{"id":3736,"date":"2015-12-29T17:06:33","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T01:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=3736"},"modified":"2015-12-29T17:10:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T01:10:09","slug":"december-29-2015-patience-and-practice-my-wish-and-intention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/december-29-2015-patience-and-practice-my-wish-and-intention\/","title":{"rendered":"December 29, 2015 – Patience and practice – my wish and intention"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \n \"Fb-Button\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>
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\"One<\/a>

One reason I’ve not been painting – I’ve been puzzling! This one is of one of my paintings – Paris<\/i> – fun to be re-working my own artwork!<\/p><\/div>\n

Listen to this post:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151229-Post.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

A year ago, at the end of my last post of the year, I wrote this:<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow is the last day of 2014. Though it\u2019s rather arbitrary, the calendar is a structure that we live around. As such, we look at endings and beginnings. I\u2019ve been shying away from New Year\u2019s resolutions for several years. I\u2019m so susceptible to the \u201cbright-shiny\u201d-ness of the hope for a \u201cwhole new me.\u201d Though it\u2019s still useful to reflect and envision. Looking back on this year [2014], much of what I was so eager and hopeful for at the start, has not come to be. But what I do see, is a profound deepening of my understanding and appreciation, for who I am and what I\u2019m here to do and offer…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026Looking into 2015, with a tender heart, I wish for Life in Full Color to expand, to find its way to bring life, light, color, inspiration to other hearts that resonate with it. I wish for whatever is needed in me, for me to understand, that Life in Full Color is so much more than me, and that bringing it more fully into being, will take much more than me. And I trust that at the end of December 2015, I will look back and see, that something has moved and changed and grown. It\u2019s the nature of the universe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Reading this and reflecting on where I was when I wrote it, I feel the tenderness of my heart and the hopes and dreams it held for the coming year. There is a daring in sharing these hopes. We have no idea what will unfold – or how. Things did change and expand and grow this year. I reviewed much of what happened in a post<\/a> at the end of September, marking a year of writing every week. Right after that was the Pilgrimage to Paris \u2013 an enormous<\/em> expansion! And, the \u201cteam\u201d that makes Life in Full Color happen, is no longer just me. Since sometime in the spring, Shonna Hirney with Heart and Soul Virtual Assistance<\/a> \u2013 a lovely, lively and capable woman near Calgary, Alberta, Canada, takes my words and images, and creates these posts \u2013 here on my site and on Facebook – and sends the emails, so that I can get back to painting.<\/p>\n

On a deeper level, as compared to a year ago, I have a visceral experience of both how resilient I am, and how precious and valuable what I have to share is. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m really any more resilient or that it\u2019s more valuable or precious than a year ago, it\u2019s that I now see it, I know it, I have it in my bones in a way I did not. I also have more clarity about what is possible through making art a major part of our lives. We wake up and become more conscious and present – to who we are as people – and to life. This all provides another place for me to stand, at the edge of a new year. But looking back, I see that the growth I\u2019d hoped for was bigger than this. I know I\u2019m not alone in my hope for change to happen really quickly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I keep forgetting this, but my endeavors, my business, Life in Full Color, is my creation just as any of my watercolors \u2013 only on a larger scale. All that I observe and learn about the art-making process – in myself and the artists who paint with me \u2013 applies to creating my business as well. In a wonderful book on making art called, \u201cArt and Fear\u201d<\/a>, I read this: \u201cThe artist\u2019s life is frustrating, not because the passage [of bringing our imagination to life] is slow, but because he imagines<\/em> [emphasis mine] it to be fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same book, there is a story of a pianist, who laments to his master that he can hear the music so much better in his head, than he can get it out of his fingers. The master asks him \u201cwhat makes you think that ever changes?\u201d It\u2019s the distance, the mismatch between what we envision and the reality of our work, and life that keeps us working towards our vision. It is a really good thing that our hopes leap out ahead of our lives.<\/p>\n

I have no idea where it has come from, but I\u2019ve been ambitious about my endeavors as an artist from the start. I found these synonyms to the various meanings of \u201cambition\u201d: aspiration, yearning, longing, goal, aim, drive, force. There is a forward motion in these words. They seem to move from one to the next \u2013 almost accelerating. Ambition is the force that brings our work out of us. But ambition must be also be balanced \u2013 there\u2019s the cautionary term \u201cblind ambition\u201d for a reason. The purpose of my work as a creator, is to be in service to those who are there to receive it. My work must be done in relationship with the world, with life – my partners in evolution. If I\u2019m blind to what the world has to show me, I can\u2019t include it in my work.<\/p>\n

To the impatient parts of us, a year seems like a long enough time to have all we dream of in our endeavors to come to be, but it\u2019s hardly any time at all. It takes lived experiences to reveal things to us, that we couldn\u2019t have thought of. The clarity and specificity that is required isn\u2019t there\u2026 until it is!<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m wishing for, for the New Year is patience<\/em>. I will faithfully hold my hopes and dreams for expansion, and<\/em> I will endeavor to remind myself, to trust that all things come in their own<\/em> time. I will also faithfully do the work. There is no substitute for sitting my butt down and doing what is mine to do. There will be emails to send to let you know what I\u2019m offering, another Pilgrimage to Paris, maybe a watercolor retreat on Kauai, maybe another in the wine country, a calendar for 2017, and of course my regular groups to lead and my paintings to paint.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a regular spiritual practice, and I\u2019ve been told so many times (including by myself) that I really need to. It has occurred to me, that my painting is my devotion<\/em> \u2013 and in that, it is<\/em> my spiritual practice. But, there are many, many days that get by me \u2013 like the past two weeks or so – when I don\u2019t paint at all! I know!<\/em> With that same tender heart, I set this intention for 2016: I will paint every day<\/em>. I\u2019m saying here, that I\u2019ll paint for at least a half an hour \u2013 but 5 minutes will do. Every day. Off-to-the-airport-travel-days, staying-in-a-hotel-room-days, not-feeling-so-well-days \u2013 I will put brush to paint to paper – every<\/em> day.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>

In painting every day, I\u2019ll start with finishing this one!<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s scary to share this publicly. But, I\u2019ve shown myself that I can keep to a practice with these posts. And doing so, has me hold myself differently. Now, I\u2019m upping the ante. It will take arranging my life (like bringing art supplies with me wherever I go) so that I can keep the commitment. And I\u2019m guessing that doing this will shift my relationship with my art-making. I look forward to the post at the end of 2016, when I\u2019ll get to share with you how!<\/p>\n

For 2015, I thank you for your faithful following of my journey each week. Knowing you are there is what has me corral myself to get writing every Tuesday morning. And for 2016, I wish for you what you wish for yourself (thanks, Lynda Wise) \u2013 in its own time and way.<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

Cara<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to this post: A year ago, at the end of my last post of the year, I wrote this: \u201cTomorrow is the last day of 2014. Though it\u2019s rather arbitrary, the calendar is a structure that we live around. As such, we look at endings and beginnings. I\u2019ve been shying away from New Year\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDecember 29, 2015 - Patience and practice - my wish and intention - Life in Full Color<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/december-29-2015-patience-and-practice-my-wish-and-intention\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"December 29, 2015 - Patience and practice - my wish and intention - Life in Full Color\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Listen to this post: A year ago, at the end of my last post of the year, I wrote this: \u201cTomorrow is the last day of 2014. 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