I've never cared for roller-coasters...
...but life's sure BEEN that way lately.
This was a moment of serenity amongst the ups and downs we all experience--sometimes more than others!
The pigeons were outside our hotel room window in Henderson, Nevada--we'd met there to visit my sister and family, and the whole visit was lovely. Peaceful, beautiful, fun...virtually tension-free. My body responded with complete relaxation as the anxieties melted away like glacier-melt. Just to be able to laugh with my sister and my dear brother in law, get to know Miss Keeley Fae, their great grandchild, again, and to hold hands or dance or cuddle with my husband...Life Is GOOD. Warm, barefoot and good.
We have to be able to grasp these islands of beauty and serenity and creativity whenever we can. "Stop and smell the roses" may be a cliche', but it's also necessity. BREATHE...
This class has had its share of problems, from the first--with the CD not getting finished in time, and the new discussion board falling through at the last minute...we've dealt with it, with each challenge as it arose, but we've scrambled, and there's been more confusion for my poor students than there should have been. They've been wonderfully understanding and flexible, but I was still frustrated on their behalf--and my own!
My beloved godchild's cancer and the impact it's had on the family, my dear friends Susan and Andy and my darling Birgitte getting ready to move away, the house rehab, my love's impending retirement with what looked like a serious glitch (unglitched, now, thank GOD), and his mother's re-hospitalization have conspired to create an atmosphere of stress and tension for all of us.
And making art is my own smell-the-roses cure...I honestly don't think I could handle life without time for creativity.
The weekend looks to be decent, this week, and I plan to be OUT THERE, painting...
I sure hope it settles down sooner rather than later. And I'm right there with you re: creativity. If I didn't have the work, I'd have lost it by now!
Thank you for posting, it's so good to hear from you...and yes, what on EARTH would we do without the escape of art?? Even when it's not going all that well, it's still Other.
yeah. i think there is something loose in the machinery of the universe. there is some cog, some bolt, some spring that is flopping around, letting awful, horrific things slip through. time to call the cosmic mechanics and fix it, i think.
missed you--glad it was for a little down time. hope all is getting better, and a bit more under control... (control is just an illusion we carry in our bag of tricks, anyways. it lets us fool ourselves into thinking we actually steer our fates in a constructive way. most of us only master the skill of holding on, while it all careens around us, madly. i specialize in the "mad" part. it helps!)
love your pigeons!! i was loving our new coating of snow this a.m. there were bunny tracks, squirrel footprints, mouse tracks, and bird feet printed in it. i love the small evidences of a real universe that goes on whether we notice it or not. yup. mousie feet in the snow, next to tiny bird feet. it doesn't get much better than that...
I always figure life happens and you get through it, but I could use a little island of serenity--last weekend was it!
And were your ears burning over the weekend? Joseph and I were telling my sis about you and how cool you are...of course we ALL love Young Frankenstein, and manage to quote bits to eachother, which led straight to our dear friend Abbie...something... ;-)
I like mousie tracks, too...and 1/8" of an inch of crocus poking up...and that one streak of sunset coral at the edge of a daylong gray sky...
And oh boy, me TOO. I'd go nuts entirely without them!
(Anonymous)
Cathy, you are so right! You expressed a wonderful thought with this!
Kind regards from
Claudia
www.time-passages.blogspot.com
Beautiful pigeon sketch...
I know the Fiesta well, have two dear artist friends living on the hill just behind it...
Wishing you peace...