Skip to main content

Wet Birds

My challenge yesterday was to just START. I did it. I dropped Marcus off at preschool, walked in the front door, poured out some paper pulp into a bowl, stirred in some warm water and got busy. I squished and mixed until the mush felt just right. I made SIX birds for my in-progress Disco Birds (more on that later) and then stood back and looked in awe at these wet birds that are already oozing with personality -- um, bird-onality.

As usual, just starting worked. To me, that's the funny part. It works almost every single time... if I just get started, the inspiration flows and YET nearly every single time I have more ideas than spark I doubt the process. I guess it's akin to losing faith for a day or two.

Which brings me to explaining my religion -- well part of it anyway. WHAT? From papier mache to God in one tiny step? Well, I have to start somewhere and wet birds are as a good a place as any. Those wet and mushy birds symbolize what I think the Spirit is. It's the voice inside me -- head, heart, and soul -- that eventually must be addressed. Sometimes, the Spirit is impatient and nudges me to get grouchy and testy so I know it's time to listen up again. Sometimes, the Spirit is quiet and lets me just explore the world for a while without ever raising its voice. Sometimes, the miraculous moments, the Spirit is so loud and demanding, so full of connection and inspiration that no matter how much dust is spilling out from under the sofa, I ignore it to skip down the stairs, throw a movie on for Marcus, and get busy.

This week, the Spirit was persistent and patient, but oh-so-happy when I got quiet enough to hear.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nesting

This is the kitchen project we just finished.  I designed it all with enthusiastic agreement from Tom and the boys.  I think I'm fixing up my heart for the next chapter. .... I'm home with a sick boy today... not sure if he's more sick in his body or in his spirit, but a moment of being still never hurt anyone.  And here I am being still, taking the time to tiptoe around my sure-to-feel-neglected blog.  I'm writing, quite certain that whoever used to follow my writing has long since moved on to other trails through the woods, but knowing that this matters. I've spent the day doodling and exploring the blogs and work of other artists, artists who manage to put more time, more drama into their creating.  I've felt inspired enough today to plan out the shelf-lets I want to build in the library to display our printed Instagram photos and the prints of Marcus' incredible panoramics that he took in Home Depot.  I've drawn a kookie bird covered in feathe...
4 comments
Read more

Don't Read This if You Don't Like the Word Pee

   Okay... so I think I nearly broke the toilet from plopping down on it so hard to go pee.  WHY did I plop instead of coming in for my usual graceful landing?  Because my best friend encouraged me to go to the gym and take her weight lifting class... and because I did it... and because she's so darn encouraging that I tried to show off how MOST people who don't go to the gym for four months would really stink their first time back... but not me!  I decided that I should prove that I am a superhero who can skip the gym for four months and come in looking fresh and fit and strong as an ox... okay, okay... an ox that can lift a 2kg dumbell.  I decided that these sleeping muscles could SURELY do just as many squats as that cute 60 year old woman in the front row whose gluteus maximus muscles look nice and bouncy. I'm just going to have to be deliberate about which chairs I go to sit in today.  Spindly antique ones are definitely NOT my best option. ...
3 comments
Read more

In Honor of Writing (and Art-ing) Groups

"Turn it over one hundred times, and on the one-hundred-and-first time you'll understand... When you think you understand a teaching, when you have an interpretation of a story or character that feels comfortable or right, it's time to start over at the beginning."   Vacation is letting me turn things over, turning over the perceptions, the interpretations I've held on to so tightly.  And, I know I said I wouldn't write,but there are some things that just can't wait. This last week I went with my mom to visit the writing group she leads.  There were nine women there, all of us interested in improving our writing.  Each woman took a turn reading something she'd prepared and our indomitable leader offered us two opportunities for six-minute timed writings (topic one: the eighth dwarf, topic two: shoes).  The writing was BEAUTIFUL!  And here's what I learned from being in San Antonio, Texas, with a group of women I've never met: There are peopl...
4 comments
Read more