Julie Unplugged

The Artistic Mother - I made it to painting paper! Woot Woot!

I keep thinking, “was it only two nights ago I was whining and complaining that I would never get done with the gesso part of this process?”

Good news! I am on to the PRETTY part!

 

AND even better is – I am happy, over-the-top-happy, with the pretty part. I was sure my pages wouldn’t be up to par with everyone elses. They are great, they are perfect.

I even went out of my way to buy some new stamps and I am not wild about the outcome on those pages, so I simply did those pages and the rest, I didn’t stamp. I chose to outline some of the pages in pastels, but not all of them.

 

I am working on being true to what feels right to me and following the instructions in the best way I can.

I am excited because when I get back from my trip to Massachusetts, I can jump right back in. I am so grateful I went ahead and started. Phew. That feels good!

Julie publishes her ezine, the Daily Passion Activator, which includes an Essay and a Poem every week day - inspiration delivered directly into your email box. Why not Subscribe today? It's free.

Subscribe to DailyPassionActivator

Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com

Presence: Loving Poetry, Photography and Chasing the Sunset #CED2010

I have spent several evenings doing one singular activity that has fired my creativity in such a way that is unmatched compared to any other activity as of late.

 

It doesn’t involve theater, it doesn’t involve painting, it doesn’t involve poetry. It doesn’t involve meeting any particular goal or being a part of a specific group or challenge and it doesn’t include prompts of any sort.

 

What is the activity?

 

I have actively chased the sunset, regularly, ever since I came home from Tucson two weeks ago.

 

I have chased sunsets East of Bakersfield in the Lamont area, seeking orchards bathed in sunset and pink.  I have chased sunset while hiking around Song Dog Ranch near New Cuyama. I have chased sunsets along Granite Road on the drive from Bakersfield to Woody and Glennville.

 

Tonight I was at it again, compelled by pump jacks rather than wildlife.

 

Pump jacks are quintessential Bakersfield and Kern County. We are an oil producing county. Many of the people I know work for oil companies or oil related industries. The pump jack fuels our local economy. I photographed one back in December, one of the “smack dab in the middle of town” pump jacks but I didn’t realize then that I would eventually succumb to the wooing of pump jacks on the rolling hillsides of Granite Road.

Tonight I drove into the hills and found pump jacks and more. I found poetry, I found images, I found myself fascinated by mailboxes and cattle grates and sheds and things I didn’t recognize, some agricultural or oil clutter from ages past and left behind to blend in with its surroundings.

 

I heard and saw birds at play I didn’t recognize and saw wildflowers I had befriended on my last trip.

 

This love of chasing the sunset – and taking photos with that glorious transitional life – is fueling the rest of my art and the bonus prize is the waves of contentment which wash over me while I am out there, being present 1000%.

= = =

Julie publishes her ezine, the Daily Passion Activator, which includes an Essay and a Poem every week day - inspiration delivered directly into your email box. Why not Subscribe today? It's free.

Subscribe to DailyPassionActivator

Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com

Presence: Loving Poetry, Photography and Chasing the Sunset #CED2010

I have spent several evenings doing one singular activity that has fired my creativity in such a way that is unmatched compared to any other activity as of late.

 

It doesn’t involve theater, it doesn’t involve painting, it doesn’t involve poetry. It doesn’t involve meeting any particular goal or being a part of a specific group or challenge and it doesn’t include prompts of any sort.

 

What is the activity?

 

I have actively chased the sunset, regularly, ever since I came home from Tucson two weeks ago.

 

I have chased sunsets East of Bakersfield in the Lamont area, seeking orchards bathed in sunset and pink.  I have chased sunset while hiking around Song Dog Ranch near New Cuyama. I have chased sunsets along Granite Road on the drive from Bakersfield to Woody and Glennville.

 

Tonight I was at it again, compelled by pump jacks rather than wildlife.

 

Pump jacks are quintessential Bakersfield and Kern County. We are an oil producing county. Many of the people I know work for oil companies or oil related industries. The pump jack fuels our local economy. I photographed one back in December, one of the “smack dab in the middle of town” pump jacks but I didn’t realize then that I would eventually succumb to the wooing of pump jacks on the rolling hillsides of Granite Road.

