365 Days, Day 352

Most locked doors are in your mind (Harry Houdini)

I was in rehearsals, waiting behind a door to come out while a couple onstage were having a row. They started throwing furniture and a chair lodged in front of the door.

My cue came and I could only get halfway in. I stopped and said, 'I can't get in. The chair's in the way.'

And the producer said, 'Use the difficulty.'

I said, 'What do you mean?'

And he said, 'Well, if it's a drama [you're acting in], pick up the chair and smash it. If it's a comedy, fall over it.'

This idea stuck in my mind, and I taught it to my children -- that any situation in life that's negative, there is something positive you can do with it.

(Michael Caine)

I spent most of the day travelling around London looking for fabric. Not a very productive day. I think this new door is somewhat jammed or the re is a “chair” in the way. Will mull over the how to “use the difficulty”…

365 Days, Day 351

To fly one must first shed the weights of doubt (Carlene Primus)

You were born with potential

You were born with goodness and trust

You were born with ideals and dreams

You were born with greatness

You were born with wings

You are not meant for crawling, so don't

You have wings

Learn to use them, and fly

(Mevlana Rumi 1207 - 1273)

A hunch is angel talk, and probably should not be ignored.

Listen to your hunches, pay attention to your intuition, do not dismiss your random thoughts, inspirations or ideas.

Heaven talks in snippets, not in speeches.

Angels whisper fast.

They have to when they're flying around...

Honour your Hints from Heaven.

They could be giving you the best advice you ever had.

(Neale Donald Walsch)

This statue by Albert Toft is part of The Hall of Memory in Centenary Square, Birmingham (which commemorates the 12,320 Birmingham citizens who died in World War I). There are four statues on the outside of the memorial representing Army, Navy, Air Force and Women's Services. From my quotes you can guess which this one represents.

I remember doing my matric final English speech on aviation and how it fascinated me. I am still somewhat attracted to flying, but these days helicopters of a military nature instil a passion within me. Past life…

Today I labelled myself as an ‘artist’. I felt like I was stirring my wings a little. Maybe if I shed the weights of my doubts (about being an artist), I will take off and fly!

365 Days, Day 350

I am interested in the body because it is the place where emotions are most directly registered. When you feel frightened, when you feel excited, happy, depressed, somehow the body registers it (Antony Gormley)

The impossible thing that I'm trying to do is accept that we live in the world of the visible but make it unsatisfactory enough that behind the visible is some other kind of potential that does not exist in the sculpture but exists in you the viewer (Antony Gormley)

The body is put together from these pieces of mould taken at a particular time. That time has been fragmented, broken apart and then remade, healed in some way (Antony Gormley)

Antony Gormley’s work has long fascinated me. His use of his own body in his art works, because it is practical and available, makes sense. His bodies/sculptures are scattered around the country. So it was with much delight that I discovered this one is Birmingham. It is called Iron: Man, and was meant to pay tribute to the traditional skills of the ‘Black Country’.

Seeing this work has inspired me to revisit the documentation of his art, which speaks of bodily sensation and memory and inhabiting a Space. Gormley’s work is often controversial, but is loaded with thought and intellect.

I enjoy the tension he creates in his bodies: leaning or suspending them, or placing them in the ever-changing waves on the beach. His work provokes thought.

I have ideas in my head of creating clay torsos. But after being confronted with Gormley’s work again, I shall give each torso serious thought and a narrative before I commence working. I shall consider Time, creating, breaking down, fragmenting, re-creating; healing. Each work needs to go on a journey before it reaches completion. Documenting this journey will become part of the journey. The viewer needs to take over the journey and become part of its continuation.

365 Days, Day 349

I am that I am, I am beauty, I am peace, I am joy, I am one with Mother Earth. I am one with everyone within the reach of my voice. In this togetherness, we ask the divine intelligence to eradicate all negatives from our hearts, from our minds and from our actions. And so be it....ashe (Babatunde Olatunji)

It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity (B.K.S. Iyengar)

The real beauty of realizing your true nature is in the freshness,

peace and deep bodily relaxation which touches to the core of

your being, flows into your everyday life and bursts forth naturally

into blossoming from within itself. Without you 'doing' a thing

about any of it.

This is a beautiful and simple change of lifestyle.

