Empower Your Energy, Begin To Make A Dream Real!
“October is a fine and dangerous season in America. It is dry and cool
and the land is wild with red and gold and crimson,
and all the lassitudes of August have seeped out of your blood,
and you are full of ambition. It is a wonderful time to begin anything at all.”
– Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain
©beth vendryes williams Paris in October
I would love to know what project you would work on.
I will be sharing the way journaling shaped my future life! Watch for more next week!
Sharing the crisp energetic air!
beth
explore ripples of time, impressed in rocks... by water
Last week my family and I an hiked an extremely steep the 2.5 mile trail through the gorge at Watkins Glen near Ithaca, New York and followed it up two days later with a very rocky 5 mile hike through the Robert H. Tremain State Park. While hiking I found some time to draw, but not nearly enough to satisfy me, since I spent most of my time trying to keep up with my sons & friends and move faster than the thunderstorms. Apparently I need to upgrade my exercise routines!
Has this ever happened to you? No time to bask in the beauty of the environment because you were too busy beating traffic, avoiding bad weather, performing everyday survival tasks, meeting everyday needs?
My experience while hiking in Ithaca, may give you some ideas about how to savor a unique and profound moment and then build on that memory. You can notice it, wonder, allow it to motivate you to deepen your understanding beyond the surface.
While on both hikes, I observed the patterns of ripples in the water that were duplicated in the sand and again, replicated in the rocks. It made me wonder how long it took for the ripples in the water to transpose themselves into the sand and rock. After doing some reading,I discovered that the water created patterns in the sand that were eventually transformed into rocks of alternating shale and sandstone. This began to occur in the Devonian period, 360 million years ago. Really? I am having trouble imagining that long ago! Glaciers cut through this layered rock. The splits in the rock or ‘gorge” are caused by streams that were cut off and needed to find new ways through the rock!
This makes me think about the power of time, and how, with enough time, water can slowly transform rock and even an entire landscape. I make this analogy. If the persistence of water can be so strong to shape and cut through rocks, then by applying this principle of consistent intent in just living we can break through and transform relationships, habits and creative blocks will create a path towards your goal.And so I focus on my goal to visually represent the process of the patterns created over time.
Paying close attention to how transformation that occurs in nature can help you to transform paths in your life! When traveling through everyday life:
OBSERVE your environment carefully.
NOTICE patterns.
Allow yourself to IMAGINE
MAKE AN ANALOGY between this physical beauty and your everyday life.
SYNTHESIZE by asking questions and make connections.
Oh yes, and please let me know about a time you gently persisted in your chosen path and then transformed your day, week or life, as the water has. I absolutely love sharing this and even more, I look forward to your thoughts and ideas!
“This makes me think about the power of time, and how, with enough time, water can slowly transform rock and even an entire landscape. I make this analogy. If the persistence of water can be so strong to shape and cut through rocks, then by applying this principle of consistent intent in just living we can break through and transform relationships, habits and creative blocks will create a path towards your goal.And so I focus on my goal to visually represent the process of the patterns created over time.”
— beth vendryes williams
Don't worry. Be happy. Free to create on vacation!!
oyster bay beach 09 oil beth vendryes williams
Pulling into the long driveway of the refurbished farmhouse in Ithaca New York, my husband and I eagerly look forward to the week to come. Our sons and friends will meet us here to relax together. We put aside our work to make time for Scrabble games with Grandma, volleyball, croquet, hiking, and sharing stories with each other.
I am so happy to be together with everyone and I am also focused on continuing my daily creative habits throughout vacation. Vacations relieve stress and reenergize. They rejuvenate physical, spiritual, and mental health. However, they can often be perceived as an interruption in the progress of creative development.
Using the approach below, I have found a way for the “vacation state of mind” to actually jumpstart creative thinking.
I write a little each day in-between family activities to reflect on my passion and why I create.
I sketch or write down my observations of my new environment, imagining how perception is transformed by actively seeing.
I delight in the creative understanding nurtured by a change of scenery and new conversations.
Using these habits, your vacation can also be used as a platform to further enrich your creative development and relationships as you share your fresh insights.
Qh yes, I absolutely want to hear of any other creative ideas you use to expand your own creative thinking while on vacation!
Time is like rushing water
People who have faith in life are like swimmers
who entrust themselves to a rushing river.
They neither abandon themselves to its current, nor try to resist it.
Rather, they adjust their every movement to the watercourse,
use it with purpose and skill,
and enjoy the adventure.