Foraging My Creative Flowers

On Saturday, I spent a blissful hour capturing close-ups in my garden. Watching the bumblebees go in and out of the flowers foraging for nectar is one of my favorite things to watch. Evidently, bumblebees return day after day — sometimes traveling several miles —  to their favorite flower patches (as long as there is food available). 

I'm like a bumblebee in how I stay creatively inspired. 

I return again and again to the same flowers to fill up: I visit my favorite blogs daily. I keep the books that inspire me most by my bed. I repeatedly grab for the art materials that I love. Of course, I'm always out seeking new flowers, too. (One can never have too many flowers in their gardens, I say.) But these inspirational touchstones are what bring sustenance and color to my days.

Some of my favorite "creative flowers" of late:

Blogs:

Dancing Mermaid:  Beautiful musing and raw and real words of wisdom and encouragement for all of us on a creative journey. Lately, I'm very inspired by her feel-good rocks and her art camps for young girls.

Christine Mason Miller:  A talented mixed media artist with a gift for inspiring and giving permission to our creative dreams. She also publishes another inspiring blog called Sparkletopia. She recently self-published a book — Ordinary Sparkling Moments. I'm eagerly awaiting both the book and a print I ordered from her; it says: 

At any given moment, you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end. — Christine Mason Miller

Books:

The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden by Stanley Kunitz:  Part meditation on gardening, part mediation on the nature of poetry. Insightful and profound throughout. One gem: "In a sense, all creativity is a process of giving measure to what is on a universal scale meaningless. The plant and the poet and the gardener collect these disparate, disorganized raindrops, sun rays, passing birds and make something formal."

Taking Flight: Techniques and Inspiration to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings by Kelly Rae Roberts:  Such a generous book — both in the step-by-step guide to creating wonderful layered works of art, but in looking at the creative process. I especially love the fill-in-the-blank questions peppered throughout and in her honest sharing of her journey. (BTW, her blog is great, too!) 

Supplies:

Niji Waterbrush:  I use these with Peerless Watercolors for highly portable, no-spill, and no-fuss art journaling.

Clairefontaine Writing Notebooks:  Smooth vellum finish has my pen glide with ease. (Paper — and how it feels — matters dearly to me.)

Beeswax Block Crayons:  Luminous colors that smell great and get softer as you use them. (Soon, i hope to upgrade to the 24-color box!)

So, tell me, what are the creative flowers that you are drawn to again and again?

Flowering Fridays: Gerber Daisies

The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don't flower, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness  — from the poem "Saint Francis and the Sow" by Galway Kinnell

To celebrate my recent "births" yesterday, I bought myself some gerber daisies for my office. (And a few magazines to read this weekend. I *heart* magazines.)

I adore flowers — in all their shapes and permutations. It is rare that there aren't fresh flowers — usually three or four vases' full—  scattered around my house.

There is something about flowers that speaks to me of true beauty, the "rightness" of the universe and the magical, wondrous nature of life itself.

Because I'm committed to my own growth and development as much as I am committed to supporting this in others, I am participating in the Future Thinking program from the Center for Authentic Leadership in Atlanta, led by the amazingly gifted coach/teacher Jan Smith. (Working with her is changing my life in so many profound ways.)

The website states that part of the purpose of the program is "creating a life rich in achievement, fulfillment and enduring contribution from one's unique gift, purpose and legacy."

With Jan's coaching, I've come to see that part of my gift is "to appreciatively and sensuously touch into the unique thumbprint" of myself, others and the world around me. As way to "see" this concept more fully, Jan has me working with flowers as a metaphor for appreciating and touching into the beautiful flowers others are — and that I am myself.

I now look at flowers in a whole new way — as offering me not only their inherent beauty, but also as teaching me how I might bloom, grow, and shine in the world more fully.

I seek out books on flowers. Visit botanical gardens and garden centers. I have several wonderful pieces of flower-themed jewelry. I take pictures of flowers. Hang artwork of flowers in my office. I study flowers up close. And, yes, I stop and smell the flowers more often.

This is my (long-winded!) way of introducing a regular feature of this blog …

Flowering Fridays

Each week, I will study a flower and look at the flower in a way that might open up some insight for me into the beauty and nature of life — and into a deeper understanding of myself and what I am blooming into.

I am doing this for myself, but perhaps you will find an insight that opens something up for you, too.

