Quieting Thieves

Quieting Thieves

"Quieting Thieves" - mixed media on paper, 15" x 22".  Available here and at Artfinder.

One of the ten finished paintings from the Stan Kurth Freedom in Watermedia workshop, this piece surprised me.  It is what happens when I am immersed in uninterrupted painting for many days, and all the annoying daily worries outside of the art are quieted.  

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would call this Finding Flow.  The same flow I find after a long morning of working in soil, or in the days when I could rake leaves and haul mulch.  All the constant chatter monkeys in my mind are hushed, and wonderful things can happen.

Mark Nepo calls this "Quieting the Thieves" (Things That Join the Sea and Sky).  We carry lists of things to do, hold them dear and give them priority.

​"...it is the insidious virtue to have everything in order before we live that is the greatest thief." - MARK NEPO

I've spent a lot of my life trying to finish lists.   Crossing things off gives me satisfaction.  It gives me the illusion I am ever closer to the time when I can relax and really enjoy life.  As if it must be done in that order.  Yet these lists (and worries I touch with my thoughts each day) are the very thieves which must be quieted.  The things which prevent flow.

One very good way to quiet thieves is to spend a few minutes immersed in the wisdom of someone else's words.  Here's a link to a TED Talk by David Whyte (provided by the same thief-quieting spirit lady who gifted me a copy of the new book by Mark Nepo) which is sure to help push your lists to the side for a few minutes today.  https://www.ted.com/talks/david_whyte_a_lyrical_bridge_between_past_present_and_future.
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