Jung puts the burden squarely on each person. This psychology of individuation, of making what you are, and of what you’ve inherited of the universe, of making that specific, of making the collective in you individual, and carrying it as an individual, and not only standing still in it, but moving through life in your own way -- this is the hardest thing you can ask of a human being.
     - Laurens Van Der Post from the documentary Matter of Heart about the life and work of Carl Jung.

Moving through life in your own way is the most difficult thing you can ask of an individual. A thousand pressures to conform, to meet others’ expectations, to blindly accept the dominant values of the culture, to choose comfort over the risk involved in creating a big life. To ignore your own inner beauty and instead offer the world your acquiescence. By choosing a big life over a low-risk life of comfort, you make others uncomfortable with the compromises they’ve made. That’s uncomfortable.

. . .

The journals described below grew from exactly this question — what it looks like, in practice, to carry one's own life as one's own.

Thank You Gifts For Recurring Monthly Donors

I’m working on a series of journals that will combine my art, book and interview excerpts, reflections (such as the example above), and blank pages for your own journaling and sketching. These journals are designed to help us understand our lives in a deep way – the hidden patterns and wellsprings. They explore what it means to create a life of beauty. They will be printed on beautiful uncoated paper (to facilitate writing and sketching) and bound to lay flat.

Topics:

•     A Creativity Journal: Creativity as a way of life

•     The Wisdom Of The Backwoods Wanderers — Thoreau, Emerson, Muir, Sigurd Olson, Aldo Leopold, John Burroughs.

•     Pausing For Beauty: A Heron Dance poetry journal.

•     The poems and reflections of the Taoist/Zen mountain hermits of China and Japan.

•     Life As Daring Adventure; Life As Journey.

•     The Heron Dance Journal of Love, Gratitude And Faith That It Will All Work Out.

•     Rest, Relaxation, Silence, Simplicity, Solitude, Downtime — A Relax The Mind Journal.

•     Journaling — Access your inner wisdom.

• The Mystics: Inspirational thoughts from Rilke, Rumi, Tagore, Hesse, Nietzsche, etc.

•   Meditations On Nature: The Beauty Of Wild Places Journal.

It is an ambitious undertaking but work is well underway on all nine of these journals. My biggest challenge is devoting time to painting rather than marketing. Recurring donations from people who read these Nurturing e-journal posts makes the difference. If these add something to your life, Heron Dance needs your recurring monthly support, no matter how modest. Many hands make light work.

Thank You Gifts For Those Who Support This Work On A Recurring Basis

• The PDF of the Art Journal Nurturing The Song Within

• The PDF of the Diary Planner Nurturing The Song Within

• The 2024 Heron Dance Creativity Planner, digital edition.

• The PDF of The Heron Dance Book Of Love And Gratitude

• For all recurring monthly donors, we’ll send these out first thing tomorrow morning. For all new donors, you’ll receive these appreciation gifts after you check out.

And thank you to all who make this work possible!