When I take a walk, I take photos of the things that capture my attention. I’m amazed at all of the new things I see on the very same walk I take several times a week.

These photos are clues to what’s going on inside of me, just below the surface of my consciousness awareness.

This week, as I slogged through my days, I asked myself what I wanted to do — not what I had to do, but what I wanted to do.

It’s a true luxury to be able to ask these things.

While it’s not a luxury to be without the income I had when visitors were here buying my art, time is a true luxury.

As a result, I’ve been painting, writing, and reading more. The paintings have a new and different quality to them.

Thoughts of old creative ideas have bubbled up to the surface again, bringing joy with them.

I’ve begun to work on a Coloring Story Book that’s been languishing in the clouds for six years!

I’m glad I had as much of it done before I stopped. Now, with fresh eyes and renewed enthusiasm, I’m ready to play with it again.

Two other coloring or storybook ideas have jumped back into my life with an eagerness I wasn’t expecting.

The weird thing is that these ideas jump in whenever there’s a lull in my attention. Heck, they jump in whenever they want to. It’s up to me to take note before they jump back out of my awareness!

These are difficult times for all of us to varying degrees and for a variety of reasons.

The lean years, the tough times can either wear us down or build our resilience.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. You can begin with simply noticing what’s around you, what’s capturing your attention, and where your curiosity takes you.

This is the time to “Hitch Up to Your Own Special Star”.

We might have, in the past, tried to “Hitch Up” to someone else’s star, and while that might have been the right thing to do then (emphasis on the word might), it’s clear now that listening to our own inner wisdom is a much better idea.

We each have a guiding star within. Follow that star, Your Star.

I took a yoga class on January 2nd with a new teacher. Soraya teaches Kundalini yoga, using a gong and card decks to add dimension to the class. She mentioned that 2018, in numerology, is a year of Mastery.

Mastery sounds extremely important on the surface.

Mastery is fluid. It’s not easily pinned down, nor is it an endpoint.

Still, a year of mastery sounds exciting and I quickly thought, "This could be MY Year”! Whatever that means.

As Soraya guided us in a meditation, I felt blue butterflies encircling my head. Could this be a sign of Mastery? After all, butterflies have transformed from caterpillars into an entirely new state of being.

Did you know that while in the cocoon, caterpillars turn into a messy goo that resembles neither a caterpillar nor a butterfly? If the process is interrupted, the butterfly never forms.

Similarly, if the cocoon or chrysalis is tampered with while the butterfly is emerging, the wings are deprived of nutrients and never fully form. The struggle to emerge is essential to the proper growth of strong wings.

All this is a preamble to my latest Tree Diva: Mastery and Mystery. She was first imagined in that January yoga class.

I began painting her January 10th, a day that was filled with frustration. I knew I wanted to begin this painting and I was afraid to start — how could I possibly live up to her potential?

I felt frustrated and frenzied. My time was tugged in different directions by tasks that “had to be done” that day.

I finally shoved paperwork out of my way and just began to draw her — with my eyes closed (that’s a first). I started with her left arm; I wanted her energy to enliven the painting right from the start.

Of course, I erased and redrew parts of her before I was ready to paint, but for the most part, she came together smoothly.

I was excited to see her healthy root structure! This is the first time a tree diva’s roots are showing.

Having a strong foundation is essential for life.

I recently started to work with a personal trainer at the gym. I’ve been experiencing some problems with my right hip and decided this is the next step in my healing process.

My first goal at the gym is to strengthen my legs (my roots). I’ll continue to take yoga classes as well to maintain and enhance my flexibility. Both are necessary for continued vitality.

Reaching a goal once is not Mastery!

Replicating our achievements more than once, and then moving our target out just a little further, keeps us moving toward mastery.

I’m not ready to claim mastery, and will continue to work with the mysteries of life.

I love the magic!

A friend recently gifted me with eight or nine ceramic bowls that her husband had made. She has too many and he keeps making them.

I hesitated. They were all SO beautiful!

“No!” my friend exclaimed, “These are his “seconds”. If you look closely, each one is flawed.”

Slowly I put one aside, and then another, and another, being careful to not take too many.

Truth be told I would have taken them all — although I certainly don’t need them all, they were just So Beautiful!

As I was walking out the door, she said, “Don’t you want this one? I just love the colors on the inside.”

Of course I wanted that one! I just didn’t want to be greedy. I took that one too — it’s Stunning!

Heck, I even had the nerve to ask if it would be okay for me to share one or two with a friend (assuming I could bring myself to part with one or two).

“How rude”, I thought to myself, “but we’re friends”, I reasoned.

Except we’re sort of “new friends” if you know what I mean, so I really hope I wasn’t too rude!

As I left, I said, “I feel like a thief!”

My friend assured me, “no, these are all seconds — they’re flawed.”

I placed the bowls on the studio counter so Rebecca and I could “Ooh and aah” over them before I took some back to the house.

The bowls make us to want to have a party. We want to clean the studio and use all of the bowls for finger food.

That’s how festive they feel.

These beautiful bowls are one person’s idea of “seconds”, of flawed pieces of pottery, of an art form that didn’t quite meet the standards that they’d set out to achieve.

So what? They are still beautiful!

Most of us fall short of the standards we want to achieve.

We “fall short” because we’re moving forward, we are growing and expanding our universe. And we keep moving the standards further and further from where we began!

Creation and expansion are imperfect processes.

I appreciate the generosity of my new friend and I love the way I feel when I see and use my beautiful new bowls (“flaws” and all).

There is joy in feeling the heart-or-head-to-hand-to-creation connection coming through the bowls. These bowls are perfect to me, although they might be imperfect to the creator.

Handmade art has loads of qualities and character, and is always made by “imperfect humans”.

The more we’re able to put ourselves into our art, the better and better our art becomes, even when it’s “flawed”!

We love the perfect imperfections seen and felt in art that speaks to us.