Tonight I drove into the hills and found pump jacks and more. I found poetry, I found images, I found myself fascinated by mailboxes and cattle grates and sheds and things I didn’t recognize, some agricultural or oil clutter from ages past and left behind to blend in with its surroundings.

 

I heard and saw birds at play I didn’t recognize and saw wildflowers I had befriended on my last trip.

 

This love of chasing the sunset – and taking photos with that glorious transitional life – is fueling the rest of my art and the bonus prize is the waves of contentment which wash over me while I am out there, being present 1000%.

= = =

Julie publishes her ezine, the Daily Passion Activator, which includes an Essay and a Poem every week day - inspiration delivered directly into your email box. Why not Subscribe today? It's free.

Subscribe to DailyPassionActivator

Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com

Grey Orchard turned Studio - What aspect of your life do you see?

“A studio, like a poem, is an intimacy and a freedom you can look out from, into each part of your life and a little beyond.”
 
– Jane Hirshfield

I had an odd experience the other day. I had to go to the DMV on Friday (and it had to be Friday) because I needed to update my ID to fly. I had procrastinated long enough. To make matters worse, the computers were down in Bakersfield so I had to schlep out to Shafter to get the job done. I didn't mind entirely because I knew then I could get some photos of the agriculture land out there, north of Bakersfield.

Lately, agriculture land has been calling me toward it. Strange, since I have lived here, an urban hearted girl in an agricultural paradise, for nearly twenty years.

If I were to synopsize this story completely, I would simply say, “On Friday I was driving down a random road between Bakersfield and Shafter and I saw a barren-looking orchard and knew I had to shoot it.”

 

That sounds so, barren, itself, I guess you might say. I will try again.

 

I look at this photo and I feel the orchard take root in my chest, even more than when I sat beside it Friday afternoon and memorialized it. I don’t know what kind of trees they are, I just know they are surprisingly leafless. The other trees in the surrounding orchards have exploded in fresh, Spring, green – not unlike the sparse patches of grass that seem to implore the trees to bloom, to look more like the grass, more like the rest of the trees in the orchard neighborhood.

 

I can feel the trees staunchly standing there – leafless, resisting any fresh Spring burst of color. It is as if they are standing in solidarity, arms stretched out to the clouds in defiance, standing in principle, not worrying what the other trees or grass or roaming insects or photographers might have to say about their grey, craggy state-of-being.

 

The trees remind me of my resistance, my pain, my pain-due-to-resisting-pain and my continued travels down the “will I resist or won’t I resist” road.

 

I am grateful I can sit and look at the trees and love them exactly as they are. I am grateful for their messages to me just by standing in their proud yet humble way. I am grateful. The Jane Hirshfield quote at the beginning of this essay fit this photo to me, too, though this orchard isn't a studio - or is it? From it, art was created. From it, pondering and reflection has happened - even, I am thinking, the reflected has been passed from me, to you.

What aspect of your life do you see in this orchard?

Take a moment or two to look into the trees, in between them. Feel them. Write them. Let me know what you come up with in response to the question:

What aspect of your life do you see in this orchard?

 

Julie publishes her ezine, the Daily Passion Activator, which includes an Essay and a Poem every week day - inspiration delivered directly into your email box. Why not Subscribe today? It's free.

Subscribe to DailyPassionActivator

Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com

Hope is a thing.... oh, Gesso, Sweet, Sweet Gesso....

I have an affinity for seeing the bright side.

 

Today was a day of less-than bright sides which I did my best to tweak into brightness.

 

I had to visit two DMV’s in order to get done what I needed to get done, today. Bakersfield’s DMV had computer failure. I didn’t have patience failure, I stayed patient and reasonably content. I even managed to squeak out a poem written in bits and pieces during my roughly twohour DMV wait. I also took photos of the adventure but… since my puppy, Rainer, bit through my cord and my computer is not wanting to recognize my card reader – the photo dissertation will have to wait (look for it tomorrow.)

 

I was lamenting my schedule today and mentioned aloud to my wise sage eldest daughter, “Oh, and I did manage to gesso more paper but there are still more pages to gesso waiting for me.”

 

“Why don’t you wait to do it until tomorrow?” she asked.

 

I whined, ridiculously so, “Because I want to start doing the pretty stuff tomorrow. I am getting tired of the blahhhhh stuff.”

 

Katherine countered, “Sometimes the blahhhh stuff has to come before the pretty stuff, Mommy.”

