Be the Small Sun You Are

"Be the Small Sun You Are" - mixed media on paper, 14" x 10"  Available here and at Artfinder.

Ooooh these abstracted sprites have the run of the studio, splashing about in florescent paint and now playing in the geli prints to choose their own outfits.  I'm merely an innocent bystander. :)

This piece inspired by Mark Nepo again.  This time a chapter on Heart and Path.  Here's the first aha...a quote Nepo shares from Carlos Castaneda:

​"Any path is only a path, and there is no affront to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you...Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think is necessary, then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question...Does this path have a heart?  If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use."

A good litmus test when one is faced with a fork in the road.  But I think the key here is asking yourself alone.

Too many times we muddy the waters of our own intuition by soliciting the opinions of others (and sometimes many others) before we make a choice.  But asking yourself by yourself forces you to feel the weight of the decision and how your heart receives each option.

My sister gives me similar advice - to "try on" a decision as if it were a done deal and see how it feels.  Sometimes the mere fact of doing that will give me a sense of relief, or alternately a sense of dread.  Those feelings are exquisite little guideposts for which way to go (or not to go).

Nepo encourages us to uncover the language of our hearts in addition to our common language with others.  Not to help others understand us, but to help us be ourselves - "to help ​you be you, to be the small sun you are."  The heart will then communicate with our gifts, conducting them as they were an orchestra, and guide us on our way.  I like the thought of that.

Wherever you path takes you today, be the small sun you are.  Shine on, little sun, shine on.