JOURNAL ARCHIVES
OCTOBER 2007
The mythology of butterflies and moths
Aung San Suu Kyi: Fighting the power of fear
Ten oxherding pictures (Shubun)
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OCTOBER 20, 2007
LEANING INTO MY LIFE
Bateau Atelier. The artist sails away in the bateau atelier (studio boat). Monet. 1876.
Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard; and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth; and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore glimmered and was lost. And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
The Lord of the Rings: Book III, J.R.R. Tolkein, Frodo's final vision.
A priest I know once recommended that we resist running away from Life and choose instead to lean into it. Even if doing so makes us feel uncomfortable and off balance. She believes that leaning into our life, with all its joys and sorrows, can be a catalyst for transformation and true peace.
Recently I have been at a bit of a crossroads and so it came to me suddenly that the answer on which way to go had something to do with leaning into my life -- even a little bit more.
I am in the middle of my workshop at Columbia. Just plain bliss to be working on my novel and meeting a community of writers. It has given me a sense of artistic home and family again. It has also opened up my heart and my spirit to what might just be possible for me. To that end, I am presently working with the folks at Columbia to write and live abroad for a period of time. I should be able to finish my mural work for Mount Sinai and the Jung Foundation by the early part of next year. And then, if all the pieces fall into place, I could leave.
There are some exciting goals for the time there -- final revisions on my first novel if that is necessary and significant headway into the second one. I am also exploring the possibility of a little mural work. Of course, concrete goals are good things but I realize this may go a direction that I cannot foresee at this time.
© 2007 by Wesley Usher. All rights reserved.
