Once in a Blue Moon

Dear Friends, 

Time is playing tricks on us.  It feels a bit slippery these days--expanding and then suddenly contracting.  Each day stretches in front of us, and then suddenly it's gone.  

It's October.  The trees are turning colors. The sky is on fire with a blaze of autumn.  Red, orange, yellow.  Our memories are swept into a heap of crisp leaves in the center of the backyard.  We're creating piles to jump into, letting the leaves scatter.  We are seven again.  And then, twelve, then twenty-four and thirty and suddenly, our hair has gone silver.

Do not despair.  This is as it should be and this has been happening--long before we were born.  Perhaps we just didn't notice it quite so much until now.  

Here on La Belle Farm, the weather grows chilly.  Dr. Thompson chops firewood.  The mice have have packed their bags and moved in for the winter.  (We live in an 1820 farm house, so we're used to this happening. Thank goodness we have a couple of good mousers!)

This week we dug up the last of the potatoes, then buttoned up and put the garden to bed for the winter.

My creative inspiration for you today, is to look out at nature, the changing seasons and watch for metaphors.  Is the tree, a tree or is it an old friend?  Is the rain carrying messages?  Do the skies call out to you from honking geese in the distance?  Do you know the way to Florida?  

Do you know the way to San Jose? 

We have two full moons this month (the second one is on October 31 is the Blue Moon).  Ask yourself, if something only happens once in a blue moon, is there a kind of magical opening for your creativity?  Is there a parting of the curtain between what is real and what is not real.  And doest art--all art--not live in this magical in-between place.

Here's an image to get you started. 

Now, write a poem.  Paint a picture.  Write a new scene for your novel.  

And dance.  Believe it or not, these a magical times.  

These are creative times.

Jamie