art 4 regulation
Mercury is in retrograde. Don’t google it. Especially if you have a birthday this month. Unless you need to blame something for a less than productive day, or week, or month. Mercury, the eclipse, what’s going on in the cosmos?
Me, im going to enjoy it as an excuse. Anything goes awry, I’m ready. Thank you Mercury. Enjoy retrograde. Thank you sun, enjoy eclipsing: It’s not every month that you can blame the planets for stuff.
How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?
It’s been four years since the shut down. That was a weird time. The first day everything in our life closed. Oh my! Work. G is a contractor. I was staging homes and working at a yoga studio which closed its doors forever. The gym. The beach. We were used to being pretty active, but suddenly there was no walking or running or surfing at the beach. No yoga, no working out. All of our mental health hacks seemed to be gone in one day.
Liquor stores stayed open. We started walking in our hilly neighborhood. I had a small group of yoga friends who I walked with. We wore masks and spaced ourselves six feet from one another. We got the idea to invite our favorite yoga instructors over to teach in our back yards. Trevor started filming and putting his classes online. From there we established a daily yoga practice.
Our little group of yoga girls grew in number. We walked, we listened to talks, we celebrated birthdays. Did art projects. We became a kind of lock down family. we gave ourselves some structure. We kept our spirits up. We encouraged and championed each other.
One day I was sorting through my dried up art supplies and unfinished work and there scattered with other paintings were the beginnings of my book illustrations.. My favorite paints were used up or dried out.There was no money being made. I thought that I would revisit the project when life improved.
As the weeks turned to months and those months became years, I realized that waiting for a better day was possibly not going to happen any time soon. On day I hauled out the paintings in all their many stages of completion and started working on them. I was hearing stories of kids losing out on social interactions, many for most of their life. Teens getting slammed by social media in place of in person friendships. It was a stressful time for many young families and many children. I personally was trouble shooting for my own mental state and was in part saved by breath to movement yoga and meditation. I wondered if kids could be introduced to breath work.
The text and the pictures worked themselves together like a little miracles of sorts and slowly I had a story that reminded me of the world’s metaphorical cocooning.. Beatrix Butterfly was a covid metamorphosis story. I morphed, my friend’s morphed, the whole world morphed and so did Beatrix.
The pandemic changed nearly every aspect of my life. Many things not for the better, but the different life I have now, has unfolded with many interesting miracles. I miss our old yoga studio. I miss staging homes, I miss things from before 2020, but life does move on and I couldn’t help moving with it. I’m happy to have this nearly completed book now. It’s a triumph. Im surprised , yet not surprised by how its ending. Much the same as Beatrixs story, mine is still unfolding and I’m still breathing through it all. We all came out of the pandemic. And here we are.
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?
It depends on the day. Hydrate, Coffee, intentions, gratitude, yoga, a walk, a shower. Blog. Meditate.catch up with texts from friends and family. Read… In no particular order.
Today I woke up in this magical time warp of a place. Before opening my eyes I do my gratitude exercise, I set a few intentions for the day. Then a long, hot shower, long enough to smell coffee brewing and wafting around the hotel room. Already I’m having the best morning ever. I can see the ocean from the bathroom window. A little yoga, some breath to movement squats and planks.
I really have no idea what today will look like, but the morning so far, has settled me into a good state to start.
Some days are better than others.They just are. We’ve had a few of them. San Luis Obisbo is a sweet town with a lovely beach. The weather was amazing. We took some nice walks with Ayla and Hazel. Parents joined when they could. Ate some delicious meals and said goodbye. We will see these guys again in their new home. We aren’t sure when.
Then we stopped in San Clemente. Another fun little beach town. This one seems to have dodged the tourist vibe. It’s been an uncrowded retro couple of days here. Beautiful weather, empty beaches We had to walk around for awhile waiting for the marine layer to burn off which was also fun. They have an amazing Italian place called Sonny’s. We ate there both last night and this, well, ordered out because there’s a Celtics game on.
Truly a treat. I feel rested and satiated. This has been a good surprise. I definitely feel lucky. I never want to let days like these to go unnoted.
Which aspects do you think makes a person unique?
I think we are unique for all different reasons. Specifically, genetics, upbringing, and perspective to name a few. I’m fascinated by the way each person approaches life. I love differences. I realize there’s a strong human want to make everyone see things similarly. Maybe so we can all be part of the same tribe? Myself, I prefer the Biggest Little Farm approach to diversity. The more the better. How many varieties of stone fruit ARE there? Let’s plant them all! In nature, diversity is advantageous, I like to think it is among humans too, but I know it’s hard. Diversity, division…uniqueness. Hmmm…
I listened to a long podcast today. Jordon Peterson interviewing author Iain Geschrist about his latest book.
