Welcome to our fourth week on the January art/life trail ride.

January keyword: ‘Clearing’ relates this week to clearing the mind. A clear mind creates an open path into The Mystery.  Going forward we’re making way for renewed creative focus.

‘Esperance’, Drozda, mixed media/canvas, 72 x 54”

The Mystery opens into a clearing of synchronicity.

We have 7 weeks to explore the energy giving us ample time to consider the way that we think about clearing/making room/opening up.

We clear  

We open

We renew

This week deliberately seek out a Creative individual and be inspired. Here’s my pick:

I smile whenever I read the writing of Rob Bresny. He represents, for me, a balance of active masculine/receptive feminine energies. He’s outrageous and audacious in his willingness to help wake us up. Here are a few of his recent prompts that can be stowed in your saddle bags. Bring them out as you’re resting in your womb cave or standing in your clearing:

I invite you to say any or all of the following lines out loud:

I love everything about me 

I love my uncanny beauty and my bewildering pain

I love my hungry soul and my wounded longing

I love my flaws, my fears, and my scary frontiers

I will never forsake, betray, or deceive myself 

I will always adore, forgive, and believe in myself

I will never refuse, abandon, or scorn myself

I will always amuse, delight, and redeem myself

 

                                                                                Rob Bresny Pronoia

CELEBRATION!! This week I publish The Lifecycle Forecast: 20^th anniversary edition. Each year since 1996 I have written this creative climate report. I invite you, as part of your trail ride this week, to settle in with a cuppa tea and enjoy…

 

The 2016 Lifecycle Forecast

Read the report this week and make a note in your calendar to read again at each quarter point of the natural wheel. This is your year for Compassion in Action.

Hats off to another inspired Creative’s voice.

The Guest House This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes. because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. — Jelaluddin Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks Copyright 1997 by Coleman Barks. All rights reserved. From The Illuminated Rumi. © design by gratefulness team

In January’s clearing we also feel the inspiration of this week’s Wise Woman. Meet our companion on the art/life trail ride:

Valerie Claff at Ravenwood Forest 

‘Mists’, Valerie Claff, 2013, watercolor on paper 11 x 30″  price on request 

The wild is tangible here in the deeply forested foothills of the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. Human made sounds are few. Wandering the land, the old stories and myths of my Celtic and Northern European ancestors seem to come alive in the misty glades and through my frequent encounters with the woodland creatures. Though inspired by the woodlands around me, my painted woodlands are imagined, archetypal places – journeys into the primeval forest where the numinous spirit of place is encountered. My work is an attempt to capture the mysterious spirit of the forest and to shape a terrain where the mythic imagination comes alive.

‘Forest’, Valerie Claff, 2014, watercolor on paper 15 x 22″ price on request

In my newest work, I am interested in the contrast between the sharply defined lines of trees and branches and the blurred, mysterious spaces behind. The work is an exploration of atmosphere, space, light, color and the woodlands of the Berkshire foothills where I live. 

Light in the Forest, Valerie Claff 2015, watercolor on paper, 15 X 22″, price on request

~Thank you Valerie for the mystical beauty that you bring to us through your artist eyes~

May we each find our clearing in the woods where The Mystery dwells.

As a working Heartist with more than four decades of practice I keep my focus on encouraging our creative best on the art/life trail ride.

I invite you to connect with the uplift of ‘Luna See’ newsletter and to explore Lifecycle; these are natural time management tools … see if they feel like a fit for you.

Discover and uncover the ecstatic thrill of ‘making life the master peace’ as we travel the art/life trail into realms of calm and continuous renewal.

 Donna Iona Drozda, All rights reserved. © 2016