-of-a-kind item, I got a note from the artist. This is an excerpt from the note: “Dear K, I just wanted to say thank you. These are my creations and not massed produced. I go by a pseudonym to keep my identity private. I have been creating art in various forms for many years. Fiber arts is my newest medium. My work has been featured in Time Magazine and other international publications. I’ve sold to clients around the world, but it was time for a change . . . . .Blessed be (and it was signed with the pseudonym in parentheses) P.S. – You can reach me through my friends on eBay for now.”
My fellow creatives (and that includes just about everybody, in one way or another), don’t dim your light. Don’t be your own harshest critic. Hone your own beautiful, unrepeatable, “unique brand of magic.” If this is too daunting for the self-recriminating, self-conscious part of you, create a pseudonym. Get an alter-ego. Have a pen name. Do whatever you need to do to release that part of you that is dying to connect with the Creative Intelligence which is energizing and teeming, all over this world. We are all part of it, and we all need the fullest version of your part of it. I saw another quote that goes along with this theme and once again, I can’t find its source:
“Applaud creativity, even when its results bother you.”
Creativity is Life.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
I just read the unfortunate news that we lose an hour of sleep this weekend. This is always the time of year in which I could use an extra hour of sleep, not an hour less. Why do we still play these stupid games with the clocks???
I saw this yesterday in a store. The absolute truth:
Just for today, find the magic. It’s everywhere. Open your eyes and see it.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
These are the quotes that stuck out for me today, in my morning readings. They speak for themselves:
“Your values become your destiny.” – Gandhi
“Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.” – Zadie Smith
And here is my own “feel good” story of the week:
As I mentioned in the blog, I started taking a Japanese Zen Art class last week at a local Fine Arts Center. Many Japanese calligraphers and artists use a red block stamp to mark their works, instead of signing them. I was excited to purchase my own soapstone stamp and red ink, to start making my mark on my own art. As I was searching for something unique and special (I’m not a lover of “practical and pedestrian”), I saw the unusual ink pad above up for auction on eBay. I put it on my watch list because I adored it. I sensed its special quality. Apparently, the turtle vermillion ink pad was made in Kyoto, Japan and it was sold to the seller in a specialized, traditional calligraphy shop there. The seller said that he was selling the ink pad because he no longer dabbles in calligraphy. He claims that the the turtle is considered to be an “auspicious” animal in Japan.
Now the truth is, my second Zen Art class is already this afternoon, and I am not a patient gal. I wanted my stamp, and my Asian red ink for today. I had already done a “Buy It Now” on an interesting stone stamp and I didn’t want to wait around for an auction to end on the ink pad above, so instead, I purchased a more “practical and pedestrian” ink pad from Amazon, and that was that. Truthfully, I had forgotten all about the turtle ink pad on eBay.
Last night, I was having trouble falling asleep. My husband and our three dogs were snoring away in chorus, as I tossed and I turned. Finally, I picked up my phone and I played around with it, and then I looked at my email. There was an automated email from eBay saying that the turtle ink pad auction was about to end and there were no bids on it. Eleven minutes from ending, I placed my bid. What did I have to lose? I played a couple of games and when I came back to my email, it turns out that I had won the auction. The adorable turtle ink pad is mine!! I paid the seller and then I finally fell into a deep sleep.
Almost every morning, my husband arises at the ungodly hour of 4:45 to go to the gym. I sleep. Around 6 o’clock this morning, I hear the buzzing of texts going off on my phone. I look at my texts and I see that the Family Chat was full of texts. I could start feeling my heart beating out of my chest, but then I calmed myself, reminding myself that if there were a real emergency, there would have been an actual phone call from someone. I quickly looked at the texts. They started with my husband texting that he saw a strange little white thing moving erratically on our street this morning when he came home from the gym and he wanted to see what it was, so he got closer and this is what he found:
The little turtle’s bright white egg was hanging by a thread on its back. My husband gingerly scooped up the precious little hatchling, and he brought it to safety, by taking the newborn baby turtle off of the road and placing it on a rock, by the small lake in our backyard.
When I excitedly told my husband about purchasing the turtle inkwell last night, after hearing the wonderful story about him saving the hatchling this morning, I smiled the biggest smile (inside and out). These happenings are so “auspicious”, for all of us (the baby turtle included). I am not a believer in coincidence. Coincidence is always Spirit being anonymous and deliciously mysterious.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
“Children see magic because they look for it.” – Christopher Moore
Merry Christmas! May it be a magical day for all of us. Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. Poetry is like a magical language. Like no other form of communication, poetry takes the alchemization of what you, the reader, brings to it, for the meaning of the poem to come to life. Better yet, each poem is unique to each and every reader, because poetry, in it’s freest, truest form, is really and truly up to individual interpretation. I read this poem last night by the poet Joseph Fasano, and I love it. Whatever your age, never lose the belief in the magical qualities of life.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Almost everything in life is neutral. Almost everything in life falls in the gray areas. We don’t want to believe this because we like absolutes. We are attached to labeling everyone and everything, “good” or “bad” and then looking for all of the evidence to back our labels up. Maybe we should be like children and label everything as “magic” and look for the evidence to back it up. I think that we would be overwhelmed with the confirmation that children are right. Life is magical.
