For Me-It's Got To Be Designer!

GOD!! I love this time of year...not even 7:30 a.m. and I've been up for almost 3 hours living a full morning!! dawn comes early here now...YAY!!!

SO...TO CATCH YOU ALL UP...

Here's how my calendar started...
I was doing stuff I didn't wanna be doing, and wondering why I was so willing to do that, over choosing my won designer Path...I was choosing familiar discomforts of financial difficulty (after flourishing so well earlier). I wanted certain things to ebb, so I could move into my dreams, but still felt all the fears etc. I wasn't making the vibrational connections I needed to , and I was feeling FRUSTRATED. It is in the intermittent blogs thru Sept/Oct.

One day, as I was driving and whinging...I heard the usual "well, what do you WANT?"
I answered "this isn't how I want my life to look." "How do you want it to look?"

Of course, once I get to that point, I'm off and running! It's the same as asking, "well, what would it take to make you feel happy RIGHT now!" And if I'm honest, it's usually attainable, hence the "ALL THINGS ARE MINE!"

I got to my destination and began straight away on the idea of what I wanted my life to look like. I started with a week-at-a-glance deal...but soon turfed it, as I need more space, coz I want LOTS of diversity, and it won't fit into a week!

So, I settled for now, on a month...and began to shape my template.

The idea of the Template, is that it's kind of generic, naming areas of experiences..such as work, family, events, holidays, activities...
I felt like I'd become so absorbed in preoccupying over getting business stuff moving, I wasn't taking time to do other things and enjoy people, places and 'parties', so I wanted to restore balance to my life.

The next stage was starting to shape how these things might look. Which aspect of my work:singing, drawing, workshops, writing/written merchandise, recording/recorded merchandise, video-ing,business gatherings etc. What kind of outings...hot air balloons, family/friends gatherings...Events: retreats, rainforest walks, Beach BBQ , family dinners...you get the idea. Romantic interludes...haven't got a partner, but I want these things...so they go in! Activities where my family and my lover are altogether and enjoying life with me.

Some things I was SURE of and added, like wanting more Crowne Plaza gigs.
I must resonate easily with that, the next morning, I had FOUR more dates at the Crowne.

I looked at the kinds of workshops I wanted to run...and I began a third version which was my actual life unfolding...by this time, I was seeing stuff that had me SO Buzzy! I stopped midway andmoved to a large sheet of heavier card, gridded it up and got REALLY involved in this new style of specific and intentional "Vision Board Cum Diary/ Calendar"

Wait till you see what happens.... :-)

the Shift-thinking BIG


So, this photo shows where my calendar sat for a couple of weeks..after which it began to dawn on me, what was playing out in my life...WOW!
Don't get me wrong...I've been a Goal Setter, I LOVE to have purpose and direction, and I've had several layers of collaged vision boards and many things. These are life practices for me..this is DIFFERENT And as a writer, have written out, with incredible detail, the life I want, AND I've drawn and SUNG things into being-this is still different. All of these work for me and to quite good degrees as they engage all my concentrated energy in the creative process. Whatever enables you to do that will work. But I still think this way is the BIG KAHUNA.
WHY?? Mainly coz it's DOABLE for everyone and requires no academic or intellectual or artistic skills. You don't really have to strive to think. It's so easy, so natural, so authentic and SO revealing.
And it is PURE CREATIVE POWER

ORGANIC!!! This process will work


So..MY CHALLENGE...

I'll blog again to catch you up on what happened next...that is, this past 10 days.
I'll start an album too, to depict the progressive shots of my calendar. But I plan more than that. This is a MAJOR artwork.

This is a 'month in the life of Lisa'
What I plan to do is use my long mornings to do whole pages that depict each event/activity/experience-SERIOUSLY engage with each element. Scan and print to scale, for adding not only to my month...but my 2010.

Then, I'm living it all out NEXT YEAR. lol watch me!!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

What I propose to you,and everyone else, is that this apparently LONGWINDED way of doing things is actually the SHORTCUT!! I want to show how valuable and worthwhile doing things this way REALLY is. I want to validate the Arts and the Creative Process as being the tragically overlooked and neglected, yet utterly PERFECT way to hone all the intrinsic and inherent skills to empower people to be ALL they can imagine...whilst expanding their imaginations even further.
This is WHOLE BRAIN creativity that draws the WHOLE BEING into its own beauty-rather than the deformed, distorted version of a contorted soul under pressure and perceived limitations.

So...:-) please come along for the ride. Feel free to be sceptical. :-) It won't bother me a bit!

