Edison Rex

I declare today Declarative Statement Day.

I declare today Declarative Statement Day.

Find out why over in my latest column over at Scoutie Girl today. 

Celebrate with me--I'd love to hear anything you've been itching to say in the comments below.

xoxo

Maeg

 

 

Creative Call to Action: Artist Gone Wild.

 

Last week my husband and I took off for a night of pure adult time--an entire twenty-four hours to ourselves. (A deep bow of gratitude here to my in-laws for baby-sitting!)

We spent the night at a resort casino. A kind of place I'd never been. 

At home in the valley, my life revolves around work and family. Tofu, kale, and farmer's markets. Yoga classes. Walks in the sun. Trips to the library.

Suddenly I was delivered to a wild, windowless compound where the lights and bells of hundreds of slot machines followed me everywhere.

I'd thought before we left that I'd probably fall asleep early. Enjoy some kid-free quiet. I even packed a book. About brain science, of course.

Suffice to say, it didn't get read.

Instead, I shook my booty to a disco band. I stayed up for nearly 24 hours straight. I slept (eventually) in a swanky free room and ate delicious free food. I dressed up. I got carded at 31 (sweet!). 

I pushed my chips all in and won. I put my money down on the blackjack table without knowing the rules. I bet on sucker bets without a care in the world.

(I also saw a grown man wearing feety pajamas in public. He's my hero.)

I left behind the known and embraced the new--or rather, the new to me. And embraced it fully. 

No scoffing or skepticism. No growling about second hand smoke, the lack of kale, or the mindlessness of the slots.

I saw the beauty of the place--swarms of people fully engaged in our human-ness. Doing our thing.

I loved it. And yeah, I went home to my kale and yoga, spent an afternoon reading under a blanket, and got back to my life.

But the magic of that experience hasn't left. I think beyond the flashing of the lights and the clicking of the chips, there is a very deep lesson here about being creative, in life and in art.

To immerse youself. To let loose, let go. To observe the things you paint or write about with love, even if they are foreign to you. To be a little bit of a chameleon.

To design your life--but be fluid in its execution.

To take risks. To jump far, far out of your routine and your comfort zone, and allow that experience to energize you instead of scaring you.

I encourage you to get a little wild. To step outside your norm for awhile and see how it feels. Shake it up a little.

What's outside your comfort zone? What's new to you? Is there something fresh and unfamiliar you've been putting off?

xoxo Maeg

 

 

 

Taming the Giant Incongruence. Or, how to create alignment where there is none.

Hey there!

A new Creative Call to Action! Today I've got a fresh column on Scoutie Girl all about taming the Giant Incongruence. 

A Giant Incongruence is one of those things in life that you're not willing or able to change right now...but that doesn't fit into your life design at all.

I've been working on bringing my own Giant Incongruences into alignment...and there are two key questions I asked myself in order to make that happen. Oh, and I'm feeling a lot happier after answering them!

I share my two questions right here. 

Do you have a Giant Incongruence or two in your own life? I'd love to hear about them, and your thoughts on bringing them into alignment.

xxoo Maeg

P.S. You can get every new Creative Call to Action delivered right to your inbox...just sign up for my weekly-ish newsletter in the top right corner of this blog.

Also, congrats to The Spun Monkey, winner of the monthly newsletter subscriber giveaway! Details are in your inbox! :)

 

Growth. It's not all grace and epiphany.

"Growth isn’t all grace and epiphany. There’s a reason why caterpillars build themselves a cocoon before they change into butterflies. Growth and change can be messy. Growth and change can demand comfort, privacy, and protection."

That's a little snippet from my latest Scoutie Girl column. Have you ever found yourself having a tough time during what you thought was a period of great change and growth? I have...I am!

I write about why freaking out while creating the life you want makes perfect sense. And how a little conscious comfort is the perfect antidote.

It's a post from my heart to yours, right now. I hope you enjoy it.

Read the whole post here. 

xoxo Maeg

P.S. My dear friend Emily is giving away some Rex goodies on her blog, Red Bird Crafts. She's a great artist and teacher and a total sweetheart. So head over to her site to get to know her and maybe win some of my artwork! Thank you, Emily!

 

What do I want? Congruence. When do I want it? Right now.

The word of the week at our house is: congruence.

It's a beautiful thing. But also a big, heavy word.

Fitting for winter, fitting for hibernation. For lots of thinking and evaluation.

