Retreat for Inspiration

Saturdays are usually my day of retreat, and on this third Saturday of the new year I plan to be quiet, and open myself to inspiration. Winter is a time of expectation and quiet growth, contemplation of the deep questions of life, and listening for leadings and new ideas; it's essential that I take time to give attention to my Inner Guide.

My query today is, "What are the essential projects I'm led to create this winter?"

Agenda:

1. Retreat day plans

2. Love meditation

3. Read "The Creativity Book"

4. Brainstorm and simple project list

5. Print an inspiration page
6. Living room blessing

1. Retreat Day plan:

Here's my plan for today -

• Start with a love meditation.
• Read from The Creativity Book, by Eric Maisel.
• Do a web search - Spending time looking at other people’s finished art, and learning new techniques can spark new ideas and put me in a different mindset.
• Print an inspiration page -  pictures, quotes, and thoughts that inspire me, and intentions for each project.
• Just get started - It’s easy to get lost in the details of what needs to happen before starting (I need to clear a space, learn a new process, buy supplies) but the the simple truth is I have to actually do the work! Once I’ve started a project, I may be inspired simply by the progress I'm making. 
• Take a long bath with candles, and write about my projects, and my intentions for them, and be as detailed as possible. Remind myself what I'm working toward.
• Take a rainy Awareness Walk, and seek inspiration in the sky and the trees. My theme is not clear yet, but paying mindful attention to nature around me, and my connection to it, will bring it into focus, and give me fresh eyes. 

2. Love meditation:
Every month after the full moon, in the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon, I practice a love meditation that progresses from receptivity, to gratitude, to generosity:

Day 3: Practice the love meditation below, and then journal about generosity with time and attention - start with ideas for being generous with myself, then my family, my neighborhood, community, and the earth. I might decide to give money or a gift, or simple acts of helping and sharing my time.

1. 1 minute - Relax your body, and focus on the tender emotion of generous love. Allow a smile to settle on your face and in your heart.
2. 1 minute - Visualize love as soft, tingly, warm, pink light, and see it move from your heart to every part of your body so that every cell is glowing and vibrating.
3. 1 minute - Now see the pink light of love radiating to fill the whole room, then the whole city, and the whole planet earth.
4. 1 minute - See that all people, plants, and animals feel warm and happy.
5. 1 minute - Send an extra dose of love light to those people you want to have a better connection to.

3. Read "The Creativity Book":

A few years ago I started but didn't finish this book by Eric Maisel (one of my favorite writers). The subtitle is "A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance." Who doesn't want that? 

I'm on Week 20: Expand with the Universe. "The everyday creative person grows accustomed to using 'breadth' and 'depth' interchangeably." 

He asks me to get my current creative project in mind, then view it from the moon, seeing the world and everything that surrounds and affects it, "... in which it is embedded and to which it must relate." Taking this wide-angle view might give me new information about how to approach my idea.

4. Simple project list:

My plans for creativity this year sit in four areas:

• Explore "Active Hope" with abstract paintings and appliqué story pictures.
• Share fun seasonal pre-school art and nature projects with my grandsons. 
• Make fun things with my hands and play with art: Scrap fabric beads, a nature-theme mandala, and garden art. 
• Share Unity Art such as teaching garden signage and giveaway art that witnesses to earthcare.

In the fall I started using Leo Babauta's "Simple Projects List", with my top three projects. (A "project" is something that has several steps, and takes only a week or two.) "The top three projects on your Simple Projects List will be your entire focus until you finish all three ... This ensures that you aren't spreading your focus too thin, and that you are completing your projects." 

Tips: You can't actually do projects - you can only do tasks. Make a list of tasks for each project, and focus on doing one at a time. Each day, choose three tasks to complete. 

My simple projects list this week is virtually the same as last week, because I haven't made much progress yet:

1. Art: Story appliqué. (First task: Write and draw a plan.)
2. Kids: Gifts for Arthur and Daddy  (First task: Collect ideas and supplies)
3. Play: Practice drawing nature motifs for a mandala.
4. Unity Art: Incubate an idea.

5. Print an inspiration page:

A couple of years ago, when we were working together on our Huge Garden Project, I began a practice of printing out a daily page of garden inspiration and the day's list of garden tasks, and putting it on a clipboard. I found this to be a great way to focus my day and muse about possibilities.

I think it will help me to reframe my projects and priorities now, especially if I can pinpoint the deepest reasons for each task, and list any things I need to gather or prepare.

6. Living room blessing:

Last week I started my annual round of house cleaning and blessing in the kitchen, and this week I've moved into our living room. My own understanding of a house blessing is that the act of cleaning itself is a blessing on the house, and that sitting in a newly cleaned room is a good way to remember that we are each blessed, always and forever.

But I love a good ritual! My custom is to bless each room this month, first by cleaning it, then with a ritual, and then by remembering the blessings of life.

I've done the physical cleaning of the floor, furniture, mold, and windows, and I've tidied the shelves. But my house also holds emotional "dirt" that needs clearing, lingering psychic odors of angry words and melancholy thoughts, and the bad vibes of political debate heard on the tv.

For a simple house cleansing ritual, I use a salt water and sage smoke.

1. Set the intention to clear out bad energy and invite in blessings.

2. Light a candle, and from that ignite the sage. Once it catches, blow it out so that it smolders.

3. Walk around the room and waft the smoke into every corner. As you walk, think about the intentions you set.

4. Pour a little salt water into a small bowl, dip your fingers in and lightly sprinkle it as you walk around the room a second time.

After the ritual, I'll sit quietly with the lit candle, and savor the blessing of a clean living room.