Tag: book

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Law of Attraction

Betwixt

We often hear this idea that we can manifest abundance or draw to ourselves all the things we desire, i.e. the Law of Attraction. But is this really how the universe works? I wonder.

I just heard it presented again in an artists’ group. It’s so simple, so easy, she says. You only have to understand what it is you truly desire, let go of your limiting beliefs and allow the things you desire to enter your life. Amazing things will come to you–that big new studio, money, clients, business, whatever you want. Such a heady idea. I felt myself rising to it, as I always do.

Central Park

Many years ago I read Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. She is a big advocate of this idea. There are lots of wonderful exercises in the book designed to help you realize what you truly desire and then bring those things into your life. “Leap, and the net will appear.” I was all in. Many pretty pictures appeared in my mind and I tried to manifest these things in my life.

I then started traveling to art shows. I headed off to each show with the mantra, “Anything is possible. Anything can happen!” My “anythings” included being discovered by an agent or a publisher. An apartment overlooking Central Park. A soulmate. Travel. Book deals. I had vivid imaginings of these things happening, these things that I could draw to myself, if only I would leap.

I leapt and I’ve had a nice life, one I’ve enjoyed very much, and I am very grateful to Julia Cameron for her book. I’ve felt lucky, but I couldn’t say that the life I imagined for myself then is the one I’ve lived. No publisher, no apartment, no soulmate, no pot of money. But would I be happier had I found those things? Maybe, maybe not.

NM804 How Lucky

I think the Law of Attraction is a beautiful idea for some things. Drawing goodness, light, inspiration, and grace into your life. Keeping a mindset that is positive and well wishing. Growing resilience. Starting each day with an attitude of abundance, in terms of joy, people, ordinary experiences. Not Things. Framing any bad experiences in a way that is helpful rather than debilitating. Pulling like-minded, positive people toward you.

I think it’s a mistake to sell it as a way to get Things, e.g. a big lovely house, a publishing deal, a pot of money, a fancy job or car. And I get a little squeamish at the hidden suggestion that those lovely, good, positive people who’ve had lots of health and other problems have somehow drawn their troubles to themselves, by virtue of their limiting beliefs.

My attraction to the Law of Attraction now comes with conditions. I might try to manifest a wonderful painting, an excellent shot at pickleball, a really great MerryThoughts letter. But the pot of gold and the big bright studio? I don’t think so.

“When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.” ― Shannon L. Alder

“A change of feeling is a change of destiny.” ― Neville Goddard

“We are magnets . . .We have keys to all doors. We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities…” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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This Is a Book?

Is this a book? Yes!

In 2007 an artist I had met at a show told me about an art book exhibit in Lincoln KS, thinking I might want to enter. Of course I did. It was called “This is a Book? This is a Book!” The books were meant to be unusual, works of art, not your ordinary paperback or hardback book. They were made of all sorts of things, in a variety of ways. As the catalog (a handmade book) states, “No possibility is unexplored. These ‘books’ are serious or humorous; simple or complex; flat or dimensional; one medium or many; fact or fiction; funny or whimsical. Everything goes.” The exhibit of 50 artists’ works lived in the Lincoln Art Center March 2-April 30, 2007. After I got mine back, I entered it in our local Boone County Art Show, but since then it has sat unnoticed by everyone but me on a high shelf in my studio.

The other day I was looking for things to make an assemblage and I took down my book, titled “One Excellent Year.” I thought I’d share it with you here.

I had just had our back deck enclosed to make a studio and I thought it would be cool to use pieces of the old wood siding for the pages of the book. Of course there would be writing and I wanted it to be new. I settled on the idea of a sort of calendar, so each verse represents a month. The writing of that was a truly beautiful experience. I’d sit at the computer, close my eyes, and words would just flow in. It felt spiritual, in a way. A memorable writing session, for sure. I believe all of the writing took just that one day. I was truly in the zone. Unforgettable.

The collage is mostly scrapbook papers and then my writing, cut up into little bits. And then loads of polyurethane to keep it all safe. I left all the little nail holes and cracks unfilled, with a view to preserving the slat board just as it came off the wall.

The February and March pages

I could never let this piece go. I love the writing and the memory of writing it; I love the collage; I love that it’s made from pieces of my little house. It was wonderful to have it on exhibit, and to show it here at the bank show (NFS) but this was a true labor of love and it will remain among my most treasured pieces. It makes me happy.

As the June page, subtitled “Deep Happiness Settles” says, “And All notice that a gently spoken ‘Yes’ whooshes pleasantly through their mouths.” Yes. This is a book!

“A thousand dazzling Vegas turn bleak, when the soul shines with love’s labor.”― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote

“Work is love made visible.” – Kahlil Gibran

“Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” – J.M. Barrie

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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If It’s Real

I have finished that book with its tender characters

so real and fleshy that I worry now

what will become of those two kids?

And that boy living with his grandfather?

The two girls whose father left them?

I know somewhere that these are only characters in a book

but also too that their real-life counterparts are out there

and as they say in therapy If it’s real to the client, it’s real.

And so–Joy Rae, I hope you make good choices in life

and you too Richie and Dena and Emma and DJ

all so young and with so little to hold onto.

Hold on.

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Searching for a Book

What of a book that might suit my fancy

where is it and/or how can I find it

does anyone know, anyone at all?

One and one again goes rejected by me

of late for one very good reason or another.

Insipid. Jarringly violent. Too terribly sad.

I read Insipid for over one hundred pages

in the naive hope that this bland new lover

might after all become The One.  But no.

Two incidents only (which if only could

be erased from my brain, rotting dead

things plucked from my flower garden

and given a decent burial) led me to cast off

Jarringly Violent though the writing is

entertaining, clever, stunning in places

and the female protagonist brave.

Terribly Sad might have a chance

though I wonder why. Why must I

love characters through the curtain

of abuse heaped upon them by All

in their sad sad fictitious lives?

So I search for another golden book

to add to my (long) list of beloveds.

I am really not so horribly hard to please.