Keep some room in your heart (plus: sketches, updates, and a new festival!)

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable” Mary Oliver

Dream and Fly. Print available in the shop

Keep some room in your heart.

When I recently came across this line from a Mary Oliver poem, I paused.

Quotes, poems, nature, new art: I love everything that makes me pause and look a little harder or think a little longer. 

Here are a few other great lines from her work that have stuck with me :

Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed

Let me keep company with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads

I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed

Many of her poems point to the fact that none of us have all the answers, and in that not-knowing there’s flexibility and freedom and adventure.

Be open to the unimaginable.

What will you discover when you do?

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I’ve continued to practice sketching animals so I can add them to new paintings and decide how I want to include them in my future children’s book. I’m loving how sweetly soothing animals are, and how much fun they are to draw.

I’ve sketched lots of animals so far (bears, foxes, mice, cats, rabbits, birds, whales, and fish), and have been paying attention to what I’m loving the most. Right now rabbits are in the lead, followed closely by cats and foxes.

Are there any other animals you think I should try? Let me know!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I recently found out that I’ll have a booth at the Fall for the Arts Festival in Chestnut Hill on Sunday, October 4th. Are you local to Philadelphia? Come visit me (if the weather behaves! I’m half expecting this will be postponed to October 11th, given the forecast). Stay tuned!

I’ve been restocking inventory, making new signage, and brainstorming tweaks to my booth design based on the lessons we learned from Greenfest.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I’ve been feeling lately that this journey I’m on (from sleepy life to awake and conscious life) is transforming me on a deeper level than I ever could have imagined when I began painting again.

A few months ago I had a conversation with a colleague who provides intuitive readings and one thing she told me has stuck with me since. She said you can create a successful business with your art, but that’s not the #1 benefit for you right now. Right now your art is your vehicle to heal the parts of you that need healing. 

I thought for a while about those words.

I thought about my core desire to share wisdom and inspiration and love through my art and writing. I thought about how sensitive I am to absorbing energy (from other people, from the world itself), and how painting helps me channel that energy into something beautiful. I thought about how being creative and curious has opened my mind to so much that I’d never considered (the power of intuition, meditation, feeling connected with spirit in a way that leaves me feeling nourished and whole).

On a soul-level I know she was right.

Regardless of how our journeys are similar or different, when we remain open and deeply curious about where our lives want to take us, the healing begins.

Keep some room in your heart.

With love,