The dogs and I were happy to have the sun shining down on our morning walk.

I wore my brand spankin new pair of boots I bought at the hardware store in Belfair yesterday - when I saw them (they only had 2 pairs left) I couldn't believe one of the pairs was my just my size!

Which way to go first?

The dogs never struggle with decisions; making them has always been the monkey on my back, but then it's to be expected as I am a Libra.

The morning light was tinged with steam rising across the field. This big root ball belongs to our beloved Maple, the bank gave way in high water. That's how it is living on the river - constant lessons in the nature of impermanence.

The clothesline sags under the weight of invisible laundry.

By day, I am busy working on the presentation I'll be giving next week in Seattle at Search for Meaning Book Festival, The topic I've chosen to speak about is "Painting as Poetry; Self Discovery in the Dynamic Flow". I'm pondering times I'm in the flow and times I'm not, and the many ways that I find my way back.

How do you find your way back when you've lost your creative way?

I recently learned that one of my favorite poets, David Whyte, will also be presenting at the festival and I'm overjoyed that he's speaking at a different time slot than I am so I can hear him.

I leave you now with one of his poems,

What to Remember When Waking

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?

The winning numbers from the random number generator are 11 and 36; winners are Lorie, comment #11, and Edie, comment #36. Please email me with your mailing address and I will send you out your books.

This is how it looks out my front door today but the camera isn't picking up the crusty layer of ice on top of everything. Yesterday we had a Snow Storm Warning and today it's an Ice Storm Warning and the governor declared a State of Emergency for the whole state of WA. Half way through this post we lost power but it's back on now,  we are grateful as thousands are without power or heat.

It's definitely soup weather, I made a tasty pot of it and thought I'd share it with you. Ingredients are approximate - add more or less according to your preference.

Split Pea Soup 

a pound of green split peas

2  1/2 quarts of water

4 bay leaves

1 cup white wine + 1 cup vegie stock

2 cups onion

2 large cloves garlic

1 1/2 T dried thyme

1 t dried rosemary

freshly ground pepper

3 cups chopped carrots

2 cups chopped celery

2 cups chopped red bell pepper

fresh chopped parsley

2 tsp Italian Seasoning or basil

dash cayenne pepper

sea salt to taste

Cook the split peas in water with bay leaves. While peas are cooking, saute onions and garlic in wine until transparent. Add the broth, spices, carrots, and celery and continue cooking until vegies almost tender then add peppers and cook a few more minutes. When the split peas are done, add the veggie mixture to the pot. Laddle out about half the mixture and puree in blender or food processer. Add it back to the pot and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I spent three days and nights on the Oregon coast with dear friends (made it home just in the nick or time too, before the big storm hit here). There were sunbreaks to play in the sand or walk along the beach.

One morning we woke up to the beach covered with snow (a precursor of things to come); this was the amazing view from our deck.

We shared tea and a delicious lunch in town one of those days - the menu had gourmet vegan options which made Judy and I jump for joy!

We played with paint, did some collaborating, but in the end we mostly worked on individual projects.

"Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love". -- Rumi

I feel like I broke through some painting inhibitions and insecurities that had been haunting me of late. The magic circulating in the field of kindred artists, whether drinking tea and talking, or creating art, cannot be underestimated - I highly recommend it!

I brought that inspiration home and have a 36" x 36" canvas prepped and textured with linen and molding paste, ready...waiting. I love beginnings.

Namaste.

In celebration of my newly released book, Layered Impressions, I'm giving away two copies. I will draw two names using random generator next Thursday at noon.To enter the random drawing all you have to do is leave a comment on this post, sharing one (or more) thing(s) you feel grateful for. I know reading all these gratitude comments will put a smile in the heart of everyone who reads them, so come on, share the love! 

And tadaaaaa - I'm excited to have co-created a 3 day workshop entitled Sacred Play with my dear friend and talented artist Misty Mawn happening at Valley Ridge Art Studio this coming May. We're moving outside the box to include activities that expand consciousness, provide grounding, and invite intimacy to heighten the experience we'll be sharing together as we create in the studio.

Valley Ridge Art Studio is one of my very favorite venues to teach at, located in the heart of rural Wisconsin, surrounded by nature and green, green, green. Katherine, our hostess, thinks of absolutely everything to make this an experience you'll forever cherish.  Registration opens this Saturday the 14th, at 9:00 AM, CST. Spaces are limited and classes fill quickly.

My other big news, something I haven't yet shared here on the blog, is that I've been invited to be one of the 40 authors presenting at the Search for Meaning Book Festival put on by Seattle Universtiy. I can't begin to express how honored and grateful I am for the opportunity to share and learn from others who are also searching for meaning. The line-up of authors is steller and the reserve tickets are free. It just so happens that the key note speaker (one of two) happens to be one of my most favorite-in-the-world poets, pulitzer prize winning poet Mary Oliver!!!

If you're in the Puget sound area what a better way to spend a Saturday? All the authors will be doing book signings as well, I'm so excited for the adventure.

And to top off a post filled to the brim with goodness, I'm on my way to the Oregon coast in the morning, to share a long weekend with some dear friends. You can be sure there will be painting involved; I'll make sure and snap a few photos to share later. Until then.

 Namaste.

For the Artist at the start of Day

May morning be astir with the harvest of night;

Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,

Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse

That cut right through the surface to a source.

