The Pause for Beauty below is from a book I’m working on, Using an Art Journal to Dig Deep. All paid subscribers will receive a PDF of that book
The paid version of A Pause for Beauty has not yet launched. We’re operating on the goodwill model for a few more days. It will launch as soon as I up my video skills, and make a few improvements to the Heron Dance website. Videos of me painting and talking about each Pause for Beauty will be an important part of the future of both this Substack and Creativity as a Way of Life.
You can join us here. In the meantime, here’s a Pause for Beauty for all, paid and unpaid.
I am about to face the Holy one, blessed be He, and justify my sojourn on the world. If He will ask me: Zussye why were you not like Moses? I shall respond, because you did not grant me the powers you granted Moses. He will ask me: Zussye, why were you not like Rabbi Akiba? I shall respond because you did not grant me the powers you granted Rabbi Akiba. But the Almighty will not ask me why I was not like Moses or why I was not like Rabbi Akiba. The Almighty will ask me: Zussye, why were you not like Zussye, why did you not fulfill the potential which was Zussye, and it is for this question that I tremble.
- Rav Zussye, the chassidic saint of Tarnifal before his death
Something inside each of us is seeking to manifest, to emerge, to birth. A potential, a gift, a uniqueness. It could be a creative work, it could be serving others in other ways. Underlying your life, whatever your path, there is a current of energy, a life force seeking to grow.
How would you describe that life force inside you? What do you do to nurture that relationship? How you nurture that relationship will affect the quality of your life.
In a state of deep, relaxed awareness, imagine your energy as an entity. Ask it where it wants to go. Where will the energy multiply? Where will your life force gain momentum?
You know you are on the right path when your inner life gains from your work in the world, and your work gains from your inner life.
What we call fate does not come to us from outside; it goes forth from within us.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
My life is a story of the self-realization of the unconscious. Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and experience itself as a whole. a
- Carl Jung, from the Prologue to Memories, Dreams, Reflections
More on the energy currents underlying our lives here, here and here.
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The Kickstarter
The Kickstarter to fund Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery has failed. As soon as I get a couple of urgent improvements to the Heron Dance website out of the way, I’ll shut it down. The book will still be hardcover but it will be print-on-demand, and priced a little less — probably $65 to $75 including tax and shipping. I’m just waiting for samples from different printers to assess quality.
All who contributed $150 to Heron Dance in the last couple of months or so, or signed up for $15 or more a month, will receive both Using an Art Journal to Probe Deep, and that book, and Meditations on Gratitude.)
Thank you to all who contributed to the Kickstarter. I’ll be in touch later in the week with options.The objective was to attract people to the work who were not previously aware of it. In that sense it failed, but in the sense that long-term supporters of Heron Dance did contribute, and in the process light up my path, it was a success. Thank you!
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