Sabbath for Excitement

Today is my Sabbath. Sabbath in the summer is more fluid and high-energy - I'm in the middle of (virtual) Annual Session, and preparing for a visit from family and a trip to the Country Faire - exciting! I will find peace within the bustle of the day.

Sabbath Agenda:

1. Love Meditation

2. Simple sabbath plans

3. Read "Creativity Takes Courage"
4. Evaluate my creativity habits

1. 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 1: Practice a love meditation, and open to receive blessings - send a prayer to the universe asking to be showered with love, kindness, health, and happiness.

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.

2. Simple sabbath plans:

Keeping a sabbath day is a personal thing. My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I try not to rush, complain, or worry. I open myself to the Spirit of Love, and schedule activities that celebrate the season or the act of creativity or the joy of community or are satisfyingly peaceful in nature. Today I will find ways to slow the pace and create space around the building energy.

Today, I have some work to finish in the morning, then I will sink into a zoom worship and plenary, finish some sewing, tidying for guests, water the garden, and take a nap!

3. Read "Creativity Takes Courage":

I'm just starting this beautiful book by Irene Smit and Astrid van Der Hulse (2018) with the subtitle of Dare to Think Differently. Every page is a work of art.

Chapter 4 is Dare to Be Bored. "You don't have to fill every single empty moment of time -- and you shouldn't. Go ahead and waste it... It is precisely these moments-- when we stay a little longer in bed just listening to the birds chirping, when we simply stare out the window and lose ourselves in the moment... that the best ideas pop up."

Some tips:

• Stop multi-tasking (this includes during video meetings!)
• Evaluate why I am doing the things I do and simplify.
• Relax and accept my inner slob - stop judging!
• Follow your own biological clock and work when work feels best.

4. Evaluate my creativity habits:

Once a week I try to take stock of my creative habits: 

Have I launched into a large creative project, one worth exhausting myself on, and if not, why? 

Have I constructed a schedule for my creative work and am I keeping to it? 

Do I set goals at the beginning of each week? 

Do I have a daily routine that that supports my creative efforts?

Journal: I'm still loving my Nature-Culture writing project, and I'm fitting it in to the roles and parts of my life, but still not getting much actual artwork done. This week I did some sewing on my Coat of Many Earth Colors, but not much else. Next week I will add a morning task to "Prioritize one hands on art project today".