Perfect Even in Imperfection

"By Wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations

By understanding he set the heavens in place

By his knowledge the deeps were divided

and the clouds let drop their dew."

A friend mentioned to me the other day that each day is about 24 hours and 33 minutes long.

I love this!

Our calendar has to compensate for this by 'adding' a day every four years.

Balance versus Symmetry

For me, it is an eternal reminder that what man likes to call precision and perfection are not the same as what is found in Creation. Or even in me.

I've read that we generally perceive a face as beautiful due to its symmetry. But when you LOVE someone, there's a different beauty. The person's essence mixed with their however asymmetric features become so endeared to us. Aren't you glad?!

Balance and symmetry are not the same. The Universe, and as far as I can see, even exploring the tiniest aspects under great magnification, is not symmetrical, but rather 'perfectly unbalanced'.

It makes me smile just to think about it.

A Perfectionist

Like many, I have thought that I had to be perfect at something before I could dare to 'put it out there'. Admittedly, I let this thinking go in many areas of my life fairly early and easily. In fact, easily or not, I determined I would cast caution to the wind and DARE to fly in the face of fear, but in some aspects of myself, it tormented me for the longest time.

A previous sufferer of eating disorders and plagued with body image issues, there was no way I could ever 'win' some things, and be 'perfect'. It's really sad how such a thought, in any arena of life, can rob of us of so much every day pleasure and growth-not to mention our deepest dreams and highest hopes.

Playing with Clay

Just as the Potter throws and molds the lump of clay, I decided to do explore ceramics.

The most beautiful thing I discovered was that in having no experience with the medium, nor how heat causes it to shrink-at different rates, and heightens the subtle variations in the thickness. I didn't know how the colours would change. I didn't really know anything about the process, so I had NO idea what to expect. Consequently, I played with great abandon.

When I went to collect my precious cargo, the kiln man tried to prepare me, expecting I would disappointed with the results, but quite the contrary, I was overjoyed. He held up an uneven oval plate ( still a favourite!), and said dubiously, "I think this is your best piece". And it probably was, from one perspective, but from where I stood, they were all wonderful, and they all showed me things I hadn't before seen.

There was no concept of failure. I'd had no "good/bad", "right or wrong" judgments overlaying anything. No expectations, so no disappointment. Just discovery. Sheer, joyous discovery.

And I love all the human 'imperfection' in the uniqueness of each work. The elements of unevenness added character rather than detracted from the form. I learnt so much through the process, which added to future intention, but for some reason...with clay , I never became bogged down it in 'having to be'. I even made novel, if simple, ceramic jigsaw puzzles. I learnt that chimes work better (as in sound prettier) if they have an arc in them, and made some of the funniest platters I've ever seen! they still make me laugh with their wonkiness!

In Love with the Imperfections

The friend I mentioned earlier was showing me this 'horrific' scar up the front of his entire lower right leg. A motor bike accident. If he flexed it right, a large bulge, his muscle I believe, protruded oddly forward. A running theme through our lengthy dialogues is how "we love our imperfections!" It comes up now, in the areas it's not so easy for us to accept and 'forgive' those things in ourselves, but the Truth of it is washing through all of me in wondrous waves of red hot love.

I find myself falling in love with my own imperfections, just as I could look at his scars and love him no less. Just as I used to imagine the scars of Jesus, and see only beauty and eternal love for me in the 'ugliness'. I behold my own physical form and feel great compassion for this vessel that has served me so well, even though I've 'beaten on it' for being 'less than perfect' all these years. Five childbirths, and in good shape, if not a model. And as I approach 50 (47), I see it as another form of documentation of my life and journey...and it's all perfect. And anyone that loves me, will know how to read between the lines! lol

I am perfect, ever growing unto perfection...even in the midst of my perceived imperfections.

A Perfect Life

Today, that idea went even that bit further, and with fresh depth I saw the perfection of my life, and accepted its perfect imperfections in a loving embrace of thanksgiving so satisfying that it probably sounds corny, but it doesn't feel corny. It feels ALIVE. It feels GOOD.

I began this blog with a proverb Proverbs 3:19-20

But further along, we can read,

"by wisdom a house is built

through understanding it is established

through knowledge it's rooms are filled

with rare and beautiful treasures" Prov 24:3-4

We build the same way.

I like to say

"like Father Like Daughter"

Who am I to argue with the Potter who knows what to do with clay?

And in the spirit of all that's been done, in wisdom, understanding and knowledge, I celebrate with the Universe, in all the so called flaws of being human and rejoice in the truth of their creative beauty.