May this be a morning of innocent beginning,

When the gift within you slips clear 

Of the sticky web of the personal

With its hurt and its hauntings,

And fixed fortress corners,

A morning when you become a pure vessel

For what wants to ascend from silence,

May your imagination know

The grace of perfect danger,

To reach beyond imitation,

And the wheel of repetition,

Deep into the call of all

The unfinished and unsolved

Until the veil of the unknow yields

And something original begins

To stir toward your senses

And grow stronger in your heart.

 ---John O'Donohue

Relationship with the Unknown is where my thoughts lie as I'm writing this today. Isn't it uncanny how when you ask Source a question, the message - the answer - comes through in so many different ways? Or maybe it's just that we're so focused that we're able to see and hear exactly what we need.

My meditation practice includes writing; after a period of quiet when I have a strong connection to Spirit, I pull out my journal and ask a few of the burning questions "harvested in the night". I write the question from one part of me and it is answered from another. And the answers always surprise me with their wisdom, confidence, vision, and peace. 

Today my question was "What is my purpose here, right now?" A familiar question, one I'm sure all of us have asked any number of times, each time as fresh and earnest as the time before.

The answer I got today, is that my purpose is to "abide in the mystery", in the place of "not-knowing", and to simply occupy that space, suspended like a cloud, until I am so full that a heavy rain of knowing falls within me.

That instead of searching for an answer, to shift my gaze to the layers of unknowing that are supporting me every moment, to hold my gaze with a soft focus and sense of appreciation, rather than a riddle I need to solve. 

See what I mean? I had no idea that would be the answer to my question when I threw it out there in my journal this morning, it's amazing the wisdom, the answers floating around the Cosmos, just waiting for us to ask the questions, like beacons, leading them to us.

Eagle was perched above the river, watching for salmon and keeping an eye on us as we took our morning walk. I love their company and always sad to see them disappear the end of January, when the salmon run is over.

Next post, in a couple days, I'm going to giving away a couple of copies of my newly released book, Layered Impressions; A Poetic Approach to Mixed Media Painting, so I hope you'll stop back.

Namaste.

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”

--Thich Nhat Hanh

When I was meditating one day, full of despair, I got a very precise message from Source, a course correction to take in the form of writing and practices, a map of steps that would lead me to balance. One of those practices is to spend 15 minutes a day, walking around, gazing at individual objects or beings I'm surrounded by and saying to myself "I see you...". 

How often do we race through our days, not noticing or seeing those that share our space? Doing this practice invites us to be present for our own lives, to really see what is around us in every direction. This practice slows me down, my thoughts become focused and my body calm. I touch into my connection with all of life and once again feel a deep sense of gratitude for my own life here.

Today, I thought I'd share with you some of todays "I see you..."

I see you, Daisy....

I see you, Sophie...

I see you, Katie...

I see you tire track, grass, leaves, and mud...

I see you bare bones trees...

I see you driveway...

I see you rock wall

I see you fallen leaves...

I see you pine trees...

I see you trees/woodpile...

I see you fire, wood...

I see you smoke, coming from our stove pipes...

I see you Buddha statue, sitting in the corner...

I see you journal page in-progress...

I see you Great Mystery, in everything...

What do you see around you in your own precious life?

I have had such a great response to my online class I am really over-the-moon happy! In the past 2 days I've gotten several emails from people asking me asking if they could still sign up and being pretty disappointed that they couldn't. So.... I've reconsidered my registration deadline, and am extending it to Sunday the 18th at midnight.

***Update - it is 9/12/11 and registration for the class is now closed. I will be offering the class DVD for pre-order in the next few weeks here on my blog***

Five days and counting until my new online class Layered Impressions begins. And remember, if you register by Sunday evening you will also receive a bonus DVD ebook of all the the class videos, pdf's, photos, and links after class ends. I'd love for you to join us; if you're interested go here for more information and to register.

I'm still all the way across the continent, here on the east coast, staying with my daughter and family, welcoming little baby Camellia Jean (my 5th grandchild) into the world and helping out where I can. Isn't she one adoreable little girl?!! The outfit she's wearing was made by her Auntie Marissa, who is also here helping out along with 1 1/2 year old Jackson (grandson #4).

This will make Little #4 in the Hughes family...

I'm flying home on Friday night so I'll have a couple days to do last minute preparations for the class. I'll post again when I can. Happy end of summer to you!

With all that is going on in the world these day, I like to start my day with a good dose of inspiration. I thought I'd share of few of the things that are happying-up my world this morning.

I loved this indoor herb garden idea posted by Better Homes and Gardens. This is not only easy and doable for me but will also be a sunny addition in my kitchen when the weather here is overcast.

I am tickled to have my new clothesline up, I enjoy everything about the process - it brings me back to my childhood, playing under the damp clothes, the clean smell wafting up in the breeze.

I realized this morning I didn't have a clothespin bag so I made this one using one of Violet's little dresses .

This is my new favorite summer beverage: 2 Tazo Passion teabags, 1 lemon or lime or concentrate, and Vanilla Stevia to taste. So good and practically calorie free!

I'm spending a lot of time here, shooting videos for the class. See the tripod there?

But before I get back to work, my studio compradres are rallying for a tea party. We still have 3 chairs open, join us?