Being American and the art of overdoing!

I know November's posts were a little dark and sad.  You all know by now that November is a tough month for me in general.  One of my daughter's jokingly referred to my blog as "deaddaddyblog.com"  I love her humor. 

You just gotta laugh!

 

 

Well, now we enter December.....ahhh....the month of sparkling lights, pine scented candles and celebrations of all kinds all over the world. 

 

We get time off and can now relax!

 

I have come to realize there is an art to relaxing.

It's a process.....

Clearing personal space.

Putting up your feet

and

melting

Simply taking time.

I saw on the news the other day that "Americans" don't take all of their vacation time. The U.S. has less time off than most other countries to begin with and we are refusing the full two weeks.

Interesting. 

Other countries know the value of relaxing and revitalizing. France gives 30 days vacation a year as does Spain, Denmark, Brazil and Germany. We are at the bottom of the list giving 14 days. Only Japan and South Korea gave less at 11 and 10 (respectively). 

 We should also note that Americans represent 5% of the world's population, yet we are the sickest in the world. 
We consume 50 - 60% of the world's manufactured drugs. 
I do believe there are many factors playing into this, but one for sure is our inability to

relax.

 

For me, relaxing is being able to do whatever or not do whatever whenever I want.

To cease "do-ing".

But so many times just as I am about to "relax" things like "the dishes are waiting," "the floors are waiting," "the laundry is waiting"......everything that is inanimate seems to come alive, miraculously gets a voice and starts making demands.

They beckon me to animate them.

 

 

 

vacation

time off

getting away

retreats

solitude

checking out

downtime

 

Every culture has a way to deal with this.  In the Japanese culture, it's "Wabi-Sabi" which centers on finding beauty in the simple things.  It's the process of letting go of having a perfect house and embracing nature and simple imperfections. 



Wabi-Sabi.

 

I embrace dust bunnies and dirty dishes.....

 

Wabi-Sabi.

The Italians also have a saying for something similar
 

 "dolce fare niente"
The sweetness of doing nothing.

Others find good use of downtime:
 

 The Finnish hit the sauna

India's culture is fond of head massages

Africans favor drumming
and

Aussies enjoy outdoor meals

 

heat

touch

sound

taste

However you get that time and whatever you do to bring a sense of peace to your soul,

Find
it
this
holiday
season.


Peace to everyone this season, take time and relax.

 

 

Circles

I recently

sat down

at a

potter's

wheel

and

"threw"

a pot. 

 

That's

what

they

 call it. 

Throwing.

It was an

entirely new

experience for me. 

My instructor sat to my left at her

wheel

and showed me exactly

how to position my body. 

As she showed me what to do

she used words like

"centering"

and

"opening". 
 

It took strength

and

concentration.

 More than I thought it would

and as I concentrated on keeping this arm here

and that hand there in one single second I had a feeling that I've never, ever

felt in my life. As I was attempting to create a perfect circle using as much muscle,

and as little muscle as possible, I felt in a very short moment  -  present.

This is the only way I can think to describe this.  I was completely present

and being present in that moment concentrating only on this one thing - to

create a perfect circle, I was complete.  In that instant, I looked at my instructor

and said something like, "whoa, this is incredible" and she got it immediately

replying, "yeah, I've had ministers who have taken my class and written sermons

about

   this."  

The

c

i

r

c

l

e
....... 

It

is

 ever

 present in my work (even if I try to make it into a straight line). 

 

When I was 8, my father

died in a car crash.  It was due to a blown out tire.  When I was 50, I had a show

called "Mapping Memories" with a fellow artist, Kevin Lucero Less, a very

talented fellow.   My partner came up with  "Mapping Memories" and we both explored

the map.  "Lucy" (as he likes to be called) explored Memory Territories with a

collection of painted pieces and a video.  His pieces were precise - super precise

like a map.  His video was called "Re-en-act-ment" a touching story about loss. 

The interesting thing is that we didn't talk much about what I was going to

do or what he was going to do for the show.  The 'map' piece seemed to

have it's own agenda and that agenda brought our work together. 

My pieces were tires.  Yeah...big, black circles

that I reworked to re-make my tragic memory into something else.

 

My pieces (in comparison) were messy with dripping paint. 

 

The circle.

It keeps reappearing in my work

and every single time it's like
a
 big
 hug
       when      
   I 
see
it's
arrival 

.