Quieting the Mind – lessons from nature

When I wrote my blog last week, I was, as I often am, struggling with what I call ‘ the noise in my head’.  I’ve often described the inside of my mind as a ‘quidditch’ match.  Thoughts tearing around like a tasmanian devil up there.  I enjoy my active mind, but sometimes I just wish it would be a calm and restful place. Especially while I’m on vacation. How was I to achieve that?  Well, I know there are dozens of books about ‘quieting the mind’, but it has to come from within and there are no books that can help with that part of it.  I’ve tried mediation, tai chi, reading calming books – they all help a bit, but for a very short time.

When I was a Fine Arts student I started to do life drawing, and years later, I still loved to draw. When I drew I was a frantic and excited ‘artist’ – my conte was always in tiny pieces, my pencils always needed sharpening, my charcoal usually snapped.  I loved it!  In those moments or hours, I was oblivious to what was going on around me.  My cheeks would get flushed, my heart would race…my drawings were often big and there were no delicate pencil lines. The past few years I have done very little art, and when I do, it’s just not the same.  I have arthritis in my hands, so they cramp up (especially with my tight grip on whatever I’m using to draw).  Drawing is also not something that I enjoy as much when I do it alone – I have always loved life drawing, in a room filled with the energy of other artists. I’ve struggled to find something that can match that experience.

While in Australia, I decided to try watercolour.  This is a medium I have used only once or twice in a class (many years ago), but I have always been drawn to the colours – the way they meld together, the layers…the immediacy of it.  After observing many birds here, I was drawn to their tremendous colours, some stunning in their brightness and others so gorgeous and muted.  I picked up some basic supplies, watched a couple of YouTube videos 🙂 and here are my very first efforts. I set a goal for myself, that I would spend no more than a couple of hours per painting (I have a tendency to overwork things) and at the end of the week I would share my learning and discovering on my blog.  The most important thing I discovered in this process was that for the first time in as long as I can remember, while it’s nice when someone likes what you create, I don’t care in the same way about these paintings – if I love the colours, or see something in the painting that I am excited by, that’s enough for me.  When I’m experimenting with this new medium, my mind is empty of anything but what I am doing in the moment.  My mind is quiet…

I’ve had a fantastic week – I can’t wait to wake up and paint something for a couple of hours. It’s different from the frantic drawing that I also so enjoy but can’t do as often anymore.  With my newly acquired ‘quieter’ mind (no, it’s not always quiet, just when I’m painting and for a short while after – it’s kind of like advil, it does wear off), I’m off for a walk to the beach, or to a cafe to read a book.  It’s a wonderful feeling.  While I am dreading heading back to Winnipeg without Marco (the flight is exhausting, but it also means another goodbye), I plan to take a class this fall and continue painting.  My hands are not bothered by this lighter medium, I feel I could do it for hours at a time.

So, my next blog will be from Winnipeg.  I might share some more of my new discoveries.  Who knows?

Wishing you a content and quiet mind….if that’s what you’re looking for.

Cindy

Photos from top down:  Cassowary – one of the most dangerous birds in the world – only found in Australia;  a cartoonish-version of the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, one of the noisy and most horrible sounding birds here, but very funny;  a very young exotic Australian Pigeon, we’re not sure which one, but specific to Australia; Some bird I saw but we don’t know what it is; and finally, Marco’s favorite, the Kookaburra.