The light this time of year takes my breath away. Tonight I was out in the garden, picking spinach and herbs, with the sun shining so warmly on my shoulders and a lovely cloud floating above my mountain. I felt so overwhelmed with all the beauty in my life that I stood and acknowledged it, and quietly said thank you.
My friend Nicole sent me the most delightful link to an interview with my favourite poet Mary Oliver. Mary said so many things that made me sigh with happiness, but one idea in particular has stuck with me this afternoon.
"I spent a great deal of time in my younger years just writing and reading, walking around the woods in Ohio, where I grew up. I often say if you could lay out all the writing I did in those years, it would go to the moon and back. It was bad, it was derivative. But when you love what you're doing, honestly, you can get better."
I love this idea of the love you have for your art being the one thing that helps you improve. I think so often people imagine that you need some enormous talent, that if you don't have that there is no point trying. But no, you just need to love it. Or as Mary says in her poem Wild Geese,"You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves."
That's how I see myself too. Just an ordinary person who didn't want to take anyone else's road. Find your own path, and your own vision, and hold to it tightly.
P.S The lovely Jannelle is holding a giveaway of my art. Visit her gorgeous blog to be in to win x
