finding the space in between

I have a tendency (which I imagine I share with most) of filling up my weeks/days with a lot of activities in addition to my work. If I'm not moving from one thing to the next, my mind is a few steps ahead of me, planning, preparing, sometimes worrying about what's next.

Spending a week away from my regular routine has shown me how restful it is to NOT have a schedule, and agenda, a plan for the day, but to rather be in "it" as I go along.

one week back and I can feel the spaciousness slowly contracting as I encounter all that life is made up of..how to keep the spaciousness?

Today I am practicing a very subtle awareness - focusing on the space in-between things - feeling it in my body particularly - I imagine the space in between my cells, where things are moving and flowing. It's been useful - breathing into the space is helping to release the little areas of tension. I feel more available to my self and those around me.

Courage to create

It takes some amount of courage to be in a life creative - here's my experience as I try..

When I'm am activity engaged in a creative effort (making a particular shaped earring or a free form crocheted scarf. I usually have a moment of not knowing what to do next. This "not knowing" can be scary. Of course the magnitude varies - it can be as subtle as a flash of butterflies in my stomach that I can breath through and move on. Or it's a giant wave that washes over me and distracts me from knowing what to do. At that point I usually step away and trust that I'll know what to do when I'm ready.

I find a parallel in this process of creating a piece of art as in trying to live life aware and present (as I can be in the moment).

and sometimes the unknowing is annoying and embarrassing and down right scary not to know! - that's where courage comes in - true when I'm crocheting a free form scarf as when I'm trying to be present in the moment and open to life.

I know that as I learn to tolerate the unknowing (where do I go next) and can let knowing unfold step-by-step closer to the moment when of doing - I feel a flowing, a vitality.