News, Views & Inspiration
I wrote this poem after hearing poetry, powerful poetry . . . the kind that makes me feel like I can change my DNA.
Heart of a Woman
Many hearts many minds
There is no other time
Like this moment
That makes demands on
the Heart of a Woman
Smart softness
Mental toughness
Emotional intelligence
Resilience
Hearts bound by
Time and sound
Joy and hope
Queens of Cope
We women are
Champions of
Sense-Around
-by Mary Gow
Not me.
My favorite card making holiday used to be Valentine’s. Following closely by Christmas when each year I would send out a handmade series.
This was before Valentine’s Day became the second most popular card-sending day of the year right after Christmas.
It’s been awhile since I made cards with the passion I used to make them.
Doesn’t mean I couldn’t start that up again.
There’s something very special about handmade cards. . . they send a caring message by evidence of the time spent on preparation.
A throwback to olden days, when the world was a little less busy.
In this unusual time, I invite you, as well as me, to create some home made cards!
Has there ever been a time we’ve been more concerned with what we look like on screen?
The pandemic has brought us together online and to attend meetings and see people, maybe more than we did pre-Covid.
The days of dreaming of video phone calls as a prevalent means of communicating has arrived. We see how we look up close.
There’s a need to be gentler with the critiquing of our online persona. It takes time to become more screen savvy. And eyebrows may not look “perfect.” (However I surely appreciate the “touch up” tool in Zoom).
Today the aroma of what I had in the oven for four hours drifted throughout the house, and probably seeped out beyond the walls.
Our thoughts are like that . . . little energy bots floating out into the ethers, going beyond our immediate environment.
“Thoughts are mental energy; they’re the currency that you have to attract what you desire. Learn to stop spending that currency on thoughts you don’t want.”
-Wayne Dyer
Remember the magnet you are.
Maybe too many hearts though? I can see where it could get monotonous to see the same form every day. And then I realize repetition is the mother of __________? mastery?
By studying one shape and playing with expressing it many ways, wisdom may come of this.
I remember when I heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, where he studied people who reached mastery in their field likely spent at least 10,000 hours practicing to get to that place.
When I read Lisa Congdon’s book about the business of being an artist something she said really stuck with me. . . how can I call myself an artist if I don’t work at it every day?
Reading that around the time Paul Gallo, my fashion illustration teacher at San Francisco City College spoke about the rewards of a daily practice. He has a daily drawing practice.
Those three factors inspired me five years ago to commit to a daily writing and painting practice with the intent get better at both. I am getting close to 10,000 hours and am far from mastery. Drawing 100 hearts is a droplet in an ocean but a precious seed for inner growth. Looking for different ways to see hearts as an exercise – like studies of 100 of anything would be. It can give the participant fresh eyes as the product of the daily exercise depends on what the artist wishes to make of the discipline required.
On my bulletin board is a Post-It Note that says “Structure = Freedom.” By the end of my march to the 100th day, which will be Valentine’s Day, I imagine celebrating that concept because these hearts are helping reveal it.