My cottage studio and I have been together for ten years now.
And I'm living proof...one can accumulate a lot stuff in that amount of time 😂

This week I've been cleaning out the cottage garage, which has been a catch all for said stuff that crept beyond the cottage walls over the years.

Le Garage...with favorite quote on its wall

So much has happened in those ten years.

Lots of travel, lots of art, lots of stuff.. 
Old paintings surfaced from eons ago.
One, a French scene, from my early days of playing in oils.
A copy of a Fechin painting, sitting askew in its frame, recalled all the master works I've copied over the years in my attempt to get under the skin of a favorite artist.
Pieces of furniture from photo shoots for online courses, social media posts, and the like. 
A giant watercolor print, one of a series I did for a hospital that feels like 4 lifetimes ago, leaned sideways against the garage wall, a layer of thick dust coating it.
Tables, a stool, lots of spot lights for still lifes (all remnants of my live workshops), discovered behind a weed whip and an unused hammock.
I found that as I moved things around, letting go came in stages. I'd pull something out, put it back…work in another spot while my heart and brain met in the middle and realized—I'd already gotten what I needed from the item.
I could let it go.

Maybe it was the 'fallness' of the day —surrounded by bright sunshine, crisp air, and crunchy golden leaves —that put me in a reflective mood.

Whatever it was, it brought home again how life itself is about letting go. Creating space. It gives perspective on the journey from a little higher elevation (maybe a 15K aerial view, if you will ;-) )

Cleaning out the cob webs (and one very dead mouse) became a bit of an adventure. A reminder that things come and go in life. Careers we've perhaps outgrown, children heading off to their own lives, homes we have loved and lived in—you name it, and it's likely something that we have had to learn the art of letting go.

There is a faith involved in letting go. And a hope that nothing goes to waste.

These fall days are filled with reminders from Nature.
Leaves that are choosing to let go of the thing that has held them all the summer long.
And by doing so, they are destined to give nourishment and live again themselves.
They are letting go AND becoming part of the new life that springs forth in the seasons to come. Nothing is wasted or lost.
I love Nature.
She mispends nothing.

I Can See Clearly Now, a book by one of my favorite people, Wayne Dyer, summed up this idea as he looked back over his life —the good, the bad, all of it —to see how it was part of a bigger picture and plan for his life. I don't even begin to understand some of the hard whys in life. (The older I get, the less I can make sense of some things.) But seeing how Nature has a way of making use of everything gives me hope.

So I've been cleaning, contemplating and loving these fall days, the slow moments of diving in and doing whatever calls to me in the moment.

Reading: On Becoming an Artist by Ellen Langer (I'm on page 49 and enjoying it immensely)

Creating: Doing color swatches can be fun and mindful play — and it doesn't take much time at all!

...but be warned, it may lead to a quick watercolor too ;-)

Embracing: Long drives in the country, taking in as much of this Fall color as possible.

Wishing you so much abundance and heaping doses of peace. Let me know how it goes with you.

Hugs,
Dreama

Southern Reflections
6 x 8” watercolor on Fabriano paper

P.S. My watercolor of the gazing ball I shared here is from my visit to Charleston, SC. Did you know—gazing balls emerged in the 13th century with Venetian glassblowers—little orbs of wonder from Murano, made to mirror the sky and whisper a bit of Italy into our gardens. I love this!

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