Free Versus Paid Subscriptions To A Pause For Beauty and Creativity as a Way of Life
Scroll down for more on the work of Heron Dance, and on the use of journaling in creative work and in creating a unique life.
What is offered free to all followers of this work:
The first paragraph or two of each post.
A link to a YouTube video of me painting and discussing those posts.
A new painting.
The best way to see if either Substack is a good fit for your interests is to check out the archives:
Links to receive the free versions of either or both Substacks:
What supporters receive:
Two or three complete posts each week including the art.
Audio of the posts so that subscribers can listen while driving or doing other tasks.
A PDF of the upcoming book, Using an Art Journal to Probe Deep, which explores the tools and techniques that underly most of this work. Much of the months of October and November for both Substacks will be spent exploring these tools, at which point I plan to move on to emphasize other content such as excerpts from my own journals and the journals of others so that readers can see how others use journaling.
Founding subscribers also receive the print editions of the two books published or to be published in 2024:
• Meditations on the Beauty and Mystery of Life, A Gratitude Journal (published, included in Founding Membership to A Pause for Beauty)
• Nurturing the Song Within (published, included in Founding Membership to Gratitude as a Way of Life)
• Using An Art Journal to Probe Deep (to be published in November or December).
Sign up for a Founding Membership here ($150 contribution).
Subscribe to the Substack e-journal here ($5 a month).
Both Substacks explore the use of art journaling in accessing the deeper levels of wisdom that we contain within us.
Journaling can help us understand our lives: the patterns, hidden and obvious, the currents of spirituality and subconscious thought that underlie each of our lives, and the myths that guide us without us realizing it. Journaling can reveal what is working in our lives and what isn’t. It can help us come to terms with the uncertainties, setbacks and rejection we and our creative work encounter.
Both Substacks combine the use of journaling and meditation. Meditation includes the use of mantras that are a part of many religious traditions and also self-hypnosis techniques.
The emphasis of A Pause for Beauty is on gratitude as a philosophy of life and as a spiritual practice. It is also about living life on your own terms, in your own way, based on your own values. It is also about living in a way that is a positive in the world. Living in an awareness of the beauty and mystery that surrounds, and manifesting the beauty within.
The emphasis of Creativity as a Way of Life is on creative work and the inner work that underlies. It is about creating out of deep imagination, and exploring the inspiration that lives on the periphery of our awareness.
Both Substacks draw on the journals, memoirs, interviews and writings of others — of those who seek to serve such as Gandhi, Dag Hammarskjöld — of creatives — jazz musicians, novelists, painters, sculptors, filmmakers, poets. The purpose of both Substacks is to show journaling in action, to explore the deeper levels of wisdom and thought capable of guiding a thoughtful human life.
Both Substacks explore of the use of art in journaling. This art, abstract or wild, loose sketches, is not intended to be finished work such as works to be offered for sale, but rather images intended to capture moods, half-formed thoughts, images that hold some attraction for unknown reasons from the edges of our perception. It is art that can be executed by anyone, talented or not, creative or not. The image above is an example. It is about manifesting images that are down deep, poorly understood, but images that want to emerge.
The kind of content subscribers to A Pause for Beauty can expect to receive in addition to the YouTube video of me painting
the image you see, and audio of me reading, and discussing, the written content.