This morning I am surrounded by magic: I am drinking this wonderful, warm elixir called coffee, that is the perfect combination of comforting and stimulating. It tastes and smells divine. Surrounding me, sleeping peacefully, are three gorgeous creatures, basically the pure essence of love, covered in fur. (our dogs) My family is happily doing their favorite activities this morning (sleeping, biking, tennis) and their pleasant, peaceful energy wafts over me and melts into my own happiness, as I do my own favorite activity: writing and communing with you. I am reading my very own thoughts, conveyed on a screen, as quickly as I can type them out. How incredibly magical! There is a slight breeze causing a ripple current in the lake outside of my window, and my windchimes are tinkling softly, serving as background music for the swaying, dancing water. I only really hear the chimes, when I hone in on them. My hearing is magically selective like that, isn’t yours?
Let’s have a magical weekend, my friends. Let’s look for the magic (and not look for the dark, evil Voldemort variety of magic. Although, honestly, isn’t reading and getting lost in an excellent Harry Potter book, created out of J.K. Rowling’s incredible imagination, stunningly magical in itself?). It isn’t hard to find magic. Be like a child and look for it.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
As the final part of his undergraduate study, before he starts medical school in the fall, my son is shadowing a doctor this semester. The doctor he is working for is a physiatrist. A physiatrist is a medical doctor who works on reducing a patient’s pain, and then moving the patient towards full rehabilitation, of total health and function, after a major injury or illness. A physiatrist uses all sources of tools in the medical arsenal such as medications, physical therapy and other healing modalities. My son has been learning so much from this wonderful man, and we look forward to my son’s interesting stories from his internship, every single week.
On an aside, my family loves to laugh. We crack a lot of jokes. My eldest son is very animated, expressive and self-deprecating. His imitations are hilarious. My youngest son is a natural clown and comedian. He has expressed the desire to give stand-up a go, more than once in his life. My daughter’s friends always tell her how much they love how funny she is, as anecdotes on her birthday cards and such. My middle son (the one working with the physiatrist) has a very dry sense of humor. He is more often the instigator, the one to get the more rowdy others around him going, and then sitting back, and enjoying the mayhem. So, one of my favorite things in life, is watching my middle son tell a story, without even realizing that the way he is telling the story is quite amusing, and then, everybody getting a big laugh out of the story. This roar of laughter and amusement always seems to take my middle son by surprise, realizing that his story is so enjoyable, and he gets this cute, little boy, slightly embarrassed grin on him. His big, brown eyes sparkle, and it is like seeing a glimpse of my adorable, mischievous, little three-year-old baby boy again. Our children don’t realize how many versions of them that we hold and that we safekeep in our minds, and in our hearts. They have only known us as adults, but we get to experience their blossoming and progression, from the very start.
Getting back on track to my story (please forgive my sentimental rambling): This week’s lesson from my middle son’s work with the physiatrist was “the magic wand” lesson. The patient who needed “the magic wand”, had come to the physiatrist for help. This patient was a tad “scattered.” He had many, many stories of many, many horrific accidents and harrowing incidents, from throughout his whole life. His companion was his elderly mother, who sat patiently, nodding her head beside her son, only occasionally adding, “Yep, that’s true. Umm-hmm,” to each of his accountings of all of the unimaginable incidents and ordeals in his life that had lead up to his debilitating physical pain, which seemed to be in every part of his body. In short, he was an interesting, but longwinded character, who was emanating pain, all over and needed some relief. My middle son says that the physiatrist says that these are the types of patients who you must help to focus. With these patients you must ask the question, “If I had a magic wand and could fix just one element of your pain, what would I fix?” My son said that the patient looked instantly relieved and relaxed, and pointed to one spot on his lower back.
After hearing the “magic wand” lesson, I thought to myself how helpful that question can be for any of us, at any time, and it doesn’t have to be related to physical pain. What about those days in life when you feel like you have 800 things going on at once and you don’t even know where to start? If I had a magic wand, and I could have just oneof these tasks completed, which task would it be? This magic wand question/trick immediately helps you to calm your mind, and to focus in on your highest priorities and values. What about times in your life where you feel you could use some self-improvement, with healthier habits, in order to lose weight or to have more energy? A lot of times we get so overwhelmed with everything that we think that we have to do, and change, and improve in our lives, that we tend to get frustrated, and then, we end up giving up on all of it. If I had a magic wand and I could just change just one element of my daily habits, what would that be? This question really helps to hone in on what is really the most pressing and urgent, out of all our concerns. And once we have mastered and healed the particular area of our life, and of our health, and of our daily chores and routines, that the magic wand has helped point us to, we can use the trick again, to point us towards our next priority. Perhaps, magic wands are not pretend after all. Perhaps, magic wands are really quite magical, indeed.
Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
