Sometimes I get lost — not physically lost, I live on an island for goodness sake! I get emotionally lost.

Does that sound weird? It feels weird. How old do I have to be before I always remember “who I am” — on the inside?

I know I’m lost when I forget how to have fun, or what makes me feel good about myself and about life in general.

I get lost when I over-think or over-work or over-worry about anything.

Worry is a product of trying to control life. Control is tricky. It can be a verb or a noun, sometimes it’s “good” and sometimes “not so good”.

Self-control might be the only kind of control we actually have, and that’s not even always true.

We might like to think we can control outcomes. We can’t, not really.

Hopefully, we know we can’t control others! Although that doesn’t stop people from trying!

All we can hope to control is our response or reaction to the world around us.

My antidote to getting lost is to look for the ever-present magic and mystery in life and to share it with others. These are some of the talismans I keep to remind me that all of life is magical.

Forgetting that magic and mystery ARE ever-present is fatal to my well-being, and, I suspect, to that of others.

I find the magic and mystery in life when I remember to look!

Last week, when I felt lost, I asked IWS what to paint. She suggested I paint the energy of “Beauty, Magic, Mystery, and Joy”.

I gathered all the magical objects I’ve been saving — the kinds of things that evoke questions or are beautiful in and of themselves (at least to me).

Then I closed my eyes and waited to see what my mind’s eye suggested.

This involves getting out of the way and trusting that whatever comes to mind is the “right” thing to paint.

My “Hide-N-Seek” painting process is perfect for this magical task and the painting was begun.

“Beauty, Magic, Mystery, and Joy” has been evolving for the past two weeks.

I remind myself often to “only paint what I know to paint”. This means I take my time to “Stop, Look, and Listen” to my painting between brushstrokes.

Part of painting magic and mystery is to not “over explain.”

That way the viewer can find their own levels of mystery and magic within the painting.

Once you find your magic and mystery in my paintings, please email me to tell me what you’ve found: patrice@artofaloha.com

My last blog post spoke of Angels and a virgin space for wingspread. It seems "wings" are a current theme for me.

My friend Kim, in Saskatchewan, recently rescued a crow she found in the road. It had been shot and the rehab center shared the X-ray with her. She shared it with me and I’m sharing it with you.

As soon as I saw it I was struck by how much it resembled a woman’s body. I saw it as my next painting.

This might sound like a detour, but please read on. My astrological chart is primarily air and water, with just a little bit of fire and earth.

Big deal, so what? I didn’t know the specifics of my chart until I was in my 40s and my life up to then was working just fine.

It still is, except now I wonder if I “need” some earth and fire in my life for balance.

Since finding out my natal chart, I’ve thought of myself as a bit lop-sided or broken, unbalanced. Like I need to be grounded in reality or just plain more grounded.

What if it’s possible that my birth chart is perfect just as it is and all that air and water give me a different perspective on life — at least in my life?

What if it’s possible that I’m fine just the way I am?

What if the work I’m “meant to do” calls for someone with my characteristics?

This painting celebrates wings. Wings of imagination, of creativity, of flights of fancy, and free association. Wings of Freedom itself. 

How about you? Do you feel your wings sprouting?

"Growing Wings" will make her way to my Figurative Portfolio soon.

When I was fresh out of college, a man I worked with scrawled a poem on a cocktail napkin and left it for me to find. It read:

Angels are looking
For new skies to fly in
A virgin space for wingspread
It is your head.
God waits to be born.

I imagined myself in love with this man whose name I can’t quite recall. Fortunately, it was unrequited; he had issues I didn’t know how to handle.

Every once in a while the poem pops into my head and I smile. I still love it and all of the possibilities it represents.

Each day dawns ripe with possibility, which ones will we grasp? Which call will we answer? What new way of living, of seeing the world will we embrace?

Or will we continue down the same habitual path we're currently walking?

It may not always seem as though we have options. We have tried and true ways of doing things — and these ways work.

We can find new ways of looking at the world, new eyes through which to see it — if we try.

Habits streamline life and help us take care of business in a timely manner. Yet taken to the extreme, they can become ruts, making escape difficult.

When redundancy becomes a way of life, we’re in the “dead zone”.

Our souls crave the mystery of the unknown. That’s where our creative spirit thrives.

Challenges and obstacles are opportunities for growth. The balance beam of a life worth living spans the gap between routine and adventure.

Let's take an inventory of our habits. Which habits serve us and which ones are keeping us a bit too safe?

Are your habits moving you closer to the life you want to live or not? You get to decide!

“Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.” ~ Dr. Maxwell Maltz

In the last 18 years, I’ve learned a lot about these wonderful islands and all that grows here. My painting style continues to evolve along with my vision of what I want to paint.

Along the way, I’ve developed a passion for writing and have begun to nurture this skill.

My creative writing began with an idea for a children’s story that popped into my head a few years ago.

I’ve never had kids, so where did this come from? I’m not sure and who cares!

Whenever we start something new, we face a new learning curve. It starts out pretty steep. It takes perseverance and trust to keep us facing that uphill slope.

It doesn’t matter how often we’ve faced a similar slope, each new incline brings a fresh set of inner and outer challenges and opportunities to be met.

Have you heard of Inner Critics? I learned about them from SARK last year.

Inner Critics are the voices in our head trying to keep us safe.

Unfortunately, they do so by telling us that we don’t know what the heck we’re doing, or that we don’t have time to learn what we want to do or myriad other problems that are sure to get in our way.

Inner Critics flourish in times of growth. Fortunately, I learned methods to handle them.

In addition to a diverse band of inner critics, I've got an insatiable drive to learn, to grow, and to expand out of my creative comfort zone.

I bore easily.

My race to mastery of anything is futile. Once within touching distance of reaching a goal, I start to look for a new creative mountain to climb, or a new way to paint something or a new subject matter to tackle.

I’m currently facing challenges on several fronts: subject matter, creative skill sets, and internal “upper limit issues”.

AND my desire to have FUN is more important than being consumed with my ingrained Midwestern work ethic.

How can I have fun doing all that I want to do?

Be on the lookout for something “new-ish” in the months to come.

Telling you something new is "afoot" is my way of ensuring that I stick to my new adventures and continue this current uphill climb on my life-long rollercoaster ride of living life creatively, from the inside out.