Most Livable City in the World: Copenhagen
My obsession with Denmark marches on. During my summer trip to Iowa for my grandma's funeral, I spoke with a number of family members who are in touch with our cousins and relatives who still live there. Many of the people I spoke to have done more family history research than I've been able to do so far and I'm working on tracking down the data that I can. I still dream of an epic trip that retraces the lives of my family members and introduces me to my living Danish relatives. Until then, I watch videos like the one below, produced by Monocle, and I know that this is home...
Trust. Creativity. Antique maps and moolah. #mondaymeditation
We swapped! Alexander has my art and I have his art and now we're arting up each other's art. You can see what I finally mailed to him and watch his reaction to our swap in this video he made. If you're wondering what I'm even talking about right now, here's a quick recap.
Alexander and I have had interesting conversations about fear, abundance, trust, creativity, art, expression, and everything that's become wrapped up in this unique experience. I mean, it all sounds really simple, right? Slap some paint on a canvas, ship it to your friend, he'll throw some more paint on it, we blog, we all move on. Right? Not really. Not when you decide to dive into the lessons that an experience like this can teach. I've worked my way through eight months of 2013 with an intentional focus on creativity and maintaining a mindset of abundance. Painting (for the first time ever) was the way I chose to retrain my brain to live in an abundant reality. All of that work is culminating in such a fascinating way in this collaboration. In the convos below, Alexander is white/left and I'm blue/right:
OM indeed. So, what am I doing with his pieces? He sent two sketches, one lion and one woman. I'm putting words in his mouth, but as I interpret these pieces, the lion is meant to be Alexander (a Leo) and symbolizes his power word: Viral Mindfulness. The woman is meant to be me and symbolizes my power word: Abundance. He could've meant something completely different, but again, this is the magic (and trust) of collaboration.
I feel like the woman has a brave, water energy. I love that we're standing behind her and it feels like all the possibility of this wide world is right in front of her. The ocean is a powerful, sacred space for me and so that's where this woman will live. My first reaction was to paint her environment.
Clearly abundance is about far more than money, but I wanted to infuse this collaboration with all types of abundance, including positive financial energy and abundance. Also, this was a great excuse to incorporate beautiful currency from all over the world that I found in an antique store in Salt Lake. I've had the map forever and I actually think it was used as wrapping paper on a gift from an ex-boyfriend. Cut. Cut. Rip. Rip. New energy. New stories.
What does all of this have to do with meditation? Well, when I texted Alexander about our swap and our anxiety about messing up each other's stuff, I was saying this to him as much as I was reminding myself:
This experiment with each other is our relatively low-risk way of practicing, practicing, practicing these concepts of being mindful and abundant, as opposed to going through life disengaged or fearful. There is no wrong answer when it comes to creativity. Someone will look at a Rothko and think it's utter crap and someone will look at it and their whole life will change. If we can learn to take that fearless, abundant, mindful attitude with us everywhere we go, not just into the microcosm of our creative workspaces, we will have created something far greater than a few shared canvases.
Love and cheers to no wrong answers,
gail
Follow my collaboration with Alexander and follow my adventures on Instagram @fourthirtyam.
Alexander and I have had interesting conversations about fear, abundance, trust, creativity, art, expression, and everything that's become wrapped up in this unique experience. I mean, it all sounds really simple, right? Slap some paint on a canvas, ship it to your friend, he'll throw some more paint on it, we blog, we all move on. Right? Not really. Not when you decide to dive into the lessons that an experience like this can teach. I've worked my way through eight months of 2013 with an intentional focus on creativity and maintaining a mindset of abundance. Painting (for the first time ever) was the way I chose to retrain my brain to live in an abundant reality. All of that work is culminating in such a fascinating way in this collaboration. In the convos below, Alexander is white/left and I'm blue/right:
OM indeed. So, what am I doing with his pieces? He sent two sketches, one lion and one woman. I'm putting words in his mouth, but as I interpret these pieces, the lion is meant to be Alexander (a Leo) and symbolizes his power word: Viral Mindfulness. The woman is meant to be me and symbolizes my power word: Abundance. He could've meant something completely different, but again, this is the magic (and trust) of collaboration.
I feel like the woman has a brave, water energy. I love that we're standing behind her and it feels like all the possibility of this wide world is right in front of her. The ocean is a powerful, sacred space for me and so that's where this woman will live. My first reaction was to paint her environment.
