I just got back from a long vacation. I was traveling out of the country with a group from all over the world. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. But it was one of the first statements one of my fellow travelers made that sticks with me… and I’m writing about today.
When she learned that I was from the US, her comment was, “Wow, you people don’t usually take time to travel.” Granted, compared to Europe, where my friend calls home, our 1 week vacations placed here or there throughout the year probably doesn’t sound any fun compared with the 3- 4 weeks she takes every summer plus other travel.
But then I heard that similar comment other times. And I wondered… don’t we? Or better, why don’t we get away more often?
I have set up a tradition of closing the business in January every year. Last year, I took a week to get away and this year I was gone 3 weeks. Next year, I’ll be gone all month. Really… do you think it’s wise to close a business for a whole month?
Well, our business has a great selling season for the holidays. After Dec 24th, we see that people are done shopping for a bit. Staying home, regrouping, paying bills might be a more common priority in January that shopping for art and fashion. But that’s not the real reason we close. I’m beginning to see it as a survival tactic. When you run a small business, you are the staff. And creating goods and staffing a store for long hours leaves me feeling pretty empty by the end of the year.
So I go away for me. I close the business that sustains me and run away from home. That’s not quite a “nose to the grindstone” sort of mentality that a good entrepreneur is supposed to have and that’s precisely why I do it. We as humans need down time, fun time, change-of-pace time. We need to play and relax and explore and laugh. We (or at least some of us who dwell in the north) need the sun, the ocean… we need to feel heat in our bones.
How can I afford it? Well, travel can be conducted in many styles and if you plan ahead, travel light, consider public transportation and one or two star hotels… travel can be much more affordable than you might expect. Airbnb or Vacation Rentals by Owner have some great values in housing. Eating at local restaurants is affordable and gives you the real flavor of countries you might be visiting.
Plus, getting away gives me a calm feeling that might have taken many visits to the therapist if I had continued working. Taking time off is good for our mental and physical health… and that can be priceless.
So can I afford to take time for me? How can I afford not to. The money spent on travel experiences will live in my memory forever. I could have spent the money on a new sofa or a bigger tv… but I’d rather run away from home. And just thinking about my recent trip makes me smile… and encourages me to get busy planning my next trip.
Travel, see the world, and give yourself a break today.
Clean up the planet… and start with you
I turned 62 this year. I’m not bragging or complaining, it’s just my reality. And by the way, 62 feels absolutely great. I’ve made a lot a changes over the years in regards to what I put in and on my body, what I allow in the environment around my body. Maybe these changes have paid off or maybe I’m just lucky but I do feel great. I’m not on any medication. I don’t have aches and pains. My body moves mostly very freely. Yep, I’m lucky. But what if these changes I’ve made over the years really help? Can these things help you feel great also? I don’t know. But a conversation with my holistic physician this morning, (BP 120/69, weight down 4 pounds, no medications) reminded me that most people don’t do what I do because perhaps no one has ever suggested it or explained why these changes might be helpful.
So my next few blogs are going to be on this topic, “Clean up the planet… and start with you.” I am only speaking from my experience but I’m not the only one to thinks this way. I’ve lived in other parts of the country where these concepts are much more common. I’ve been back in Ohio for 15 years now. I am reminded every time that someone at my gallery rolls their eyes about my insistence that we recycle or use clean conscience cleaning products. Doing these things are just common sense for me but to others, I’m viewed as some weird old hippie type (my guess 😉 ).
Maybe no one has explained to some the toll that chemicals can take on you, your environment and the planet. So I’m going to. My suggestions aren’t new, or earth-shattering but I believe they can make a real difference in your quality of life. Changes aren’t hard but they are changes. Getting used to a new way of doing things can have its challenges. But when the nurse at the doctor’s office assumes something is wrong because I’m losing weight, or has to check my chart twice to believe that I really do not take prescription drugs, I think that perhaps it might be helpful to tell this story.
