Working with Flow

Taking a bit of time at the end of my summer vacation to drop a line and share something that flowed through me Sunday morning. It’s been a while since I have been in the ocean, yet each time I have a similar experience and full-body recognition of nature’s impact on our creative selves.

I was at the same beach that inspired the 2018 SS collection Gray Matter Series: Sense of Place, which investigated the idea that where we are impacts who we are. I have been driven in the last several years to find a way to respond to some of the answers, and find that allowing one’s self to be impacted by the nature of a place involves both surrender and knowledge.

Each time I return to this part of the ocean, I receive very similar information. I swim out to the space where I can see the larger waves from the horizon- can adjust my body to be able to be able to ride with the passing swells- and watch as the waves crash on the shore, aligning me to the heartbeat of the ocean.

If I am not paying attention, I will be surprised at the larger waves and go under as they overtake me. If I do not have the right pacing and rhythm as I get back to the shore, I will be knocked off my feet and receive a full body exfoliation at the space where the ebb and flow meet. I am not too embarrassed to tell you that is precisely what happened, although I did not get stuck in the humbling cycle of it as I have in the past.

Nature (or the “universe”) has no investment in humbling us per se, it just exists in its mighty cycles. It is when we are paying attention that we see the ebb and flow and can adjust ourselves to match it and make the most of it. If we stumble, the only lesson is to return to ourselves and listen more deeply to the true rhythm of what is going on rather than fight the natural cycles that are here to help us.

xoxoMs.AnnaLee

PS. To support your creativity in the cycles of nature, consider the Bright Moon Salon and Dark Moon Sparks!