A muse at day’s ending toward a new year

DECEMBER 29, 2022 

• Musing pen in hand…

In response to a blog post from Jane Davies (https://janedavies-collagejourneys.blogspot.com/2022/12/committing-to-play.html?fbclid=IwAR08TZhbc-mTGUCYBX0159bVh5PGEq7VkxyFEwwGpkLnj0ScDE5ROHf1czQ) an artist whose style I admire and whose teaching style fits my learning style, someone who I don’t even know posted this:

“… If the creative work gets to the point, where it is not enjoyable then I don’t do it anymore and move on to something else.

I am retired and really don’t want or need my art to become a “job” for me. I am old and life is short!…”

I’ve only shared a small portion of what this person “said”, but I am sharing what spoke most loudly and clearly to me.

I too, would be considered ‘retired’ by most people, but not in my mind. I just finished two Master’s degrees during our Covid lockdowns and I am chomping at the bit ready to put all that I learned out into the “world”. And I was doing just that, then came a blip.

I won’t go into details, but a site to which I was beginning to feel “attached” became unavailable and, if I am honest, somewhat uninviting. Now that is a personal observation and many may not agree. But it has become my reality.

So where do I go now? I mean that literally. The work needs to be done, but I am flexible. I’ve had to be.

Photo credit: Jeff Suchak of http://mythiclandscape.com

This is what I am pondering as the calendar year comes to a close. These next few days, I am spending a good part of my daylight hours putting my “studio” space, in good working order.

It felt laborious at first. Probably because I allowed myself to be weighed down with recent disappointments.

But, the most recent development or news has freed me somehow. It is hard to explain, but it is like Spirit is working and I am being forced to listen to her. There is always a way, when we come to perceived “roadblocks”, we just have to put aside ego and expectations and remain open to the opportunities that present themselves.

So, I am making art and making plans too. Plans to find the way for what is calling me to channel this. To bring this idea into focus, a focus so sharp that it materializes itself as an offering into the world that I believe so deeply needs the healing it brings.

It feels so impersonal to call this vision “it”. I wish I knew its name, but that will come as I spend time in the Southern Ontario Wren’s Nest Studio. For now, I just need to be open to listen and move to this music that is drawing me. In good time, all will come.

And though what needs birthing feels a little distant, like individual trees in a forest, I do see it shimmering, beckoning, smiling … and I know that if I focus on that which I am being called to do and be, all will be well.

And so it is…