Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius…and a lot of courage…to move in the opposite direction.

E.F.Schumacher

This week the art/life trail ride is geared toward…let it go.

Let go of the bigger

Let go of the more

Let go of the complex

Certainly let go of the violence… most of all…the self-inflicted violence

We are all so well trained to randomly and unconsciously lob our own version of bigger more complex violence at ourselves and at others. 

Each fall following the equinox we stand at the West Gate of the natural calendar. We’re looking in rather than out. We’re traveling down and into a canyon first and then we’ll tie up the horse and enter into a cave…a safe and spacious cave where we’ll rest and recuperate for the next six moon/months.

The time is right and ripe for harvesting that which has grown strong and true since last April.

Ask your self:

What is my strength? 

What is my truth? 

Where do I find beauty?

Where is my commitment to goodness and harmlessness?

The opportunity is here now for slowing down. The paradox is that slowing down doesn’t happen fast. Let’s investigate. Let’s be curious. As we attempt to hush the rush we may very well notice that everything actually begins to crank up and we go head-first right along with it…hardly even realizing what’s happening.

I saw it in my art/life this past week. I have been quite happy and inspired working away on multiple projects, starting a teaching semester at the museum and taking part in a video series, Global Summit in which I am one of 13 women addressing wisdom, love and power.

My focus began to blur in a way that had me losing my attention around tending to small things. I started to miss the details. Nothing life threatening, simply annoying and a bit aggravating to notice how I was messing up this and then that. No one else knew. This was simply the beginning of me heading down a slippery slope of my own making.

The last time this level of euphoria-leading-to-distraction happened it went something like this:

I was humming along having the best time ever. I went to the kitchen and started the kettle for a cup of tea. A few minutes later I thought to dash out and do a few errands. I grabbed my car keys and walked out of the house leaving the tea kettle on the stove with the gas flame turned up high. I drove away from my home and went to the post office never realizing that danger was building back at the Wren.

Ta-la-la…on I go bopping about blithely unaware…

Then I get the text message.  It said simply: “Watch out when you get too happy you forget things. The kettle went into melt down, you left the flame on high.”

Thank the stars my partner was home and came to investigate the burning kettle stench as it filled Wren House.

As I write I find this kettle image carrying me back to my childhood and the sing song…

[Chorus]
I’m a little teapot
Short and stout
Here is my handle
Here is my spout
When I get all steamed up
I just shout
Tip me over and pour me out

My new ‘red to remind me to PAY ATTENTION‘ kettle

The point here is that when and if we don’t take the time to pay attention and set an intention to hush the rush we inevitably become steamed up. We’ll either go into melt down or blow our top.

No need.

This week on our art/life trail ride we’re being reminded to slow it down a notch.

 savor the view:

This week I invite you into my studio. As part of my slowing down the pace I turn to working small. I’ve discovered that as I take the time to repurpose and upcycle materials the very act of sifting and sorting plays a role, it’s an active meditation. I putz and sort and tear and arrange my materials.  

Here’s what came to meet me this week:

Be Present, Drozda, mixed media, 4 x 4″ 2015

Buddha Nature, Drozda, mixed media, 4 x 4″ 2015

My North Star, Drozda, mixed media 4 x 4″, 2015

I’ll take these pieces to the upcoming ‘Small Works’ exhibition at the Charles H. Taylor Art Center in Hampton, VA.

I invite you to support yourself in beginning the slow down process by taking frequent breathing breaks...when you click through notice the number of Face Book ‘like’s that are attached to this article…clearly this is a topic that touches many.

Another way that you might find useful for assisting yourself in the shift-in-energy- process that is natural to engage at this time of year…tune into the Global Summit: Women Who Love with Wisdom & Power hosted by Medea Chechik on We Evolve TV. My interview airs in the line up that you’ll discover after you click the link and register for the free event. Medea is offering us 12 different vantage points to the process of turning within and quieting it down…I invite you to put the kettle on…make sure it is a whistling kettle! Steep a relaxing cuppa tea, take some deep breaths and relax on a regular basis. Leave us a comment or share a slow down discovery that we can add to our saddle bags. We’ll pull the ideas and inspirations out at the evening camp fire and drift off to our dream time imaging the many ways there are to naturally begin to ‘slow-down and turn-in’.

I look forward to seeing you next week on our art/life trail ride…we’re heading into the sunset and winding down the full-out push of spring and summer…

we’re turning inward toward the natural feminine time of the year…fall and winter. It’s a beautiful time to stop often and savor the view…

It’s so deeply meaningful and wonderful to be trail riding with you…

I am a working Heartist with more than thirty years of practice in supporting the creative best in each of us to come forth and shine. Join the movement: make joy the vocation of your mind.

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