They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.
– Tom Bodett
Creativity and wellness message for today: I’m taking this to heart during this season of returning to the light. How about you?
Jubilate @ UVA
The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. So when stories come to you, you must take good care of them, as well. Learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs your story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put our stories in each other’s memories. This is how people care for themselves.
-Barry Lopez
Creativity and wellness message for today: SYS
Falling Leaves Abstract by (c) Adair Wilson Heitmann, clay monoprint
It was George Bernard Shaw who said:
“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.”
Creativity and wellness message for today: Be inspired to make the world bearable.
The Way It Is
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it, you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you can do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
– William Stafford
Creativity and wellness message for today: Let change purify you.
Photograph by Adair Heitmann (c)
Keep close to Nature’s heart . . . and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.
– John Muir
Photograph credit: Laura Musikanski
“Leprechauns, castles, good luck, and laughter. Lullabies, dreams, and love ever after. Poems and songs with pipes and drums. A thousand welcomes when anyone comes . . . That’s the Irish for you!”
-Anonymous
Creativity and wellness message for today: On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone’s Irish, enjoy!
Adair Heitmann 2015
When I was a kid, growing up in the Presbyterian Church, we’d sing Silent Night on Christmas Eve by candlelight. The overhead lights would dim in the huge, fish-shaped sanctuary, with cathedral-height ceilings. The congregation hushed, candles were lit one from another, then the magic began. We sang all three verses of the ancient carol, Silent Night, slowly raising our candles in unison, then reverently lowering them.
As a youngster the feeling of majesty and awe, and even a connection to a deeper and broader, unexplainable mystery filled me year after year. This connection to my own sense of spirituality stayed with me as I grew into an adult. I’ve explored Buddhism, Paganism, Wiccan and other earth-based religions, Shamanism, Native American teachings, and Transcendental Meditation. Now a Unitarian Universalist, I’ve found a home in which I can have all my personal, eclectic beliefs, and still be part of a community.
Christmas time comes and how the heck do I celebrate? I still believe in a presence of Love and Grace that is bigger than I am, because I’ve felt it’s comfort over the years. I still believe in Santa Claus, don’t you? Santa certainly brings joy to the season. I love the pagan-based live fir tree in our living room, adorned with colorful lights, and handmade ornaments, chronicling our interests, friends and blended family traditions.
Every year I wait to be presented with a Silent Night experience. I don’t go looking for it, it always come to me, when I least expect it. Last Saturday night it’s kind elegance entered our family room. Having a teenage son who loves history, he chose the movie, Joyeux Noel, to watch with us while we enjoyed carry-in sushi for dinner. The movie is set in December 1914. Based on true stories, it dramatically portrays an unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front that allowed soldiers from opposing sides of the First World War to gain insight into each other’s way of life.
When our son was young, we read a book together about this amazing historical event. Tears dripped down my face as we read about the soldiers, French, German, and Scottish, all singing Silent Night together. Fast-forward to this past weekend, watching, Joyeux Noel. When the acclaimed tenor turned soldier starts to sing Silent Night, alone, unarmed on high ground between the trenches, the hair on my arms stood up. My heart opened, my soul smiled, and I wept tears of mercy and kindness and hope. Tears of charity and clarity. I was given a blessing in my own home.
This holiday season, no matter what you do or don’t believe in, I wish you moments of peace, decency, and dignity.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Be open to grace surrounding you when you least expect it.
Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.
-Henry David Thoreau
During this season of hustle and bustle, I cherish the times I make myself stop. It takes a conscious effort to slow down, pause, reflect. The media, in words, tempo, and pictures challenges me to hurry up and shop, buy, wrap, bake, blah, blah, blah.
Instead, I rebel. Sometimes I reach for a quote. That proactive process helps my voice lower, my stride lengthen, and my attitude ease. At other times, I compliment myself on the one online gift order I was able to accomplish before heading into work. Yes, it is the small things that can get us through our days.
I’m inspired by these words:
Walk Slowly
It only takes a reminder to breathe,
a moment to be still, and just like that,
something in me settles, softens, makes
space for imperfection. The harsh voice
of judgment drops to a whisper and I
remember again that life isn’t a relay
race; that we will all cross the finish
line: that waking up to life is what we
were born for. As many times as I
forget, catch myself charging forward
without even knowing where I’m going,
that many times I can make the choice
to stop, to breathe, and be, and walk
slowly into the mystery.
– Dana Faulds
Creativity and wellness message for today: Slow down to discover the intangible gifts that are right in front of you.
Enjoying Japanese food and a glass of Chardonnay last night with a friend, I listened as she told me about joining a local artist’s collective. She is renting studio space, outside of her home. My friend was so happy to be back in the nest of like-minded creative souls. I was so lucky to be able to rejoice with her.
She said, “I haven’t painted, I mean really painted in 20 years.” I nodded, “I understand.”
Her longing, that she turned into bliss, reminds me of a quote from Joy Harjo’s book Crazy Brave.
“If you do not answer the noise and urgency of your gifts, they will turn on you, or drag you down with their immense sadness at being abandoned.”
Creativity and wellness message: Start today by listening to your inner drum beat. Respond to the calling of your gifts.
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