Art, Nature, Creativity, Life

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Excerpt from Summer #1 2005 issue
A Patient Gardener

Yesterday I was out poking around to see what was in my new yard and I found a great nest of purple hosta shoots. If you weren't a gardener, you would probably look at these stubby, shiny, purple fingers and think, "How gross!"

I see them and think of the glorious unfolding to come -- the slow and gentle unfurling of the great ribbed leaves, the tall stalks rising in late summer and the delicate flowers, scented perhaps, opening like stars.

We barely know the depths of our possibilities - the green leaves tightly furled within us, the glorious white flowers waiting patiently to unwind. Sometimes our artistic life seems dormant; we wait for the spark, the sun, the warmth needed to set our creative souls growing, reaching, blossoming.

Part of our work as artists is to find out what nurtures us, what brings forth that which is slumbering within us. Be kind to yourself, be patient; be a gardener of the soul.