Sometimes I feel like a wild river salmon, heading upstream. Sometimes I feel like a small goldfish navigating a current in a small pond. Sometimes, the currents seem to push me forward and sometimes back. My goal is to keep swimming.
The stuff of life happens, both good and bad and the effects of dealing with constant change can create opportunities or roadblocks on our journey.
Occasionally I like to set aside any extraneous goal or expectation and just play with my art supplies. If I can get myself to float a bit, to be still, to stop swimming so vigorously, I am often surprised to find that something is revealed to me. The power of doing nothing is that it can unlock creativity. Boredom can be profoundly rewarded.
When I was a kid I never missed a program called “The Romper Room”. A message I still recall from that program is the admonition to be a “do-be” be not a “don’t-be”. I think a lot of my generation took that to heart. The trouble with that message is that it suggested success was only possible if we pleased others, said yes, and perhaps put aside a quieter nature.
Heading Upstream was created in moments of not doing. The imagery that happened surprised me and in a small way inspired me to swim in a different direction.
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