Lately, I've been looking at things in the Right Now, as opposed to the Great Imagined (you know that version of your life that looks a lot like a magazine spread? Where your dishes are always washed, you have an amazing couch, and you finally got around to reading Manufacturing Consent, for the second time?).

It's all too easy for me to confuse the Great Imagined with the Right Now. But in really looking at the present, I'm mulling over how it fits with what I really want from life. What matches up? What's congruent?

Just the act of asking what's congruent brings to the surface everything that is not. And it's uncomfortable to look at. There's a lot. From the huge to miniscule.

Working on bringing the big stuff into alignment--location, home, job, relationships--is a daunting task. Monolithic.

So I went to find out how to get congruent. I did some interior scuba diving. I consulted my inner Oracle of Delphi. I did a little Shiva Nata on it.

The message I got was pretty clear, and pretty surprising.

It's in the moment. It's right now.

It's not just about what I do, it's about how I do it.

It's less about the results, the end goals. It's about finding congruence in the moment. Whatever I'm doing, am I doing it in such a way that supports the kind of life I want to live? (And if not, can I find a way to create alignment without giving myself a hard time for needing to do so?)

Talking with my husband. Playing with my children. Am I joyful, or impatient?

Writing, making art. Am I expansive and exploring, or am I rushed and frustrated?

Steaming veggies. Moving into a yoga pose. Am I feeling relaxed, or pressured?

Having feelings about whatever. Making mistakes. Am I kind to myself and moving on, or self-punishing, angry?

Am I bringing the qualities I want in life to these interactions? Or am I doing things that fit my life design--but in a way that's counter to my desires?

That's been my recent practice. To take a deep breath and ask myself these questions.

Because really, in the end, it doesn't matter if I get that amazing couch and read that hefty tome if I'm fuming the whole time. That's not really what I'm going for.

Congruence. Here's to finding it, right now.

xoxo Maeg

Week in Pictures

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend, friends?

Some highlights from the past week...

*After six weeks of hard work, the apartment next door is done! And nice people are now living there, too. That's suddenly freed up a lot more time and mental space...aaah.

*Lots of glam. Hair curlers for all. Oh, and Thommy discovered my blush and loved it.

*A date! Which also involved a lot of glam. The first kid-free date night of the year. Yes, dates in which Dennis and I both get covered in rice and beans by Thommy are nice, too--but sitting and talking uninterrupted with your spouse? Amazing.

*Sledding and hiking in the woods with Thommy. Spotting animal tracks in the snow.

*That drawing in the top row? That is Thommy's rendering of Home Depot. Yes, he really, really likes the place.

*A real Sunday morning. With coffee, quiet, and the newspaper.

Wishing you a wonderful start to your week!

xoxo Maeg

The Friendly Guide to Rewriting Your Patterns

Good Morning!

It's snowing here, the first snow since...before Halloween. 

I'm drinking some chamomile tea and enjoying the view from my window. I'm hoping this is the year that Thommy will think sleds are fun! Last year's attempts were kind of brief and teary.

I'm also popping in to let you know about a new guest post I shared over on Scoutie Girl today. It's all about rewriting your patterns. In a way that doesn't involve excessive checklists, crazy resolutions, or self-flagellation. You know, with as much kindness as possible.

In other news, our giant house project is done! The next-door apartment is looking so fabulous, I'm tempted to move in there myself. Instead I think I'll just taking off my painting clothes, clean my brushes, welcome our new neighbors, and get back to blogging, making art, and drinking tea.

What are you up to today?

xoxo

Maeg

lil' update: I just came across a great post on The Fluent Self all about how to handle the space between your old patterns and the new ones. Perfect timing!

Solstice

Last night Thommy and I met up with Aurora and her mom, Deb, at a Solstice celebration at Arcadia, a wildlife sanctuary in our town. We were greet by a path lit with hundreds of clever paper bag lanterns, a cup of hot mulled cider, and a giant bonfire. And music.

It was amazing. And the perfect note to start to my winter vacation. I'm taking a little break, dear readers, until the New Year to rest and regroup, write and dream, and make some fresh new year rituals. I'll be leaving you with some guest posts to tide you over, of course.

I wrote a little bit about wanting this break in last week's post, and a little more about it in terms of choice, resentment, and internal scuba diving in new Creative Call post on Scoutie Girl yesterday.