YAY! :-)

Wil-A work in progress

this isn't finished, as you can see, but I'll add the pieces...I think it's fun to watch it build, and that documentation is part of what I give when the work is done.

Next , it'll be video-ed and time lapsed...which will be even better! Haven't got that facility..quite. Soon.

Who Said I Didn't Care!

Hmmm...perhaps it's not such a wise thing to do, but today, I just feel like saying a couple of things that, ordinarily, I'd just let go.

I wanted to point out WHY I choose Love over Fear, Love over Guilt, Love over Worry.

Not Love, the gooshy, mooshy sickly stuff. But LOVE the pwer of wholeness and completion.

The hardest work a person will EVER do is choose to believe the best in the face of the worst. (Labour to enter rest)

It's not putting your 'head in the sand'.

It's not 'not caring'.

It isn't about 'denial through positive thinking'.

It is KNOWING there is a BIGGER, BETTER Truth, than this relative, finite thing we call 'life in the flesh'. It is being convinced of our own innate CREATIVE and eternal power.

It is focussing on the sky far beyond the towering giants, and knowing that you can reach it.

HEALTHY FOCUS

I don't need to see cruelty to know it has some presence on the globe. And I FLAT REFUSE to add to its energy, but giving it any of mine. I don't need, let alone want, the dreadful feelings that swamp my heart and eclipse the beauty of all that's good in my life, due to filling my eyes with hatred, hunger and abuse.

It benefits no one for me to want to kill myself through depression over such things.

From the time I was VERY young, I had to face things that didn't feel good. Life, and the 6 o'clock News, gave me nightmares. The way I learnt to deal with that, even way back then, was to find the things I loved and give them All my attention.

I HATE feeling bad. I made the choice not to. I still make that choice.

ILL CHOSEN VIEWS

But I found something VERY important through all this too. Feeling Bad serves NOBODY! Getting angry, frustrated, fear-filled and bitterly wound up destroys me. Not only can I do no good for anyone else, I can do no good for myself. I can't function in these states.

My hair falls out, my nerves fry, my life turns to total POO! I become someone I neither know, or like. And I have no capacity to trust, love, create or laugh-and I so love ALL these things. From there, it simply perpetuates-more fear, more anger, more hatred, more worry, more poorly chosen action.

When I live from that place of Fear, I'm actually empowering those things to continue! I'm not helping anyone by 'caring' in the form of Worry.

LOVE OR FEAR

This is basically what it comes down to.

I can choose Fear, see everything from the perspective of what I most dread, living my life trying to barricade it from all that, giving it all my energy, feeding it, fighting it, attracting it.

Or I can choose Love. From love , my actions will produce after their own kind...they feed love in my life, I don't need to fight anything. I don't need to fear that the worst will happen. I don't need to shut everything out of my life coz it might hurt me...or shoot someone else before they can shoot me.

I choose to put my energy where it best serves ALL, including me. I choose Love, nurturing a climate that makes it easier for those things to change. And the more people that do that, instead of FIGHTING them (and breeding more fighting), the lighter and brighter the energy becomes and tip the scales.

Examine these principles in your own life, if you dare, and see that it is so. See where love and faith, compared to Fear and panic, make a difference.

Action taken from Fear breeds death

Action taken from Love brings Life.

Having this view...I choose Life. I choose Love.

Some, most, may not understand this, and accuse me of not 'caring', not 'being responsible', not 'being aware'. I make no apologies for being happy. Nor will I feel guilty for it.

It certainly isn't because life has been easy.

It's because I like who I am when I'm happy. I like how I see and treat people when I feel IN LOVE. I like how they feel good around me. How can this be wrong??

I like being peaceful, and helping others find a place of rest. I love feeling connected, saturated and ONE with Love. With God.

I am convinced this is who I am, and it's definitely who I aim to be. MORE and more and more.

"Finally, friends, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things...and the God of Peace will be with you."

What more could I want, than to be aligned with All-That-Is-LOVE?

What People R Saying Bout CTT Creative Thinking Technology

Just wanted to share my latest CTT-Creative Thinking Technology video with you. :-)

Staying Open-the 'What's In it For me?' Deal

Sometimes, the hardest thing you will ever be faced with is the demand that organic life places upon us all to remain open. A closed womb can accept no seed, nor bear any life.

It comes naturally to us- to be open. It's inherent in our nature, but as we go along in life, various thing can occur and we can get our fingers burnt, our hearts bruised, our hopes smashed and our dreams broken.

It's right about then that you REALLY need to stay open. Ok...maybe I should I.

