Art EveryDay - EveryWhere in EveryWay

Here I am in day 29 of the Art Everyday Month Challenge. It has been amazing, in both subtle and obvious ways. I feel infused with a soulful creative expression that is pure delight. I feel humbled, touched and boosted by the living practices of Life as Art, Love as Art and Art as Meditation. Here are written and visual snapshots of the final week of Art Everyday Nuggets.

• The Art of Visioning: I see a flourishing, functional, thriving Ecovillage, with beautiful green/solar/wind powered facilities, including homes, guest cottages, retreat center, dance/event space, school, ropes course, sweat lodge, permaculture gardens, goats, chickens, wild spaces, art spaces, zen gardens, sanctuary, aligned community and home. Did I mention it has a river running through the property and is perpetually financially fueled by a multimillion dollar endowment? You get the picture. Visioning is an Art. Dare to vision into the miraculous.

• The Art of Family Reunion: Thanksgiving week found us rejoicing with family in town from CA, AZ and FL. Surrendering to the joy of kids bouncing off walls and running down halls, tracking 3 or 4 conversations at once, and 'tai chi-ing' the needs, preferences and rhythms of many people for several days - was true art. We had a blast, and stayed committed to real connection & love.
  

• The Art Of Nature: The natural world is rich with inspiring masterpieces of art. Today as we hiked the gorgeous canyons of the Sonoran desert, I found myself creating pujas of earth sculpture and mandala prayers. Autumn kissed leaves danced around circles of stones glistening with mica specs. Rock balancing meditations, and fairy houses constructed of twigs and golden grasses were embraced within the backdrop of striking mountains and vast blue sky. Mother nature, the original Earth Artist is a potent teacher of impermanence and eternal beauty all at once.
  

• The Art Of Collage: Some of you already know that I am a serious collage junkie. It has been a heart practice of mine for many moons. I love how bits of paper of people, places, images and color somehow come together, effortlessly to express a depth that words cannot touch. As cards, prayers, full/new moon vision boards and beyond, collage art rocks!

• The Art of Movement: Running through foothills trails like a bounding deer, my heart pumps and leaps with the joie de vivre. Wind in my hair, sun shine on my face-I am not dreaming of heaven, I am living it. Followed by a yoga asana set on my front patio amidst full moon and big top sky, I am refreshed, chakras flowing with life force, body supple, mind clear, heart open.
  

• The Art of Soul Dance: A sister to The Art of Movement, the soul dance is informed by an authentic impulse to express freedom from the inside out. I love ecstatic dance. It is medicine. Flowing, rhythmic and provocative music, a dance floor, and the sacred space to ignite and shake it all loose is bliss to me. Soul dance is a practice of love, a devotion, a prayer, a joy, a healing salve, elixir and most definitely an art.
  

• The Art Of Zen Homemaking: Simply caring for home, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry can be regenerative and enjoyable. Today, Kenya, Talia and I blended our chores with crafting and art-making all day long. My sense of relaxation, gratitude and love shifted my tasks from suffering to sanctuary. Check out my greatest inspiration of Zen Homemaking, Karen Maezen Miller. She says, "The kitchen is not only the heart of a home, it can also be the heart of our mindfulness practice. In cooking and cleaning, we move beyond ourselves and into compassionate care of everything and everyone around us."
  

This concludes my 4 part series on Art Everyday. Honorable mention also goes to The Art of Tickling, Wrestling, Relating, Goofing and Doing Nothing. I am eternally grateful for the meditation, exploration, and experiment this month has been. I see clearly that the spirit of soulful, creative expression is everywhere! Life as art really is art everyday in every way. Thanks for coming along on the ride and please comment to this post and let me know what you have learned about your life as art this month!
All Love, Gabriela

Work/Life Balance-It is YOUR Time! How do you want to ENJOY it?

Well, it has been another stellar day in the Universe.
By 8:30 am, my dear friend, Kuumba (check out her luscious herbal products) and I were on top of our favorite Tucson mountain peak, which she has affectionately named The Stairway to Heaven! It is a direct ascension into pure bliss, nature consciousness. Simultaneously, it is a descent into the core of our strong bodies, and a merging with the spirit of the mountain. Mother Nature always provides. I take step after step and breath after breath of this strenuous climb, and she soothes my soul, reminding me of my commitment to life. As my heart thumps with momentum, life force bursts and beams with radiance all around me. This year the rains have been so generous in the Sonoran desert. The wildflowers, in every color dance across the mountain landscape and the bright green new growth is fecund.

The process of the climb and the outrageously stunning view from the top, with swooping sparrows, hawks and glorious wilderness - with city, so tiny and far down below, puts everything in my life into perspective. My mood soars, my heart is humbled. Just yesterday, I was feeling bogged down with work; stressed and annoyed at my busy schedule, short tempered and yearning for some down time. Today, I claimed it.

My dear friend Britt (Check out her inspiring blog and work) had just sent me this article, inspired by our ongoing conversation about what makes for a rich, authentic life.

Writer Anne Lamott shared, “the foundation of almost all wisdom traditions...is that there is nothing you can buy, achieve, own, or rent that can fill up that hunger inside for a sense of fulfillment and wonder. But the good news is that creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty. Then I bring up the bad news: You have to make time to do this."

I just loved this. I have been fortunate enough to live what is mostly a life of fulfillment and wonder. Though I admit, sometimes even the creative work, that is my joy becomes too full, tiring, out of balance - driven by agendas. Living in our culture and cultivating non doing can seem like an upstream swim at times. Though I value simply being, slowing down and staying present, I need to choose it as often as possible.

The allies and opportunities to remind me are everywhere. My mountain top meditation gave so much. The mountain spirit even gave me a bit of 'a talkin' to.'

"Savor your life. Be more patient. Cherish your loved ones. The life of your dreams is here, now. Not when the work is done. Not when there is more money. Not when there is more space. Receive it now. Give thanks."

With gratitude, presence and contentment, we ran down the trail in half the time of our approach. We felt more energized than when we'd began, regenerated by a frequency of total abundance. The myriad of reasons to feel stressed now felt unimportant and dissolved away, and the reasons to feel grateful just kept expanding.

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In the afternoon, Talia and I made chocolate cupcakes for another dear friend, Kimi's (MultiDisciplinary Artist/Educator) birthday. We have made it a mother-daughter tradition to bake for birthdays. We experiment with alternative ingredients - coconut and brown rice flour - never measuring anything. Mostly our experiments are delicious, but even if they weren't nothing would be lost. I practice being relaxed with Talia's messy mixing and constant desire to dip her finger in the batter. I delight in the alchemy of creating together.

Today, Ziggy Marley sang in the background "Lift up your hearts with a smile, lift up your feet with a dance, lift up your spirits with a song". We sang and danced along. Talia used her batter covered spatula (the licking trophy) as a microphone. As our goodies baked, we watered our backyard plants (which I inherited from yet another dear friend!). We loved up our fuchsia bougainvillea, aromatic jasmine, bright yellow brittle bush and a community of inspiring green beings. The wind chimes sang, the quail, doves and cactus wren chatted. We laughed, splashing each other under the sun-kissed blue sky - views of the mountains in every direction. Heaven on Earth.

All the other "work details" still got attention. Yet everything I touched today felt lighter. It all had a flavor of effortless flow. I experienced that phenomena (many of you know well) of accomplishing more in less time, while also additionally enjoying quality restorative and family space.

I have no complaints at all whatsoever. Time is what I make it. It is my time, it is your time. It is THE time. How do you want to enjoy it?

"Now is when it is. Here is where it is. You are what it is. Celebrate."
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