FILLING THE WELL

  Fill the well, feed the muse, restore the spirit, the phrases are many but the idea is the same.  As creative artists we draw on the well of our inner being in order to create something new, whether it be painting or music, poetry or prose.  Julia Cameron in her book The Artists Way, uses the term "fill the well" and recommends artist dates, i.e. a date with ourselves alone to fill up our well of images and experiences.  By her definition, having a companion on the date equals a distraction and the well remains empty.  
    I don't necessarily agree with Ms Cameron.  I find inspiration in coffee with a friend, or a gab-fest with other writers or singing in a choir of a hundred, but I'm all in favour of artist dates.  One of my favourites is a good walk in a beautiful setting.
    Living close to the Butchart Gardens as I do, it's a perfect place to revive a tired mind.  Even, or perhaps especially, at this time of year when our weather is grey and wet.  (I'll tell you a secret.  I prefer snow to our endless leaden skies.)

    Butchart's famous sunken garden, in season, looks like this.

In late February it looks like this.  

But, the gardeners at Butchart's are an imaginative lot and at this time of year they turn one of the restaurants into an indoor garden. They have no compunction about mixing up the seasons so we see amaryllis next to primroses.

Hyacinth and gerbera grow together.  The forsythia tree and the magnolia bloom at the same time.

  
    Coming through the door, the visitor inhales the sweet scent of lilac and gardenia.  All thoughts of grey skies vanish.  We've walked into a magic kingdom.  Fountains and wind chimes charm our ears.  Underfoot is tile and gravel and wood to delight our feet with different textures and our ears with different sounds.

Every sense is tickled.  The well fills to overflowing.

On leaving the magic garden, I enter the gift shop.  I must keep my wallet firmly in my pocket.  So many beautiful things in one place.  China, pottery, enamel work, shawls and scarves, jewellery and jams.  And don't forget the packets of seeds, enough to inspire even the blackest thumb to try gardening.
    I come home just as the sun breaks out.  The well is full.  I'm inspired enough to write this blog.
    So, what fills your well?  Do you find inspiration in solitude or company?  Do you prefer music or a good book?  Do you like to watch or participate?

To read more of my thoughts and adventures and stories, go to 
www.alicevaldal.com

Refresh and Reflect

By Alice Valdal





Ah! January. The Christmas play has been performed, the Christmas Pageant staged, the Christmas "Messiah" sung, the Christmas dinner eaten, the Christmas toasts drunk and the Christmas indulgences have made our waistbands too tight. The time of year when we make resolutions (lose ten pounds by February), and plunge into the new year with gusto. Or . . .
We can take some time to refresh our minds and bodies from the whirlwind of the last few weeks.

I'm all for the rest and reflect option.

For me, that means, get outdoors and breathe. My husband and I have a New Year's tradition of taking a walk some place new. Since we've lived here for over twenty years, the "new" part is getting harder, still, we've had fun searching out untrodden trails. Sometimes, we're charmed with beautiful views, or surprised by a spray of red berries. Sometimes we get wet and muddy and cold. The adventure is still refreshing to body and spirit.

Once I've cleared away the Christmas decorations, restored order to my disordered rooms and calm to my mind, it is time to reflect on the year that has passed and to make plans for the months to come. That's where I'm at today. Note: these are not resolutions -- resolutions are hard-edged and unforgiving, often doomed to failure.  Rather, these are areas where I will seek opportunities in the new year.

-- Improve my writing. All writers dream of being published, seeing their words on the printed (or electronic) page, seeing our work on the shelves of our favourite bookstore, receiving a royalty statement -- hopefully one with a cheque attached. Sometimes we rail at the fickleness of the publishing industry which brings out ( in our opinion) poorly written books, while ignoring our masterpieces. I've done that, but in this time of reflection, I am at peace with the fact that I can't control what publishers do. I can control what I do. To see that dream of publication come true, I need to be a writer who is impossible to ignore. So, I will study to improve my writing. To read and re-read, work and re-work my prose until it shines. Published or not, I will have grown in my craft.



-- Keep a prayer list. I've made attempts at this in the past, but I hope to be more diligent in recording what I pray for and when and what God answers. All too often, I grumble because God hasn't fallen in with my plans and provided the people and resources I want the moment I ask. I can become so fixated on the times I've been disappointed that I forget all the times when God has shown His love to me and responded to my needs -- often with extravagance.  A written list will remind me.


-- Sing more. I've been blessed with a singing voice. This talent brings me joy and fulfilment. Singing gives me a voice to praise God, to find new friends and to give light in dark places. But, all too often, I don't sing because I have chores to do. I don't sing, because the piano is out of tune. I don't sing because I'm too tired. Yet, I know, if I sing while I work, the chores are easier. If I sing without the piano, I'm free to explore the sound of singing. If I sing when I'm tired, I am refreshed. 


So there, are three areas of life where I will be alert to opportunities in 2011.  What about you? I won't ask for resolutions, but what of your hopes and plans. Anything you care to share?




Happy New Year everyone.

                   http://alicevaldal.com/

FRIDAY DEVOTION: Knitting With Ashes (Ray Hawkins)

     I’ve just been watching my wife do some clothing repairs for our grandchildren. Reminds me of those years, now long gone, when she was seamstress and tailor for me and our children. It may sound strange, but I don’t think it’s out of order when I tell you Lord, that there have been times when you have been the Master Tailor.
     You have an amazing ability to create garments of beauty out of the ashes of a person’s life. The prophet Isaiah wrote of how you would weave a garment of praise out of the ashes of a burnt out life (Isaiah 61:3) and you quoted him in the Nazareth synagogue when you were chosen to read.(Luke 4:17)
This was beautifully highlighted in the testimony of a man I heard last night. In his own words he was previously a hopeless case. Family, friends and community workers had written him off as beyond help, the burnt out wreck of an abused childhood and destructive choices. I have to confess Lord I was in tears as he spoke. He gave you the glory and the thanks for having men and women at Christian Drop-In centres who cared for him and who shared the good news of your love. It took time for him to realise how you were knitting a new life out of the ashes of his old one. One day he came to desperation point and cried out to you unreservedly to save him, change him and you did. When he said that with the tears of gratitude in his eyes and words, I felt like standing up and cheering!
The change in him was proven over time that appears to be part of your transforming, renewing work. Does it allow you to weave the grey and black ashes amongst the gold and rainbow colours of your grace and salvation?
It’s an unending delight to come across men and women who wear your unique designer garments made exclusively out of their own ashes when they handed their lives over to you.  You are certainly not into mass production of clones whose stories are all the same.
I wonder, Lord, if my writing is suitable for you to use as a ‘knitting needle or thread’ to weave your word of Grace into a readers being? Would the broken hearted, the confused or the morally destitute, who see themselves as cinders from life’s furnace, realise there is hope because of Jesus Christ? You alone know where my writing will be found and how long before it ‘bites’ someone with your mercy. My desire is whenever, wherever, however, it will be used by your Holy Spirit to refashion someone’s life.

Raymond N Hawkins (Tasmania) is a retired Churches of Christ (Australia) minister. He is married to Mary, a multi-published author. They are parents to three children and ‘spoilers’ of 5 grandchildren. Ray still preaches at a newly formed Baptist Church and as other opportunities arise. He helps at their son and daughter-in-law’s sea horse and fresh-water fish farm. He and Mary have experienced three short-term mission trips to African countries as well as ministered in the U.K.