Preparations for Whiting Mills' Holiday Open Studios

Tomorrow may be Small Business Saturday and I'm certainly geared up for that... but next weekend... next weekend is for our Whiting Mills 9th Annual Holiday Open Studios event, and I'm super psyched for that!

I still have much to do in preparation for the Open Studios weekend and while I might work myself ragged this coming week, I'll enjoy every minute of it! In addition to the 50+ tenants of Whiting Mills, this event hosts several talented visiting artists and craftspeople from our regional community. We have local food vendors visiting over the weekend, too, including a favored local farm, Howling Flats, so I won't have to worry about bringing lunch or making dinner! There's musicians wandering the halls, gracing the corridors with beautiful sounds. I'm especially looking forward to Joseph FireCrow, who's music and storytelling never ceases to inspire me.

Plus, attendees can enter to win one of these fun new "I've Been Through The Mill" T-shirts ~ we'll be drawing winners throughout the weekend. Aren't they adorable? I've already purchased one (two, actually) and will be wearing it, I'm sure. ::nods::

So, hey, if you're in the region, stop by our Whiting Mills Holiday Open Studios in Winsted, Connecticut, next weekend, December 5th and 6th from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. It's sure to be a swell time!

With that, I have product to prepare, labeling to do, not to mention turkey and assorted feast leftovers to manage before I head to the studio this afternoon, so I wish you a creative day... week... life!

Peace.

Wings to Soar with November

Photo by Christopher Marchese - christophermarch@aol.com

Tempus Fugit. November is soaring. I've been busy settling into my new studio space at Whiting Mills, and there's still much I want to do. The space is larger than my original studio there, and that has afforded me the delight of moving in more aspects of my home herbal dispensary. My spouse is building me lovely floor selves of local, native, rough-cut pine to solve for the challenge of the handsome brick walls. I've been able to segment the space for creating art, dispensary work, classes and meetings... energy healing, consultations and intuitive readings, even retail and comfort too. When I make the time and space to sit back, to take it all in, I'm over the moon about it.

Like all things, this studio space will be an evolution and it's sure to see a number of changes over the coming days, weeks, months and years, but for the moment I must force myself to focus on those aspects of urgency ~ the events and happenings coming up over the next month.

Last weekend was all about the heART journal and so is today. I'll be joined by a few folks who will share several hours nurturing the holistic Power of their Creative Expression and creating heART along with me. And I'm looking forward to it.

Next Saturday I'll be joining with many others around Whiting Mills, Winsted, Connecticut and everywhere to take part in Small Business Sunday ~ a day to support our local merchants and nurture our local economies. I hope your are too - Shop Local!

And coming up on the first weekend in December is our annual Whiting Mills Holiday Open Studios! This is always a great weekend, with every studio participating, guest artists, entertainment (including the wonderful Joseph FireCrow), plus food, and this year there's an opportunity for visitors to win this most-awesome "I've Been Through The Mill" T-shirt!

There will be several drawings to win a T-shirt throughout the weekend. Fun, eh? So if you're in Winsted, Connecticut, stop by, tour the fabulous ol' historic building that is Whiting Mills, the many inspired talents that are housed there ~ and visiting ~ and enter to win this fab 'n' fun T-shirt!

Hope to see you regional friends at one point or another in the coming weeks! And to you more distant friends... consider a road-trip! :D

With that, I gotta attach my wings and get soaring if I wanna keep up with November! Peace.

Peace and the Power of Love - Blog4Peace

"Peace and the power of love" is this year's Blog4Peace theme and I could take this in so many directions, and it could take me in countless more, yet I shall do my best to ground, center and focus...

My first random thought was this: Peace can be hard. Manifesting and nurturing it takes effort and work. Love can be hard. Manifesting and nurturing it takes effort and work. This is my experience anyway... whether I'm nurturing these tender seeds in my own heart and my own life, in my family and tribe, or in my greater community and world.

I also thought: The words themselves have grown somewhat cliché. They're overused without conscious awareness, like so much of our contemporary communication. And then some. And then I chose to refocus.

And as I sat with this random thinking in the cool, morning sunshine, I guided my awareness into a space of deep quiet and focus. Some call this meditation. I asked that space, "what have been my greatest challenges with respect to this power?"

Here's one that surfaced: I loved my mother. Without doubt or question. And my mother could be very hard to love. There's power in that candid awareness. Regardless of her deeds, behaviors and words, I consistently chose to love her. It could feel obligatory at times, forced even, yet in my personal tenacity, I consistently chose to love her. Even at times when the cruelest of tortures seemed like they might be welcome options. And long stories short, I am glad for my stubbornness. Why? Because I was able to stay rooted to the love I felt, the love that resided deep in my heart flame, the love ~ with all its challenges ~ that I'm confident I invited when I entered this life. And it's in that love that peace resides. No matter how crazy I'd find myself feeling when listening to or interacting with my mother, I'd remind myself, "all you can do is love her." And it was in that truth that I'd feel peace rise up and spread through my body... it's from that truth that we, my mother and I, were able to nurture peace between us and love one another with greater awareness and appreciation. It's in that truth that I evolved to discover that, no matter how I feel about a situation or the actions and behaviors of an individual, all I can do is love.

You may "have" other options. I imagine I do too. And I admit it can be infuriating at times. But I choose love. And there's power in that choice. And the power nurtures peace.

Within and without.

Peace.

My Way to November

Green November Blessings!

And amber, umber, crimson and pewter! 

We enter the thick of autumn now, making way and ready for winter's bracing embrace. Our hours of daylight wane ever shorter and the dark of evening takes over and drapes us like a loving mantle. 

The waxing darkness is comforting to me.
I feel that comfort because I seek it. And find it.
I wear the mantle of autumn's shadow like the healing shawl that it is.

I honor this time of year ... when the dead are remembered and celebrated in many traditions... when the shadow of night takes hold... when we look ahead, through the darkness, into the heart of winter, where the promise of light's return resides.

It's a time of year where I embrace the darkness because, like a generous gift, there's so much of it. I pull out my fibers and create by the warmth and light of a fire, I invest more time in the studio and engage all manner of creative expression. It's a time of year where I venerate the light because there's so precious little of it, so I do my best to make the most of it, to leverage the daylight hours to add value and meaning in any way that I am able.

May you engage the light and shadow of November. May you feel the loving warmth of this mantle of comfort. May you seek and find.

Peace.