'One must also accept that one has "uncreative" moments. The more honestly one can accept that, the quicker these moments will pass. One must have the courage to call a halt, to feel empty and discouraged.'
--Etty Hillesum

Sarah Ban Breathnach (author of Simple Abundance) had a really good entry for today:

"...accepting uncreative days as part of the creative cycle is crucial to your serenity. Uncreative days are real life. Every artist knows them, although few of us care to acknowledge this except in confidential whispers. But as you make authenticity your art you will know them, too. Uncreative days are the part of the yin/yang of artistic yearning.
It is so difficult to come to a halt, especially when we want to get on with our careers, relationships, health, creativity. But when you're too parched to pray, beyond tears, or too dreained to give a damn, it's time to cease and desist.
No, this does not mean you can quit. You still have to go through the motions, keep showing up for work: on the page, at the drawing board, stove, sewing maching, computer. Continue to prepare the canvas, moisten the clay.
Often the derailment of too many dreams can bring on a drought, but whenever there's a dry period, there's still plenty of Light. We're just blinded by dark dust storms. Arid despair can often result from nurturance deprivation: not eating well, not sleeping enough, working too hard and too long without anything to look forward to. If you're creatively barren, give yourself a break.
The hardest thing we'll ever do as artists of the everyday is learn to call an occasional halt. Today if you're feeling uncreative, don't despair. Start getting excited and save your strength. You're being prepared for a quantum leap in authenticity.
In the natural world, droughts depart as suddenly and as mysteriously as they arrive."
Sarah, you ROCK!

One thing I know for sure, is that with time, everything becomes clear, all questions are answered, what's broken is restored, new trails are blazed, hearts are mended, love returns and you will look over your shoulder, with a tear in your eye, at life's utter perfection.

Anonymous Author

I am only one, but I am still one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something, and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Edward Everett Hale

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

Mother Theresa

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Hope is a waking dream.

Aristotle

it's so ironic because i just read a good friend of mine's blog(Mikie) and there are two similarities! first of all, she's been in a funk, just like me. she even used the same verbage i had, (in describing it to another friend --- Elaine), that i had to "get my groove" back! secondly, she was talking about getting a tin from Lawndale for the Day of the Dead show in Oct.
any artist can go to the Lawndale Art Ctr and pick up a tin to make an artwork with. the only "requirement" being that the sm sheet of tin must be somehow incorporated into the artwork.
it's alot of fun! i've been participating in the Dia de los Muertos for like 10 yrs now. it's always so interesting to see how many different interpretations there are. and how many different ways the artists use the tins. some are painted, some are framed, some are quite elaborate with electrical lights, fountains and orchestrated movements. some are so covered up, (with found objects, fabrics, wood, leather, paper, plastic, metals, wax, ceramics, mirrors, feathers, twigs, leaves, fur, etc), it's impossible to even see the tin. it is a great show to see!

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.

Albert Einstein

What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.

Henry David Thoreau

Dreamer

Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world.

Oscar Wilde

courage to create

"write the truest sentence you know," Ernest Hemingway encourages the writer in you. paint the truest image you can render. wait all day with camera poised to capture the five-second sliver of light. express the rage and range of emotion through your dialogue. convey passion's power with the curve of your dancer's body honed through discipline and denial. set the angel free when you carve. make the heavens weep when you compose.
--- excerpt from Simple Abundance (by Sarah Ban Breathnach)

Sonnet to a Salmon

Sunday past Masoud and I decided to eat lunch out. At first we were going to go to Kim Son, but then we decided to go to Lucky Village. The deciding factor being Lucky Village has shushimi on their buffet and Kim Son doesn't. We're crazy bout shushimi! Usually the maguro (tuna) is awesome. But it wasn't quite up to par Sunday. But the salmon. OH!!! It was such a nice shade of coral, sweet, succulent, satisfying, spectacular, supreme, sublime. I'd even go so far as to say it was spiritual. It's one of the best things to ever pass between these 2 lips of mine! For an instant, I was transported back in time -- to an Alaskan environ -- I was one with the salmon; I was leaping, jumping, trying desperately to make my way upstream, to spawn. At my last, most courageous, valiant, far-reaching leap of all -- into the deep, dark, black depths of the abyss I did fall -- into the gaping, starving, carnivorous jaws of the great grizzly. Oops! I got carried away! But that salmon, made all the more special when shared with a kindred spirit who savored it as much as I did, was very special. Very special indeed. So thank you salmon for your sacrifice for my satisfaction.

Thought for the day...

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
--- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

recent poems...

August Afternoon

Green boughs wave
indifferently,
outside my window;
lilac blossoms are heavy,
laden, saturated,
with water
from the recent rainfall;
the sun comes merrily out,
inbetween the
rainshowers;
another August afternoon
creeps lazily by,
as my imagination
wanders,
possibilities flicker,
and thunder rolls
in the distance.

For the Roses

Sweet beauties,
of such loveliness;
offer their suculence
to all who venture near,
my nose longs to touch
those soft, velvety petals
to inhale
the sweet,
intoxicating fragrance
that nestles there.

Meditation Green

Lacy, green foliage
forms an inviting
canopy outside
my window;
ruffling all
the leaves
in the gentle
afternoon breeze;
so many leaves,
overlapping, intersecting;
parts of a puzzle
forming a natural
collage;
so many colors
of green;
colliding, dividing;
forming intricate
patterns
in the air;
beckoning me, taunting me
to come outside
and play;
but alas,
i cannot,
i must work
and inside stay.