Spring Cleaning

During the last several days, I have been going through my studio and discovering all sorts of things that I no longer use or will use. All those projects I thought I was going to complete and new art techniques practiced. But alas!! My artistic journey continues to wind here and there and some of these things just sit on a shelf, gathering dust, calling out to be used. The spring cleaning bug has gotten me. I have piles to donate to charity, give away to friends, toss, and sell. For those of you interested in brass stencils, vintage beaded collars, paints, rubber stamps, and more....you will now find them listed in my Esty shop. I will list more as I have the time to do so.

In the meantime, are you enjoying the birthing of Spring??? I live in California and the days have been absolutely gorgeous. The trees are ripe with their new leaves ready to burst forth, our garden is the meeting place of so many beautiful birds and my cymbidium orchids are in bloom already. I LOVE this time of year.

I thought you might enjoy this poem by Mary Oliver:

The Sun

Have you ever seen anything

in your life

more wonderful

than the way the sun,

every evening,

relaxed and easy,

floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,

or the rumpled sea,

and is gone--

and how it slides again

out of the blackness,

every morning,

on the other side of the world,

like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,

say, on a morning in early summer,

at its perfect imperial distance--

and have you ever felt for anything

such wild love --

do you think there is anywhere, in any language,

a word billowing enough

for the pleasure

that fills you,

as the sun

reaches out,

as it warms you

as you stand there, empty-handed--

or have you too

turned from this world--

or have you too

gone crazy

for power

for things?

I'm ready to let go of a lot of "things."........it is such a freeing, cleansing feeling.

I will also be letting go of not only physical things but also emotional "things" that just want to hang around like excess baggage gathering dust, no longer serving their initial purpose. Each piece of emotional baggage that I determine to no longer serve me in a positive way, that serves as a block to my growth, or hinders my potential to be the happiest I can be.....will be blessed and let go. Taking such an inventory of oneself can be the ultimate in Spring Cleaning and the birthing of your truer self!

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Tootles

Diana