For the inaugural Flowering Friday, let's take a closer look at the gerber daisy…

According Wikipedia's entry on the flower: "Gerbera species bear a large capitulum with striking, two-lipped ray florets in yellow, orange, white, pink or red colors. The capitulum, which has the appearance of a single flower, is actually composed of hundreds of individual flowers."  (And I thought I bought only three flowers yesterday.) From this insight, I wonder…

What depths are there out there that I'm not seeing because my lens is limited? What are all hundreds of flowers within myself that create this beautiful bloom I am?

I love this phrase: "two-lipped ray florets." There is something about gerbers that makes them more, well flowery, in their blanket of petals. And two-lipped sounds to me like a way of speaking. (What is the gerber saying? "Bloom big," I hear. "Color your world brightly. The petals catch your attention, but the center is where the heart is.") And rays — a way of radiating out and connecting.

Part of what attracts me to flowers is the way the petals draw the eye into the center, which for me is the most interesting part of the flower. (I see the center as holding the sacred essence and mystery of the flower.) It's like the sun — we feel the rays reaching out to touch us and connecting us back to the source. 

What rays do I put out to draw people into experiencing my sacred center? How do I reach out in a way that connects and pulls in (rather than push away)?

I notice that I'm more drawn to these kinds of exuberant flowers. (I also love sunflowers, which is in the same family as gerber daisies). And part of what I'm working on in my own development is how to be open and vulnerable with the fullness of myself.

I see the gerber as bold and celebratory (so richly colorful...so many petals...standing so singularly proud on its stalk).

And yet vulnerable, too. Its stalk can sometimes wilt. The flowers I bought yesterday have clear plastic "straws" that the gerbers stand in — a strengthening sheath of support.

How can I share my exuberant beauty and stand tall in that? When I feel vulnerable, what will hold me upright?

I especially love this final picture because of the black center, looking like a peephole into the infinite. Even in real life, there is tremendous depth to the center of this flower — as if I could put my finger into it and never reach a stopping point. For me, I see the smallness of the flower and the vastness of the universe, united.

Where in my center am I connected to the larger forces of the universe? How can go deep inside to find the beautiful truth that is inside me — and everyone?

Good questions for me to ponder as I head into the weekend…

Now, tell me, what do you see in this flower? How would you answer these questions?

You can ponder in your heart, or share a comment below.

celebrating your births

 Michael in his convertible, one of the things that's "better" about this year

My wonderful husband, Michael, turns 40 today.  (Happy Birthday, my love!!) And it has me thinking about my own relationship to births and celebrating new chapters.

I'm inspired by Michael's orientation to this milestone. "I'm not getting older, I'm just getting better," he says of himself. Of his life: "It just keeps getting better and better." I love that  — seeing our age and our lives as expansion, not as decline. Staying focused on the growing, instead of the dying.

My daughter started first grade last week. And while there is the joy and fun of the new beginning, she is also experiencing some sadness over leaving kindergarten behind. One evening we were having our pre-bedtime talk and she shared that she wanted to be a baby again.

"It's okay to want to be a baby —and to be excited about kindergarten," I said. "New things can often mean some sadness about letting go of the old things."

I know that for me to birth something new — like my newly expanding offerings for the Inspired Writer — I often experience both excitement and fear over trying something uncharted. (And sometimes some sadness over the end of one chapter in order to step into new one.)

What helps me to leap forward in faith is that I'm for my expansion and growth. And I'm learning to make friends with the fear that comes up for me — and trust I can walk through it to birth something new.

I see this kind of committed moving forward in others — and in myself — as profoundly brave, and also so worthy of celebrating.

For many years, I celebrated my birthday more privately. But the past two years, I have celebrated with a wider circle of women who inspire me and hold me. Part of it is that I love parties, entertaining and gathering people together. But even more I love to mark the birth-beginning of another year of growing and learning. I gather with these women to witness for me — and for me  to witness for them — how we are growing and getting better (more our true selves, more honoring of our gifts) with each passing year.

For me, I see these markings of rituals and celebrations of our milestones as vitally important, both for seeing how far we've come — and for seeing where we want to go in the future.

In reflecting today, I can see that there's room for me to expand my concept of celebrating beyond my actual birthday or the New Year.

My opportunity is to see all the births that are happening daily, if I can be present to notice them.

So tonight, we will celebrate my husband's birthday — and all that he's birthed this year (new business, new fun car, new salsa dance moves, new ideas about what's possible for him and our family). This weekend, we'll celebrate with family and friends at a barbecue.

And for me today I will take a moment to celebrate what I'm birthing in my life right now. A new focus for my business. A new website. This blog. New muscles around moving past my fear. New ways of standing in the power and uniqueness of my voice.

Here, here, I say. And wishes for many, many more, too.

What births are there for you to celebrate in your life right now? And how will you celebrate them?