Power of love
I was grateful and honored that two friends asked me to speak at their renewal of their wedding vows yesterday. I had written out (or some spirit wrote thru me as is often the case) something that I thought was lovely. But as often happens when you find yourself in the real moment, what I had written was too long and perhaps a bit too sedate for this fun loving bunch. So instead of presenting what was written, I just spoke from my heart. Not sure what I said, but trust it served the purpose well.
Since I’m not blogging regularly, I thought perhaps the blog might be the place for the writing sent to me from the Universe.
Celebrate love!
su
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Dear friends, dear family,
We are gathered here to celebrate!! Topaz and Mike invited us to celebrate their marriage with them… and we are. But they are also giving us such a great gift. They are allowing us to celebrate the reality of love with them.
Renewing their wedding vows is important to these two. It’s a wonderful experience for any couple to come together again, in this public yet sacred way to say, “We’re still here… and we’re happy we are. “ But the renewal of vows is important for all of us too. This ceremony is our reminder that love is alive and well. That relationships work and that our dreams can come true.
And it reminds us of the great power of love. The love of a husband and wife is special, powerful and taxed regularly. This love requires special care… it demands to be held as important… it cries for its needs to be met. I’m sure both Topaz and Mike can think of a time or two when they were reminded that their love needed care, it needed to be honored. And when the powerful energy of love is cared for and honored, it grows… it shines. It draws others to it.
The love between husband and wife is special. It is one special flavor of love. Each of us today are reminded of how we each love Mike and Topaz. And how we love others in our world. And that all those flavors of love require the same special care and honor.
The power of love isn’t exclusive to people. We love animals, the earth, Mother Nature. I love a good thunderstorm and I wax poetic at every time the moon is full. These flavors of love that we each carry in our hearts and our lives are all very special. These loves- all different- all beautiful- all require care and honor
The glue that keeps our relationships and our world together is love. Love allows us to care for one another- those near and dear- and those on the other side of the world that we’ve never met. Love allows us to feel compassion for other living beings, sentient creatures and spirits in existence in all of time.
So today, we celebrate love. It will change our relationships and our world… if we continue to care and honor it above all else.
Topaz, once again, with 5 more years of joys and sorrows… knowing more now about him than you have before… in his perfection and his imperfection… do you take Mike to be your beloved partner in life and love.
And Mike, once again, with 5 more years of memories- the highs and the lows… knowing her more deeply than you ever have… in her perfection and her imperfection… do you take Topaz to be your beloved partner in life and love?
I now pronounce you once again and into a glorious future, husband and wife.
Momma… are you out there?
Just a few words to assure you that winter in Ohio will end and the spring will come. Mother nature will warm us and surround us with greenery, warmth and beauty.
I had an interesting thought (to me) the other day. I wondered if Mother Nature misses the feel of my bare feet in her earth as much as I miss the feel? Could she need the connection with me as much as I need the connection with her? I think the answer is yes. So if we’re both feeling the loss in this frigid tundra we call winter, what can we do to help ourselves and our planet?
A friend reminded me that it’s a great time to repot plants in the house. Our hands can enjoy the dirt and nurturing our green friends the same as when outdoors. We’re also drawing near to the time of planning gardens and even starting our plants indoors. So I opened my personal seed stash and began my list of what I wanted to add to the garden this year. Perhaps a cruise thru a few online seed catalogs. I found http://www.seedsofchange.com , http://www.seedsavers.org/onlinestore/ , and a list of seed catalogs on http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/seed-catalog-time to light my fire. Other favorites?
So… dig in my gardening inclined friends. And if you feel that you’re not so inclined… perhaps it’s time to adopt a houseplant? Meet my new “friend” at the gallery, Hyacinth.
Peace and much love,
su
Should I just be tougher?
Something totally unexpected happened this week. Someone took a swing at my business in hopes of harming us and our reputation.
WHAT???!!!
Yep, get over yourself, Mary Sunshine… Shit happens. (and no, I’m not going to talk about the details of what happened at this point.)
I find the process interesting when something like this happens. I swing from “well, we’ll just rise above it” to “just wait until I find out who did this!” Peace maker to commando and back again… and again.