A lifestyle of letting go and living openhandedly, curled

up in the sunlit warmth on the lap of

the Divine - your heart

(Julie Sarah Powell)

Day out in Birmingham visiting Kyle and Sarah. It was a day of sensory overload: with only snatches of the stimuli received being assimilated. Thoughts, images, words, sounds all overlapping. But a general feeling of warmth and contentment.

Kyle and Sarah have created a lovely little home for themselves, they are happy and finding their feet. Slowly unfurling in their new environment.

On walking back to their studio apartment, Sarah and I walked past a burned out building. Looking through the window I saw a pigeon perched on the window ledge. It was a little angel message: let go, unfurl, and the Divine will warm your heart.

365 Days, Day 348

The object in being on the spiritual path is not to have just a little influx of energy, but to be the energy itself – consciously (Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami)

To liberate the human spirit we must embrace heightened consciousness and enhance the flow of positive energy. We are beings of light and energy, once we accept this truth our soul can soar with the angels (Micheal Teal)

Inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic energy striving, but it comes to us slowly and quietly and all the time (Brenda Ueland)

I was delighted by and amazed at the energy and talent of the students at the Youth Theatre in Camden today. I watched them sing (brilliantly - enjoyment tingled down my spine) and dance an urban dance and a jazz dance (I was entranced). As I watched them, I knew why they were there: keeping their creativity bubbling and boiling.

My role will be to make costumes for some of the cast. Being with creative people will enhance my flow of creative energy. I will become creative energy…

365 Days, Day 347

Make everything in you an ear, each atom of your being, and you will hear at every moment what the Source is whispering to you… you are - we all are - the beloved of the beloved, and in every moment, in every event of your life, the Beloved is whispering to you exactly what you need to hear and know. Who can ever explain this miracle? It simply is (Mevlana Rumi 1207 - 1273)

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk (Raymond Inmon)

You may command Nature to the extent only in which you are willing to obey her. You cannot intelligently obey that which you do not comprehend. Therefore I also say, ask of Nature that you may be one with her and she will whisper her secrets to you to the extent in which you are prepared to listen. Seek to be alone much to commune with Nature and be thus inspired by her mighty whisperings within your consciousness. Nature is a most jealous god, for she will not whisper her inspiring revelations to you unless you are absolutely alone with her (Walter Russell)

A fast but long walk in the forest with Lilly today was good for my body. But I did not take the time to be with Nature or to listen to her. But I am making everything in me be an ‘ear’ – listening and picking up on whispers.

Tomorrow into the vibe and energy of London… what will I hear there? I will endeavour to hear the whisperings.

Sometimes in between Nature and Life, the whispers seep through. Right now my soul needs to be stabilised, so it has withdrawn from the world to an extent: to find peace and stillness. I have been fighting the system, the world – thinking that I need to find a job, need to earn money, need to be useful, need to be perfect. Perhaps I need to be kinder to myself and realise that what I think is right for me, may not be. Maybe I should stop trying to fix everyone and everything and let myself heal first. I wouldn’t mind a good relaxing Reiki session…

Actually I don’t like airing my feelings like this – it is very hard because I keep thinking that you are going to read this and be concerned about my well-being. But it is just a churning of thoughts that would usually be in a Diary that no-one would read. Sometimes just expressing in words what I think is a process of healing. Making order out of the chaos. So when you read these words, tread very carefully for you are treading inside my head…

Listen to what is being whispered to you: take time to be still and really listen. Will you share your whisperings with me?

365 Days, Day 346

Rules for Being Human

1 You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2 You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or you may think them irrelevant and stupid.

3 There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."

4 A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then move on to the next lesson.

5 Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6 "There" is no better than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will, again look better than "here."

7 Others are merely a mirror of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something that you love or hate about yourself.

8 What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.

9 Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10 You will forget all this!

Harmony

Embracing the Way

you become embraced

Breathing gently

you become newborn

Clearing your mind

you become clear

Nurturing your children

you become impartial

Opening your heart

you become accepted

Accepting the world

you embrace the Way

Bearing and nurturing

Creating but not owning

Giving without demanding

This is harmony

(Tao De Jing)

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life (Krishnamurti)

I found today’s quotes in an entirely unexpected place – not my usual-plethora-of-quotes-site – but from a church website! It is a long story, but basically I am going to see about a possible (unpaid) job at this church hall: making costumes for a Youth Theatre project. I am quite excited about this, because even though I won’t get paid, it will possibly open doors for a new venture…

So tomorrow after I have finished the poster for the next Barn production, I will look at the skies, read a little, dance and write a poem…