Entries from: June 2011
Metamorphosis, Guest Post by Miranda Hersey
June 7th, 2011, Comments (18)
My daughter sleeps. Like her brothers before her, she enters a cocoon of slumber each afternoon. Hours pass as her body makes its unfathomable changes, propelling her into adulthood. She is overpowered during this alchemy of adolescence.
Upstairs in Emma’s room, I find her curled onto the floor under a fleece blanket, brown hair spilling across one arm, laptop dark. At 15, her limbs are still visibly lengthening, extending her to my own height and perhaps beyond.
She sleeps so soundly that I cannot bear to wake her for dinner. Thirty more minutes.
As my daughter sleeps her way into who she is, I too have spun a cocoon. I surround myself with books and words and images; through information and intuition and the connection to others I am changing from the inside out. These changes thrill me with presence and possibilities. At 41, I too am becoming who I am. I stare in wonder at the skins I leave behind.
Transformation saturates the clapboards and corners of our home. In turn, each member of our family walks his or her lifelong passage of everyday miracles. Forces of nature and nurture take over and mold us like clay on a pottery wheel: The somatic journey of pregnancy and birth and breastfeeding. Infancy, becoming bipedal. Parenthood. Childhood. Finding one’s voice, literally and metaphorically. The discovery of passion and purpose. The learning that makes physical changes in the pathways of our minds. The love for others that makes indelible marks in our hearts.
It is my gift to be witness, and my gift to take part.
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Miranda Hersey is a writer, artist, creativity coach, and host of the group blog Studio Mothers. As a business owner and the mother of five, Miranda is passionate about helping other mothers live deeply satisfying, creative lives. She lives in rural Massachusetts, happily overrun with people, books, and animals.
Creative Every Day Check-In: June 6 – 12
June 6th, 2011, Comments (22)
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: Read all the details and sign up for the 2011 Creative Every Day Challenge here!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 6/6/11 - 6/12/11.
The widget below is an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post (or posts) or flickr image during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! If you're unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter, you can use the hashtag #CED2011 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for June is Metamorphosis, which you can read more about and get ideas for here.
Happy Creating!
If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~Author Unknown
Bloom True, Guest Post by KathyB
June 3rd, 2011, Comments (7)
Break out the streamers, cue the band. This is my first guest post ever. As the song goes, I am movin’ on up to the East Side. Thank you, Leah!
Wait a minute . . . guest post = write/create something, doesn’t it? I hadn’t considered that part. Guess I will need to resort to my time-trusted method of jumpstarting my writing process: I will look it up in the dictionary.
Turns out that “metamorphosis” is another word that I employed countless times in a million different ways – perhaps it was part of a joke, other times it might have been the means by which I tried to describe a profound personal experience – but I haven’t always hit the target when I used it. Having read through the definition and etymology of this term, I won’t go so far as to say I have been using it incorrectly all these years, let’s just say I have tossed this phrase out a little carelessly.
I have been known to announce I was in the midst of a metamorphosis, but apparently that is not entirely true. Based on my interpretation, one does not undergo a metamorphosis; one experiences a series of small changes over time, which on their own puts you on the road to progress, but after they have accumulated to the correct degree – now that is the metamorphosis. The intended result. Any interference or rushing of the process will only slow or damage the outcome. (translation: stop trying to control everything!)
Speaking of metamorphosis, a few weeks ago I turned fifty – how’s that for waking up on a runaway train? Talk about not noticing the small changes until it’s too late. I am trying my best to let fifty saturate my being and welcome the changes as they approach. I am going to work with what I have and hope it will deliver me to something even more wonderful than what is now.
That being said, insult was added to injury when I accompanied my soon-to-be 15 year-old son to his annual physical this morning. When the examination was complete, his doctor escorted him to the reception desk, declared him to be a unique specimen of youth and strength, and informed me that in the past year he has catapulted from the 70th percentile up to the 90th, and he shows no signs of stopping. It goes without saying that I am thrilled that my boy is strong and healthy – I take the same pride in his lean muscles as I did in his chubby baby thighs, but I just had to laugh at our two prerogatives as we left the appointment. There was me, clutching the steering wheel, hyper focused on every little twinge and ache, wondering if it’s possible for me to recover what I had – or is it really lost? Can I at least hang on to what I have left? In the next seat there’s my teen wanting the world to “bring it on.” He wants everything and is grabbing it with both hands, eager to see what’s next, ready for the unknown. His body changes are thrilling to him, every adjustment is pure nirvana. Me? I feel hunkered down, peaking around corners, wishing I could pick and choose what is coming next for me. At times like this, all you can do is laugh and keep driving.
I cannot control change; I can try to understand that its timing will never be predictable, its presence not always noticeable. It is inevitable and every once in awhile (like today) its stealth will blow me away. I will hope and dream and try to point myself in the right direction, keeping in mind that it is not possible to engineer my life, but perhaps I can excavate it.
Your grandmother told you. Your best friend said it. I’ll bet even Oprah would remind you.
We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time.
-Dennis Waitley
All I am asking for right now it to hold on to my petals for a little longer.
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KathyB lives and writes in the woody suburbs of Boston, and blogs about whatever she feels like at http://onelittlepromise.blogspot.com. One of the first things she will tell you is she is one of seven sisters, which should explain a lot. She is also a sedentary bookworm who has somehow found herself married to the most athletic, high-energy man on the planet, and together they have one very tall son who is about to finish his first year of high school. When it comes to blogging she still feels like a sapling surrounded by redwoods, but is beginning to feel a little bit taller every day.
One Month
June 2nd, 2011, Comments (26)
It's surprising and at the same time not so surprising that it has been one month since our little peanut came into the world. Time bends in strange ways when your days blend into your nights. Seeing her every moment of the day, it doesn't feel like she's changed much, but then I look back at pictures of those first few days and the changes are amazing! It makes me happy that we went to get some pictures taken of her to celebrate her turning one month.
It feels like we're just starting to turn a corner, finding the slightest bit of a flow. And as a sweet reward, we're starting to have some fun interactions, her eyes follow toys, she reacts to our voices, and she gives the sweetest little smiles, especially in the morning. And sometimes she seems to be talking to us in little coos. So sweet.
She's so precious and so loved!
I've got some more fabulous guest posts lined up for you this month, while I continue to experience this metamorphosis into new mom. Hope you enjoy them and the start of summer!
