In the womb of
Creativity
We soar
Out of the
Light of
God's cosmic
Creation,
His body of
Word and knowledge

After a hard workout,
Blood pumping vibrantly
Hot through my veins,
Sweat coating my face
I smile and feel
Gratefully alive
Filled with joy

I invited the night
Full of stars
To dance through
My window
Serenading me
With the first
Song of insects
All senses accosted
As I smell
The burst
Of flower's
Bloom
Tasting it's
Sweet nectar
On my lips

Every day is fantastic, but I had an especially marvelous day yesterday, actually an overall marvelous weekend. I usually don't use the word marvelous, but the day was just that. There is nothing like spending time outside in nature! My mother and I planted banana pepper plants that will give us peppers in about 6-8 weeks. Having my hands in the dirt, digging, planting, watering the newly planted peppers and other flowers, being accousted by all of nature was intoxicating. Every year around this time there is also a jazz festival in our town. I live close to the downtown area so I could hear the jazz music while I planted. The sun was glistening off freshly green leaves of trees, the grass shimmered, swayed, and danced in the spring breeze. The only way I could describe my day in the sun, in nature, working with the flowers and plants was that I was blissed out last night. I could not focus on anything I was so light headed, dreamy, peaceful, full of love, happiness, peace, and compassion, and one with myself. I felt the fusion of my mind, body, and spirit.

When I felt this melding of mind, body, heart, soul, spirit, I thought again of how we are always whole, always connected to one another, connected to all living things, to all things, but there are only glimpses in which we recognize this truth. I want to hold onto the knowing, the truth of this, cherish this knowledge, revere, and respect, it, hold it gently to my heart, then release, sending it out to everyone. When I think of this, I have a vision of myself capturing something like star dust, cupping it in my hand, then blowing, seeing the star dust, float on the breeze, spreading to everything, scattering peace, love, and compassion.

Thank you so much Amber at Sweatpea's Corner blog: http://sweetpeazcorner.blogspot.com/ This is such a pretty award and such an honor to be recognized.

Day 16, 17, and 18 of the 37 Day Challenge:
Yesterday I finished reading The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg. This was a truly wonderful book to read. The woman in the novel, Nan, ran away from home at the age of 50. She decided to take a road trip by herself, without her husband of 25 years, without her daughter who was in college, and without any friends, she just took this trip on her own for a few weeks. Some parts of the book are absolutely breath taking. Berg writes with a true, authentic voice, says what many people may think, have thought, and experienced. She says at one point in a letter to her husband about her trip, "I know my own luck. I know how rare it is for a person to be able to do this. And I know more and more what I'm doing it for. I feel a kind of strength starting to happen that is wholly legitimate, that is not some trapping I wear until it falls off. It is as though the thing has roots, and seeks the sun with its face turned toward it. And I know I never would have found it without leaving." I think that people can do little things for themselves daily so they do not take such a drastic measure as to go on a road trip by themselves for almost a month like Nan in the novel did. Sometimes we have to leave ourselves to find our own true authentic self. When I'm in nature, write, paint, read, teach, help others, I come out of myself and leave "me" behind, and in that I find myself.

Days 13, 14, 15 of the 37 Day Challenge:
On Monday and Tuesday it snowed, so Wednesday through today, we have had typical early spring weather. I have been out and about enjoying these gorgeous days, whether it was sitting in the window seat on windy chilly Wednesday at Borders, drinking a hot chai tea, writing, driving to the lake to look at spring flourishing all around me, sitting in the gazebo in my backyard in the evening, or antique shopping yesterday, and afterward eating at the Varsity. Being in nature is a balm for my soul. I have been graciously waking with a smile on my face each and every morning as the sun wakes me. Also I have been writing a poem a day. This is the poem from yesterday:

I hunger for the
Sunlight of Spring
To spread itself
Endlessly
From sunrise -
To twilight
With the glorious
Sounds of birdsong,
Wind whispering
It's rustle through
New greenery, hearing
The pop as flowers
Bloom into raucous
Vibrant colors
A beauty only
God could create

Day 12 of the 37 Day Challenge:
Today on April 7th it is snowing in Georgia. It is gorgeous here. The wind is blowing too hard for the snow to accumulate, but it is beautiful flying around. So I am in a happy, peaceful place right now, drinking mocha, listening to WAH!, watching the snow fall, reading, writing.

Day 11 of 37 Day Challenge:
I went with my family to the mountains for the day. This is a place that my parents took me as a child; the first time we went on a family vacation was when I was three years old. I traveled with them the same roads we had taken many times before to this place that holds so many memories for me. At one point yesterday we walked beside the river with snowflakes sticking lightly in our hair and misting our face. It was a beautiful day which I am thankful for.

Day 10 Sunday:

I could wake
Everyday to
Sunlight
Flooding through
My bedroom
Windows
Caressing me
With warmth

Day 9 Saturday:
My writing is changing. I've had this feeling for about six or seven months now. I don't see myself as rigid as I used to be in my writing. There is a revolution in writing, a new freedom, but it is elusive and I can't quiet define what has changed in it, other than it is different, and I feel great about this. So this is a poem where I am trying to figure out what is going on with it.

I started wandering
With words,
Not a metaphor,
Or similie,
Something in between
Without definition
Uniting of truth
Creating simplicity
A wonderful way
To write and live
A life comfortably.

