Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Celebrating the Day


I am so happy to be able to celebrate this day. Fourteen years ago, on April 7, I packed up the van with the 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 birds and began a caravan with my partner driving the moving truck and a dear friend bringing all the house plants as we relocated from Ohio to Virginia.... moving from the glacial moraine to the edge of the continent.
Many of you have probably moved more times than you can count. Others may be like me, I'd lived in the same geographic area for more than 40 years. I traveled a good bit and felt a sense of expansiveness to life because of that but picking up and leaving it all behind was BIG. HUGE. With the move...everything changed.
                                                                  'In You Go' Drozda  Acrylic on Wood

    I'm so happy that it did. It's been a good shake up and I've loved coming to a new place to explore.

The Cypress swamp where I walk
 So every April 7 I take the day to wander and to wonder and to open to what will be coming around the next turn in the trail.
I've met the most wonderful people since relocating, and I knew the greatest folks before I moved, but one of the celebrations that is on my mind today is the amazingly rich and endless community of artists who I can visit through this medium of blogging. I love what you create and what you share. I so enjoy learning from you and being inspired by you. I'm new to it and I'm green but I am enthralled and entranced. I feel so fortunate to be in a community where beauty and wonder are so willingly shared by so many exceptionally gifted and talented beings.

I'm celebrating something else today. Every ninety days I set a goal. That takes me around the wheel of the year from Equinox to Solstice to Equinox to Solstice and round I go spiraling year after year. This quarter's goal is to improve my techno-communication skills. I felt that one way that could happen is through this wonderful art of blogging. To assist me I signed on for Blog Triage: Maintaining a Healthy Artist's Blog with Cynthia Morris and Alyson Stanfield. Today is the first day of a one month tune-up and I am rather thrilled to imagine the world of discovery that awaits me. I hope that you'll pop over and follow along throughout the next four weeks perhaps gleaning some tips that you can use....and of course, if you are here, I hope that you will comment (hint hint :-) sharing your wealth of knowledge with me too...this is exciting and I feel like such a happy learner!

At my monthly women's art group a call has gone out for books that have helped us, as artists, when we feel that the creative stream has been diverted or is drying up. What are some of your favorites? What books are beside your bed? What books do you reach for when you feel the need for sustanence? I have so many titles that uplift me but I wanted to share three today. Creating by Robert Fritz, Man and his Symbols by Carl Jung and I'd Rather Be In the Studio by Alyson B Stanfield. These are three very different books each with its own way of bringing up enthusiasm and courage for moving forward with what is. I am so appreciative that over the years the philosophy put forth in each has helped to bring me back into a feeling of strong yet gentle creative flow. I'm an Elder now. I'm considering the 'birdseed trail' that I might spread across the earth. I'm not interested in pushing any rivers but I am so jazzed by what there is to discover and share through our many mediums and their countless messages.

As I celebrate the fourteenth anniversary of my move I am also celebrating these vital foundation builders and all of you who inspire me so deeply and so wonderfully by sharing your world view with such passion and generosity of soul. Thank you so much.

~Sing the day

16 comments:

  1. happy anniversary Donna!! you are part of what makes this blogging community so rich and wonderful!! looking forward to see how your blogging workshop manifests here, and to learning from your learning!
    xoxo K

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  2. Iona: Congratulations on your anniversary! I packed up my life and move to Denver almost 9 years ago. Best decision I ever made. Scariest, too. I guess it wouldn't have been worth it if it hadn't been a little scary.

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  3. Hi Iona, You sound so calm and peaceful, yet energised at the same time! Congratulations! That's what I'm shooting for!

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  4. Hi Iona, Great to meet you! Congratulations on your Anniversary! I love celebrations!!!
    I find your quote "With its many phases life is simply wonder-full" so true!
    See you in class!

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  5. I loved reading your poetic post and finding out about your special anniversary day! I look forward to spending the next 4 weeks in class with you.

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  6. I really enjoed your post. Happy anniversary! What a cool thing to celebrate

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  7. First of all I just love, In you go Drozda. It really tickles me.
    Thanks for another inspiring post Donna. I feel psyched to enjoy my day. Moving is quite a challenge and was very stressful for me since it had to be done quickly (speed of light)between my husbands surgeries which took place in another city, 5 hours drive away. But I am so pleased we made the move.
    I'm looking forward to your feedback from Blog Triage.

    Favourite creativity inspiration book: (I've mentioned it so many times so I must be boring anyone who reads my blog) but I LOVE it! >>>>>
    The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin

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  8. OH MY... day one and this is already so much fun...though I'm clearly on a learning curve with some of the behind the scenes stuff.

    Thanks K and Robyn for your wonderful support as we all embark on this little blog journey together...and Hi Alyson, Tracey, Dora, Lynn and Claudine...it's great to find you here and to know that we're now 'in it'...in such a good way.

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  9. Happy Anniversary. I read and re-read "Women who run with the Wolves." It gets me out of the house and into the studio. I have three copies (living room, bedroom, and studio)--each chapter or tale has the power to motivate me.

    I learn from you--thanks.

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  10. Congratulations Iona on your happy and successful move. I,for one, am glad that you choose to move to the "edge of the continent." It's good living on the edge! And the reason that you have met so many wonderful people is because of who you are. Your vast knowledge, mastery of writing beautiful words, wonderful paintings, and constant smile continually inspire and amaze me.

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  11. I am a day late, but Happy Anniversary anyway! What a great day to celebrate. I am a born and bred New Englander, but I lived in Baltimore for 10 years. I am glad to be back, but I feel that my years away made me an even better New Englander somehow.

    I look forward to the next four weeks in class with you!

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  12. What a wonderful way to honor the transforming move. It looks peaceful there, a great place to create! I look forward to getting to know you in our triage class.

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  13. Thanks so much hwfarber for reminding me of one of my all time forever favorite books...Women Who Run with the Wolves...it's brilliance has inspired many of my series over the years...my top pick in the stories is The Handless Maiden...there is always a great lesson for women and their creative connections in the imagery and metaphor of Clarissa's telling of that classic tale.

    Kay you are ever one of my joys of coastal living :-)

    Thanks Hannah...I love New England...and have spent many a summer hiking about in her beauty...regarding class...back atcha'

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  14. Congratulations on your anniversary! I love your idea of seasonal challenges, I would enjoy hearing about some of the other goals you have made. I recently read, The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp and really enjoyed it. Her perspective on creativity was different, coming from the dance world, and because of that I got some new ideas about the creative process.

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  15. Congratulations on you anniversary....I have to say that The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying never fails me and neither does The Simple Feeling of Being by Ken Wilber..Love your blog..

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  16. Forgot to add I'm a big fan of Alyson's...I've taken two of her online classes and me and 6 other artists formed an artist salon based on Alyson's free guidelines...It's been great...we call ourselves Sisters 7...enjoy

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Thanks for stopping '-)