Tag: healing

Stay The Course

It’s been a while since I’ve visited these pages. Had too much going on…or so I was led to believe. What does that even mean? Perhaps I should rephrase the statement and admit that I was distracted. Distracted by all the things that I allowed to get in the way of this pathway. I’ll say this now for emphasis and repeat it later for impact: STAY THE COURSE.

Someone asked me some time ago, “Who is your blog for?” I really didn’t consciously know. I said I just wrote because it was in me to write. I wanted to share experiences that would inspire others…I guess. I really hadn’t thought that deeply about it. I just felt it was something I needed to do. Of course, any question, whether it’s one I appreciate or not, finds its place at the conference table of my mind. Then it came to me. It’s for you.

You, the one taking the time to read these pages. You, the creative spirit manifest in the flesh. At times, as we all do, you will find yourself at a crossroads, not sure which direction is yours. I can go ahead and tell you now, to save you some time and trepidation. And since I know somebody is going to look it up and possibly get distracted, trepidation is basically a feeling of fear or anxiety about something that may happen. But here’s the thing: The right direction is the one you choose. And once you choose to march up to that path, whether it’s sunshine and rainbows or fire and brimstone, walk it like no one has walked it before, because they haven’t. It’s for you. Stay the course.

Take note that I said it’s the one YOU choose. Not the one you settle for. Not the one you’re left with. Not the one somebody else chose for you or you go with out of a sense of obligation. Not even necessarily the one that makes the most sense to everyone watching from the sidelines. It’s the one you choose.

This blog is for the ones who may not have chosen a traditional or easy path. It’s for the ones whose dreams are bigger than their bank accounts. It’s for the ones who have been told their ideas are too big, too strange, too impractical, too late, too early, or too much. It’s for the ones building something nobody else can quite see yet. And maybe most importantly, it’s for the ones who have started down the path and, somewhere along the way, got distracted. That’s where I kept finding myself. Distracted. Not defeated or lost just distracted. There is a difference. Life has a remarkable way of filling our hands with things that demand our attention while quietly stealing our attention from the things that matter most. One opportunity leads to another. One responsibility becomes five. We convince ourselves that we are simply busy when, sometimes, the truth is that we have allowed the important things to be pushed to the side by the urgent things. And before we know it, we’re standing somewhere we never intended to be, wondering how we got there.

That’s when we have to stop. Look around. Remember. Recalibrate. And choose again. Perhaps that’s what this season is for me; choosing again. Returning to the work with pointed intention. Returning to the words. Returning to the ideas that have been knocking on the door of my mind, waiting patiently for me to answer. Returning to the course. The reminders are always there. you hear them; something in a dream, a line in a movie or song, a word from a stranger, or a thought from the ether. You hear it calling. Calling you back to where you left off because the course doesn’t disappear just because you stepped away from it. The dream doesn’t expire because you get distracted. But eventually you will … so let that inspire you. The calling doesn’t vanish because you got tired and the vision doesn’t become less valid because it’s taking longer than you expected.

Sometimes you simply have to find your way back. And when you do, don’t waste time beating yourself up about where you’ve been. Get back in the saddle. Get back on the path. There will be days when you question the destination. There will be days when the path seems too long. There will be days when everybody else appears to be moving past you, according to instagram, facebook, or snapchat. There will be days when the bank account doesn’t line up with the vision. There will be days, more than a few, when the applause is absent. Keep walking, one step at a time, because every season is not about arriving. Some seasons are about becoming. Some seasons are about learning. Some are even about surviving. It’s all about preparing you for what you wanted for before you even knew how much preparation it would require. So if you’re standing at that crossroads right now, take a breath, a minute, a day. Choose your direction. DECIDE. Then move. And if you’ve already chosen your path but you’ve somehow wandered away from it, that’s alright too. Turn around and pick up where you left off. You haven’t missed your entire story because you took a detour. But please don’t confuse a detour with a destination. And don’t allow distraction to become a lifestyle.

STAY THE COURSE. I say it again because sometimes the things we need most are the things we need to hear repeatedly: Stay the course. Stay when it’s hard. Stay when it’s inconvenient. Stay when nobody understands. Stay when the vision seems foolish to everybody but you. Stay when the first version fails. Stay when the second version falters. Learn, adjust, and rebuild. But don’t abandon the path simply because the path became difficult. That’s what makes the distraction the attraction. There is something waiting on the other side of persistence that talent alone cannot reach. And maybe that’s why I’m back here. Not because I have figured it all out. Maybe, I’m back because I’m still figuring it out. And if you’re reading this, maybe you are too. So welcome back. Or perhaps, more appropriately… Welcome forward. The road is still there and the work is still calling. Right now, there is still time to become everything you were created to become. Take the step in front of you. Then take the next one. Don’t worry about seeing the whole road. I’m only asking you to take the next step, one at a time. And whatever you do… Stay the course.

