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recollections of an artist

“The Real Work” by Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey

The mind that is not baffled is not employed

The impeded stream is the one that sings

“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth… Love is as love does.  Love is an act of will – namely, both an intention and an action.  Will also implies choice.  We do not have to love.  We choose to love.”

-M. Scott Peck

A lot of times when we are in the face of something scary, it can be unclear about which way is out, what is safe and what to do.  The other day I gave an analogy about a lion.  We can stay in the cage, safe from the lion on the outside, but then we are in a cage.  But what if the lion isn’t the lion we are familiar with?  Of course, the lion from the Chronicles of Narnia comes to mind; a benevolent, gentle giant that was only a threat to those posing a threat to him or those he loved.  So what if the thing we are afraid of the most isn’t actually happening?

It can be scary to imagine that we are in peril.  But if the stars never fell, what would we wish upon?  This week I am attempting to break out of the cage.  To face what scares me the most- the truth.   Just like the lion, it’s there whether or not I acknowledge it, but maybe I can begin to develop a new relationship to it.  Understanding brings compassion and that is exactly what I am in search of.

“The blade sings to me. Faintly, so soft against my ears, its voice calms my worries and tells me that one touch will take it all away. It tells me that I just need to slide a long horizontal cut, and make a clean slice. It tells me the words that I have been begging to hear: this will make it ok.”

― Amanda Steele, The Cliff

Idle hands do the devil’s work, or so they say.  Lately, I have been struggling with what to do with my anxious hands.  If I’m not in the studio, I find myself getting lost in my head, which is a dangerous place to be wandering around alone.  So I have taken up knitting.  Textiles was the only class I failed in college.  So trying to learn to knit again was daunting, but I thought it would be the perfect solution to fidgety hands.  As I make things, I will post them here.  But until then, I thought this article (courtesy of BuzzFeed) was super inspiring.  Nothing like some good yarn graffiti to get the creative juices flowing.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/knit-your-life#.taaa9vQRj