I'll leave you with a couple tidbits:

Congrats to Kaden, the winner of this month's giveaway for newsletter subscribers. Kaden, you get to do a little shopping in the Rex shop, on me--details are in your inbox. 

Also, I made these printable gift tags last year and I think they are still goodies. I mean, kittens floating on marshmallows? 

Take care! I hope the rest of your year is everything you desire it to be. 

Much love,

xoxoxo Maeg

Creative Call: The Book of Me

Lately I've been writing in the Book of Me. Things about me that are good to know, and that I often forget. Things that, if I remember, are very, very helpful. Such as, "Coffee makes me tense but I will drink it anyway if it's in the house. Cure tension by not bringing home coffee!"

I write things both big and small in the Book of Me. I write down gentle observations and useful reminders, because the Book of Me isn't a giant motivational tool or a place for hard resolutions. It's kind of like a compassionate reference book. I'm not trying to fix or change things, just trying to get to know me.

The Book of Me isn't my idea. I stumbled across it while lost in the archives of The Fluent Self, the blog of the wonderful Havi Brooks. 

This is my little story of what happened after I read her post, The Book of You, which I highly recommend.

At one point her post Havi writes:

"All the biggified people on the internet shouting about how you have to write in the morning and you can’t have more than three projects and how you always have to do X to get Y?

They’re not talking about you. They’re talking about themselves. They are sharing some of the information from that big Book of Them."

I laughed cringed when I first read that part about writing three pages every morning. Hadn't I recommended the very same thing to you? And really, who was I to do that? And beyond that, it wasn't even something I could honestly recommend anymore. It had gotten stale for me. I no longer wanted to wake up early and write three pages anymore.

I thought I was staying in bed because of winter. I thought I wasn't writing because I was becoming undisciplined.

Which is when I picked up my morning pages notebook and starting writing my first notes for the Book of Me instead. And also when I discovered something amazing about writing in the Book of Me.

Part of the Book of Me is about recognizing that we change. In seasons, in situations. Thinking I had a great seasonal observation to make, I wrote "Getting up at four to write and work--something I normally love to do--just isn't happening. I'm not an early bird in winter when it is dark."

Great! Woohoo! Book of Me. Now I know--winter is for sleeping in. I can give myself permission to hit snooze from now til spring.

But I kept writing. And all this stuff came pouring out that I'd been unaware of on a conscious, verbal level.

"Also, I'm feeling uninspired and I little confused right now about what I want to be doing for my work." Oh--that makes sense. No clarity or inspiration--no desire to hop out of bed and write, blog, or paint. Got it.

"Also," I wrote, "I want more time for learning and for painting. I'm spending a lot of time on nuts and bolts and I think I can change that if I'm mindful about my time." Right. There is only one of me, and I get caught up in the administrative/technical must-dos. But I want time to play!

"Also," I wrote, "I'm feeling a little resentful toward my work. I want a one-week holiday away from the computer, and everything business related. I want time to curl up under blankets with novels and hot cocoa." Oh! There's another reason to sleep in. I need a vacation! A snowflake break!

One simple, gentle observation had led me to the whys behind the whys of sleeping in. I needed clarity, more time for different things, and a vacation.

It wasn't winter at all! As it turns out I am not a sleepy-good-for-nothing. Approaching myself with compassionate inquiry had helped me figure this out.

If I had talked to myself with the more usual "You're getting behind in your work! Set your alarm! Set two alarms! Wake up earlier! Balls to the walls!" then maybe I would have started hopping out of bed early again and getting more done before Thommy woke up.

But I would have missed out on the insight. I would still be spinning my wheels. I would still be ever-so-slightly grumpy.

My creative call to you this week, if it moves you, is this--a Book of You, in a form that you love. Post-its? Dictated notes? A hand-bound journal? I've repurposed my stale morning pages notebook. 

You could even leave your own notes on you in the comments, if you like.

Try a few observations. What are you noticing about yourself today? Does that observation lead to more? Does it take you under the surface?

Imagine you're getting to know yourself on a first date...but you've already been married to yourself for decades, and the love is still there...so really, you can let it all hang out.

Observations with love. Not to change, but to know. 

xoxo Maeg

 

 

 

New Creative Call to Action on Scoutie Girl Today!

Hey! This week's Creative Call to Action is over on Scoutie Girl today! 

Head over to my guest post to find out what all the "arghing" is about!

xo Maeg