Harvest

Soft chirps and leaves rustling announce the presence of the harvest. All that was initiated has grown, bloomed and fruited. There is a sacred energy in this time. There is expansion, contraction, reflection.

Now that you have what you wanted, do you still want it? Or has the dazzling romp of the summer heat stirred new desires within you?

The blessings of this human existence is the ability to clearly focus and continually choose. Babies are born in every season and so are new creations. Harvest time is actually all the time, but the seasonal shift draws our minds to ponder only one edge of what is actually a great circle. The season turns and so do we.

Answering the creative call

When I sit to write I feel a curious sensation fill me. I have pondered how to describe this feeling for quite some time now. It is a combination of plunging into cold water and the weightless lift at the top of a roller coaster. There is a twin pull and push on my centre than is at once motionless, yet full of movement, full of power. This is all before words fill me, or even a topic. Some days I wait there, poised, waiting, full of this powerful feeling, yet with no clear direction.

This is likely why writing bursts and writing prompts and free writes are all so beneficial. These are all techniques to get the wheels moving, to cause flow in an otherwise still process. Although there is also great joy to be found sitting in this stillness, this moving/ not-moving place. Letting the impulse to write arrive, knock, and knock once more.

There is great trust in this process, that the creative process can become stronger by not writing, not creating, but by waiting. It is like a deeply drawn breath, nourishing and clarifying. The out breath is the creation set in motion, full and vibrant. Both energies are needed, yin and yang, just as listening is required to craft a conversation.

Sunny days

There are times where everything in life just flows. There is ease and flow and a relaxed peace that envelops all activities. I find these magic times are not random, but they occur when I consciously decide that ‘things will be easy’ or ‘I am going to have fun today’. These small thoughts guide me into a day of focusing on the things that go well and smoothing the things that go not as well. An entire day made of tiny joyful thoughts makes one fantastic day.

I practiced tiny joyful thoughts today. What fun!

Be happy

I just finished watching the incredibly sad movie “The Pursuit of Happyness”. I know it is meant to be an uplifting story about a man who brings himself and his son through homelessness to prosperity, but most of the movie is … well… sad. Well acted and a great script and direction, to be sure, but it was emotional to watch.

The movie really sent one important point home to me, though now I’m not sure if the movie really says this or if it is what I took from it, abundance is a state of mind. Happiness is a state of mind, not a set of conditions to be fulfilled. The struggle and stress of living in poverty is one thing, but there is a huge difference between living in hope and living in despair. The difference between hope and despair has little to do with what is or has happened, it is all the perspective.

I am also struck with how fortunate most people are, and how little they are aware of the goodness all around them. I am immensely grateful for my abundance, not just monetarily, but also in education, and friendships, and family, and a loving partnership and a healthy happy son, and a safe dry roof over my head as it trickles rain outside. It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw the other day “Get Rich Quick! Count your Blessings!”

Carrots

Children are a mystery. Just when you think you have them figured out they ask for carrots at bed time. Yes, carrots. Not cookies, or toys, or a drink of water, or one more story, but carrots. This is why I think my son has completely figured out life. On some level he must know that eating a vegetable, any vegetable, is the only thing that would give him another twenty minutes of delay before bed. Maybe this is something only another parent would understand, but as he sat on the couch, doodling with a pen and paper and munching on carrot coins, I felt truly delighted and proud… and bewildered. Even more so when after finishing all, yes all, of his carrot, he went happily back to bed, no arguments.

So to all parents struggling to get their kids to bed, or struggling to get them to eat something other than noodlesbreadpotatoesrice, miracles do happen, we are living proof.

Calgary Folk Music Festival

There is pure magic in outdoor music festivals. It nourishes the wildness we all crave when we have spent too long within the confines of home and office. It is a mini escape to the natural ebb and flow of living a life affected by weather. It is so necessary, being outside, almost as necessary as music. A restrictive person might try to convince you that nature and music are luxuries, and I suppose they might be if we lived in a developing country. But music is the heart’s call for connection, from one human being to another. Music creates community and defines cultures. And nature… Nature is the first beat, echoed on the drums throughout the world. Being outdoors not only unites us as people but it unites us with the world where we live. I am so grateful to these brilliant festivals and festival organizers and volunteers. They create an oasis of music in the heart if the city every year, and that is a lot to be thankful for.

Bend

Being flexible… it is the definition of youth. Flexibility in both mind and body. It is the essence is adaptability; being able to respond to new conditions with strength, ease and grace. Over and over I am reminded that strength is not in rigid thoughts or restrictive behavior, but in sensitivity and suppleness. It is yin, the ultimate feminine principle, to achieve great strength through subtlety. Such is the power of the ocean, based on one simple concept, water flows downhill. From that, a great strength is gathered that can both sustain and destroy. The adaptability of water itself is a symbol of the flexibility that makes a person strong. Holding no shape, it molds worlds.

Tea time

 

Cakes for tea?? (Photo credit: joanneteh_32(loving Laduree))

 

I was reminded today of how much I loved teatime as a kid. Full with tiny cups and saucers and air for tea. I still love it. Though now I use actual tea and hot water instead of imagination. Today though, I used the playtime teatime to bring my imagination to my writing. Huzzah!

 

I often wonder if we are at our most creative when we are four or five. We would be old enough to have some pithy experiences in life, but young enough to not be ‘schooled’ out of our inherent imaginative play. Perhaps creativity as an adult is only based on tapping into the imaginative youngster you used to be.

 

Picnics in the park

I love summer. I shamelessly love it. I love summer an indecent amount. I revel in sunshine and summer storms. Yes, I love the rain and hail too! I love summer unconditionally and full throttle, nothing held in reserve.

As soon as June clicks in on the calendar, there is a slow internal count down that happens within me. And if you live in northern latitudes, you know when that count down stops; the day when you know that summer is over and it is fall. The end of summer where I live comes early, sometime in September.

Now it isn’t that I dislike the fall or the winter, I actually like them quite a lot. But it is a ‘like’ bordering, teetering, on love, similar to the depth of love you could feel on a first date. Full of possibilities, but there is something just… Hmm… odd about the season. And spring, well spring is just a gateway drug to summer.

The absolute best part of the summers where I live is that they are short. Yes, short. This glorious season, that I love, is best short. Because this wonderful sun only lasts a few short months, every moment is claimed. There is a space that opens up in life when everyday is savored to the fullest, and that savoring is easy in the summer. So even on a Monday night after working all day, it is the perfect opportunity to picnic in the park, just because the sun is shining.

I Appreciate

• playgrounds
• superhero pretend time
• movie dates
• sunshine
• farmer’s markets
• dinner on the balcony
• a good stretch