This was one I had to pay attention to. They were ping ponging from subject to subject, all with the theme of the two hemispheres of our brains having very different functions.
Concepts and theories were tossed out with lightning speed. Sometimes this kind of intellectual banter is just what my brain wants and responds to. Iain and Jordon are two very smart individuals with some very interesting thoughts to ponder.
Here’s what Iain had to say about the right and left parts of our brains. Left brain function stays within the parameters of what it knows. It’s where our memory is. It sorts and sifts and categorizes everything. It doesn’t respond well to new information outside of how it can fit into the known subsets. It might even ignore or edit or reinvent to have new information fit with the old. The right brain is associated with unconscious, with the big picture, with experience and feeling. It’s our emotional center. It’s how we are able to take in what is truly new and different. It’s where flow and balance can emerge. We need both these parts of our brains to balance out how we process information and to keep us alive.
Our right hemisphere controls the left side of our bodies and visaversa, including our right and left eyes. This is true for most animals, so much so that a bird will turn its head to look out of the opposite eye depending on what it’s looking for.
I’m surprised that we don’t pay more attention to this when it comes to learning. Each side of our brain has specific functions which are all about how we learn, remember, pay attention etc
When I used to teach art, I told the kids we would be exercising the right sides of our brains and give the left a break. I had several lessons that shut down the verbal left side almost completely. Kids stopped talking. The teachers would marvel at that because it happened organically to even the bounciest classes.
One thing Jordan and Iain agreed on was the need for our two hemispheres to work in harmony with each other. It’s not just about balance, these two sides give us a well rounded relationship with taking in knowledge and using it.
Why wouldn’t schools spend some time and energy on brain balance? New information can be tricky at first. Old information can get lost or forgotten. We live in an Information Age now. I think its cool to know some things about how our brains learn and assess the world.
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
My own art. You know when you say it’s a Picasso or a Van Gough or a Monet? Even a designer brand like Channel or Calvin Cline or Rachel Zoe. That
Nothing else comes to mind
All I need is a little excitement. A small incentive to keep putting one foot in front of the other. All is well, all is good. Our next leg is coming up soon and I am tired. I don’t see rest as a possibility, so my only choice is to power on.
Sometimes I don’t enjoy being intuitive. It’s hard to bump against awkward energy. I sometimes can’t find words for how I feel. For years I just thought it was my imagination. Those old days when I was told I was ‘too sensitive’ if I had strong feelings. I can remember even after I grew up and had kids other parents smiling and pretending no one was sad or mad or upset when they clearly were. Now when I walk into a room or up to a person, I at least don’t think I’m crazy or wrong, but I still need to work through how I feel. It’s my choice to feel and move through my feelings and find my balance.
This is not easy. Practice doesnt all the way make perfect. The only easier part is that I know what it is. I recognize the feeling, I know how to balance. I know a thing or two about breathing. It’s just that initially, I always feel every bit as bad, every bit as uncomfortable and dis-regulated. I’m no stranger to depression or discouragement but they are not states I want to stay in.
So here I sit in the sunshine. Here I sit looking at the water, listening to waves crash, birds call to one another, soaking up some vitamin D and trying not to ask any questions that I don’t want to hear answers to. All is well. The weird energy can’t reach me on this windy expanse of beach. Im good. Im breathing. I’m looking for what I AM grateful for.
It will all blow itself out soon enough. I know enough not to hold out for something to come along and change. I know I don’t actually need any outside occurrences to save me. I can save me. I can balance me. I can breathe and remember the things that I’m grateful for and wait patiently for my new thoughts to bring new feelings.
What makes you laugh?
Wit, pets, kids, my husband, life…
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
At age five, I was not thinking about being grown up, at all. Grown ups were like they were in Peanuts cartoons. Remember they had a sound for them talking that had no words. I didn’t even want to imagine being one. I had no aspirations to be any profession. I think I was pretty busy being a carefree kid. Grown ups all seemed so serious and unfun. Why ever would I want to become one? I can’t recall even one adult with some bit of a sense of humor when I was five. If I wanted to laugh I had to find some hilarious friends, which was surprisingly easy. I have no answer for this prompt.
If I knew, I’d have made an excellent talent scout, which might have been a fun grown up job. I knew funny. Anyone who could make me laugh so hard that grape soda came out my nose, I knew was gold!
Peace Kit