Musings.2: Barbara

"Open up your eyes and let the child learn."
Rusted Root, "Cruel Sun"


"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao Tzu


When I reached into my basket for a blank index card I came away with a card I bought long ago for someone or other's graduation. (I am obviously delinquent...) With little more than a glance my brain translated the spiral design on the front of the card as a labyrinth and I thought, "Cool. I just wrote a post featuring one of those!"

On the heels of that thought I realized the card was an astonishing echo of a thought I noted while writing of Melissa's initial interpretation of the labyrinth design as a "fingerprint of a god": walking a labyrinth means our feet make 'fingerprints'! Having said that I will just take another few steps along this creative journey. I am really excited to see that the labyrinth motif has surfaced in the development of Melissa's character because it is just such a dynamic symbol for the creative process, be it of an individual life, a project, a career, a community -- whatever.

In the early days, years ago, I would pounce on every idea and try to force it to completion. You know that old cliche, 'When life gives you lemons make lemonade'? Well, that is basically what I was doing. I juiced every idea that came to me be it a carrot, a tomato, an apple or an orange. Once, after some tears, that still small voice inside whispered, "This is just not the moment for this piece." Until then I had no idea that I was being given the ingredients for a recipe I did not yet know and it would be nice if I just held onto them long enough to make the feast and enjoy the fruits of my labor.

When I encountered the symbol of the labyrinth I saw quite clearly that on this creative journey the goal is always within sight of the path. Sometimes the path shoots me right to the center and I move part of the way around it closely; sometimes I find myself in the distance circling the perimeter. Wherever I am on the path I just look over my shoulder and glimpse my goal. Another thing I notice, which takes my breath away, is that if I picture the outstanding moments as dots along this journey and connect them sequentially the image is akin to a web, a net.

Is this the net that appears when I leap?

One thing I know is that incredible things happen whenever I stand on that net. As I considered what to include in the second set of Melissa's dreams my mind continually wandered the lot outside the warehouse. I remembered, too, standing in a lot here in 'real life' taking pictures of abandoned buildings. With my camera and my pen in hand I slowly realized that I felt a certain kind of peace in those abandoned places both imaginary and real. There isn't any way to 'spin' an old abandoned bottle or broken can amid "the sweepings of a street" as anything but abandoned. That honesty, that lack of pretense gives me such hope. That's all I can say.

[Rusted Root, "When I Woke" was the soundtrack for this post :) ]

This is a picture of a building I found with a vine growing out of its wall and thought of the rose growing up the wall of the warehouse.