November, 2024
A three month winter European adventure
Three bags – pretty small ones I’d say 
So the question is, art supplies or clothing?
Sure, I could buy as I go, but my studio and my closet, to be honest, are already full of goodies that I need to quit “saving”. Use them up. Maybe even “waste” some paper and paint.
I suppose I could take a bigger bag, but even though this is slow travel, I still like to feel that I can carry my own load.
Besides, boundaries can inspire creative decision-making, right?
October, 2024
Our 3-month working (ish) adventure begins October 31 with a month in Bray Ireland.
Bray is about 45 minutes south of Dublin by rail. Apparently before there were cheap flights to sunny places, this was the destination for a seaside holiday for city-dwellers. Ireland in November clearly isn’t about the weather, but this region is supposed to be “relatively” sunny and “relatively dry.
We will base in a flat in an old whiskey distillery within walking distance from the beach, the train, the shops, etc.
Day trips are on the agenda, but based on previous experience in Ireland, you never quite cover as much ground as fast as planned.
Slow travel is the goal.
October, 2024
The weather has been really beautiful lately, so I’ve had the windows open quite a bit more than usual. Where I live, that means city noises, and since I live near a hospital, that means sirens.
I’ve noticed though, that the sirens outside are no more of a distraction from meditation than the sirens that often go off inside: insistent, distracting, repetitive and alarming.
To think I can get good enough at focused meditation to not hear them any more seems like a recipe for failure, and that’s the quickest way to give up.
So this is the strategy that I try to remember to call on: since I “hear” the sirens, internal or external, I move my attention in that moment to my other senses – what I smell, the feeling of my bones and my muscles touching the surfaces where I sit, maybe what I see or taste. The other sensations that ground me in the moment and break the focus on the noise. To stop the internal conversation about what it may mean – is it a fire truck or an ambulance? Does it mean trouble, or does it mean someone is being saved? Am I in trouble? Is someone I care about in trouble, are we all in trouble?
It doesn’t work every time, but every time I don’t remember to try it, the sirens win.
October, 2024
Do I love getting bills and insurance statements? No. Does it help when once in a while there is a collage fodder treat waiting for me on the inside of the envelope? Yes, it certainly does. I don’t know what is happening in the envelope business, but twice in the past two weeks I have a lovely surprise when I uncovered these new (to me) patterns. I haven’t made any mail art projects in a while, but I’m certainly inspired now.