Eighteen-year-old daughter, one point. Whining Mommy, grateful to have her.

 

I have starting the Artistic Mothers Workshop Blog group: talk about putting myself out there in a wild way. These women know how to craft, they have all the equipment, they are enthusiastic and good.

 

I am an amateur.

 

There is a poetry component so I feel like I can at least make contributions with poetry. That’s what I am telling myself.

 

Monday Katherine and I leave for Massachusetts. I will spend April 1 at the homestead of Emily Dickinson in Amherst. I can’t go inside her home due to a ceiling collapse back in October, but I can go to the grounds where she used to walk. I can’t wait. The first day of National Poetry Writing Month and I will be in Amherst, at Emily Dickinson’s home!

 

The thought of that makes me float. Like hope… which, as Emily said….“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.”

 

Julie publishes her ezine, the Daily Passion Activator, which includes an Essay and a Poem every week day - inspiration delivered directly into your email box. Why not Subscribe today? It's free.

Subscribe to DailyPassionActivator

Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com

Stirring and Steeping in My Thought Pot - Grateful for Even "Skimming Relationships" with Life

It has been a while since I explored Nicola Warwick’s “The Whole Self” 21 Day Creative Divine series. I found myself reading her words there, wrapping my heart around Day 11, which covers the topic “Neglect” through doing exactly the opposite and taking the path to extreme self care.

 

I came to Nicola’s words “Cheryl worked with a man called Thomas Leonard” and my heart and breath stopped. Thomas Leonard. I had met him back in February of… I think it was 2000, right after I had quit my job with the County and was building my life coaching practice for the first time. He came to Denver on his Coach Tour and my friend and coaching buddy, Faith, lived in Colorado Springs so I had the idea to combine business with the pleasure of being with my new friend. I remember now Faith and I hadn’t met until then, not in person.

We were taking Coaches Training with the Life on Purpose institute and had spent hours in Teleclass sessions and then online, chatting and via email, discussion relentlessly. We knew we were destined to be friends.

 

Thomas Leonard was such an inspiration and until reading Nicola’s note, I hadn’t given him much thought lately. Eight words into a sentence and I stopped and shifted.

 

“Cheryl worked with a man called Thomas Leonard”

 

I did a quick google search and found a blog called “Best of Thomas” and found one of his many lists of pithy wisdom. This particular thesis within the guise of 21 Tips is titled “21 Personal Evolution Strategies” which I have decided to use as writing prompts for the next 21 days.

 

Three weeks from now I will have explored each one as it applies to my life.

Today I will write in response to “Surround yourself with new ideas instead of recycling your beliefs. Beliefs can limit your ability to experience life as it unfolds.”

I will start making lists from what I notice thoughout the day, a method of pre-writing. I will either do it as a list or as a thought-cloud.

Old beliefs to leave in the recycling bin to make new things for someone else

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

 

New ideas to surround myself with include:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

I will introduce myself to the strategy of the day in the morning and allow it to heat up during the day, sort of a “thought pot” and allow it to slow cook in my mind and heart like a crock pot cooks food, slowly. An aside is my favorite thing about cooking with a crock pot is how it fills the house with such a luscious smell all day.

Doing this, everyday, will fit in just right with Nicola’s suggestion of extreme self care. How marvelous, how filled with syncronicity and yes, how much Thomas would enjoy hearing about it. My life skimmed his for an evening. I was not a friend by any means, but we did exchange words. His life most definitely touched mine.

I realize in my writing I forgot to mention Thomas Leonard died several years ago at age 47. That’s younger than I am now. It doesn’t make me sad, it enlivens my creativity and my productivity in a space of love and gratitude for both who he was and who I am.

 

 

What do you wish to take a break from on #WishcastingWednesday?

Jamie Ridler Studios' Wishcasting Wednesday asks a significant question today. She asks - "What do you wish to take a break from?"

I wish to take a break from worry. (See me hide my face as I make this admission).

 

My eye twitched as I sat here, breathing in – gently – wanting to get clarity on what my wish might be. Clarity. Clarity, I breathed with peace into my belly.

 

And then my eye twitched.

 

It has been about a week and I have only gone one day without a twitch.

 

I almost didn’t want to say it because I was (still am?) convinced people who make wishes will be people who look down there noses, poo pooing especially some one like me who has been all about working with people to create fulfilling and joyful lives yet here I am, stepping up, saying “I wish to take a break from worry!”

