***CUPPA CREATIVITY*** May 18th***

[Bazile]

Hi all,
I hope it is ok that i start this.

So Quotes for today

Put yourself on view. This brings your talents to light.
Baltasar Gracian

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Erica Jong

Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)


I am going back to work today, I don't want to, but each day I don't it will get harder and there will be more work waiting for me. Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday.

[auntchristine]

Good morningi Bazile. It's not only ok that you started today's Cuppa, it's terrific!

I hear you about needing to go back to work. Just as long as you have the strength and won't relapse.

Great quotes, thank you!

I mentioned elsewhere, I am stuck here, in paralyzed mode, watching the Nine Eleven Commission Hearings as New York officials relate and explain their responses to events and do voice-over to video and still images. I wasn't down at Ground Zero but still have this PTSD reaction to seeing, hearing, reliving the day and weeks that followed.

[Helen]

Good Morning Bazile, and welcome. And good morning to the rest of you too.

Sure it's ok to start. Whoever gets here first starts and the rest of us are slow starters this morning. Your quotes are super.

Put yourself on view. This brings your talents to light.
Baltasar Gracian

I especially like this one...

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Erica Jong

Seems most appropriate for some of us here. And it reminds me of "We all have a photographic memory, it's just that some of us forget the film."

Sorry you have to go back to work but I understand, the work doesn't get done when you're not there and that makes going back twice as hard. So glad I decided to retire and spend my working day in my studio.

I wonder where Nance is too. Hope she's ok. Perhaps she's just busy packing for that move they are making.

Yesterday I did more sorting and putting away in my studio, very little painting though I did work a bit more on the Hedge Hog House piece I started in the WDE. Today I have one more shelf I want to tackle, then I will be somewhat organized. I hear the coffee pot telling me coffee is done, I'm off to the kitchen to do my journaling. BBL


I am going back to work today, I don't want to, but each day I don't it will get harder and there will be more work waiting for me. Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday.

[wilderness]

Thanks for the quotes Bazile, they are helpful for people like me who tend not to like to self-promote. Even though I know I have to do it, it's very hard. I'd much much rather have someone else say good things about my work than me do that.

You know Christine I'm feeling unable to concentrate on much these days, but I didn't make a connection to it being a PTSD link to earlier events. I think that may be happening to me as well, but not to 9/11, but to Viet Nam, which was endlessly on the news when I was a child.

wild

[auntchristine]

You know Christine I'm feeling unable to concentrate on much these days, but I didn't make a connection to it being a PTSD link to earlier events. I think that may be happening to me as well, but not to 9/11, but to Viet Nam, which was endlessly on the news when I was a child.

I don't want to use this as an excuse, but, there is something going on with me related to all the events I have lived through, even though not personally in the action of them.

If Viet Nam impacted us in that way, just think how the events of Iraq are impacting young people today (and they won't know it for years to come).

I was a young adult, a protestor of the war (but still staunch supporter of troops and a loyal, patriotic American, similar to my stance today). As a young woman in the Viet Nam era, it was shocking to see the young men going and going and never returning. And then there was the immediacy of seeing images and films so quickly of the events there.

Sigh. Time to move on.

I continue to honor the men and women who survived and didn't survive and served us all, but, must move on.

[JoyJoyJoy]

Good Morning, all Cuppas,

OOOh - really missed participating in the Cuppa forums the last couple days. Thanks for the mentions, friends! (Yes, the new avatar is a section of a recent painting of mine.) Been having major problems with my internet provider this weekend... looks like the AOL connection in my rural farming area has switched from a dial-up service to a tractor-pulled one! So, I have been lurking on WC, but unable to post. Jeesh... even on my husband's computer, with high-speed connection, AOL is glitching. Hubbie is not home now, so I am using his computer, clumbsily trying to type on this darn curved "egonomic" keyboard... so, don't count the typos... hahaha!

Thank you, Bazile, for starting today's discussion. I especially like the Erica Jong quote: "Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads." Courage... why do we, as artists, talk about courage and about fear? Really... I am wondering about this lately, myself. What are we afraid of?

I am thinking, this last week, that perhaps the answer to fear is acceptance. Okay... I have been more pensive (deep in thought) recently. Since finding out that my medications have been causing my health problems (and, therefore, changing my personality) for nine years, I am now weaning off them... and, wondering, "What is really ME? What is my personality without these meds? What kind of person will I be without the meds?" Even my own mother asked me... and I have no answer. The way I am dealing with this is NOT with fear... of the unknown, of what could possibly happen... but with acceptance. What is today simply is. What will be just will be. So, I am not fearful

So, I wonder if we could approach fear of creativity in the same way... instead of being afraid of what we are or are not, of whether we create a masterpiece or a puddle of paint mud... would it help us to just accept that we are artists? And, all artists play, putter, make messes, experiment, and occassionally do a really nice work. All artists have inspired days and blah days, times when everyday life just gets in the way and times when thinking is clear and focused. All artists know some techniques and have some skills, but are also spend a lifetime learning.

I will leave you with a couple uplifting quotes:

"Inside you, there's an artist you don't know about...(Isn't there?)... Say yes quickly, if you know, if you've known it from before the beginning of the universe." --Jalai ud-Din Rumi

"Be yourself! Be yourself! The lark does not sing the song of the nightingale, nor does the apple tree become ripe with cherries." --Laurence G. Boldt

"It is really not important whether one's vision is not as great as that of another. It is a personal question as to whether one shall live in and deal with his (her) greatest moments of happiness (while creating)." --Robert Henri

Hope this finds everyone having a healthy and happy day!

