LOVE

This is the first blog post in a while.  I am not sure how long it has been.  I have been giving my all the library truth be told.  I always have, but currently as a librarian my life’s art is being called upon or at least I feel compelled to give most of my energy to the library which has been so good to me.  I certainly cannot go through all that I have spoken of already in this blog.  I hope very much one day that it can get printed and published somehow.  Life art is expressing the most concertedly through my library so much so that I have had the term life art library work appear in my consciousness.  Also, life art librarianship and life art libraries.  I am sure there is a way for creatives to get involved even more at libraries in a spirit of full potential and service. 

This blog has always been a stream of consciousness mostly.  I find that it propels the work for me to do this both as this blog in text and through the podcast audibly.  It is amazing to me just how much my life has changed living the life art modality.  My attention is not taken away from daily activities, necessary or for fun, thinking that I would rather be making art because those daily activities have become the art.  It is really that simple and yet you must be exposed to it and have the light switch go on in order to fully understand and realize just how powerful and transformative it is. 

It really is a full maturational process.  It is a full transformation.  It says you can grow up and still be an artist, in fact the persona and professional growth is the art.  This changes everything.  What more can I say.  It is different now writing.  I was doing so much before.  And it does really feel good to write again.  I still do love writing.  It is strange.  I feel like I am missing making more artwork and yet it truly has taken hold and gently morphed into everything I am doing.  I still very much have this three-pronged calling of library leadership, life art teaching and music. 

I had a true miracle come through.  I thought the video of me playing my album LOVE: The Upward Spiral had been out of sync with the video and audio and that the playback was off.  It turned out that I was using an older, slower computer and that is why the video was disjointed.  Once I got it to my new computer it plays fine, and I was able to share that video in full.  I have that on YouTube as of this writing.  It really is a joy to be able to share that.  All the songs come from a place of Love and are a real joy to play.  I worked long and hard to be able to do that authentically. 

Also, my life art offering has never, ever been stronger.  I am so poised to go big and bold into full time coaching or at least part time coaching with my website, blog, social network, podcast, social media streams and more.  It has been this way for a while but over time the gravity compounds and it becomes more and more of a thing in the world.  It is truly my heart and love.  I am so happy to be doing work that I completely believe in. 

And the library leadership is humming along like never before.  I lead everyday by example and feel truly to be catching the wave of the pulse of libraries as they are now.  I am well connected within the field and have gained a tremendous amount of experience while working at my local public library.  All of this is art with a capital “A” as well.  It is Art.  It is even fine art.  Certainly I am repeating myself but it all does bear repeating. 

I want to quote an author I was introduced to via his work by a coworker.  His name is Frederick Franck.  This quote is exactly what I have found through life art. 

“And yet, I know artists whose medium is Life itself, and who express the inexpressible without brush, pencil, chisel, or guitar.  They neither paint nor dance.  Their medium is Being.  Whatever their hand touches has increased Life.  They see and don’t have to draw.  They are the artists of being alive.” 

This is from a book he wrote called the Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation.

I cannot say how wonderful it is to have found this in the world and by way of a friend at work nonetheless!!!  This is what life art is.  This is the life art movement.  I know in my heart that this type of thinking and the practice and being that goes along with it has not yet seen its full expression in the world as a contemporary movement.  That is what the life art movement is for.  And yes mindfulness is contemporary art.  Water is art. To someone who is not art minded this will sound funny but to someone who has artistic proclivities coming through as their thoughts and feeling all the time this understanding is what connects us with the vital flow of living life that we actually are and are a part of. 

What else can I say?  I am grateful.