Okay…have you ever had one of those moments? The Defining Moment?? A moment when you think ..”wow this makes who I am today?” Well I think rarely do we just have one specific moment in life that defines us..I think life is made up of a plethora of defining moments…I call them my “Eat Pray Love Moments”…well, for any of you who have read the book or watched the movie…you know exactly what I mean…
Without getting too deep into an emotional journey here…lets just think of the little “moments of reflection”….quiet times where we just STOP and we THINK…life can have so much drama, stress and just “busy-ness” that in order to have a “quiet mind” as Liz Gilbert calls it, we have to make time every day to unwind it. For any artist or creative person..our mind seems to get, as I like to define my brain when it gets overloaded as “CHAOTIC” !! its like….having soooo many things to do and then making a list…somehow just making the list seems to lessen the load. For a writer, perhaps its so many ideas running in circles in your brain and then grabbing a pen and paper and writing…..somehow it feels like freedom.
Lately, for me, it has been jewelry. Making it. At one time in my life it was writing..writing in my journal from the ages of 7-20. Then it became gardening…I was absolutely obsessed with it…my kids used to worry that we wouldn’t be able to see our house anymore since the front porch was covered in hanging plants and clay pots with vines going all over…once my son said, “mom! this is embarrasing!” since everyone (all their friends from school) knew it was our house and I was flower obsessed! 🙂 But I knew that when I had a whole new lot of plants…it meant I was going through a tough time…and that was my way of getting myself through it….it made me happy, and it made me smile….and then overlapping all of these creative obsessions was my sewing all my life…making who knows what! well it did become my livelihood so I can’t complain too much!
But anyways….yesterday I had so much on my mind, and the only thing I wanted to do was put my music on and create…where my brain and my hands didn’t really have to coordinate…I could be “processing” all the “chaotic-ness” and my hands could be coming up with all kinds of fun things!!
Then I couldn’t sleep, partly due to my daughter living in Kauai and well, the time difference! She always seems to want to talk at night when she gets off work and well its 3 hours earlier there!! hahaha but you know…I love it 🙂 (love you Heather!! if you’re reading this) so after the conversation its like 2am and thats when I met George 🙂 (I will tell you how George got his name at the end…) a little funny faced man…carved jade bead….he’s been sitting here on my beading table for like 3 months now…he has such a peculiar look on his face, I can’t tell if he’s mad or just plain sad!! Hmmm maybe he’s just having a defining reflective moment 🙂 So long story short and these 8 wire crochet bracelets later…I had one of my “defining moments” just time to reflect and wow did it feel so good! Slept like a baby after…and then this morning I looked at the Man Named George Bracelet and he just makes me laugh, funny character..but he reminds me of Bali and it made me get out my Eat Pray Love book and read through all my favorite lines..have you ever done that when you are reading an inspirational book?? underline or fold over all your favorite lines?? 🙂 well then, you know what I mean! So here are some of them….enjoy…and thank you for joining me for one of my Defining moments…what are some of yours?? Feel free to leave them in the comments, I’d love to read them! 🙂
My favorite line was when she said “he was my lighthouse and my albatross in equal measure” amazing how a person can be two opposite things to us at the same time….and well, I have a thing for lighthouses so I liked this analogy..
Then in describing the loneliness she was feeling she says “When I get lonely these days. I think: So be lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life.” I’ve learned to cherish my “alone times” thats when I get some of my most intense thinking done, perhaps during a long walk down the beach or an afternoon at the lake with the ducks and birds…its healthy.
Then the conversation she has with Giovanni when she is trying to explain to him about phrases we use to comfort someone who is in distress..and using the expression “I’ve been there” That phrase was unclear to him so she explains to him that “deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.” “So sadness is a place?’ Gionvanni asked. “Sometimes people live there for years, ” she said. Then Giovanni tells her that the expression they use in Italian is L’ho provato sulla mia pelle, which means “I have experienced that on my own skin” “Meaning, I have also been burned or scarred in this way, and I know exaclty what you’re going through. “
“To devote yourself to the creation and enjoyment of beauty, then, can be a serious business–not always necessarily a means of escaping reality, but sometimes a means of holding on to the real when everything else is flaking away into…rhetoric and plot.”
“People think your soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave.”
“You cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.”
“But if you can plant yourself in stillness long enough, you will, in time, experience the truth that everything (both uncomfortable and lovely) does eventually pass.”
“The day is ending. It’s time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful”
“Attraversiamo” meaning “Let’s cross over”
My sanctuary……and on a clear day in the distance you can see the cliffs near Pismo Beach…gorgeous sunsets 🙂
So there…inspirations from someone who needed to find her balance, in the wake of many decisions she made that she regretted…. so just Stop once in a while and process the chaos! So George?? Well my cousin named him 🙂 just some random name that seemed to me to suit him perfectly! By the way…my cousin..owner of Etsy store Streetmade makes GORGEOUS wire wrapped jewelry…you must check it out! and well, if you want George??? He’s available for the taking! Have a great evening! 🙂
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