I’ve been thinking a lot about yesterday’s Nurturing The Song Within, about the very positive response it received from readers and how it made me feel – happy and alive. 

For those who may not have read it (“Inner Chaos”), it had to do with a message that came to me in meditation as I struggled with the setbacks experienced dealing with a printer I’d not dealt with before and their constant inability to meet commitments, and my own resulting failure to meet my commitments.

 That message:

 Create beautiful books about living a beautiful life.
To do that, create a beautiful life. 

Thinking about that more, a couple of memories came to mind. One was a plaque a reader sent to me maybe twenty or so years ago. I have it on my wall in my studio in Vermont:

What sets your heart free?
Surrender. 

Surrender doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m more likely to sue the bastards. But surrender is the way to go when trying to create a beautiful life. So I keep it on my wall hoping I’ll pay attention. Some day.

Another memory – my interview of Len Soucy for the first issue of Heron Dance in March 1995. Len, with his wife Diane, created the Raptor Trust in Millington, NJ, a hospital for sick and injured wild birds. There they treated thousands of birds a year, and released them.

During our interview, I asked Len what the favorite part of his day was. He said feeding the birds after dark, walking around between the cages, listening to the owls in the cages hoot into the night, and the wild owls in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge surrounding the Raptor Trust answer back to the “incarcerated.” He finished his train of thought with,

“I like snakes and frogs and creepy, crawly things and marvelous birds that can fly two hundred miles an hour and free my spirit . . .”

 What sets makes your heart sing? What sets your spirit free?

When I ask myself those questions, what immediately comes to mind are the times I’ve spent in wildlife refuges in different parts of the country just as the sun is coming up. That time when it is still dark but the horizon shows the first signs of light, and the birds are awake and singing their hearts out.

So then the question is: 

Why don’t you spend more time in wildlife refuges as the sun is coming up? Why don’t you plan your life more around that?

Today I added these questions to the template that I use in my daily journaling practice:

 What can I do today to create a beautiful day? 

Creative work notes: What can I do today to create a beautiful book? 

What can I do this month to create a beautiful life? 

What can I do today enhance my relationship with my inner world?

Update on Art Journal and Diary Planner:

I was waiting for the Art Journal to arrive, and then send them both out together, but the Art Journal may take another week or two so tomorrow will send out the Planner Diary. I’m doing everything I can to get your art journals sent out as absolutely soon as possible. If you told me you’d be traveling, and when you’ll return, I’ll send them out a day before your planned return.

. . .

Zoom meeting tonight for Heron Dance readers. Join us if you can. More here.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88309235844?pwd=GhAZn4aHga0Fp8XhvaR3jjYxXFDban.1