And while the process isn’t complete… I’m trying to settle into the middle somewhere, hurrying towards “picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off” and getting on with the business of business.
We often talk about the downtown community, the arts district as a whole… but when something like this happens, I wonder what kind of community this is, if in fact it is one at all. I would hope as a community, that if someone takes exception to something I do, or questions a business practice, they might stop in and talk it out…or even yell it out with me. But to just go directly to a higher authority to get the proverbial boom dropped on me with no warning just stinks. Maybe I just need to be tougher. Maybe I need to not give a damn about this “community.”
But at this point, I’m clinging to the value of community. I made a commitment to this community back in 2007 so I’m not going to let one crank mess with my dreams.
So I won’t get tougher… but I will get smarter. I’ll work harder, cleaner and be a better neighbor so that the gallery and the community might see greater success.
And I’m really going to try to walk away from this experience with a renewed commitment to shine brighter and to remember to always have the backs of my neighbors as most of them have mine.
And to the one who decided to throw us under the bus? Good luck with karma.
Intentions for 2015… I like the sound of that
‘Tis the time of year when people start talking about resolutions. I listened to several women talking the other day about which diet they were going to start in 2015. One is trying Low Carb… another thinks the Abs diet. One talked about a diet she bought (you can PAY for a diet?) Then along with their dreams, the conversation slid to their expectations that the diets probably won’t work.
At that point, the big GONG in my head rang out… and it came to me that resolutions are just one more thing (or many more things) that we SHOULD do, Must Do, Have to DO!!
The last thing I want to ponder when I think about a new year ahead of me is more things I should/could/have to do.
So I’m setting intentions for the new year and here’s what I mean.
I intend this new year to be happy, healthy, more satisfying. I intend a bit more fun time, art time and less worry time. I visualize it to be a year of abundance- love, money and peace.
and now what, you may ask?
Intentions are set in my world by imagining your life a bit better than it is now. You might take time to play more music, be more active, take more naps. Then without taking a moment to figure out exactly how you’ll make this happy things happen… you sit down and visualize that better life. Again… not making a list of step 1, then 2… but visualizing how it will feel. Sit down and close your eyes and imagine how your 2015 will feel. Imagine how your body will feel. Imagine how you’ll feel if (for example) you don’t worry about money anymore because you have an abundance of it. Imagine lying down for an afternoon (or morning?) nap without a care in the world. Imagine your body feeling more healthy. And I’m calling you to really submerge yourself in this imagining. Visualize bending over and feeling limber and balanced. Visualize enjoying your favorite vacation place… how the sand feels in your toes, how the sun warms your skin. Imagine waking up in the morning feeling absolutely fabulous and eager to begin your day.
This is how I set intentions. I visualize my joy- how it tastes, how it feels against my skin, how it sounds. And I visualize these intentions every day.
Now I’m not suggesting you spend your days daydreaming… but to set aside 5 minutes in the morning and perhaps even another 5 minutes in the evening visualizing the reality you want created around you.
And why, pray tell, do I challenge you to do this? Because my dear dears, this visualization of your better life can make a difference in your world.
How can that be? Well… perhaps I’ll blog a bit more about this subject sometime soon.
And if you can’t wait for me… it’s about the law of attraction. It has changed my life.
Peace, love and heaps of joy!
su
painting is “lovers of life” by me at JourneyArtGallery.com
ps. yes, you might say that asking you to visualize joy IS actually giving you something else to do. But it’s much more fun and satisfying than imagining failing at a diet? really! Dream with me… a better world can be.
There's safety in numbers
I’m a hermit. That’s not a complaint or something I would change… just a fact. I require a lot of time alone to recharge. I truly look forward to those times. One thing that I’ve always savored is meditation time… and up to now, that’s generally been a solo event, other than classes I might teach. But somehow this fall, I was moved to set up a Monday noon time meditation at the gallery. This isn’t a class… just a time when I commit to be in the classroom, sitting in meditation. I invite the public to join me, no charge. Hmm… why would a hermit decide to do this on her day off?
