Join me as I experiment and iterate my way to a lovely watercolor scene of a heron standing watch on a sailboat. Being open to the leading of your soul is to dance with mystery.

Let me (re-)introduce you to a special powerful cluster of neurons in your brain stem that take the shape of a short magic wand, called your Reticular Activating System or RAS. It filters your sensory inputs and decides what information is allowed to enter your conscious awareness.

The good news is that the RAS prevents the brain from becoming overwhelmed. The bad news is that for many of us, the RAS is working on autopilot.

Give yourself permission to create art even if it is messy, or ugly, or inconvenient, or takes up too much space. If anyone objects, that says more about them than you. You don’t have to pick up that energy. You don’t have to apologize. You don’t even have to defend yourself or prove you’re right. Just keep doing your creative thing. Create art anyway.

What do you want permission to do? Now is the perfect time to give yourself that permission, without apology!!

Some things I learned on my recent visit to Iona, Scotland: Rocks teach about silence and steadfastness. Waves crashing against those silent rocks teach about the ebb and flow of life. Solitude teaches the value of stepping away from the crazy and the busy so you can hear your soul speak.

The ‘pathless path’ is the way of every seeker.

There will be obstacles: thorny vines that snag you; footing that is rocky and steep, boggy ground that grabs hold of your boot and won’t let go. Your feet will get muddy. The wind will whip and slap. The way forward will be veiled from your eyes. There will be dead-ends and not-what-you-thoughts and you will have to retrace your steps.

But every now and then, you will catch a glimpse of where you want to go, though you can not see the way clearly. Though the road is rough and uncertain, trust that you are never unaccompanied on your path.

You do not walk alone.

Does this belong to who you are now? Is it time to own what is no longer working for you? Boldly asserting what no longer fits or does not work risks disapproval or disappointment or outright rejection. It requires you to find out whether you’ll survive not being liked, or being thought of as needy, or rocking the boat and upsetting the status quo. Sitting with that discomfort, and surviving it, has emboldened me to carry on, and continue to create a life that facilitates my full flourishing.

Stay when the art is weird. Stay when the external voices say run away. Stay even when you don’t know what to start. Stay when you don’t know what to do next. Stay when you don’t know how to finish.

Stay present and listen to the voice of your Artist Soul - she speaks so softly, waiting for you to pay attention to her voice, instead of the noise all around you.

You do have the power to choose who you listen to. You get to decide what to let in.

I’m learning to pay more attention to my artist soul, and less attention to outer noise. I’ve been pausing and listening, noticing and releasing. And learning to trust my deeper truth.

Curiosity is the opposite of certainty on the risk tolerance spectrum. Where is the fun in knowing exactly how a creative adventure will turn out?

Do you struggle to get to your creative practice? Maybe there’s not enough time in the day. Maybe your plate is already overflowing. Maybe you’re not sure where to begin.

You’re in good company because every great artist has a powerful antagonist.

Are you good at listening for your inner guidance? Or are you listening to the old programming and loud noise coming from outside. Learning to trust your artist soul, the one directing the brush, is essential because she is a skilled guide through the unknown. That she knows intuitively, unconsciously what my conscious self can’t see yet, what it hasn’t woken up to yet.

Practicing being Open to the unfolding of the mystery of this new year; being Present to the moment right here and less distracted by the noise out there; and living in alignment with my true self noticing what feeds my soul and what makes me come alive.

The truth is that we are part of nature and we were not made for a frantic level of activity during this Solstice season. You may be feeling a disconnect between our innate need to rest and restore at this time, and the siren call to do all the things. It’s only natural!

Creativity is a puzzle. How will you combine all your pieces? Will you do the same ole, same ole? Or will you be curious about how to make your next step in your creative process sizzle with excitement and novelty? Exploring curiosity, risking taking, and play in creativity and in life.

You are not behind.
There is only the sacred now.

Holy Wisdom delights in you right now, just as you are, and has since the beginning of time. That’s worth something!

If you’re feeling behind, maybe you are measuring the wrong things.

It is true that there are terrifying things happening in our country and in the world. But that is not the only thing that is true. Become a devotee of awe and wonder. You get to choose where you place your attention and what you will focus on. You get to rewrite the narrative of your life.

In this season of Samhain, the myth of Inanna’s descent can help us to see what we need to relinquish, release, and let go of, to be more fully and truly who we are created to be.

Have you ever felt the presence of an otherworldly being? The Celtic Otherworld recognizes the supportive presence of our enlightened ancestors, called the Sionn, and the Sidhe, messengers of the Divine who are always nearby.