Coffee Hair and Sunshine...

When I create, I often find that my artistic time is also a time for reflection. Yesterday, as I sat twirling glass in the flame, I found my mind wandering back to my childhood. When my parents married, my great aunt and great grandmother gave them an acre of land in Indiana on which to build their home. My parent's land connected to their land...about 40 acres or so...and as a young child, I spent endless hours exploring the woods, meadows and creek surrounding our property.

I remember vividly sitting for hours on the sandy bank of the creek that wound it's way through my aunt's land. My coffee colored hair would get so warm from the sunlight as I would sit so very still, thinking about the world around me. After awhile, my stillness made the animals less wary, and I would watch them with quiet curiosity as they skittered around me. Birds, squirrels, chipmunks and even a raccoon and weasel graced my presence on those silent afternoons.

I remember listening to the sound of the water; singing stories of its journeys, and the sound of the wind soughing through the branches of the ancient trees. I'd glance up through the leaves and breathe in deeply as I watched the patterns of deep green leaves against blue sky. The world was a peaceful, gentle place on that sand bar...and I recollect a feeling of oneness with everything around me. I felt as though I were a part of the trees and they a part of me - both of us swaying together in the breeze and rooted in earth. Water surged inside my body and sang in harmony with the creek. The animals and I, we were old friends...brothers and sisters.

I marvel now to think that I was ever such a still child. I look at my own beautiful children...so full of energy and almost never still...and I wonder how it was that I sat for so long...content to just breathe in the beauty of nature. The beauty of life.

As I reminisced about my solitary moments, I realized how very important that stillness was to my inner strength...and how very important it remains. Our worlds, our lives, are so very busy. Always we rush from one obligation to another...and I can't help but feel we are missing it. As I thought about this, I realized that it's time for me, personally, to take back that stillness. To make the time to just breathe in life...to reconnect with this earth...to replenish the strength of my soul.

Dana :)