an oldie but a goodie
cartoon © 2009 Jean Burman
If ever verification was needed for the power of positive thinking… positive action… and the extreme benefits of taking the leaps of faith I have had to take over the past 14 months… I now have it.
Just climbing through 19,000 feet… [okay my love of flying is officially now legendary - say no more] I have been away for nearly four weeks. How did a week turn into four I wonder? I am now winging my way home to pack up and move south. I know I know… I said I wasn’t going anywhere for now… but the Universe apparently has other plans for me!
Funny how things happen when you let go… and say yes to pretty much everything [within reason of course]. I can’t begin to tell you how much my life has changed over the past year… and how many opportunities have come my way since I began saying yes to the Universe instead of fighting it every step of the way… which I’ve now realised is something I have pretty much done all of my life! [Grin]
And this especially includes saying yes to a whole range of opportunities and experiences that I might otherwise have thought were not for me. I’ve now learned not to do that… for things are rarely as they seem at first glance.
We all have limitless potential but first we have to get over our limiting beliefs to realise it. All I can say is…
TAKE THAT LEAP!
The only downside to this move [if ever there could be one] will be that I shall have to relinquish… for now… my beautiful tropical northern Australian location… my good friends [if they don't come visit! grin]… and life as I had re-invented it. But that’s okay for now.
Nothing is ever for nothing… and nothing is ever forever!
ahhh… I love this place… [insanely hot here at the moment tho]
What it does mean though is that for the time being I shall have a home on my own terms… and a definitive place from which to go forward. And the very best thing of all is that…for the first time in over a year … I shall have a dedicated creative space from which to work!
Oddly enough this one requirement has become more essential to me than breath… so urgent is my need to simply get on with the work at hand. My creative process has been the one sure thing that has sustained me throughout this transformational period of my life. And it’s this process that shall finally have my utmost priority over the next few months as I adjust to my new home.
At last I shall have somewhere to do what I love to do more than anything else in the whole wide world… when… where and however I want to do it.
Write. Paint. Create. Plan. Dream. Go forward… and move on.
It’s a sensational feeling… almost as exhilarating as those first few moments of flight! (((chuckles)))
With the stars aligned… and God willing… I may [at last] be the master of my own destiny and the architect of my own dreams.
I would have once said “I can’t wait”… but of course… I now know that I CAN [wait] and that now anything… absolutely anything… is possible.
The sky might be the limit.
But the Universe knows no such bounds!
Hope to see you all on the other side… watch this space for updates on my new space! Coming soon.
One last coffee – for now – at the Port Bookshop
[but I'll be back]
FLASHBACK artwork Copyright 2009 Jean Burman
Sheesh… and I thought I was pushing stuff uphill at the end of 2007! (((chuckles)))
I’m off to Brisbane today to pick up some art supplies. I boxed up much of it when I was home a week or so ago and posted the boxes down to myself here on the Coast… but somehow left behind my large portfolio with a whole (unopened) bag of new paper in it. I had excess baggage anyway… so maybe leaving it behind was a good thing. And I can always get it next time.
Meantime though… I’m chaffing at the bit to get paint to paper. Hence the trip to Brisbane. I can’t wait to browse the aisles of Eckersleys to see what I will find. I love art supply shops. They all have the same smell no matter where in the world you go! It’s a peculiar combination of paint paper clay glue… I don’t know what… but it never fails to spark the flame of inspiration in me.
I knew a guy once who (along with his beautiful wife) owned an art shop. He ran classes occassionally in the loft above the store. He was a big man with a beard and a somewhat gruff personality (if you didn’t know him better). He scared the begeezes out of me for a long time… but then as time went on and I visited the shop and took a few classes… I seemed to catch his drift.
He was passionate about art. Moreover he was passionate about his materials. I remember his thunderous voice on one such occasion loudly booming…
“you’ve got to be in LOVE with your materials”
He punctuated the statement with a ferocious wave of his fist at the back wall where art hung as a glorious exemplary metaphor. I thought he was nuts.
At the time I was only in love with the wafty idea of the subject floating vicariously around in my head… so I didn’t really get it. I thought the paint and the paper or canvas… the clay… or whatever… was just a means to an end.
But no… after all these years… and now that big John has gone to that big art studio in the sky… I do finally get it. I love the stuff that makes it happen!
I do I do I do!
I love the brushes for the varying marks they make… each with their own unique personality. I love the paper which, depending on brand, shape or size gives me a totally different mood and feel. I love the paint as it flows across the paper and settles into crevices along it’s path… creating new and unexpected nuances I could never have ever imagined in the first place.
I love the feel of it. The “doing” of it.
Yes… I love my “stuff”. And I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
After that… maybe a leisurely lunch somewhere… and then on to the Queensland Art Gallery to see what’s new on the exhibition circuit. You might remember my report on Picasso back in August last year which ignited so much new found passion for Modigliani!
Well… watch out here I go again. And depending on whose work is showing… this time they may have to tie me down… (or not!) We’ll see.
artwork Copyright 2009 Jean Burman
Hello Everyone.
Back in February 2008 when I wrote of change I could not have known how blustery the winds of change could be… how fast they could blow through a life… and how far they would eventually sweep me!
I know we should “be careful what we wish for” but I must confess… I’d been secretly hoping for change. Nothing big, mind you. Something small and manageable would have been good. A gentle nudge even… perhaps?
But no… when change finally came… it was far from the gentle breeze I had anticipated. It was a maelstrom. A veritable whirlpool of changing events that played out so fast and so convincingly I could only deduce that it was “what was meant to be”. The universe had intervened. A hapless bystander in my own life… there was no avoiding any of it.
“The moving finger writes; and having writ moves on. Nor all thy piety nor thy wit shall serve to cancel half a line; nor all thy tears wash out a word of it” from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
But I am happy to report that I have “lived to tell the tale”. Not that I am going to tell it here! (grin) Suffice it to say that whilst my life has irrevocably changed… I have never been better. Yes it has made me sad… but I am no stranger to that. And I shall no doubt feel it again before my days are over.
But viewed in a prudential light my troubles have been few. I am not facing death, sickness or bankruptcy. It is simply time to say goodbye to a part of my life and move gloriously on! It’s only “change”… and I can do that! (grin)
I’ve emerged stronger and wiser than I could ever have imagined. The things I knew to be true yesterday are no longer an issue. The things I now know were false all along no longer matter.
I am brimming with optimism for the future and feel a deep sense of “rightness” with my world. Most of all… I know in my heart that the best of my life is yet to come.
artwork Copyright 2009 Jean Burman
So finally… at last… Happy New Year everyone! Despite all the bad news in the press… the doom and gloom on every page. None of it really matters. It’s all beyond our control anyway. The only thing we can control in life… is our response to it.
And the really good news is it’s still an incredibly beautiful and all encompassing world. We have art. We have music. We have words. We have life. We have each other. I am still working on the joyful bit… but I can feel it in the wind… though coming on a gentle breeze this time… curling quietly round the corner!
Thanks for waiting.
I’ve missed you all.