 

You know, I am being authentic.

 

And I know I have the power within me to simply choose to stop worrying.

 

Today I went for a walk with Hank and Rainer. It was Rainer’s first trip to the bluffs, which is our lengthier choice when we go for walks. He is getting bigger so I figured he could do it. He did.

 

I needed to clear my head and to hopefully create some momentum with my writing.

 

Great things are happening in my life and in my business, I simply have to take specific, targeted, soulful action – passionate action… which I have done before and I will do again. As in, tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day.

 

In the moments I have been writing this I notice my shoulders fall away from their “tightened up around my ears because of tension” space and relax into where they fit me better.

 

I wish to take a break from worry. I am not hiding my face this time. I am simply being me, and becoming more comfortable just saying what is and knowing this isn’t a forever thing, it is a just in this moment thing. Wishing, with you, is having an impact.

THANK YOU.....

 

 

 

Julie publishes her ezine, the Daily Passion Activator, which includes an Essay and a Poem every week day - inspiration delivered directly into your email box. Why not Subscribe today? It's free.

Subscribe to DailyPassionActivator

Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com

 

 

 

"Uh Oh!" Giggles on this #WordlessWednesday featuring my Samuel....

Check out the other wordless photos at Wordless Wednesday!

===

Julie publishes her ezine, the Daily Passion Activator, which includes an Essay and a Poem every week day - inspiration delivered directly into your email box. Why not Subscribe today? It's free.

Subscribe to DailyPassionActivator

Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com

Happy World Poetry Day! An Audio Gift for You in Celebration #WorldPoetryDay

I recorded two of my favorite poems from thus far in 2010 and offer them here, along with the original posts - in celebration of World Poetry Day, 2010. I usually offer my poetry on my separate poetry blog, which you may find by clicking here.

Both came as a response to prompts from ReadWritePoem.Org, where poets - of all levels of expertise - may participate in April's National Poetry Writing Month. I am writing two of the prompts for that celebration.

Here, my words, for you.

The poetry prompt from ReadWritePoem.Org last week’s “Get Your Poem On” was like going to a poetry writing spa: we cleansed ourselves of our normal, unconscious habits through reviewing our recent work and were compelled to write poetry differently this week.

 

I was busy getting the play First Kisses off the ground. I practically moved into the theater so it has taken me this long to get my spa treatment completed. I hope you enjoy it.

 

The one convention I kept which is fairly usual for me is that each line is a matching syllable count. Counting syllables is a usual thing for both Haiku and Fibonacci, yet I don’t count as much for free verse style poems unless…

 

I also noticed that while I switch up first person voice (this is for romantic poems or visceral, emotional “here is what I am feeling right now” poems) and third person voice, I consistently write as a sentient being. I rarely personify a non sentient object – so this poem, today – is written from that perspective… you will more than likely recognize the object’s voice soon after you begin to read.

 

The most overused words I use include “croon”, specifically, and words that employ the use of onomatopoeia. I must be more auditory in my writing than I thought I was. Several times in my most recent poems I used “rat-a-tat” or “pitter pat” and yes, I apparently am enamored with soles and souls. I tend to admire homonyms, another sound-thing.

 

Finally, most of my poetry tends toward Divinity – meaning there is either a

blatantly Divine thread or a quieter Divine thread within the writing. I finished this one and I am not sure, some of you may see some of that unmistakable something peeking through the last few lines. I like to think of it as more of a “Wake up, fool!” thing that will be seen by those who are ready to see it. Otherwise, it would go unnoticed.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

I Give You

 

You push me

And walk through

You pull me

To Keep Out

Other feet

You barely

Notice my

Peeling paint

Or the note

Jehovah

Witnesses

Left right there

You don’t look

You don’t pause

You don’t thank

Me, ever

For my work

Tireless, here

For you. I

Let you in

Keep them out

Hold wind back

Push rain down

The gutter

And what thanks

Do you give?

Here you come

Again, late

You tug, hard

I let you

Open me

And pass through

“See you soon!”

I whisper

As you shut

Me again

Muttering

At nothing

Your back is

All I see

As you leave

Me again

Without a

Nod, look, wink

I give you

All I am

= = = 

See what fellow poets from ReadWritePoem wrote by clicking here.