Rest, Don’t Quit

Last week, I got up every day well before sunrise and kicked in with all eight barrels wide open and didn’t leave the studio until long after that ole sun had dipped below the horizon. For the last few months, large overlapping projects, no breath in between. No real pause. Just that headlong push— the kind, I admit a part of me relishes, leaning into the body temple like it’s an infinite source of fuel. Please note: even the most well built temple can crumble if it’s not respected. And truth be told, I’ve been known to test the limits of this vessel far too many times. Not out of recklessness—but out of love for the work, out of fire for the vision, and sometimes, if I’m honest, out of a lurking fear that if I stop, something might slip away.

Despite rapper and entrepreneur 50 cent’s declaration “Get Rich Or Die Trying”, pursuing your purpose shouldn’t have to kill you. Even the sun goes down. There’s a lesson the great orb in the heavens teaches every evening if we’re still enough to notice. That golden glow of descension isn’t a sign of quitting—it’s a sacred cue to transition. A reminder that even light knows when to rest. That beauty doesn’t just live in the blaze of midday hustle—but in the hush, the slow fade, the surrender, the rest.

Yet we so often glorify the grind (I’m not totally against it), wear exhaustion like a badge, and limp with a smirking pride. What if rest isn’t the enemy of progress—but its partner? What if stepping back now and then is how you step forward with intention? What if your goals need your soul to be whole and rested to rise? I’m learning continuously, even now, that discipline isn’t just about how hard we push. It’s really not so much about how fast or furious we plant, but how deliberate. Even then, we have to wait for the increase. It’s about knowing when to pause. Not to quit, but recalibrating. Not burning out, but burning slow and steady so the flame lasts. So this is me, telling myself and sharing with anybody else who needs to hear it. When the sun sets, let it be a cue. Let the studio close. Shut it down. Let the body breathe. Let the mind drift. Let the spirit sit in its quiet strength. It’s ok to rest. Just don’t quit.

Post Cards From Rabbit Lane

In the spirit of gratitude, I write with a renewed sense of purpose. At this juncture of Juneteenth, the summer solstice, and my bEARTHday, I feel both the warmth of a new sun and the lull of evening’s tide. For this southern born artist, life is a color palette spread out on all sides. Although I am not immune to the rage of life’s realities, I live with the joy that the hues never fade. At least not for long.

I am often asked, as artist, who was my early inspiration to live as a creative. I can never cite a person from the onset. Before any character emerged from the plethora of paintslingers and wordsmiths, there was Mother Nature with her omnipresent bowl of colors, shapes, forms, and values set in a space of splendor that transcended time and drew no lines. She was my first, my present and my always. She nurtured my childhood curiosity causing crawdads to dart backwards and hummingbirds to hover in midair. The colors of the rainbow set ablaze on the sun-kissed backs of fish, the wings of Japanese beetles, and dewdrop misted morning leaves. She showed me all her colors and called me home to myself. I would sit in stillness soaking up her fragrance between whispers of wind and bird and frog symphonies. All that I do, in all of my effort is but a shadow of the her divine masterpiece.

Some time ago, I began to capture sunsets and rises on my phone. On long days, heading home I would debrief through golden wheat fields, oceans of soybeans, and corn that seemed to stand up in paise. Upon my arrival, the evening sun would wash the front lawn in a warm glow. I made a conscious decision that I would one day share those photos. Beauty, like love, should not be kept to oneself. The title came simple and immediate. Postcards From Rabbit Lane. They are not only visual notes about what I’ve seen, they are messages about what we can be, and how we can be, in this vast nature painted landscape. We get to choose our role and how we manipulate the elements to create what we will. At one point, I did not realize we had been entrusted with such power. Nature got my attention in more than one of her seductive ways and reminded me who I am, and whose I am. In all that I am, my goal is to honor my full purpose here on the planet. In that I find a peace that passes understanding. The divine lens puts everything in perspective. That makes for a pretty good picture.

An Answer of Faith

I was recently questioned regarding the target audience for my writing. To be honest I hadn’t thought of it that specifically when I started. I knew I wanted to get things out of my head and on paper. That I want to inspire others to seize their baton and run with it. To be their highest and best version of who they want to be. Then it slowly came into view. This blog is for those who already know or sense that there is something more potent to be done or somewhere greater they are going and may need a little boost to walk their walk. It’s really a sacred journey whose pathway only the pathfinder or path maker can navigate. It is specifically for those who dare…

Keep pressing forward in word and deed. What do you believe? Your answer will be the basis of faith in word. How you believe is the bedrock of faith in deeds and actions. Faith can ride upon the wheels of any religion, denomination, dogma, or no organized sect at all. The manifestation of a thing is based on the faith (belief) of the believer. In the Bible when Jesus is quoted as saying Your faith has saved and healed you, he spoke directly to belief rooted in intention, not the religious bent of the one in need of healing. The healing had less to do with their religion of choice and everything to do with the conviction of their heart for the thing they desired. Religious inclination is what it is, but the actions that proceed from faith with intent is what will grant us the life we say we desire and consequently touch the world with our legacy.