The process of mono-print making is so delightful because it begs the awareness in the moment. Each unique print as I play with the ink calls on the Muse to guide my thoughts and hands. It’s even more joyous when there’s great music playing and the rest of the body gets in on the dancing.
Today was a day of creativity and expression. That’s always good for me.
I lived a good portion of my life up in the high dessert area of the truly northern part of California. Living there, I learned a lot about wells: how they are are much preferred to hauling water by hand from the creek, how to douse for them, how to not try to dig them by hand, and the destruction caused by running a well dry. Most every man-dug well provides only so many gallons per minute.
Depending on my own will power and thought processes, I also produce a limited outcome. However, my personal creativity well seems to operate on a different system when I remember to lean into Spirit or the Muse. In that case, it more closely resembles the blessing of an artesian well. The more I tap into the source the more I fill up.
Lately, I have been focusing a portion of everyday on leaning in. Every workday morning before my husband heads off for work, I pick up a pen and expect a Daily Napkin to be written. I have committed myself to at least 15 minutes of pure joy painting every 24 hours. I always bring a sketch book with me, and take the time to draw over a cup of tea when out and about. This practice is expansive. The more I do, the more urge for creative expression arises. Sometimes I wonder how much joy I can handle.
Along with the daily practice of creating something, I have expanded my means of expression. Besides my recent dedication to daily painting or drawing, I keep up a virtually daily practice called thedailynapkin.com which begins as a meditation which leads to a poem or something like that on a brown, unbleached napkin slipped into my husbands lunch bag every day he goes to work. It is an act of love, and a ritual we have both come to appreciate since I began the practice the first day he went to work after we got married over 6 years ago. He’s been typing them up and emailing them to the blog for the last year and a half.
Recently, my husband was trying to find a song to sing for a local church which he plays guitar and sings at once a month. It had to be about something specific: receiving. One of the napkins turned out to be about receiving, and I heard it as a song as I wrote it, but I didn’t mention that to him. Several people that he sends the napkin to asked him if it was a song, and he had perceived it as one as well, so he allwed it to cook, and ended up combining it with anothers day napkin into a really nice song. It was well-received when he played it. What a wonderful thing to collaborate like that!
I am really liking the results of allowing creative expression full rein. And my graphic design keeps improving as a result of the increased creative productivity too. Win win and all of that!
Today has been just one of those days that I love. Most of the day was really pretty uneventful, however the whole day was extraordinary. Like many days I spent an inordinate amount of time alone, on the computer and designing. So what was different? The energy, the energy in me, the thrill in my gut.
I stayed up until almost 2am last night working on a project. I was exhausted. This morning I woke up before 6am, and just jumped out of bed. I’ve stood and danced most of the day at my computer. I accomplished a lot. The ideas were flowing. I started a new blog, created a few jobs for clients, began a book, listened to lots of my favorite music and continue to have the urge to just create more and more.
I don’t know where this burst of creative energy came from except that it has something to do with being in the flow of walking my walk. I think I’ll come back later to this. I feel like painting!
