Surrender to the moment

Quote of the day:  This place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you. Hafiz Another challenging week for me.  This time it wasn’t my mind that did me in. It was my body.  For some mysterious reason, my low back kicked up with huge pain last weekend and I’m still moving very carefully almost a week later.  At least I’m moving – a little (actually a very little).  And while I had planned to spend my week differently, I’ve discovered once more that I need to surrender into the moment. At first I was just Read more…

Finding Your Voice

Quote of the day: “An artist marks out time and space boundaries or forms through which she will reveal the infinite.” , “Zen – the infinite way of doing finite things.”  Laurence G. Boldt in “Zen and the Art of Making a Living” Last Saturday I took in the Powderhorn Park Art Fair in Minneapolis and visited with several photographers who were selling photographs at the art fair.  I found myself drawn to photographers whose work spoke in a “clear voice.”  They didn’t try to be all things to all people.  Rather, they developed their own unique voice and view Read more…

Dragonfly Gardening

Quote of the day: “Whoever heard of dragonfly gardening?” — Me A couple of years ago I was working on finding an image that expressed how I wanted to live my life.  I was tired of carrying around the image of having to work hard doing something I didn’t love and believing that it was only through struggle one could succeed. I knew that my current work life wasn’t working for me any more. And since I am a visual person, the first step in creating a change was to come up with an image that expressed the feeling I Read more…

We are all artists.

Quote of the day: “Conceiving of ourselves as artists in whatever work we do gives us a metaphor for a life of integrity, service, enjoyment, and excellence.”  Laurence G. Boldt in Zen and the Art of Making a Living. Each one of us every day has the opportunity to live as an artist.  What does it mean to live as an artist?  I think it means living with authenticity, courage, compassion, and vulnerability.  Making art or making an artful life means being willing to be seen. That can be scary because we worry about being judged or looking stupid.  But Read more…

A Dragon Called Resistance

As I work on learning the art and craft of photography and on creating a business doing what I love, I am learning a lot about myself and a Dragon called “Resistance.”   Resistance shows up every single day of the week in many different forms and guises.  The latest form that had me down for a couple of days was when I started working on a 12-month cash flow analysis for my business and the initial numbers looked abysmal.  Before I knew it I was in a funk and whining to myself and anyone else who would listen about Read more…