7 Things Inspiring Me Today

1. Recent paintings (done standing up at an easel) by my 7-year-old daughter, Grace. (above: Sunset Sky, 2009.)

2. Pamela Tanner's documentary, Who Does She Think She Is? about how, for some women artists, "creativity and care-taking do not need to be mutually exclusive." (Can I just say, "Amen, Sister"?!)

3. Finally finishing Debbie Ford's Dark Side of the Light Chasers and finding it one of the most powerful books I have ever read. (I am now working my way through the chapter exercises and find them illuminating and healing.)

4. The possibility, hope and expansive energy surrounding the Inauguration tomorrow. (Welcome, President Obama!)

5. The Journal Prompt series from poet Sarah Busse on Pewaukee, Wisconsin-based writer Kris Babe's Writing Babe blog. (I am also enjoying Kris's writing-centered musings, including her three-part interview with writer and University of Wisconsin faculty member Laurel Yourke on Common Fiction mistakes.)

6. Brene Brown's wise, comforting and expansive CD lecture on the Gifts of Imperfect Parenting. (CD is currently sold out, but website says more will be available in mid-January. One of the best and most empowering lectures I have ever heard on not just parenting, but living into our fullness. Buy this!) I also adore Brene's blog, Ordinary Courage. (her tagline: "adventures in truth-telling, soul-making and twinkle-lighting." Love that!) And this quote that is on her website captures how I want to be in the world:

 (Image from Brene Brown's website, brenebrown.com)

7. Reading through my husband's issues of Esquire magazine. (Why, oh why, can't there be a women's magazine that includes such a brilliant mix of fashion, practical tips, relationship advice and celebrities with great writing and design?) Especially loving the January 2009 theme: What I've Learned. (Two favs: From composer Philip Glass: "You practice and you get better. It's very simple." From Clint Eastwood: "Children teach you that you can still be humbled by life, that you learn something new all the time That's the secret to life really — never stop learning.")

Tell me, what is inspiring you today?

Flowering Fridays: On Patience

Patience is also a form of action — Auguste Rodin

Admittedly, this is not the best picture. (I love my Canon Powershot, but it does have its limits!)

Nonetheless, for me, it's an important picture.

Last year for Christmas my mom sent me a Phalaenopsis orchid through the mail. Admittedly, that in itself is an optimistic act for a tropic flower to last (even with express delivery) through the brittle Wisconsin weather. And indeed when the beautiful orchid arrived it was frostbit, its many blooms were withered and its leaves were pocked with marks. 

It broke my heart to see this plant, which had to endure this suffering just because it was sent to my house.This was the second plant that the floral company had sent. (The first one fared even worse.) And again the representative at the floral company told me to throw it out, but I couldn't bear to do so.

So, I removed the dead stalks as they finally withered up, then tended to this plant as I do my other six orchids — by watering it, talking to it and placing it above the sink on a sunny southern-facing windowsill.

At times it has felt like a futile undertaking. Nothing has been happening for months, but there were some leaves that still looked green. And so I waited. And hoped. And practiced patience, a trait that I'm committed to cultivating more deeply.

And lo and behold, after Christmas, I noticed the first signs of the new stalks and the buds forming. Soon there will be blooms.

Thank you, dear orchid, for the teaching me about being patient and how to be patient takes action.

To keep watering and keep trusting the blooms were coming even when they weren't yet results to show for it is patience in action.

It's a lesson I need to remember in life and in the projects I intend to "seed" this year. 

Tell me, what areas of your life are you watering and trusting that it will someday bloom?

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Flowering Fridays is a weekly look at flowers through the lens of what they might teach us about flowering fully in our life. Past editions are here.

Art of Appreciating the Details

Detail of a piece of art in the Milwaukee Art Museum's Outsider and Folk Art Collection

We spent Saturday afternoon as a family at the Milwaukee Art Museum. I'm so glad to be a member. Each time I visit, I'm appreciate more and more what a wonderful museum this is — great exhibitions, interesting collection and a visitor-oriented experience that makes the art easy to enjoy.

This time part of the joy was sharing the experience with our daughter, Grace, who is seven. There is a family-focus on the weekends, and on Saturday, Grace had her pick of various art immersion packs, costumes or a find-the-hands-i-the-painting scavenger hunt. (She chose the scavenger hunt and found all of them.)

What I loved most was her walking into a room a proclaiming picture X or picture Y her favorite. Often for reasons she could not explain. (Me neither, most times.)

Michael pointing out the details to Grace

But what I will remember most from this visit is my surprise at looking at her as she took notes in her scavenger hunt notebook in front of a window overlooking Lake Michigan. There were many beautiful details: The gray of the sky. The patchwork quilting on the lake's icy cover. Her profile framed against the large window. 

What took my breath away, though, was noticing how lanky and how, well, big she has gotten recently. Growing up so quickly from a babe in my arms into this confident and lovely young girl.

It was a powerful lesson on impermanence and a reminder to stay present and to appreciate all the details every single day.

Tell me, what small details of your life are you appreciating today?