Sometimes while drifting off to sleep at night I feel this wave of being alive. Not a thought so much as a feeling: every moment of life could feel like this. We get such a finite stretch of time here, yet so much of it slips by while we’re doing something else. It makes me wonder why we don’t savor every breath of this luscious existence the way we’d savor a great meal, a perfect 64-degree day with just enough breeze to make you stop what you’re doing, or a wonderful piece of music that hits you just right.
For a state of mind that is so important, it often seems surprisingly difficult to find, or even to remember that it’s there. It’s interesting sometimes in the day if I am feeling a little off, if I happen to think of it, (which I usually don’t), it’s often as simple as just taking a breath and thinking about how wonderful it all is. Maybe even a smile to myself…
Sometimes I can take the time to get there in a more profound way. Sitting quietly. Breathing. Relaxing my jaw. Letting things settle instead of trying to force them… If I am patient enough to outwait my own restlessness and monkey mind, (yeah, seems simple enough).
Other times it arrives unexpectedly. Drawing and painting have been doing that for me lately. I have heard other people who draw talk about this but it has been slow coming for me. Getting lost in the process…
Maybe that’s partly what I’m really after. Not relaxation exactly, but attention. The attention of just being here in this amazing existence.
And I try to keep reminding myself, it’s enough to just breathe.
I was thinking recently about a larger drawing of a face I am all to familiar with but is readily available to me at any time so why not. I started playing with some ides in sketches.
You can really come to terms with yourself this way, (the disappearing hair, the wrinkles), I will probably come back to some idea of this for a larger work but somewhere in here I got a little tired of it. Or bored. I made this time lapse process video the other day. Not a great drawing but I find the process is interesting to watch in 5 second intervals:
Trying a new IPA I found at Costco the other day. Foggy Geezer… Seemed appropriate somehow.
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Some feel good music for the process of living and breathing:
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