“What one does can originate nowhere but in one’s life.” says Wendell Berry. He goes on in his essay to impart some crazy cool wisdom about living peaceably. My husband and I have spent the better part of our adult lives doing battle against the American tradition of striving for prosperity and getting more stuff. I suppose if you looked at my back account, you’d say we’ve made a damn good job of it (Imagine the LOL emoji here).
It’s a constant battle though. I actively endeavor to live and promote the ‘slow life’. By slow I don’t mean doing things without speed so much as I mean doing things in the sense of taking the long way home or doing things in such a way as to go the extra mile with no shortcuts. There shouldn’t be shortcuts with art or life for that matter, at least not good art or well lived life.
It’s my feeling that to live a life of peace you must make room for it. In other words, I must enable myself to have peace. Which is why I rarely watch news anymore, and why I try to stay away from viewing TV or movies that bring the ‘Pop Culture” into my space. I’m terrible at Hollywood trivia games because I rarely know any of the current pop peeps, and I don’t care for the latest in anything, though I happily accept your right to do so and will cheer you on if you’re so inclined. I’m so ‘old school’ I don’t have a cool bone anywhere. But that’s my coping skill set. My way of maintaining peace in my life.
I seem to be able to discover most of what’s going on in the world by osmosis quite by chance from info on my FB and other such places. That’s enough for me thanks. I’ve found my sense of place and I have peace there, which I believe makes me able to pay peace forward. It’s a wonderful thing to find happiness in the small things and find contentment in the natural course of life. To love and be loved. To have health and abundance, I think there is no better blessing than these things. Corny, I know, but… and yet…
I spent the winter reading, writing, painting and learning new music with my husband. It’s spring now and I’m ready to rock after the long deep freeze of creativity. New art, new songs and new friends are always on my radar, so I’ve made some very groovy discoveries this season.
I hope you’ll join me in seeking ways to find peace in the ordinary life, find your sense of place and share with me all you know about ways to better live the ‘slow life’.
Here is a haiku I wrote recently. This haiku also inspired my painting, 'Man in the Moon'.
You Are a Haiku
Moon pushes through sky
and shines his fat face on me.
You are good, you are.
