Thank You Readers & Writers!

Art as the “Necessary Well” we drink from

Photo by Maxime Bouffard on Unsplash

Hello!!

It’s been too long! Too, too long!

I just need pop in quickly to say ✨THANK YOU ✨

Thank You to each & every one of the now 200 humans who have interest in reading my words!!!😆🥰 I am So Buoyed! Filled with a Hopeful Joy that says-

“Even though, in spite of;

Actually, Especially Because of-

Please don’t give in, or up;

You mustn’t Stop now.”

While I’ve written 17 or so (drafts in all the stages), you may, or may not know, I haven’t sent out a single one of them as a Newsletter to you since the end of summer.🫣

When I do, & I will🤗 some will shed light on the ‘whys’ of this. Some include personal tidbits, smatterings of narrative & poems while others veer into the nervous system from a poly-vagal/trauma lens, & offer the very tools & coping this messy human therapist herself uses.😃

My hope is that my more personal shares mixed in this way will help some other ‘half-frozen somebody,’ suspended in the limbo-land of ‘over-thinking, perfectionism & procrastination.’ This limbo-land is simultaneously filled with the opposing energies of anxious urgency, & perplexing immobility. Sometimes, just knowing where we are on the map can help us feel less lost.

(*Ironically, the work I teach is teach, is the work I need)

While I haven’t been in your inbox necessarily, I’ve been here still. I’ve been writing (in comments, & notes, & in my own journals & laptops). I’ve been here, on Substack, countless hours (since I found this space roughly 10 months ago).

I’ve been right here reading, making new friends! Here learning about words, & life, & soaking in Art like my life depends upon it.

And it has, depended on it.

I believe, This space right here-where we dare to bravely make & share & witness one another’s Art & Humanity, is a Sacred Space.

As the wise, & generous Poet & Spiritual teacher Mark Nepo says, I also believe:

“Art is not frivolous. It is Necessary.”

“It offers a well to drink from.”

I offer up that every time we notice the world through our senses, take it in through our own unique lenses, allow it to enter our hearts, inspire us, & then, make something new of it, & send that ‘something’ back out in to the world for others, we enter into a sacred conversation.

I offer up, with the wisdom of Mark Nepo: We each, are one another’s conversation with the Universe: one part inhale, one part exhale; each part vital & necessary.

When you make your Art, send it out in to the Universe, it becomes “a well I can drink from.” I can inhale. No longer crawling on all fours, panting, alone & breathless in the desert, I am now re-fueled by you, dear artist, both writer, & reader alike. I am re-fueled just by partaking in this cosmic conversation together. I can now exhale, make my own Art, send it back out to you.

🗝️ This feels like a secret in plain sight, doesn’t it?

I have So Much more to say about this, perhaps less frantically, though no less excitedly! Ha. And it’s only because I’ve been drinking from so many wells, ‘inhaling as it were,’ that I’m now able to return & pour back. 🥰

And it’s only because of You, my reader, you & your faith & desire to be Here & read my words that I have something to pour into!

I owe so much gratitude to all of the writers, poets, artists & teachers for being my well when I ran dry. And this isn’t a one & done! Because of course we must All breathe and drink daily.

✨So Thank You to Each one of You for making this Possible!

And Please, now more than ever, let’s keep on with our cosmic conversation, our Art dancing, & hope-building & dream chasing & word-weaving, shall we? Let’s keep being each other’s wells.

May We All:

Pursue Joy. Chase Our Passions. Believe. Dream. Try. Begin Again. Love. Make a Mess. Play. ✨Treat our lives like the most important projects we’ve ever had the privilege of working on; Our Art like the most important conversation we’ve ever been a part of; Each Other, like the Secret ingredient to our Favorite recipe.✨

Here’s to you my Reader & Writer, my Dreamer & Trier- I hope you walk, crawl, run, twirl, dance like the underdog of your new favorite story-the one you’ll smile about, laugh over, gladly wipe your tear smeared face for on the last of your days knowing you inhaled & exhaled; realizing what a vital part of the conversation you Truly were.♥️

Xoxo,

Colleen

Ps. I Love to be in conversation with you! Please share any thoughts, art, stories, etc.!