Crafting Change

Crafting Change

Sometimes trying to change anything at all feels like howling in the wind.

We try to reach out and create change in our lives, and we feel like we are in the dark.

We try to take a step forward, and it feels like our feel are stuck in stone.

When we try to  make a change, sometimes we feel like we are just a shadow of our former selves.

We seek illumination, guidance, direction, support, but what we find may seem faint, and not enough to light our way.

Our fears  loom like shadows, seeming to quadruple in size.

We spiral down into our core, hoping that there, might be an answer.

We seek wholeness: may the circle be unbroken.

This when we can’t even always see where we are going.  (“The bear went over the mountain…and found…another mountain- yikes!”)

We find out change is a process. Step by step, little piece by little piece, stitched together, small efforts, trying again, two steps forward, one step back.

A patient putting together of parts. A heaping up of nuggets.

DON’T

the process.

We seek the

at the end of the pot of gold…once we learn it is not actually vice versa.

We work at it. In innumerable ways, we push through stone. We learn, we grow, we apply techniques, we make efforts, we try again, we set strategies in place. We keep going. We keep growing.  It takes work.  Sometimes we can’t have the radio on while we are doing it.

We may find that we are finally able to bloom a bit, knowing that light can be dappled, and light and shadow are intrinsically entwined.

We allow ourselves that moment of glee, of joy.  We raise our hands in exultation, we stretch our hands to the heavens, we laugh.

We keep going.

Kitchen Contemplation

Kitchen Contemplation

I have a relatively humble kitchen…and  I love it.  I  love my humble kitchen, because it affords me an “inter-space’, an inner space, and an interstice between the activities of work, home and play.    I love to come into my kitchen of an early morning, make a small cup of strong espresso, (and drink it from one of my Mom’s unique ceramic espresso cups) write, contemplate, write, and contemplate again, even though this initially meditative time often morphs into list making, or checking email on my phone…

If it’s lunch-time, and I’m working in my home office and studio, I may sit in my kitchen, and read articles from an ever-present selection of inspirational and educational publications.  It’s a monthly challenge to imbibe them whole, and every word, as I love to do.  As creative entrepreneur Abby Kerr would say…don’t want to miss a drop!

To enter my kitchen from the central hallway, I pass a door which has become an image patchwork of beloved young family members and their original artwork.  Every time I pass through the doorway, the possibility is there to consider, cherish and appreciate them, and send them my love and well-wishes.

A wonderfully convenient shelf offers display space for treasured wedding gifts; a beautiful Asian lacquered tray, an obscure Belgian coffee maker (from a seriously coffee-obsessed friend), and it’s more modern cousin, the French Press.  We use these for company, and special occasions.  Otherwise they remain a “shelf-scape”.

What contemplative space would be complete without a chalkboard door?  It’s the perfect place to note dreams, hopes and plans. Ours tends towards the task, to-do, gotta get it done before the future comes list, but we do celebrate each task in living color!  The chalkboard border is painted with glow in the dark paint, with a few glow in the dark stars thrown in for good measure.

It must look really beautiful and mysterious at night when all the lights are out…but we usually don’t see it then.  Maybe I can get a nocturnal shot, and use it to illustrate another post, “Kitchen Contemplation II”...

What is your favorite nook or cranny, space or place to muse, meditate, contemplate and commune?

If you have one, or more, please share it with us here.  We love to hear from you.  Remember, we are all contemplating this thing called Life, together.