A Brief Intermission, a Big Breath

Don't you know? In betweens -- the breaths between two commitments -- are difficult to keep calm, and so important it is to do so.

I've just made it home from Dallas (after a brief stop in Waco to the see my parents) and am now packing supplies to take to the CREATE Mixed Media Workshop in Chicagoland. Breathe. Of course, a million tasks around the house seem to be screaming, a million "gee I should have done that earlier and had it ready for this big teaching weekend" thoughts are filling the head space. And all that is true, and all of it is rather irrelevant, too.

I am a working artist. I work and teach so that I CAN work and teach. I support my bad habits of eating, sleeping under a safe (and beautifully situated) roof and (seems like mostly) paying my health insurance premiums. So be it. And thanks to the universe for giving me employment, passionate attachment to my work, and support from friends, family and blog readers!

Right now, I am inbetween. The moment is what it is. What I can do, I will, including this short blog that is mostly a message to myself. (But one I suspect will echo though a few other people's psychic and physical spaces.) I also will breathe and look out at the hills, hot and dusty as they may be, with a tiny moment or two of realization that I am just a little dust mote in the whole of it. What I do is my part of the big creative swirl that is creation.

 

Daily Practice

Go with the flow, but it's nice to have a few paddles that you've practised using.

When the pedal hits the metal, you need a foundation of good practice to keep a modicum of balance in place. I've been tending a family member's serious illness this past week, (my dad, he's better), and it takes every bit of good behavior on my part for me to stay centered and available. What works for me is having certain minimum daily requirements for my physical, mental, spiritual and emotional well being. I'm not legalistic about these, sometimes a week might pass before one of my DMR actually makes it onto the to-do list. But I have noticed that the more I practice these habits/skills/routines and rituals daily -- when I DON'T need them --  the easier it is to make it through the rough patches.

The MDRs change over time and sometimes the focus is on one "realm" of being more than another. But recently, these are the practices that are getting me through. These are the real ones, not the ones I wish I did, not the ones I think I should be doing. And I slip up a lot on the dailyness aspect. but they are the minimums and more often then not, I get around to each and every one of them once in 24 hours.

1. Walking, at least a mile, usually about 3 in 1 to 2 mile stints. This one works on ALL the fronts, physical, emotional, spiritual and mental. Usually at home the walks are dog-driven necessity. (We call Bandera, the coon hound, "The Treadmill.")

Bandera, aka "the Treadmill

2. Keeping my email box purged. This is not easy, and stuff still gets shuffled to some unknown folder at times. But mentally, it helps not to open the email and see 300 messages that are just kindof parked there o "in."

3. Cooking. Cooking good, simple, nourishing comfort food is both a creative and physical best practice in my life. It keeps me centered to handle ingredients and to participate in the alchemy of transforming these six things into some one delicious smelling and tasting one thing.

4. Stitching by hand. When I need a meditative moment, having some handwork to attack with the slow steady pace of a nice running stitch just gets me back into now. I carry handwork with me as often as I can, and its been essential for those hours in hospital waiting rooms. Count it practice for all the mes.

5. Affirmation and prayer. Enough said. Remember to breathe. Everything really is going to be all right. I don't have all the information. I can be present, right now, right here. Spinning out into future scenarios is always always a waste of precious energy.