Taking a Leaf out of Nature's book...or maybe a trunk

I love, absolutely LOVE, visual metaphor. One of my "favouritist" places is a chunk of Rainforest atop Burleigh Head, and when I go there with my camera, I am truly in another world. I lose myself so completely,so effortlessly and oh, so blissfully. I see 'into' things, 'beyond' things and 'through' things...and all these 'things' I see whisper back truths of ancient knowing that only creatures like trees and seas can know.

I see myself. A timely insight. I know it's just what I need, because it is the message that comes.

I looked at this trunk and the hole into the hollow of its core. I pondered whether this was a 'good' or 'bad' thing. An open wound or a functioning orifice. It was a clean opening. It didn't look 'broken'. I'm sure many living creatures had ventured in and found shelter as needed. How did it serve the tree, other than allow the tree the serve others?

As is frequently the case, judgement on a matter is often relative. This gaping hole, apparently organic in every way, still looked odd in its own right, but 'normal' in light of what was beside it.

Now, this hole, although 'whole' in that it was closed over, like an old, scarred wound...this hole didn't look 'good' to my eye. It looked like the other hole, gone wrong.

It looked like an opening that no longer wanted to be open and had to work contrary to its organic way to shut down.

It looked gnarled, twisted, tormented and well barricaded, from within and deformed. What happened here?

I stood there, meserized, much to the surprise of passers-by, I'm sure! Switching from opening to the other, and 'feeling' more than hearing what they spoke to me.

In light of my morning meditation, today, this set of photos seems to speak even more clearly to me. The clear opening was vulnerable-all its guts exposed and accessible, and I'm almost certain there'd be things inside that tree that had no place being there, pushed in thoughtlessly, carelessly. Even so, I'm equally sure that the creatures that made a home in there, would have found resourceful ways to recycle that stuff too! Because that is what ORGANIC LIFE does.

Even with abuse, this hole stayed open, clean, functional, non scarred and life nurturing.

The Second hole had the appearance of one that had 'taken offence' to being treated that way, shutting down to the abuse, but at what cost? It lost the capacity to be of certain use in shutting down to the possibility of abuse. Not only was it not able to 'serve' others through its life, it became all mangled in its own form. I relate to the second hole as being ruled by the "what's in it for me?" question, and in not finding a desirable answer, decided it would have none of it!

ALL ONE LOVE ENERGY FIELD

And here's the interesting part...these holes are right beside each other, part of the same

tree trunk. We are all ONE! We are all connected. My guts are YOUR guts. When I shut down to you, I shut down to ME. When I shelter you, I am safe. When I leave you in the cold, I am alienated. Whatever I see in you, is but my own reflection-whether beauty or fear,love or judgement.

My heart is like the hole in the tree. It has undergone many piercings, and suffered several breaches, but if I close it down, I cannot function at all.The wind cannot breathe its song through me ( and I live for the Song of the Wind reverberating through my being!), nor the sparrow lay its young, and I so delight in the freshness of new life .

NOt only that, but ALL That Is knows how to make GOOD of all the abuse as well-using it resourcefully to benefit others maigically.

In a shut down place, I cannot even sleep without nightmares-ever afraid of forced or uninvited entry, further distorting my authentic nature with fear, through resistance to phantoms!

Staying open is about turning the "what's in it for me?' into "YOU are what's in it for me". To see You grow, expand, thrive, LIVE...that's what's in it for me. To deny you access to my heart, to all that I am is to deny myself. And I just can't live that way.

How does the hole serve the tree, but to allow it to serve others? How does my heart serve the WHOLE but to allow its LOVE to serve others through me? I would rather DIE than shut down, because in physical death I expand into all. I would rather DIE than stop believing I can be all I desire in this life through enriching the lives of others.

I don't want to TAKE. I don't want to EXTRACT under duress, peoples' favour, money, time, faith.I want to give...and in giving, receive rare and beautiful treasures of every kind.

I refuse to compete. I choose to create. I allow myself to be an incubator of life, and with all that I am I desire to remain ever open to love and be loved.

So, yeah...that's where my head is today. Please don't interpret this as being about going through life with nothing...it is exactly the opposite!

Lisa :-)

You KNOW I could turn this into a kids' story!

I even wonder if the second hole only developed because the first one shut down. This is what the abundant Universe does. This fantastic giving Universe just makes more wherever it's needed. If one shuts down, another opens...but that's another story!

Draw A very Special Christmas this year!

Even tho it can be hard to know where to focus your attention at times, I still really like being able to do lots of different things...coz they all enrich and give back to me...and others, in very different ways.
And sometimes...I just want to draw!