magic mojo mix

Missy D & some crimson autumn leaves / white feather totem / what's more beautiful then morning dew / or dandelions gone to seed / queen anne's lace seed head at the edge of the harbour / another gorgeous big old tree / window box creamy yellow petunias / Winnie Dixon on Black Street, our house is just after that flaming tree

Madam Universe has been pretty chatty with me lately & I'm likin' it. These rockin' words were found in my inbox this morning from the amazing Flora Bowley (I subscribe to her newsletter) and I know Madam U had something to do with it, she always has something good up her sleeve. I wonder how Flora & Madam knew that these are exactly the words I needed and wanted to hear at this very moment. Merci !!

there is only trusting 
& letting go
Flora Bowley

I've noticed throughout my life that my greatest breakthroughs often arrive just on the other side of my most challenging breakdowns. Author and vulnerability expert Brene Brown refers to one of her great breakdowns as a "spiritual awakening," and I get it. Often it takes something major and seemingly earth shattering to wake us up and clarify what is really important in life. In fact, it's when life seems to be falling apart, that we are often able to see the world through a different lens, sharpening some edges while softening others.

Although it's not always easy to remember in our darker moments, our ability to move through them and learn from these experiences is what allows us to celebrate the light on the other side. For this reason, it's important to honor our struggles as potent ingredients in our unfolding stories, shaping our paths as we unravel and put ourselves back together along the way.

Facing challenges in the creative process is no different than in life. When we intuitively create something from nothing, we are stepping into the unknown, and with that act of bravery often comes struggle, doubt and frustration. There is no plan, no sure thing and no easy step-by-step process. 

However, if we are able to remember that breakthroughs are often right on the other side of breakdowns, it becomes a whole lot easier to take risks, be brave and honor our meltdowns as pathways to new understandings.

From Flora Bowley's most recent newsletter 

+ another two great songs from my current magic mojo mix Bruno Mars Shut ! Up !! and Maroon 5's (Adam the Voice Levine's band's) first big hit from 2004 (I was in LA when this song was No.1 & on my way to China with Jerry Kohl & the Brighton gang so hearing it will forever remind of that Cinderella story from my early Creative Empire building days.

cats & flowers

cats & flowers, flowers & cats

if I had an anthem

from a solitary explorer's walk along the crescent beach at low tide & yes that crab's alive I moved him/her to this tide pool ;-)

Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am 
to be blessed.

Mary Oliver

I love nature so much & it fills me up to treat these long, new to me, solitary (too far a distance for Missy Dee these days) walks meditatively as if I'm an explorer, taking care to examine as if for the first time all the intricate & simple, tiny & amazing bits in any given square yard of life - especially life on and around the crescent beach at low tide.

Also loving in no particular order - hot steaming facecloths (a perpetual favourite simple thing), a freshly made bed with flannel sheets that were hung on the line outside, homemade pea soup, TV shows the Voice (love it) as well as MasterChef Junior & Homeland (I watch/listen at my computer while I clip, paste & collage bits), the smell of cat breath, kissing Oliver (he loves to be kissed), feeling afraid but learning to be kind of OK with feeling that way, reading fiction at bedtime (current good book is The Woman Upstairs) fiction calms my mind and relaxes me perfectly and I do love a Sunday, because Sundays feel like an it's-OK-to-goof-off day or at least a not be so focused on building my creative empire work day, a day to catch up with things I love like cooking, laundry, giving my office/studio a good clean for fresh start Mondays & maybe even vacuuming (snort !)

Happy, happy Sunday !

If I had an anthem for right now it would be this amazing Alicia Keys song - WOWEE !!

it drives me crazy

early morning chestnutscape / window boxes still blooming / Missy D on the boardwalk / Hey tree ! I love you / my girl Dee / window @ Monty's emporium of vintage & secondhand goodness / Winnie & her l-o-n-g shadow / horseshoe chestnut / more windowbox love / lilliput zinnias / more shadows / & Missy Dee one more time ♡♡♡

An idea can only become a reality once it is broken 
down into organized, actionable elements.

Scott Belsky from Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

Coming up with idea(s) is only half the battle, in fact it's maybe only 1/10th of the battle - such a great subtitle to Scott Belsky's book Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality - 'cause overcoming the many obstacles is how true creative breakthroughs arrive & stick around 'til the end .

You can have the most fabulous vision in the world but if you can't figure out how to execute that vision, preferably with a step by step action plan, maybe divided into a few categories ... a critical path (as the Prince likes to call his every single project Action Steps list) ... if you can't figure out the "how" of turning vision into reality, well you're screwed (pardon my francais).

