looking out a window
What a simple thing to do – pause and look out the window. If you’re outside just pause and look around.
My favorite journey is looking out the window Edward Gorey
I look out the window sometimes to seek the color of the shadows and the different greens in the trees, but when I get ready to paint I just close my eyes and imagine a scene. Grandma Moses
clues in the details
We must be willing to look at the details. We see the big picture. Maybe we only like a portion of or a detail of the big picture. With art making we can crop an image, with writing we can edit. So we crop or edit. We’re also able to take that detail from one piece and use it for another painting or story. The hard part is putting the skills of editing and cropping into our lives. The hard part is understanding what the details tell us? Lots of questions to the think about.
What do the clues in the details reveal?
cloudy and clear
The sky is cloudy. Sometimes the clouds are beautiful and other times ominous. When the clouds are ready to move along we see a clear sky revealed. Knowing that things eventually will clear takes, patience and a bit of faith.
watching clouds transition, remind us that things do in fact change
a path of broken pieces
Many broken pieces will be at your feet, as you make your way on your personal path. Broken pieces that we’ve created or circumstances that have made shards for us to navigate. Rest and keep going. We don’t complain when a dog behaves like a dog or a toddler behaves like a toddler but we complain our path is a mess – I think we forget that the nature of paths, they’re messy.
Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.
practice making space
Practice making space by starting with a blank sheet of paper. If you don’t have enough time, use a timer and practice for 20 minutes. It’s important to give time and room just to warm up with no expectations of creating something wonderful, just practice making marks on the paper. Right now I’m experimenting with with colors and shapes.
Think of the Japanese concept of ma which is the space in-between. Not giving ourselves space to let our minds and pencils wonder, can result in physical clutter as well as not be thinking clearly.