Soft, blue colored rocks appeared for me at the Yoga Shala from friends who found them on vacation.
Bright magenta poke berries appear out of thin air alongside the fence at the tennis court we play at after dinner at the end of summer.
A small brown paper bag containing plastic vials of oxidized river sediment-turned-pigment from another friend waits for me on the front desk.
Goldenrod explodes at my doorstep, falling over, and blocking the entrance path as if to say “you must”.
A book on historical pigment and natural paint-making techniques from 1953 titled “The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques” appears on my studio table from an oil painter I share a building with.
I discover it would be a good idea to eat more eggs, and the next day I stumble across info about how to make white paint out of egg shells.
Bright orange clay brick fragments wash up at my bare feet at the river.
Marigolds galore beam at me from my mom’s garden in late autumn.
I naturally get excited about things I fall in love with. I always know when something is really going to take root. When I started the process of shifting my painting practice to natural pigments, I became simply enamored. It took my existing love for color, nature, spirituality, and my relationship to practice to new levels. Being (unapologetically) amused and excited, I talked and wrote and posted images about it. And then, the unexpected gifts started showing up.
The magic of being witnessed!
Expressing our interests and curiosities is a kind of spell. There are many invisible threads that connect us to what we love, to each other, and to the world around us. Everyone and everything is responding to one another. Each time you decide not to hide and instead put out there what you want or what you love - either by verbalizing it or even just showing up to your practice with admiration - that energy is a vibration in the web. A signal.
I believe in a universal supportive energy that wants to help nudge us further into what makes us grow. When gifts appear at your doorstep unannounced, it’s like a little token to let you know you’ve been seen. Some may think of them as thank-you gifts from God. You’re being thanked because when you liberate your inner longings and make them known, it shows that you may just believe that you deserve to have them.
You do.
And the thing about gifts is that giving one is one of the best feelings ever. If I feel so grateful to have received these creative support gifts from human (and beyond-human) witnesses, imagine how they feel! The simple act of not being afraid to share something I am interested in resulted in many beings experiencing joy, and not just me. It’s the feeling of thinking of someone and picking a flower for them. It’s better than receiving the flower. It makes me pay more attention so I can be more of a giver in the same way.
I can’t help but notice in myself and others that when we make our creative passions and intentions known, reciprocity appears. There’s always someone on the other end of the line, even if it is just quiet space, receiving your energy and taking notes. What goes around comes around.
Cast a spell with your words or actions. Play, be interested, soften the fear, and expose your excitement, be cringe if you have to, be obsessed. What do you have to lose?
Believe in magic, and magic will believe in you. (This is a quote from my 9 year old).
;-)
A sentiment for “holiday gifting season”.
XO - Kristen
✷ Links for you! ✷
View my art here (I just updated it!)
Buy printed goods and gifts I make here.
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