30 Day Challenge - Day 20 and 21 - Listen to your Soul, Rest and Play

I just spent two days and nights away on retreat.  Even though I was the host and facilitator, I had plenty of time to soak in the rejuvenating power of nature and really hear my soul speak.  She said something like this - it was telepathic so not exactly these words, but this was the feeling: "There's abundance.  There's always enough.  The world is full of riches and pure delight, laying them at your feet.  Love is all around you."  She was so calm, so shining, so bright.  And I don't think she was talking about material riches, like gold or diamonds.  It was much more about the abundance of beauty and life and love all around me.  So much to appreciate. Would you like to hear your soul?  All you have to do is close your eyes and imagine your soul coming out of your body and manifesting itself in a way you can visualize - maybe a person, maybe a glowing light, maybe an animal  - it could be anything.  Then feel its wisdom, its pure love, its complete acceptance of you.  Feel it wash over you. Then hear what it has to tell you, as it sits or stands or floats before you.  Listen to its message, then let it come back into your body in whatever way it does - maybe straight to your heart, maybe through the top of your head, or some other way.  Then feel yourself fill up with the love and wisdom of your soul, and open your eyes and see the world from the point of view of your soul.  This is a beautiful visualization to practice over and over.  It's one of my favorites, both for when I'm feeling stressed and when I'm feeling peaceful.

What I love about retreats like this is that it was a weekend dedicated to pure rest and play. We had lots of time alone to rest and reflect, and time together to process, share and hike and explore in nature.  I'll tell you more about it tomorrow, but here's one of my favorite photos from the weekend:

I've been drawing too - I missed my drawing time on Friday, but that's ok - I picked up again Saturday and today.  I sat inside the small gazebo on the gorgeous grounds of the B&B where we stayed and drew the view through the lattice.

And today I played with the message from my soul, and with a somewhat green version of my wild and precious tree. Quick play sketches.

How are you?  What has your soul had to tell you lately?  What feels like rest and play to you right now?

Message me or let me know in the comments!

30 Day Challenge: Day 14 - Just time for quiet

I'm still cruising along with my challenge.  This is the quiet time in the middle - I'm almost to the half-way point!  All is well. I'm in a contemplative state today - a quiet Sunday. I don't have wisdom to offer today, just quiet.  And a photo from the swamp to match  my calm yet subdued mood.  Time to rest.

Just for fun - what kind of butterfly?

I'm testing something with my assorted technology, and to test it I need to publish a blog post, and I can't wait until tomorrow, so here's a question:  Do you know what kind of butterfly this is? If you answered monarch, you're close, but this is actually a viceroy.  It has an extra stripe on its lower wings.  I rarely see viceroys, and when I saw this butterfly it seemed a bit different from the monarchs that flit all over our yard, and my hunch was right! What a cool surprise!

30 Day Challenge - Day 13: Wordless interlude

Grass time, check. Paper time, check.  Now I'm just keeping up with new papers instead of going through piles.  There are virtually no visible piles!  Cool! Drawing time, check. In process and a minor disaster, so no photo.  I think I'll just admit that when it comes to art, while I love making works that are representational, I am one lazy drawer so I get something more toward primitive.  I'm just so anxious to get to the part with the colors!

Best of all, day 13 included a nice long wordless interlude.  And tomorrow will include one as well, as I'm hosting a wordless walk in the swamp in the morning.  I'm a big fan of wordlessness as a way to still our overactive minds and connect with our deeper selves and the beautiful world around us.  Today, my sweetheart and I scouted a couple of trails.  I knew there would be a lot of water, and I was right.  But when it's warm, what's better than an Amazon-like experience of wading shin deep along swamp trails?

We saw two owls, a bunch of ibis, a yellow crowned night heron, a deer, a bunny and several squirrels, along with countless spiders and dragonflies.

Check out this cute of an ibis sharing our wordless walk with us.  I especially love the symphony of swamp sounds in the background. Click here for the video!  wordlessness with an ibis   (What happened to YouTube video previews?  boo!)

And here are the ibis a little more close up.  I love their curved beaks!

Here's to wordless interludes - they make such a difference for me - I just soak up the sounds and scents and breathe and relax.  Are you fitting wordlessness into your days?  I would love to hear about it!

30 Day Challenge Day 3 - honeymoon!

What a difference it makes to feed your soul while you get things done, and to make that a priority!  3 days, just 30 minutes a day, and I have this: It's no Van Gogh, but it makes my heart happy, and that's what matters.  If you've ever been in a cypress swamp in the fall, hopefully you'll know what you're looking at.  Otherwise it might appear to be an interesting abstract!

And ten minutes in the grass soothed my soul, and produced this pretty pine cone photo:

Lastly, keeping up with my paper stuff for ten minutes a day means I can take things like bank statements that come in the mail and deal with them immediately instead of putting them in a pile for later that grows and grows until there are three months of bank statements in the pile along with all kinds of other put-off tasks and decisions.  There's power and momentum in taking care of things now.

But the most power comes from giving myself the gift of time to play at making art. I can't tell you how delicious that is.

This is typical for me - I start strong, I'm intoxicated by the challenge and love the rewards.  When I have to pay attention is when I get tired or a little overwhelmed or I miss a day and go into "Abort, Abort!" mode.  But right now I'm in the honeymoon phase and I'm going to bask in that!

Want to join the challenge?  Come sign up to our Facebook group so you can have a community of supporters - you can start anytime this month as the challenge goes through the end of August.  Come have fun and make a positive change! Or share more in the comments here about your challenge.  I'd love to hear!