The Benefit of Letting Go

A great post from Lateral Action:
http://lateralaction.com/articles/creativity-unconscious/

"Whenever you set out to do something extraordinary, there comes a point where... you have to choose between trying to control everything – or letting go and getting carried away by something bigger and more powerful than yourself."

It reminds me of a similar message from Elisabeth Gilbert in her TEDTalk, which I adore so. Head over to see a man about a horse, and possibly enjoy the same "hell yeah" I experienced when reading it. ;)

The Guest House

Many thanks to Paulette for sharing this wisdom in her most recent newsletter.

The Guest House


This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-- Jelaluddin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks

You don't love the dance...

I came across an article I remember reading before (and maybe even posted here, not sure and didn't have time to search), and thought it was timely and interesting to read. From Aziza Sa'id's blog

Today my students were teachers, Belly Dancing and Yoga. The first of today’s Big Questions is one of my favorites… Why Do You Do What You Do? Dance? Yoga?

And people gave some real truths in answer: Because it’s fun; Because in it I find acceptance, of myself and others; Because I feel beautiful; Because I feel at peace; Because it is a way to create and express myself; Because I feel healthier; Because I feel better in and about my body when I do.

Because I love it.

And here’s where I need to say… No. You don’t. You do not love yoga, or dance.

Wise advice: Let It Go

Gibson Pearl posted this today, and I thought it was beautiful.

This is something I found long ago...I modified it a touch. Maybe it's something you need to hear right now. Maybe you know someone who needs to hear it. In any case...

**************************************

There are people who can walk away from you. And hear me when I tell you this:

When people can walk away from you, let them walk.

Tattoo wisdom from Ravelry

Auntie BubboPants over on Ravelry.com is a hoot to read. But this month I particularly loved her response to a woman who wants to get a tattoo, but her hubby isn't keen on it. I kept saying "YEAH!" throughout. I thought it was really well written and worth sharing.

I wouldn't normally cut and paste and entire thing into my blog, but you have to be a member to read stuff on Ravelry, so I shared it in its entirety here. (If you are a knitter/crocheter, you should be a member!!)

I am going to be 31 soon and, despite my rabid fear of needles, I would really really REALLY like to get a tattoo. I feel like I need to do something kind of wild and crazy before I become an old fart. I’ve always been the steady one, the dependable one. I’ve been married for nearly 11 years for crying out loud. I have a child and a home and a decent car which I don’t love but gets me where I need to go. I’ve never really done anything too terribly crazy in the last 11 years or so.
Here’s the real problem. My husband thinks that tattoos are bad. Very bad. Trashy even.
How do I convince him to let me experience this one bit of wildness and get tatted up before I officially enter Old Fartsville?

Signed,
Wants a Tattoo

Dear WaT,
What is a tattoo but a permanent alteration of the pigment in a specific area of the skin. Tattoos, like hair or shoes, entirely impartial and neutral. They are inherently neither trashy or classy. Trashy is an adjective that describes a lifestyle or set of lifestyle choices. A tattoo might represent a trashy lifestyle choice, but it doesn’t have to.

Paulette's Musing: Dancing with Grace

Over on Momma Paulette's blog she wrote late last year about moving with grace while still being grounded. I enjoyed this summation at the end of the post:

That is what should happen in tribal when you are following your leader. The leader takes charge, listening to the music, and dancing with intention and deliberation, in the groove, and paying attention to who is following her. As a follower, you need to be in the flow, and not even think about what could happen next. Just move your feet or hips or arms, trust your body, stay light on your feet, yet grounded, feel the energy of the movement and the moment, and just do it. Quit thinking! Know what I mean?

Yeah, I do know what you mean!

Your dance vocabulary...

I recently watched Bahaia's "Combinography" video. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the content overall, but this one line was so well articulated, I had to share it with you!

"Your dance is a way of expressing yourself. Would you like your dance to be more like a poem or an encyclopedia?
While there's a lot of knowledge in an encyclopedia, it might not be as expressive as a poem. A poem takes only a few words. So your dance could take only a few steps and still express more about you than all of the steps you know which could fill an encyclopedia."

Yes! I often remind my students that one really meaningfully executed move, done with intention and passion, can be far more enthralling than the same move done three or four times with nothing behind it.

Be a poem! Thanks, Bahaia!

Toilet Squirrel - A Story

So I am a member of the Ravelry community, and each year they have the BOB Awards, which is an excuse to call to light some of the best patterns, best projects, best yarns, best contributors, and in this case, the best or funniest threads in the forums. This is one of the contenders for 'Funniest Single Post'. I loved it and had to share!

Oh and hey, if you're also on Ravelry, I would love to friend you!

Enjoy. :)

"Yes, Virginia, There Is a Squirrel in My Toilet. You May Not Believe How It Got in There, but Here’s One Way to Get It Out
By Beth Nabi

It wasn’t December. It wasn’t my chimney. And it sure as snowballs wasn’t Santa.