That’s a good question and one I asked myself before I committed to announcing Monday Meditation publicly. But the idea was one of those things… those ideas that well up inside you as though planted there. These sorts of ideas seem to me as though they didn’t really come from me or from my experience. I’ve learned it’s best to follow thru on things like this and so Monday Meditation began.
I don’t generally prepare for the group meditation, although often an idea will come to me. Today wasn’t one of those days… today, I had no ideas. So I walked into the room, tried to open heart and mind. And as the group arrived, I listened to them and our subject rose up from their conversation. I didn’t mentally think about it again, just stayed open and we began.
We explored light and positive energy and how we might use it to prepare ourselves for our days. Monday is a tough day for many people as we’re tossed back into our work week and often there’s stress in that, based on our experience week after week after week? 😉 We practiced looking forward to our day with joy, with expectation for good. We filled ourselves, our room, our community and even the world with our light and good energy. Afterward, I explained to them a bit about the “Law of Attraction” and my rudimentary understanding about Quantum Physics… and why there is a scientific basis for why we should keep our focus on positive things as those are the things that we seem to attract to our life.
Everyone has a nice time. We shared a bit at the end. Hugs all around, then back to our lives.
Here I am again alone and when I reviewed the meditation, I found that I had gotten exactly what I needed from the group session also. Their directing the subject, my allowing the meditation to be led by whatever the Universe sent… all that had resulted in my receiving answers and confirmation.
So sometimes it’s okay for the hermit to sit on the mountain… but when the “village” calls… go where you are called and you’ll likely be exactly where you’re supposed to be.
Peace and love
s
Painting is “settle in to peace” by me, at Journey Art Gallery.
Self Care
For those of you who missed Monday Meditation, we talked about self care. Hopefully we all have some sort of self-care plan… yoga on Tues, meditation on Thurs, eat right, drink water, etc. But I proposed to the group a little different self-care plan. This one is directed at those moments when we find ourselves panicked, anxious or angry. I’m guessing you’ve had an experience (or perhaps two ;)) standing in line at a store and it’s taking forever and it seems that everyone is just making you NUTS? Or of course, there’s that driver ahead of you who knows not how to drive? You know those moments, when you’re seething or frightened or beating yourself up over something less than perfect you did.
These are the self-care moments I’m talking about. At these stressful times, what we do and what we say to ourselves, can either help us or hurt us. Replaying some negative scenario or allowing the angry voice in your head to scream, “What’s wrong with these people??!!” actually is harmful to you. It causes anxiety and stress to escalate- blood pressure spikes, breathing is shallow and your body goes into “fight or flight” mode. So instead of adding fuel to the physiological “fire,” I propose we take action to calm ourselves. Yes… it’s possible and can actually be very effective.
First, acknowledge that you’re not taking care of yourself when you’re angry, fearful or anxious. Practice turning your focus in during stressful times. Generally what is outside of you is not within your control, but the inside that is where you can affect positive changes.
Second, realize that “it is what it is” and likely this situation is out of your control. If it’s a person or situation you find yourself with and you can’t walk away, acknowledge that you can’t change things. If you are replaying a past event or projecting a negative scenario in the future, both of those aren’t anything you can control.
And thirdly, take care of yourself. How? Begin with a breath. Taking a deep inhalation is always a good step. Breathe in oxygen as well as peace or calm in your imagination. And when you exhale, let go of a bit of anger, anxiety or stress. Breathe in the good, let go of the yuck. Continue breathing, keeping your attention on your insides. It helps you begin to detach from whatever was stressing you. You can breathe and drive…. breathe while waiting in line… just breathe. One of my meditation teachers challenged me years ago to try to hang onto fear or anger while breathing deeply. I tried… but have yet to prove him wrong. Breathing just makes you feel better. A deep breath defuses the flight or fight mode while shallow, rapid breathing feeds it.