This pre-plan, the pre-critical path, action steps stage I like to call the creative crevasse. You know like those seemingly bottomless gaping slits in the ice that mountain climbers sometimes fall into. This is the deep ditch of the creative process - the omg ! I have this fantastic vision in my head, it's all like blue sky & beautiful & it's gonna be awesome but damned if I can figure out how I'm actually going to make it (a reality). X that beautiful, blow-your-socks off creative vision by 15 realities and omg just doesn't cut it, it's much more of an oh my ____! situation.

After spending nearly a month in the beautiful blue sky visioning phase of my new thrilling BIG project, I slipped and fell into the deep, deep ditch of omg ! I can't do this ! why did they pick me ? are they nuts ? blah, blah, blah, yada yada yada negative chatter and paralyzing fear for days ... and days. Finally I managed to creep and crawl my way back up and out of that deep crevasse of insecurity and imminent failure, met my breakthrough train at the station with cow bells on and now I'm into les action steps. PHEw ! or is that WHEw ! I swear it seems to me like that darn Ditch is a necessary precursor to les creative critical path. Is it just me ? or does it seem as if the deeper the fall into the ditch, the more creative the action steps become and thus more fantastic the reality is in the end. Like some freakin' torture cycle.

ideas, planning, vision + terror, fear, resistance + action, more action + lots o' creativity = fabulous reality

It drives me crazy !

some breakthroughs ...

more zinnias, zinnias, zinnias - top photo - sweet & colourful lilliput zinnias and the view from my studio/office late afternoon - sigh

Fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

Some breakthroughs ... arrive out of nowhere and often just when you've convinced yourself that that there are no breakthroughs a comin'. Yes, that high speed breakthrough train speeds into & stops at your I'm an artist (current fantastic project) station. Lots & lots of ideas, worries, colours, frets, insecurities & potential failures pile out of that train and bustle off into the distance with their bags, packages & parcels leaving me standing alone on the empty, silent platform - not a breakthrough in site. I turn, take a big deep breath and begin my long walk home realizing that the time has come, the one I've been expecting all along, the time I've known would surely one day arrive. The time that the important breakthrough doesn't arrive. 

Then suddenly ... I hear commotion. I turn around quickly and halle-freakin'-lujah - I see that plenty o'ideas, colours, plans, patterns, icons, techniques, more ideas & even much needed and crucial action steps are being heaved gently off of the breakthrough train and onto the platform. I jump up & down, I clap my hands, I do a little dance, I yell hooray ! hooray ! inside my head. I post photos of beautiful, cheery, happy, colourful lilliput zinnias for today ! this morning while writing in my journal having coffee in bed ... my breakthrough arrived, just as I knew in my heart it would.

Fear is good.*
Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. 
Fear tells us what we have to do. 

Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. 

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That's why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there'd be no Resistance.

* it might be good, it might be really good in the end ... but it feels at the time like pure hell

quotes from The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield

brave(r)

cosmos bright lights shining brightly / great blue heron & seascape / my sweet girl Winnie Dixon / Virgil loves his nubbly orange blanket / impatience / I love a good puddle shot ;-) / crazy about bugs of any sort / Miss D in the early morning sunshine / geranium ?? anyone know what these beauties are ? spied along my power walk


Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

(first line from today's Cancer horoscope from my favourite horoscope spot - Hey Judy in KY ;-)

Should read - heavy is the head that wears the jewel encrusted crown that's diamonds, sapphires, rubies & emeralds spell out - control freak - sung by 3 choruses of Angels in perfect harmony.

Being my new & improved brave(r) self is all about releasing, letting go, freeing up, relaxing into, allowing mistakes (& plenty of them) & trying to be spontaneous (kind of a former dirty word in my books). My mantra in the past has always been if I can plan it I can do it. Actually all the things that feel counter to my natural tendencies especially when feeling fear, would be, need to be ... embraced. I need to, I want to ... I am ready to - be brave(r)

Listening to Steven Pressfield's (author of The War of Art) interview with Oprah on repeat.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Today, you may feel the burden of having taken on a bit too much leadership and responsibility. Your can-do personality is a wonderful thing, Cancer, but you can’t be in fifty places at once. Today, identify activities and commitments that you are willing to let go of in the name of freeing up time for that which brings you true reward and satisfaction. Love and sacrifice are not synonymous. Elle - Cancer daily horoscope for October 8th