Nance

[Ophelia]

Good morning Bazile, Christine, Helen and all,

Bazile - it's great you started the thread, as Christine said, anyone can start it that gets here first. I've been running late all morning - had to clean up the "kill" that my cat left for me at the front door this morning. Ewwww! I think I have a panther on my hands - he's killed five rabbits in less than two weeks. And he's oh so generous with the kill, he always gets me to the front door to see what he's brought me. I think flowers would be a LOT better!! LOL

Christine - I can't even begin to know how you feel about 9/11. Unless a person was there, or has seen a similar type of event (such as a war), I don't think any of us can know the fear.

Hi there wild - I just scrolled down and noticed you snuck a post in there while I was typing.

This is the quote from today that I like the best:

Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

It's very similar to another that I've shared with y'all before, but I'll stick it in here again for good measure.

If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.
-Brendan Francis

Back to work I go - I'll be back in a while.

Susan

[auntchristine]

Hellow Nance, missed you!

I have to run but wanted to pop in first and say Hey.

"What is really ME? What is my personality without these meds? What kind of person will I be without the meds?"

Good question. I have been off meds for some time now, limited myself to only one part of the cocktail (the antidepressant) and now have eliminated that because of the expense and side effects. I can only tell you this from my experience, it is a scarey journey. One either gains clarity to see one's self accurately, or, losses clarity and can't see one's self accurately for quite some time.

And the reaction, response of "friends" and family is difficult to take. People want us to be "normal" and yet, who among us can say they can define "normal?" Not with complete certainty. My taste of a tomato may not be exactly what you taste; the purple I see may not be the purple you perceive.

BBL

[JoyJoyJoy]

Good morning to Helen, Christine, and Wild!!!!!!

Thought I would be the second post today, but you all managed to post while I was typing on this weird keyboard... hahaha!

Yup, I have been cleaning and packing. Spend yesterday in the basement (yucko, spiders). The folks interested in our house decided not to buy, but we have other friends asking, so we are hopeful it may sell without placing ads. Still shooting for August 1 BLAST-OFF to Florida!

Christine... So sorry to hear that 911 memories are bothering you. But, so very understandable! Although we all continue to mourn, New Yorkers certainly have had the most traumatic experience to heal from... and the recent news stories just re-open the wounds. Perhaps the best way to honor those lost is to go on, but never forget.

A prayer for those healing from 911.

Nance

[Ophelia]

Hey Nance - there you are! So glad you are ok. I understand about tractor-pulled internet, mine hasn't been the fastest as of late.

I'm eagerly waiting to see what Nance appears from under the meds you've been on. It's not that we've known you for a long time, but you display your personality very well on the internet. Know that we're all cheering for you!!

Ok, I really AM going back to work.

[wilderness]

Nance--glad you are back... I agree the key is acceptance, although that kind of thing is always a lifelong project for me, just like forgiveness. Thanks for the additional quotes everyone!

As far as the question of who is the real me, it's easy to think that the medications result in a different person, but isn't what happens just different actions (or thoughts, or feelings) from the same matrix of human form? Your body still has the same physicality, your spirit is still the same wonderful spirit, but for awhile the neurons went down different pathways. I don't deny that when under medication you might feel like a different person. Maybe it would be helpful to take note of the intrinsic aspects of yourself which do not change, such as a creative and artistic nature, as well as notice the things that change. Also I think that people naturally feel quite different over the course of their lives or even one day. We can all go through manic/low cycles just from eating too much sugar and coffee, but that doesn't make us into different people, does it? (I'm not trying to diminish the impact of the manic depressive condition, just trying to help look at the question from another angle).

We are all cheering for you!

wild

ps--also I don't want to diminish the impact of neuronal pathways on the formation of the personality (& maybe more) of the child. Childhood abuse does modify the physical structure of the brain--I've seen scientific papers on that. For example: http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/focus/earlybrain.cfm

[Helen]

Good afternoon everyone... I just returned from lunch with a friend and my new studio easel has arrived so I'm not staying long, anxious to put it together. Nance, glad you're back. I understand the sloooooowww computer. Mine is the computer itself, not the connection. It's just plain old and has way too much stuff on it. Before I go put my easel together I did have to comment on the person in there trying to get out. I do think it happens, not only with an illness like yours but to many of us. I am still hunting lost pieces of myself. Those of us who grew up trying to fit a mold that wasn't quite us often reshaped ourselves rather than making a new mold. Many years later it's difficult to know which is the real you and which is the person you became to please those around you.

And Christine, a hug for you as you go through this 9/11 thing all over again. Hadn't thought of it but now that you mention it I realize it must be very difficult.

Now to put that new easel together.
Helen

[auntchristine]

I want to see that easel when it's completed Helen. Would you believe, I have a huge easel that I bought when I had a commission years ago to do an oil painting for someone. I had to take it apart and it is in pieces and impossible (for me at least) to reassemble now. One of the bolts froze in place. I think it is a Santa Fe? All oak. Very pretty. But I don't paint in oils (I worry about the fumes long term effects on my cats and dogs).

I'm still thinking about this is it real or Memorex idea. One thing that happened to me when I was first taking mountains of medications (prescriptions) was that I had no fears of anything. In fact, I was so bad I thought I could do anything. I know that wasn't the "real" me, but, somehow I long for that artifice again.

The real me is a loner, introspective, and yet pretty comical. Odd, huh? For me, a problem I have in knowing my true personality has to do with having been alone for so very many years. Not sure how one really has any personality without other people to bounce it off of.

so deep.