Clearly abundance is about far more than money, but I wanted to infuse this collaboration with all types of abundance, including positive financial energy and abundance. Also, this was a great excuse to incorporate beautiful currency from all over the world that I found in an antique store in Salt Lake. I've had the map forever and I actually think it was used as wrapping paper on a gift from an ex-boyfriend. Cut. Cut. Rip. Rip. New energy. New stories.
What does all of this have to do with meditation? Well, when I texted Alexander about our swap and our anxiety about messing up each other's stuff, I was saying this to him as much as I was reminding myself:
There is no wrong answer. You cannot possibly mess it up. It will be exactly what it wants to be. You will do everything right because you're doing it.
This experiment with each other is our relatively low-risk way of practicing, practicing, practicing these concepts of being mindful and abundant, as opposed to going through life disengaged or fearful. There is no wrong answer when it comes to creativity. Someone will look at a Rothko and think it's utter crap and someone will look at it and their whole life will change. If we can learn to take that fearless, abundant, mindful attitude with us everywhere we go, not just into the microcosm of our creative workspaces, we will have created something far greater than a few shared canvases.
Love and cheers to no wrong answers,
gail
Follow my collaboration with Alexander and follow my adventures on Instagram @fourthirtyam.
Workshops. Retreats. Mood lighting. #weekinphotos
|
| The artistic collaboration with Alexander marches on. Read all about it! |
 |
| Workshopping with my girlfriends. |
 |
| Emma Lou Thayne is the namesake and board ex officio for the organization I manage. I was fortunate to spend time with her in her family cabin at our annual board retreat. #rareselfie |
 |
| She was so surprised and delighted by the camera's reversed selfie mode she could barely stand it. #anevenrarerselfie |
 |
| The history and the stories in the Thayne family cabin...it's staggering. |
 |
| Thanks to my girlfriend who lent her boyfriend to me...I have a cute new addition in my condo. |
 |
| How I have managed to live here three years without a crystal chandelier is just beyond me. |
 |
| This situation calls for a thunderstorm and a good make out. Yes, sir, it does. |
Love and luxurious lighting,
me
New landing page: Collaboration with Alexander!
My artistic collaboration with Alexander is getting exciting, folks. We've swapped pieces and we're now working on each other's paintings and sketches, respectively. As we ramp up into the height of this project, I realized I want a landing page on this site to collect all of our posts and document our creative process. Well, ta-da...you can find that right here.
Follow along. Check back often. I have a post planned for this weekend to show you what I'm doing with Alexander's sketches. Hint: It involves antique maps and old paper currency from all over the globe.
For now, enjoy Alexander's experience of receiving my art and shipping his off to SLC.
As Alexander would say...
Love and namasgay,
me
Follow along. Check back often. I have a post planned for this weekend to show you what I'm doing with Alexander's sketches. Hint: It involves antique maps and old paper currency from all over the globe.
For now, enjoy Alexander's experience of receiving my art and shipping his off to SLC.
As Alexander would say...
Love and namasgay,
me
Humor helps. #mondaymeditation
Along with four of my girlfriends, I'm participating in a series of workshops based on the work of Robert Fritz. Specifically, we're reading his text Your Life as Art, and learning his framework of structural dynamics as a way to create what it is we want in our lives. The courses are taught by consultant / management coach Paula Ruffy. All of that might sound like a bit of word soup right now, but I'm planning a series of posts that will share with you what I'm learning through this adventure. We've only had one out of three total sessions so far and it's already pure awesomeness.
In the meantime, because I like to post meditation-ish posts on Mondays, I'll share this gem. It's stupid. It's funny. It helps me not take myself too seriously. I can get really wrapped up in the perceived weightiness of this whole mediative spiritual adventure. I mean, we're only exploring the whole meaning of life and stuff. This puts it all back in perspective...
.jpg)
Scroll through all 33 of these silly photos. It's worth a few chuckles and 2.5 minutes of your time.
Love and affirmations,
me
In the meantime, because I like to post meditation-ish posts on Mondays, I'll share this gem. It's stupid. It's funny. It helps me not take myself too seriously. I can get really wrapped up in the perceived weightiness of this whole mediative spiritual adventure. I mean, we're only exploring the whole meaning of life and stuff. This puts it all back in perspective...
.jpg)
Scroll through all 33 of these silly photos. It's worth a few chuckles and 2.5 minutes of your time.
Love and affirmations,
me
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)