Organic Process: The Art of Seeing

All the way back in May, I was pondering the collision of modern media and the organic process of artistic creation. In that post I wrote:

"A sculpture or a painting--even a piece of music or a video--is not expected to change, and is appreciated for its unchanging beauty. It is it's solidity that is part of its appeal, in a way. We see the same piece over time, and instead of expecting it to change or adapt to us, our perspective adapts and changes. We see it (hear it, experience it) from different angles, in different lights, in a different environment, our attitudes change, our perceptions change; and we find that our appreciation deepens and becomes richer and more multi-faceted as we take the time to consider the piece from all these perspectives. The work to appreciate that art day-to-day is in our hands as the viewer."

Teaching vs. Simon Says

One of my newer students, the lovely Kelly, gave me some wonderful food-for-thought today via her blog. From her very first class, I could see Kelly was a thoughtful student--she asked excellent questions, and gave good feedback verbally and physically when spoken to. So it didn't surprise me when she later told me she was herself a teacher; she teaches yoga. While I have heard nightmare stories from other teacher's experiences, I have found that some of my best students are teachers. They know what it takes to teach, and what is expected in a student. They are respectful and attentive, and my favorites: punctual and ask perceptive questions!

I have been reading some of her older entries this morning, particularly her older entries talking about her time as an officer in the Air Force. I came across her post about the first time she taught yoga, and I thought you might enjoy her insightful reflections on what it means to be a teacher. Enjoy!

Merce Cunningham quote

"You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls."
~ Merce Cunningham

On being an artist: Your Artist Workout

From http://clicks.robertgenn.com/personal-trainer.php

Advice to artists from a personal trainer, taking skills from workout training and applying them to being an artist:

• Find a sanctuary where you can comfortably work.
• Dedicate at least two hours a day to your art.
• Have more than enough equipment and supplies.
• Set short- and long-term goals and keep track of progress.
• Think of your work as exercise, not championship play.
• Explore series development and exhaust personal themes.
• Work alone with the benefit of books and perhaps tapes.
• Replace passive consumption with creative production.
• Use your own intuition and master your technology.
• Feel the joy of personal, self-generated sweat.
• Fall in love with your own working processes.
• Be forever on the lookout for the advent of style.
• Try to be your own person and claim your rights.
• Don't bother setting yourself up for rejection.
• Don't swing too wildly and damage the well-being of others.
• Don't jump into the ring until you're feeling fit.

Leave your worries behind...

A quote about yoga practice, but really about any classroom...

"When you're burdened with a million errands and anxieties, what your well-being requires is an exercise regime that, first and foremost, leaves no room for mental wandering."

This is exactly why you students must challenge yourselves in class. When it's easy, your mind wanders right out the door into the past, into the future. When you are working your limit, if your mind wanders, you fall, you lose the pose. Keep your practice interesting enough to stay in your body and on your mat. When your mind has the luxury of drifting in Yoga class, you are not working hard enough. Take the next advanced variation. There is a deeper place waiting for you.

How do you know you're working too hard and need to back off? If you're straining, if you can't quite catch your breath, time to take it down a notch. Find the place in yourself where you are embodied, grounded, connected to deep, slow, rhythmic breath."


--Michelle Myhre

What Is Art? What is an Artist?

From http://www.artnewsblog.com/2007/06/what-is-art-what-is-artist.htm

"I have been thinking about the word "artist" and what it means to be one. Obviously it's a person that creates art, so why do we have to still get into debates over whether a person is an artist or not? Why do some people still believe that only the chosen few should have the title of "artist" stamped to their forehead?

The confusion naturally leads to the word "art" which is probably where all the mix-up starts. If a person has his/her own definition of art narrowed down to include pretty paintings and realistic sculpture, they may not classify a lot of artists as "artists".

It's a bit like my dad's definition of God (which he thinks does not exist).. it's narrow minded. Just because there's no white bearded man in the clouds looking over us with a judging eye doesn't mean there is no God, it just means that God might be something else. God might be the wind or spirit or the breath we breathe or he might even be the bum on the street that we always look down on. Perhaps my dad's God is skepticism or science."

"The struggling artist is such a negative myth to cling to and having a narrow view of what art is can be almost as silly as clinging to fictional interpretations of what an artist is. Last time I checked what art is in the dictionary, it told me that it was a subjective and hard to define word.

So I start with classifying everything I see as art and that way I don't miss anything that could be interesting to me. Of course I put things into different categories of art, but everything I see goes into the art box. There's people as works of art, silly art, nature's art, easel art, word art, ugly art, toilet art, car art, rubbish art, realistic art, crazy art, money art, shit art, and so on. Everything is art, just different types of art.

It's a great way to appreciate the things around us that we pass by everyday too. I can get just as excited over a shape in a bathroom tile as I can over a good painting. A pile of old shoes can interest me as much as a bronze Rodin sculpture.

I would rather include too much in my definition of art than not enough. I sometimes feel like I'm walking around in a giant art museum, which can be a little over-stimulating at times, but at least I never get bored..."

For spouses/partners of artists!

