“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As your simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.“ Henry David Thoreau
I have confidently gone it the directions of my dreams many times, in love, in spiritual pursuit, and now creative artistic path. Has my life gotten simpler? I am not so sure, for I have had to reorganize the way I think, the way I love, the way I create as well as see creation. For the path suggested by the collective unconscious to be a certain way, to do a certain thing to make money or to have a certain life style shifted when I understood what it meant to be gay in the world. That I had to remove myself from my religion of my family, to hold on to values I know I had been given by teachers I knew intuitively to be correct in their suggestions of how to manage life from a place of awareness, acceptance as well as inquiry and investigations. Much of that was abandoned when I found booze and boys, that for the next 20 years would be spent in the pursuit of unfulfilled lost dreams. Dreams of Love, from someone else, not from myself, dreams of a life with another person who would fill me up, make me whole, complete me. Ha was I in for a surprise!
Now 20 years later the rediscovery of who I am through the process of recovery from booze, co-dependant relationships, re-setting boundary, a conscious seeking of a spiritual path, that returned me to my religion of childhood only to denounce it once again to embrace a more fluid nature based spirituality influenced by Christian Mystic’s, Buddhist Monks, indigenes cultures, radical faerie/gay spirit creativity, just to name a few.
The path is always changing, always adventuresome, a rediscovery of who I am through the relationship of who I was and who I choose to Be today. The relationships with the people in my life as well as the circle of inspiring creative beings I have meant and begun to cultivate community with on-line. These blogs, these morning pages are part of that process, part of the ever-widening, expanding network of champions to my self-worth through my gratitude to them by the continuation of self discovery.
In that process I have to opportunity to assist in their growth from my sharing of my story, sharing the adventure, offering the map I have taken to get where I am, and sometimes it seems I am not where I think I want to be but acceptance of where I am and to envision the path of where I am directed with conscious intuitive spirit.
Another of the task for this week suggested in The Artist’s Way is “Imaginary Lives: If you had five other lives to lead what would you be in each of them? The point of these live is to have fun in them–more fun than you might be having in this one. Look over the list and select one. ”
A Monk
an actor,
a fashion photographer
a shaman,
a world traveler.
Which one will I choose to imagine or create in my life? I wonder?
I wrote earlier in my friends Kathy’s blog I mentioned that I had notice I had not taken my camera many times of late with me in the wood during our walks. That I was feeling uninspired, I walk these same paths everyday, and right now everything is wilting due to the extreme heat and humidity. Upon my noticing I did not have my camera with me what do I see a grouping of mushrooms that were not there yesterday… so Kathy’s blog was a dare to go someplace we had not been before, and I had just been thinking I wanted to look up National Park/parks in NJ, places of interest, there is plenty I have not seen and most I have not photographed, so my journey is to move beyond my little wood, take a back road, go to nature walks, find some lakes, take another street in the city… not only treat for the senses, but a challenge to my art, to photograph and to experience a new sight.
Affirmation: “Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.”
“Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.”
“Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.”
“Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.”
“Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.”
As you see I did not get to go to NYC and to MoMA today, a friend reached out last night and I am going to meet him in Philly later to day, but I think I will go earlier to do some photography before meeting up with him, to socialize, to maybe do some healing with him, or just hang in the park, or coffee shop/bookstore !
Growth Question: Are you confidently going toward your dreams? If so, what tools, maps, etc are you using? If your not going toward your dreams confidently why not?
I am Love, Jeff
PS: I did go back and take those shots of the mushrooms and every photograph here was taken once I shared where I was with my creativity!
Photographs here for purchase, post card, note cards, framed.
the reluctant bloger 