This week’s Three Word Wednesday poem was birthed from inspiration from these words:

 

Occur – Ragged – Tidy

 

I am obviously still simmering in my failure to make an object as simple as a door into a poem sans spirituality with the ReadWritePoem prompt from last week. That vibe spilled over and perhaps is pouting in the corner of this poem as well.

 

And by the way, I am very close to the 500 comment mark on this poetry blog. Will your comment be the one which pushes it over the edge? I am trying to think of some fun prize for whomever writes the 500^th comment.

 

How about this – read the poem, make a comment that reflects something valuable to this poet and suggest a reward I may give you in return. If you are the 500^th Comment, you will receive the reward… as best as I can offer it. If you are NOT the 500^th Comment, I may give you the reward, anyway.

 

Surprise me?

Today's poem is....

Underneath

When did the ragged

Wind raked wood

Obscure the tidy,

Manicured, it occurs sans surprise in a

Feng shui’d red front door

Of the Summer-Shed-Nee-Cottage?

 

Perhaps it was when

She divorced herself

From what was proper

What her Sunday School

Teacher expected and instead

Became who she always

Was, underneath -

 

She, with the wind raked

Splintered edge

Ready to be torn

Open at a moments

Notice, inviting pain

Where it was usually

Hidden by carefully

Stitched seams

= = =

If you love poetry, you may also love being a part of the Writing Intensive Camp which starts March 22, 2010 - sign up before 8 AM to be a part of this transformative adventure so you will write and be heard with courage and passion:

Here's the link to find out more....

My Demands Are.... (Sunday Scribblings Entry #207)

Sunday Scriblings mega-prompters asked, “If you were a mega ridiculous superstar on tour - what would your demands be?”

 

I have this belief which I staunchly repeat: “I am soooo not a diva”. Then I take a breath while maintaining eye contact. “But wow, is She is diva and yeah, you know her? She’s a diva…” and on and on and on but… well.. there are moments when I am quite the diva in training.

 

Last weekend during the shoot of HamletMachine we were between take one and take two of the scene I am in with my friend, Matt, who plays Claudius to my Gertrude (or I play Gertrude to his Claudius) and I was getting tired of standing there waiting since it is a very emotional scene. Robert and Eric appeared to be aimlessly shooting the breeze so I said, testily, “hey, you two just keep on doing what you’re doing because I can hold this level of emotion all day long if I have to…”

 

When I say stuff like that, with that level of attitude, I embarrass myself later.

Seriously.

 

But then it helps me for when I have questions like this…. If I was a superstar on tour, what would my demands be?

 

Water. Dark chocolate. Batteries for my camera. A laptop, ready with internet connection, ofcourse, so I could stay in touch. Space: for me and my children and a friend or two. In fact, I would like to have enough space that I could always have a friend or two along while I am touring so if one friend started getting on my nerves, I could be emotionally and energetically compensated by hanging out with a different friend, instead – from time to time.

 

I would want AAA tour guide books for the road. And plenty of stops on the road. Oh, and my crew would have to be comfortable getting their photos taken at random times in random places.

 

I demand spontaneity. I demand we take the tour bus off the interstate and mingle with the “normal” people in the communities we visit. I demand we visit the every day spots not the tourist spots. I demand we give stuff away just for the heck of it. I demand good books on board and notebooks, ever ready.

 

I demand a pencil sharpener.

 

I demand wine, tasty wine. I demand we seek out view places on the highways and we pull off at them, to breathe, to look, to write haiku in the air and giggle at our humor.

 

I demand everyone in the crew enjoy quirkyness in fact, quirkyness is a requirement. I demand it.

 

I demand brownies. And ice cream. Not every day but maybe once a week.

 

I demand salads with ranch dressing.

 

I demand circles, every day, for everyone in the crew and me, too. And I demand other people facilitate them – we need to take turns so we can all learn to be leaders.

 

I demand. Water. Wine. Chocolate. An occasional steak. Pesto sauce. Hugs. Daily.

 

An occasional massage.

 

Time out, lounging on top of the tour bus to watch the stars. (Remember those pull-offs in view spots? Sometimes the view will be above us rather than in front of us.)

 

I demand we love one another – I demand we express gratitude daily – I demand belly laughter.

 

Hey, I am liking these demands….