July, 2025
Did you know it is actually still possibly to get a magazine without ads? An honest to God, really high quality magazine. This one is the brainchild and love offering of Janine Vangool, a Canadian writer and publisher.
Each themed issue features artists and makers, their work, their processes, their stories. Even if you don’t think you have a creative bone in your body, it’s juicy fun.
She’s also a publisher, with an on going themed series she calls the Encyclopedia of Inspiration, now numbering 12 volumes. Yes, I have them all.
If this sounds great, I’ll warn you a subscription isn’t cheap but it is so well worth it, not just for the content but for the idea that you are supporting an artisan, really, whose art is under great pressure and would be a shame to lose.
Consider a subscription a gift to yourself or someone who loves all things human-made (not an affiliate, just a fan). The image is a link
April, 2025
I’ve always been as drawn to a full moon as the next person, but following the cycles of nature just hasn’t come “naturally” to me.
So this month, the only reason I knew there was a think called the Pink Moon or Strawberry Moon was that a local spa was using it as the theme for a special meditation event. (More on that another time)
Whether you celebrate it at a fancy spa, or at home in your jammies, one school of spiritual thought says this moon celebrates the arrival of spring and it’s new beginnings and renewals. To welcome and make room for those new beginnings, it’s also the time to soften, to let go, to release whatever has hardened inside you or is difficult to forgive. I have some work to do, how about you?
April, 2025
Whatever your opinion is about climate change, apparently this is what a modern late winter/early spring road trip looks like.
Ed and I set off on our drive trip back from Southern California to Chicago in mid-March. I always keep an eye on the weather forecast because we have several route options, and one day I hope the “northern” route though Colorado will be clear enough by that time or year.
No such luck. In fact the “southern” route wasn’t looking too good either. Happily, we delayed our departure, lured by an offer to stay another day in the sunshine by the pool at 50% off. Good thing too, because the day we would have been going through West Texas there was a dust storm, fire, and very bad truck accident along the interstate.
I was feeling pretty good about my planning, I have to admit. What followed, though, was four days of driving Apple Maps routes that were full of those red symbols – fire, wind, winter storm, hail, tornado. And that’s not counting the construction zones and phantom traffic jams for no reason at all.
Fortunately for us, we ran ahead of most of the drama – a windstorm across I-40 a couple of hours in our rear view, a tornado 45 minutes after we passed through.
So did that technology and all of the red exclamation points help us avoid the worst of it or just jangle the nervous system? I think our little household has agreed to disagree on that one.
April, 2025
Once a year starting in mid-February, there is an Instagram challenge many artists participate in called the #100dayproject. I’ve done it myself more that once, and the habit of daily creativity and accountability has been really fun.
I was going to create and post something visual every day this year again, I really was.
But the truth is, right now that felt exhausting instead of exciting.
Then I thought, what if instead I promised myself jus tone extra hour of sleep for 100 days?
So, my #100dayproject is invisible this year – it’s a commitment to finally get in the habit of more than six hours of sleep a night. I’m lucky, I have the time now that I didn’t have before, I just don’t have the practice, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity.
I suppose I could have fed somekind of creative visual tracker into the algorithm every day, but for now you’ll have to take my word for it – it’s working!
March, 2025
Teachers of meditation have all kinds of suggestions for how to calm the monkey mind.
Some use a mantra
Some use the breath
Some suggest focusing on a sound
Recently, during a stay in Palm Springs, I was able to create my own little floating meditation practice. I would drop my rear end into a pool donut, close my eyes, and just listen to the sound of the running water for 30 minutes. Heaven.
Here’s a little ASMR for you to enjoy.
