At the time, I was finishing up my Shipyard Fragments art obsession and flailing around in an eddy of the river of my life, wondering what was next – creatively.
The morning after the workshop, I was sitting with Marla at her kitchen table having one of those wonderful deep sharing, soul nurturing conversations that can take place between women friends. At one point Marla got up from her chair and left the room for a few minutes.
The room was infused with a golden glow. The chair empty, but the space still vibrated from the presence of my friend and the synergy of our conversation. The sky behind it all, both revealed and obscured the future of that day (and of the rest of my life, I thought.) Normally uneasy about this unknown future, in this moment at least, I felt buoyed and held by love — calm, inspired and equal to the challenge of what was to come.
I thought, “Take this in. This is a perfect moment.”
And there in was born my next creative endeavor.
Out of necessity — and as a tribute to my creative father who was always impulsively sketching and drawing with an ink pen on the closest half-way suitable surface — often napkins — I grabbed said napkin and pen and wrote the words you see at the top of this page – Perfect Moments.
Not a particularly beautiful rendering, but a serviceable reminder of the inspiration that day; one that stayed with me, floating around in the background of my life, all these months later.
And TODAY I have entered into, what Elizabeth Gilbert calls, “An official contact” with this creative idea — with a commitment to see it through to wherever it takes me — (which is, of course, a mystery at this point.)
And in this effort, there is no success or failure, only following it through. (And that sure opens up the work!)
In “Betsy speak”, I am calling it the “The Perfect Moment Walkabout”, and I am embarking on this glorious walkabout exploration from the epicenter of my tiny tree house apartment in the Central Oregon city of Bend.
Let the games begin!