Once you’ve detached a bit from the situation that is stressing you and you’re breathing fully, it’s time to visualize something that makes you happy. You don’t need to sit in lotus position with eyes closed to visualize but it does help to practice the “happy place” visualization when you are some where calm and comfortable. That was what we did today in meditation… explored our happy places. Often people love the feeling of sun on their face, the sound of the ocean, a walk in the woods. I imagine standing in a hot shower and the water is washing alway all my stress. It is amazing what even a few moments of positive visualization can do to your emotional state. Learn to take care of yourself by practicing replaying happy experiences in your mind.
So take care of you, especially when you find yourself in a stressful space. Make the decision to take care of yourself regardless what is going on around you. Let go of the uncontrollable, and turn your attention within. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Then visualize something lovely… a place, a positive result, the sun on your face. If you were attached to some sort of monitoring device, likely you’d watch your breathing rate and pulse slow and your blood pressure drop. But it doesn’t take any special equipment to realize that you feel better… calmer, stronger and able to cope.
You might not know… but start looking for signs… that your calmness (as well as your anger) affects those around you. Whether you vocalize your joy (or your frustration) or not, that energy can be felt by others. The office, your home and the world around us need your positive energy and your joy. So in helping yourself, you help others. Help me make the world a better place to live… even one deep breath can help.
Have fun!
su
ps. The image above is “Go with the flow” by me.
Do we ever learn? YES!!
Running an art gallery showing 20+ artists has been an amazing learning experience. My artwork is here as is the work of others. I always try to show all the artists, tell all their stories and let the client decide what speaks to them.
Today a group designing a new office lobby came in. They were interested in one piece by another artist but were headed back to another gallery to buy a few pieces they had seen there first. They had noticed my work but decided that they thought they wanted a piece by another artist. I’m happy, thinking they will be back.
But after they had gone, I looked at the piece that was preferred and wondered what my work is missing? Maybe my work needs to be more complex? Maybe putting some of my work in frames would help? etc etc.
Then the tiny voice within said, “this is what you do… you don’t need to be someone else.” And I did relax and go on with the day.
Maybe an hour later, the group was back and in the end commissioned four paintings to be made… by me. As they had decided that my work had just what they wanted. And I had to smile… inside and outside. While, of course, I’m grateful for the commissions but I’m particularly grateful for that tiny voice in my head (or is it in my heart) that says… you are okay, just as you are. I attribute that voice partly to age and experience… as I certainly didn’t have that voice when I was younger. The voice that blasted thru my head generally told me I wasn’t good enough. And now, the “not good enough” voice does still live in my head but she’s more like a doddering old lady, muttering in the corner. And to me, that is truly cause for celebration!!!
Believe in yourself… you’re the only you that there is.
Mother, please?!
Happy mid February, especially to my neighbors here in Ohio. We certainly have had a “real” winter here this year. Lots of cold, fair amounts of snow… even I have uttered those familiar mid-Febrary words, “Enough, already?!”
Somehow one of the little voices in my head reminded me today that spending time in nature is so nurturing, healing and calming for us. Well, I know that’s true when the weather is beautiful but surely not in February? Well, our mother… mother Nature doesn’t go south for the winter. Her power, her beauty and her wisdom do still abound regardless of the season.
So, we can bundle up and take a brisk walk. But often I find that taking a “gazing break” is also very helpful. Gazing out the window at winter’s wonders is also very comforting. Studying the intricacies of a snowflake or pondering the interesting shapes which have evolved on my patio as a result of pots and rocks and who knows what else got left out there under all the snow. Savor the brilliant colors of birds, stark black branches and brilliant white snow.
Bringing some green indoors is also a lovely solution. I have some new basil which I hope will sprout soon in my south facing studio windows. Or just try spending some more time with those green friends who already might be sharing your indoors.
Art showing nature is also a good solution. I chose an image from Katie Balas’ show at the gallery to share here. Katie told me she chose this color palette to combat her winter doldrums. Heck the article below mentions that just staring at a green rectangle can encourage creativity more than any other color? So I encourage you to enjoy the season, however suits you best. Allow your positive thoughts to lift you up, brighten your day regardless of the season.
Image from Katie Balas, “Forest of Souls”. Katie’s show is at Journey Art Gallery thru March 13, 2014, JourneyArtGallery.com