Make something beautiful in June: Week 2

What kind of creativity brings you joy? Gardening, cooking, drawing, writing? Maybe it’s baking or woodworking. There is something, beautiful someone. And you know what? Maybe it isn’t a traditional creative pursuit. Making something beautiful doesn’t necessarily mean creating art or having a unique idea.

Maybe you lose yourself solving a problem at work. Or resolving a dispute between two people in your chosen family. Making a difference in your community is creating beauty. So is trying a new, out-of-the-box solution to a annoying problem. Or encouraging someone who’s feeling despair…all these and more create beauty in the world.

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Make something beautiful in June

“And since all this loveliness cannot be Heaven,
I know in my heart it is June.”

– Abba Woolson

June comes bearing many gifts. Here in the northeast, it’s finally sunny and warm again. Roses and peonies are blooming and strawberries are ripening. We’re planning vacations and sitting poolside.

Surrounded by this gorgeous bounty, I hope we’re inspired to create something beautiful ourselves.

Maybe we plant a single rosebush. Or an entire garden.

Cook a beautiful meal for people we love with unique dishes–in colors, textures, and tastes we’ve never tried before.

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Gratitude is hope

So I wanted a car to replace my 15-year-old Honda with more rust than body, with failing springs (which feels like driving with cinderblocks for wheels), and not one but two broken taillight covers. When I shared this with a cruel narcissist from my early life, I was told to be grateful that I had a car at all.

“You could be riding your bike everywhere or buying a bus pass every month,” he said.

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YES changes everything!

Yes Changes Everything!Please enjoy this excerpt from
the opening of Yes Changes Everything!

There is this amazing story about the day John Lennon and Yoko Ono met: in the Fall of 1966, Yoko was in London for an art exhibition. Already an accomplished avant-garde artist, Yoko was displaying her works at the Indica Gallery as part of an exhibition called Unfinished Paintings and Objects.

John visited the gallery the day before the show was scheduled to open. He was skeptical about the displays, and the artist herself, who greeted him with a card that read, literally, “Breathe.”

One piece got his attention, though…

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Let’s see what we think

Please enjoy this excerpt from the Introduction to The Becoming Journal!

There’s something really wonderful about putting our thoughts on paper where we can see them. Writing slows us down and gives us time to think. Intuition and random thoughts start joining into vivid pictures until all of a sudden, we see new connections, aha’s!, and fresh ideas.

Kind of like turning a sweater inside out so we can finally see the tag that’s been itching us, putting a vague idea that’s been drifting around in our heads down on paper gets it out where we can see it. In the light of day, it may look amazing; it may not. Either way, writing it down gives us power over what happens next.

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