Expressive Expansion: Days into the Month of Art

I’m participating in Leah Piken Kolidas’ Art Every Day Month.  Fun!  So far I’ve managed the challenge to create something every day.  I feel especially good about that, as giving myself the space to do this every day during what seems like an insanely busy time feels like a lovely gift to myself.

Thinking about time, and art, and creating what we want are oft-explored themes for me, and they seem particularly juxtaposed at the moment.   November’s Full Frost moon occurred on Monday and so my project for the day did double duty as my piece for playing in Leah’s challenge and as my dreamboard in Jamie Ridler’s Full Moon Dreamboard practice.  Her suggestion was to consider how we might want to infuse our 2009 intentions with a final bit of energy in these last months of the year.

For several years I’ve participated in Waverly Fitzgerald’s New Year’s Dream project and I find it a brilliant way to shape and refine what I’d like to focus on during the year.  (She offers this as an e-course and I enthusiastically recommend it.  The 2010 edition is  in her store in the calendars and planners section).  After deciding my yearly intentions I do a talisman/touchstone/some kind of physical representation.  I keep this object on an altar in my office where I see it every day and can connect with what I’ve said is my focus for the year.  I also chose a 2 word “theme” for 2009 – Expressive Expansion.

For my Full Moon dreamboard I took a photo of my 2009 talisman and set it in a circle.  Circles are so protective, containing, and connective, and I like working loosely with the framework of mandalas. 

So for the remaining months of 2009 my wish is to deepen my roots, continue to nurture new growth, honor my connections, and look for additional ways to offer my hand in support as well.

I find it astonishing that 2009 is so rapidly nearing conclusion.  But I like the gift that honoring the moon cycles offers.  Each month is an opportunity to experience a full cycle of visioning, planting seeds, tending growth, weeding, harvesting, honoring dormancy, and then beginning anew.  I hope you’re finding ways to infuse energy in what you’ve planted this year and that your harvest is truly abundant.