A different brush to color with
As part of opening and growing inside of your own skin, a bit of experimenting may occur. This may seem like just goofing off, or wasting time, or just plain chilling out. Sometimes it is just that, and sometimes there is another bit of freshness tickling the thickness of mind we all carry around. It may seem like an inconsequential flight of silly thought, or an idea that gets immediately stuck down by the all powerful ego mind. A voice will remind you, “You couldn’t do THAT”, or “Sure, now get real, and get to work”.
That new thought can come dancing into my open field of view as delicately as a butterfly, and if I delay for just another moment, it can be gone, flitting to another destination. If one doesn’t reach out to provide a place for the delicate moment to land, it may be lost, and the magical unknown newness with it.
During a period of seven years about a decade ago, I decided to experiment with an adult ed class on art, titled “Meditation and Art”. The class description led me believe that it was all experiential, first with a guided meditation to begin the once weekly evening session, and then silently each of us was free to use watercolors on good art paper and see what happened. Mind you, this was with little or no instruction about watercolor or how to draw a tree, or anything else for that matter. I was a working commercial photographer, every day shooting stuff that was for sale. A craft I knew well, and yet was not expressing anything from inside of me. That can be rewarding from the craft viewpoint, and missing a whole lot otherwise.
Soon I was hooked. I was learning to trust my intuitive sense, and sometimes I even liked what I had done. Certainly not ready for a gallery, but I still have those sheets and show them to trusted friends, when we get to a certain depth of relating. It was a personal time, I held in trust for myself to play, and see what came forth. I will always remember those times.