How do you want it all to feel?

February 6, 2012

[this post inspired by @DanielleLaPorte 's Burning Question.  Also, treat your heart to @AngelNSullivan's post here.]

Clarity of Want + Depth of Feeling = Magic

Getting clear about what we want is powerful.

And really feeling what we want is also powerful.

But getting clear about how what we want feels? MAGIC. Creation. Manifestation. Make It So.

So, let’s play with this, this “feeling the wanting” idea.  I’ll go first… then you.

**********

I want my workdays to feel like Christmas morning.

I want making a To Do list to feel like writing the lines of a mystical poem.

I want friendship to feel like eating a pomegranate on the beach at sunset.

I want conversations to feel like the flow of fountain pen ink on silken bright white paper.

I want tomorrow to feel like a candy store with chocolate-covered gummy bears, today like a pile of playful puppies, and yesterday like a 24-hour hug.

I want passion to feel like Niagra Falls after a trip to an art museum.

I want writing to feel like sunlight streaming through my veins.

I want my body to feel like 8-part harmony streaming down the nave of a soul-stunning Cathedral

I want making money to feel like worship and laughing so hard my rib meats ache and riding bike through the French countryside with my wife.

I want paying bills to feel like writing thank you notes.

I want my heart to feel like a peeling River Birch tree at the peak of spring.

I want my nervous system to feel like a kitten kneading a sheepskin.

I want projects to feel like preparing an exquisite meal for my closest friends.

I want crying to feel like alchemy and laughter like molten gold.

I want my home to feel like love and my love to feel like home.

And I want my life to feel like all of that.  ALL of that.

*****

Ok, your turn… Feel…and write. [in a comment here is a great place to start...]

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On (not) being a purist

February 3, 2012

My move from film to digital photography was fraught with angst. Not because of any deep loyalty to the film process, but because of my fear of the new ability to easily manipulate the recorded image.

“Cheating,” I thought. “I would NEVER… ” I thought.

And then I started seeing the vibrancy of digital photos. And the instantaneous playback of a moment in time. And the ability to immediately delegate photocrap to the digital trashbin.

So I made the switch. With a badboy attitude and a heavy dose of impurity guilt, I took my Nikon D70s out for walk after walk, clicking away like a banshee with my newfound digital freedom.

I justified the switch by promising myself to NEVER EVER use the digital image editing software beyond maybe (if I was feeling particularly rebellious and brave) a skootch of a crop.

It was good for me, that time of purity. That time of keeping the visual “truth” (yes, in quotes) of the moment of capture and holding myself to a gazillionth-of-a-second timeframe for perfection.

And then I started noticing how much more I FELT other people’s digital photos. The COLORS, oh the vibrancy! The details shimmering off the page/screen! And the clarity.. omg, the eye-riveting CLARITY!!!!

So maybe I could make just a few teeny digital edits. Nothing to really change the photo, of course… just a light adjustment here and a smidge of color enhancement there to make it look more like I felt when I took the photo.

Wait.

“To make it look more like I felt when I took the photo.”

Isn’t that what art is all about? Trying to externally convey our internal experience in a way that transcends the mere sensory experience?  In other words… activating FEELING in others?

Long story and several years short, I’ve recently discovered Aperture and Photomatix photo editing software (for Mac), and photography has become one of the most fully creative experiences I know. (Don’t worry, writing is still waaay up on that list… just in a different way).

First there’s the thrill of the hunt, the sensory opening up to possibility of beauty or intrigue.  But then… oh yes… then I get to continue the memory and experience of that captured moment as I edit the image:

• That little yellow flag that caught my eye in the first place?  Let’s bring out that color to demand focus.
• The heart-breaking jagged line of a home in decay against the smooth blanket of sky?  Let’s enhance those edges to bring out the pain.
• The untrembling boldness of a crocus daring to suggest spring while snow still rules the winter?  Let’s zoom in on that and make it look the size of Goliath.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Purity has its place, most definitely.  But so does coloring outside the lines.  Give yourself the freedom to tweak those things that will express you more fully to others… and to yourself. Mix it up.  Turn over the apple cart.  Sharpen your edges one day and soften your squishy spots the next.

Now go purchase my eCourse and fire up your creativity!  The world is ready to experience YOU.

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