[L, diary, ephēmeris] 1) BLOG

9/14/2017 7:27:40 PM

Lovely Mudpies

Two days ago, as is my habit when finishing a current journal, I returned to reading the first pages to gain an overview of what might have had significance during the time it covered.  Eighteen pages later (nine days for eight entries), I re-discovered a drawing, embraced by impish prose:

 

 

This was a spontaneous bit of creativity that I liked a lot, (though of course the drawing was inadequate through lack of colored pencils, the too-brief appearance of the rainbow, my own hesitation about the quality of writing, yadda-yadda-yadda) but it delighted me, nonetheless.  It could be read as THREE poems, not just one. That tickled me most. 

 

I sent it to my cousin, who is a good poet and sends me all her stuff.  I've pressed her to further illustrate her work with photos as well, and she has indulged me, so she was the only one I thought I could safely showoff what I'd made.  Sort of like sharing mud pies for each other's approval when we were kids.

 

Sigh. We're not kids anymore.  We're busy, distracted, or maybe I just didn't catch the nod and smile when she opened my email, the acceptance.  So I let it go.  No big deal.  It's Okay. Not deathless prose nor museum quality art. 

 

It had made me feel good so that was enough.

 

I forgot about it.  Until two days ago, when I rediscovered the art, smiled broadly and patted myself on the back, "Hey, not bad!"

 

This morning an email newsletter from THE SCHOOL OF LIFE arrived, providing an intellectual excuse for an emotional desire to again show my 'mudpie':

"Language may not wholly create feelings, but it most definitely and beautifully deepens and clarifies them. The right words help us to know ourselves; through their agency, we can more accurately and securely identify the contents of our inner lives."

That's all the permission I needed to publish a post.

"Talking to yourself can be useful. And writing means being overheard."
--Zadie Smith--

ahh...but as Thomas Mann said,

"Speech is civilization itself.
The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact
-- it is silence which isolates.

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Comments

2 Responses to Lovely Mudpies

Hi Diane! Hooray for showing me (and us!) your mud pie! I cannot wait to see more. I love peeking inside other people's art journals...and your drawing alongside your thoughts about that morning sky "unique for all to see only once". Beautiful! And thankfully, via the power of this technology and sharing your gifts...we can see that unique moment too.
hugs from port townsend!
Frances
PS) I'm not familiar with the official "School of Life" - thanks for another resource to explore! ; )

Francis, you are a delight, an inspirational blogger/website/artist whose joyous posts (https://francesclementsfawcett.com) are the essence of creativity in motion. I hope the numerous forwards I'd made of your last newsletter net you even more followers.

I am so grateful that you took the time to comment and sign up for my newsletter. You've motivated me to stop procrastinating because everything is not perfect, and send one very soon. So very pleased to have found so much commonality between the two of us and our struggles with being, 'recovering "YES!"-addicts'. I'm still slogging my way (happily) through the numerous links you shared in your posts...will keep in touch.


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