A cloud of mystery, a cloud of wonder, and sometimes a cloud of awe!

A cloud of mystery, a cloud of wonder, and sometimes a cloud of awe!

 'A cloud of mystery, a cloud of wonder, and sometimes a cloud of awe!'  These words resonated with me today because my mind has spent the last few weeks in a new cloud.  I've been calling it the Covid cloud to my family and friends.  When I saw these words today they reminded me of why I chose to be an artist and why art is so vital to my well-being.

As a little girl, I loved to sing.  I sang from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep.  In grade 3, I met my best friend, Tania Nease (Olorenshaw), and she taught me the words to every song ever written because she possessed an uncanny encyclopedic memory for all things musical.  She still does.  We walked to and from school every day singing our hearts out.  Together we joined the Mount Royal Children's choir and Rosemarie Robertson was our choir director.  I will never forget the first rehearsal with that choir.  We were singing and all the hair on my arms stood up and I thought I was in heaven.  My friend, Walter MacDonald White Bear, has told me not everyone gets that feeling when they listen to music but I have a feeling most people have had that feeling in their lives when they are flying in their cloud of awe, whatever that may be. 

When I am creating or consuming art or when I am in nature my brain goes into a cloud of mystery, a cloud of wonder and sometimes a cloud of awe.   I am transported to another realm where the art helps me transcend the ordinary and takes me to another place.  It's kind of like flying.  I think that is why so many of the stories I have written have some sort of flight in them.  I imagine what it would be like to be a bumblebee, or to fly on the back of a dragonfly, a butterfly or a hummingbird and it fills me with joy.  Sometime in the middle of last week, probably on a walk with my daughter, I flew out of the Covid cloud and found myself back flying through the cloud of mystery, wonder and today watching our sunflower seeds sprout the cloud of awe.  We have been walking around our neighborhood, but on that particular day we had gone on a nature walk and she saw an eagle.  The two of us watched the eagle fly and it was so fierce and beautiful and free.  It bumped me out of my head and did some kind of recalibration for my brain.  This is so important because with the realities facing all of us right now remembering to find the things, whatever they may be, that lead us to feeling calm and grounded is going to help us more than ever. 

This week I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert's Ted Connects Talk:  'It's OK to feel overwhelmed.  Here's what to do next.'  In this talk she describes what she is doing to connect to her 10-year-old self.

'Well, I'm just playing with color and texture because it calms me, and I think if you can't think of what to do right now, I would suggest doing what you used to do when you were 10 years old that made you feel happy and relaxed, and that's often creativity and play'

 I challenge you all to find your 10-year-old self again and start flying in your cloud of mystery, wonder and awe.  Please let me know how it feels to be flying in those clouds for a change.  Be well and safe.