Got Journalers' Block?

When stuck, do this:
1. put some color on a page
2. tear out some magazine images that attract you, glue them down here or there.
3. tear out some similarly colored images, and tear them into strips. glue randomly around the page as a border.
4. now write in large letters: FIFTY THINGS
5. list 50 things you love and are grateful for. Works every time.

"Do you think I know what I'm doing? That for one breath or half a breath I belong to myself? As much as a pen knows what it is writing It may be the satisfaction I need depends on my going away So that when I've gone and come back, I'll find it at home." --Rumi

dreaming/journaling

This is a collage done with various bits and pieces that were just hanging around my desk, an old envelope from Hong Kong, a sketch of an owl, some stamps, a translation page from a guidebook, some tissue paper, spray from an ink spray bottle. I printed out part of it for the cover of a little journal I am working on using dreams as part of my art practice.

I have been listening to Robert Moss talking about using our dreams to connect to the universal consciousness of the multiverse. He has written nine books on the subject, and really, all are wonderful. I have been writing down my dreams for years, but just for two years, I have been recording them in a dream journal. I believe his idea that our deeper Soul-self has messages to give us, and that it can use dreams to bring this information to us. Also that, in the multiverse, there are many realities that in dream-time can overlap and vibrate in an informational way.  Exploring this information and asking it to lead us toward a higher truth for ourselves is a very fun and magical path to follow.

For me, journaling also helps to unlock part of the puzzle of the soul's journey.  The words, the images, the strong feelings we get from certain collages help me to connect the dots, and I feel like I have discovered something deeper, it doesn't just feel like a pretty picture or interesting phrase.  Synchronicites can be found, and some sense of connection and revelation when I do work in my journal with my dreams.

It all seems connected - journaling, dreaming, shamanic work . . . . and how fun to open our minds and souls to finding the deeper/truer meaning all around us.

"The same thing happens when you realize that ordinary life is a dream, just a movie, just a play. You don't become more cautious, more timid, more reserved. You start jumping up and down and doing flips, precisely because it's all a dream, it's all pure Emptiness. You don't feel less, you feel more - because you can afford to. You are no longer afraid of dying, and therefore you are not afraid of living. You become radical and wild, intense and vivid, shocking and silly. You let it all come pouring through, because it's all your dream.

 Life then assumes its true intensity, its vivid luminosity, its radical effervescence."
 --Ken Wilber

Have you journaled today?

"If I do good, I feel good, if I do bad, I feel bad." --Abraham Lincoln

Synchronicities.

Standing in line, waiting to get on the Southwest flight that took me to Surtex in NYC, I chatted with a very cute gal, and the topic went to our work and why we were headed to the city. Little did I know she was also an artist, Linda Schneider, and was on her way to the city to teach a calligraphy class.

Later on the flight, I woke up to the adorable little Chinese boy next to me saying a lady wanted me to have this notepaper. Linda had calligraphed (is that a verb?) a little note with my name, and the words "dream art." I don't remember mentioning to her my deep interest in dreaming, but maybe she had a chance to check my website? It felt quite magical. The words were so beautifully lettered, that I immediately glued them in a the journal page I had started working in on the plane.

Thanks, Linda! What a synchronistic way to start my adventure in New York!
and her beautiful, flowing and very elegant work is HERE.

"Reason is like an officer when the king appears. The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun." --Rumi