Day 8 Friday:

Spring makes
Me hungry
For the youth
Of my early twenties
Nostalgia
Sweet and bitter
Like the pungent
Scent of flowers
In bloom
Not able to hide
Their vibrant
Brilliant colors,
Splashes of hues that
Delight the senses,
Obscures inner beauty
That slowly grows into
It's own and emerges.

Day 7:
It was a sleepy rainy night and this morning I pressed my snooze button on the alarm clock three times. I did this because I want to wake up with a smile on my face before I get out of bed. By the third time I was ready to stretch my arms above my head and smile as I hopped out of bed to start my day. This is the poem I worked on:

I invited the night
Full of stars
To dance through
My bedroom window,
Serenading me
With the first
Song of a new season
A buzz of
Insects;
All senses accosted
As I smelled
The burst
Of flower's
Bloom
Tasting it's
Sweet nectar
On my lips.

Yesterday, for day 5 of the 37 day challenge, I did write in my journal, but did not make it to post. I also woke up with a smile on my face, thankful for the new day that God had blessed me.
This is the poem that I wrote yesterday; it is short, sweet, to the point:

Dying embers of the
Setting sun reflect
A change in season.


Today, on day 6, I woke up to the sound of rain drizzling on my roof and windows and honestly snuggled back down into the blankets to get warm to sleep an extra few minutes. Five minutes later when the clock went off, I smiled turning it off, thankful for the five extra minutes of being in my cocoon warmth of bed sleeping, then I smiled again as my feet hit the floor. I was eagerly ready to start my day with a smile.

I am thinking today of one thought that kept surfacing throughout the day. The thought needled me, calling for my attention. The thought is this: People create life stories for themselves and about themselves, and this becomes their prison. Free yourself. I don't know if this thought was meant specifically for myself or in general for others. It has captured my attention and I will give it more thought. I am in the process of shedding some old thought patterns, beliefs and expanding myself. Life is a learning process, to continually learn and expand. This is one of life's greatest gifts - limitless potential.

Today is day four of the 37 day "challenge." This morning, the clock sounded like a screeching siren as it woke me up from peaceful sleep, but before my feet hit the floor I had a huge smile on my face. The poem I wrote today:

Over six billion
Voices speak
The same language
Which is love
We are not
Misunderstood

This morning I woke up, then smiled as I heard the birds chirping, and felt the cool breeze with the scent of rain coming in through the window. I felt grateful, vibrant, happy, and fully alive first thing in the morning, no grumpiness at all. I walked with my eyes wide open into the kitchen to get mocha, then settled in to write in my journal. This is the third morning I have woke up immediately smiling as my eyes were brightened by the light of day. Thank You God for the day I have been given.

I feel the tide of my emotions
Roll in and out
Like waves moving through me
Sometimes fierce, sometimes a gentle lull
Continuous, fluid, always in motion;
But, I always find calm and peace
Within my soul

Yesterday I began the 37 day challenge which is inspired by Patti Digh. Beginning day two, I realize I am going to add to this list and continue to see what works for me, what makes my heart and soul sing and soar, and other things that I should slough away and get rid of so I can feel light, free, peaceful, and in love with the world. I think with such positive feelings there are more positive changes that can happen in the world making it filled with peace, love, compassion, and happiness.

I plan on writing daily. I love to write but it is not something that I practice every day. When I write there is nothing else but the feel of the paper, pen, the thoughts, but yet my environment and surroundings are enhanced: the sun shines more brightly, reflecting off the newly light green leaves on trees, the breeze blows gently caressing my skin, the smell of freshly bloomed flowers smell more sweetly.

I am not a morning person. When I first wake up I am a grump. I will wake up daily with a smile on my face greeting the gift of a new day and reverence of this moment. This will set the tone of the day and open my heart to living in gratitude, being thankful.

These are the two main areas of focus right now. Thank you Patti for your inspiration.

This is a wonderful quote by Su Tung-Po' I had on my calendar this morning when I turned the page to a new day. It sent a calm, focused feeling straight through me that carried me through the day.

"Strike your own evening drum, morning bell,
then shut the door.
Lamp burning low by a solitary pillow;
gray ashes where just now you stirred
the stove to red.
Lie and listen to raindrops splattering the
window."
Su Tung-Po'

We are memory gatherers
Collecting experiences
To help define our
Future selves
When all we
Truly need is
This moment
Then, let it go
Nothing defines
Us but
True Spirit
Of God in our
Soul
Unguarded

Creativity is fickle. I am finally used to inspiration flowing to me easily at times while other times are very stagnant and non productive. There are the ups and downs, ebbs and flows to every aspect of life. I am grateful, feel happier, and better, when creativity flows through my veins red, hot, and fiery. It is a cycle and I truly believe that I need the coolness of creativity's hibernation to set in before I can fully take on inspiration's power again, thus creating.
With the sudden burst of spring like weather this week I have felt a rekindling of my creative spirit emerging with the first green sprouts of spring. Then today is rainy and cold again, but I keep in mind there must be rain in order to nourish the vibrant colors of flowers, trees, and life. These are three separate poems.

When in a loud crowd
I often wish for a solitary
Moment of quiet time with
My books, journal, canvas,
And paints.
In the stillness
That is when
I can hear creativity's
Urgent whisper inspiring me.
______________________________________
Shards of light
Shine through
Spaces between
Black limbs,
Reflecting golden
Off waxy green
Magnolia leaves
______________________________________
Complexity of
Nature's beauty
Takes my breath
Away
Filling me with
A yearning for
Spring in full bloom
______________________________________
A silver moon
Casts it's changing
Light on a blue, black
River, illuminating
Life underneath
Darting, playful life