breathe dearheart, breathe

Category: Inner wild liberation (page 1 of 7)

How the art of imperfection brings tranquil liberation

in this moment

In this moment … like a dandelion seed on the wind I’m falling deeper into wabi sabi perception.

Lovingly continuing to sip many times a day, every day from my nearly 15-year old white china coffee mug, handle broken off from two falls, tiny cracks appearing like frail hands on a ladies wrist watch.

Re-reading “Practical Wabi Sabi” by Simon G. Brown.

While looking for an image for you I came across this beautifully-written article by Robyn Griggs Lawrence, Editor of Natural Home, 2001 and author of another Wabi Sabi book, wherein he says:

“Broadly, wabi-sabi is everything that today’s sleek, mass-produced, technology-saturated culture isn’t. It’s flea markets, not shopping malls; aged wood, not swank floor coverings; one single morning glory, not a dozen red roses. Wabi-sabi understands the tender, raw beauty of a gray December landscape and the aching elegance of an abandoned building or shed. It celebrates cracks and crevices and rot and all the other marks that time and weather and use leave behind. To discover wabi-sabi is to see the singular beauty in something that may first look decrepit and ugly.

Wabi-sabi reminds us that we are all transient beings on this planet that our bodies, as well as the material world around us, are in the process of returning to dust. Nature’s cycles of growth, decay, and erosion are embodied in frayed edges, rust, liver spots. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace both the glory and the melancholy found in these marks of passing time.”

Enjoy giving yourself permission to be yourself.

{Post-script: Did you notice my blog images refuse, no matter what I do technically, to center themselves symmetrically under my headlines thus making my posts visually imperfect? Wabi Sabi suggests the eye enjoys asymmetry. I attempt humble acceptance which may lead to tranquil liberty from design decorum.}

Image “In this moment” borrowed from Theresa Durant. Available to buy.

As good as it ever was

ride the wild storm book cover

That book you loved when you were a child?

It’s as good now as it ever was. Better even.

Re-read it. You’ll probably enjoy it even more now. Certainly your appreciation of it will be greater. And your heart will expand. Stories written for children are often far more soul-touching and issue-resolving, comforting and entertaining than those for adults.

If you don’t have the actual, original book you remember, and I guess most of us don’t, see if you can find the same edition you read on ebay with a ‘saved search’. I just found “Return to Sula” by Lavinia Derwent and ordered it when I realised it sat deep within me; I must have been tapping into this childhood comforter when I called a cat character in The Wild Folk “Sula”.

 

What do you think of “The Wild Folk” concept cover?

The Wild Fol cover

What do you think of the rough, raw, concept cover for my new novel, “The Wild Folk”? Please leave a comment below, c’mon, c’mon.

I’d like an embossed print copy immediately so I can fondle that fur and sea rock.

For 3 years I’ve had the characters in this book talking at me, nagging, laughing, whispering amongst themselves. Now, with the release of The Wild Folk next week I can breathe a sigh of peace.

Prepare for Lorna, Lachie, Malky, Aunty Ruby, Kirsty, Johnny and all the rest of them to be unleashed upon the world. I hope you’ll enjoy what they have to say as much as I did. Ah, the wild ones.

– Or as the publisher would have it in the blurb:

“Some folk are born wild. Some have wildness thrust upon them.

When Lorna discovers the body of her childhood friend, Lachie, tangled by the tide on a Hebrides beach long-submerged family secrets and murderous truths rise to the surface threatening to wash away everything she holds dear.”

Love or loathe? Likey? No likey? Let me know below.

——————————-> UPDATE 13.05.14 THE WILD FOLK released today, Black Friday. Of course. #Scottish noir And it’s a Full Moon tonight. Read it on Amazon CLICK HERE.

Art Therapy

Art-therapie

I don’t know why colouring-in a French book feels a little more enchanting but it does.

Maybe when you only have a vague idea of what the text says you let your conscious mind relax into a dreamy, mindful state more easily than if you’re reading and thinking.

No matter. Have a look at these beautiful art therapy books from French company, Hachette-Practique. There’s also a sweet kit of colored pencils. Trying to figure out which brand of coloured pencil to buy can be so stressful as to have you colour-in more pages to re-balance.