Day One – Sunday January 15th
It’s the end of day one and I have this sense of not making art today and I wanted to. Then realizing that I want to open my idea of “making art” since no I didn’t create a collage and yet I worked digitally to edit three photographs and put them online (http://gallery.artasaccess.com/photos/Images+2011/). So, yes I worked at creating beautiful images today which I enjoy and find really nourishing. On paper as collage or with a camera and digital editing – either way’s OK. Can I see it all as “art”?
I sat for 40-minutes this morning and was surprised how “easy” it was given that I usually sit for 20 minutes. I started with a few minutes “meditation” for the world (see Golden Thread Project – http://www.dergoldenefaden.info/proj_e.html) and ended with a few minutes of self Reiki. It felt really great and flowed. I was siting at home at the same time people were sitting at the Insight Meditation Center and I connected into that field with intention. I noticed how I enjoy sitting in the morning with the sunlight shining on me coming through a kitchen window. Adds a sense of “light” and lightness that feels true for me.
Having a sense for myself that some of the feast is going to be about connecting into larger fields and not feeling alone and isolated while I meditation or make art or live life as mindfully as I can.
Day Two, Monday January 16th
Being a full Monday of homeschool activities (yes it was officially a holiday here – Martin Luther King day and we had our regular play groups and classes anyway) made it more of a challenge to find time to practice. I ended up sitting for 40-minutes before crawling into bed. I found it interesting that I was not too tired and didn’t fall asleep during the sit. It was an enjoyable sit just like in the morning. There was a sense of “empowerment” over limiting beliefs that often come up when contemplating doing something. I am getting more and more that I don’t have to “believe” every thought I think. Sometimes I can simply try things newly with a beginner’s mind and have it be an inquiry and be open to seeing what unfolds.
Day Three, Tuesday January 17th
The days start to blur together for me <smile>. I sat in the morning for 20 minutes and then made art for another 20-minutes right afterwards. I especially enjoy it when I can make art after settling and connecting by sitting. I made two collages which are online at http://gallery.artasaccess.com/collages/collages2012/
I also found myself adding into my evening journaling a page about Acts of Kindness. I simply started writing down everything I did that day that felt like it might fit into that category. I ended up with 25 things on my list. It’s interesting what showed up on the list – listening to someone, looking at people on the street in a way that felt more connecting, sharing my joy about “home-made ice cream” with a friend, asking if a boy at hockey practice needed help, asking how my husband was feeling, being willing to stay open to a solution that would work for me and my son’s needs, and sending someone a birthday card are a few of the things. I think it helped that Sunday night I was really triggered by something someone in my friends circle posted to their wall in Facebook. It wasn’t fun being so triggered and feeling some really uncomfortable feelings and yet being exposed to the trigger helped me do more of my personal healing work and let go of some of my enemy images. It also helped me realize that kindness can be a way of being and not simply some acts and not others. Kind of like meditation can happen no matter what the activity is – sitting, walking, making art or washing dishes. Anyway, I really enjoyed journaling about Acts of Kindness.