Excerpted from the excellent http://www.artadvice.com/advice/article14.php

This is just one section of three wonderful brief paragraphs about what it means to live with, and try to understand, about an artist. Does this sound like you?

"Living with an artist isn't easy, particularly if you are the significant other. So, after living with and working with artists for over 20 years I've put together a few suggestions for you to share with your partners...

The concept of "working" was a hard one for me to understand. Often times I'd go into my husband's studio and see him sitting on the couch with the television on or listening to the radio…staring at his paintings. I'd been at my office all day, talking on the phone or busy with clients. This was not my idea of "work." It wasn't until I really understood the process of making a painting that I realized how much of the work is in just looking…thinking…imagining what it would be like to do this or that. Mental activity that to the lay person looks like relaxation. I could accept the fact that slathering paint around was work…but, sitting and staring, that was hard for me. What I came to learn was that the "looking," is the hardest part. It was kind of like hearing about the way Mozart wrote music. He wouldn't write anything down until he could hear it all in his head first, then he would write it out perfectly in a matter of minutes.

Contrary to the common stereotype of artists as slackers, artists are incredibly industrious and hard working. In most cases, regardless of what they do for a living, they are working on their obsession 24/7. Acknowledging this, can help tremendously in understanding an important aspect of an artists' character…and saving a relationship."

Keep the Channel open

There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action. And, because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And, if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open... whether you choose to take an art class, keep a journal, record your dreams, dance your story or live each day from your own creative source. Above all else, keep the Channel open!

~Martha Graham

On being an artist: Art is a lifestyle not just an activity.

From http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/aesthetics10.shtml

"Art is a lifestyle not just an activity. One's art and one's life are eventually inseparable. One cannot be an artist without living a lifestyle which is conducive to being an artist:

Being an artist means having a lifestyle that makes creativity and art part of your everyday life

One cannot be creative 8 hrs a day, from 9 to 5. Similarly one cannot schedule "creative time" say from 4 to 5 p.m. every Thursday. While you can certainly write this down in your planner, or in your PDA, whether you will feel inspired on that particular day at that specific time remains to be seen.

Fact is, the muses visit whenever they please and not necessarily during "business hours." It is therefore very difficult to schedule creative time the way one would schedule a business appointment. Certainly, it can be done. But there are no guarantees that you will feel creative during that time. To guarantee success in your creative endeavors you have to be aware of your creative impulses and design a schedule that works around them, not a schedule that demands that you be creative from 3 to 4 then do paperwork from 4 to 5 and so on.

Being an artist therefore means implementing a lifestyle that favors creativity, impulsion and freedom. Because this may conflict with other activities being an artist means learning how to organize your life so that you can handle these potential conflicts successfully. "

Meditate on this. Do you agree with this or not? In what ways do you feel your life is dedicated to/inseparable from your art? In what way do you make space in your life to nurture your inner (or outer) artist? Is it class and rehearsals only, or do you live what you create in other capacities? Good questions...

On being an artist: is it this simple?

From http://www.geocities.com/debverhoeven/beinganartist/artist.htm

Contrary to a previous post and link about what it takes to be an artist, this web page asserts that if you think you are an artist, you are. It takes nothing more than messing about with whatever medium you choose. Even just being a slob on a regular basis makes you a "slob-artist"?

"You Are an Artist

You may think you are not an artist at all, but here's the good news--we are all artists. I'm not just talking about painting, drawing and sculpting artists, either.

* If you write you are a word-artist
* If you make music you are a music-artist
* If you make wonderful dishes you are a food-artist
* If you make messes you are a clutter-artist "

HELL YEAH!!

Paulette Rees-Denis, my original Dance Momma, shared this thought in her Caravan Trails/Tribal Travels online newsletter today, and it really resonated with me. I wanted to pass it on. If you would like to subscribe to Paulette's Newsletter by writing her at paulette@gypsycaravan.us or visit her blog (also in my blogroll) at http://www.tribalbellyanceblog.com

"Derek wrote:
http://sivers.org/hellyeah

No more yes. It's either HELL YEAH! or no.
Those of you who often over-commit or feel too scattered may appreciate a new philosophy I'm trying:
If I'm not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, then say no.
Meaning: When deciding whether to commit to something, if I feel anything less than, “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” - then my answer is no. When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to really throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say “HELL YEAH!” We're all busy. We've all taken on too much. Saying yes to less is the way out."

Exercising your creativity!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Thanks to all my readers here. I appreciate your feedback from the many places you read my blog posts from, so a shout out to my RSS feed readers, my Facebook buddies, my LiveJournal friends list, and Tweeters! If you get a chance, post a little hi-hello here today. Would make my day to hear from you here on the blog!

From http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/Exercising-Creativity.shtmlhttp://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/Exercising-Creativity.shtml

"Creativity may be described as focused freedom. On the one hand you are free to create, on the other hand you are focused upon your work and your vision. It is a mix of two opposite directional forces in a way. In that respect it is a challenging state to find, to experience and to make happen. However, once you are in this state, magical things can take place that would not otherwise happen to you. "

Visit the article to read more