Lists

If we go down into ourselves, we find that we possess exactly what we desire.    Simon Weil

Oh yes.  We have embarked on yet another adventure with The Artist's Way Trilogy, specifically, Finding Water.  (How perfect is this?) The author, Julia Cameron, leads the adventure, sharing her experiences and encouraging us, her readers to carry on, BE THE ARTIST.  I am convinced that this whole world needs to pick up these books, or even just one of them, and just do it.  Do it.  Do it.  Do it.  Morning Pages have taken on a luscious quality:  I am having so much fun with my own self!  Even Emerson is getting into the rhythm of this, cuddling and smooching, heaving Labrador sighs, and settling for breakfast when I am completely done.

First List: to be done at least once a day, is to list five beautiful things I have seen today:

1. Water everywhere.
2.  My chickens.
3.  Luna's spots.
4.  My nose.
5.  Pumpkin muffins, with fresh ginger.
   

Yes, quickly I am in gratitude.  Seriously, I do love Life.  I love the sacredness of it, the humor of it, the All Is Well-ness of it.  Gray days can gradually wear me down, yet a list of five beautiful things can buoy me right back up again.

Then, there are the maintenance type of lists: laundry, sweep, take out the ashes, sweep again, dishes, dust the ash off of everything in sight, pick up dog toys, pick up dog toys again, sweep again... (yes, then run for the door, and go to work!).

Mom had these two pictures in dime-store frames, in her bedroom.  She had them for as long as I can remember.  When I brought them home, to my studio, I took apart one of them, to find that she had folded the corners of something like wrapping paper, into the size of the frame.  Perhaps they are from a calendar?  I gently folded it back, and tapped the frame into usefulness, and hung it on my wall.

I love the kittens hung on the line.  Of course, they are in socks, which this photo doesn't show.  None of them are suffering, in fact, they are having fun, maybe.  This morning I put the dogs in their crates so that they would stop racing around and getting my bed and everything in the house topsy-turvy and wet.  The quiet was astounding and delightful.  Just think of your crate as a sock hanging on the line in the soft, spring sunshine.

Just sit on it.  From the book, "Bounce Your Body Beautiful, 6 Weeks to A Sexier, Firmer Body."

Last List for Today:

1. Sit on it, and not fall off.  Commence bouncing.
2. Walk, rain or rain.  Each dog.
3.  Paint: start a new one.
4.  Write something (more).
5.  Clear off this desk (all the way).
6.  Sew the borders on the quilt.
7.  Laugh maniacally   

xoxoLC