Attention is Devotion and a Manifesto

I woke this morning from an intense and beautiful dream of my desert garden full of ripening vegetables. I hadn’t planted them, they just grew as if they had sprung from my mind. For most of the dream, I wandered around marveling at it all, carrying under my arms, a giant turnip and potato, each the size of a large baby.

I feel like that about my own life right now, like I’m carrying around these beautiful giant veggies in love with what I built. And look, I know things are bad out there, but I feel so very fortunate to be where I am and enjoying myself as much as I am, despite everything and the lack of snow. (But it looks like our fortunes shift starting this week!) It feels strange to say, and I don’t mean to brag, because you know, the world [waves hands all around], but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.

I finally started paying attention. To myself. And that has changed everything.

“Attention is devotion.”

writes Mary Oliver in her book of essays, “Upstream”. (One of my favorite books from last year.)

“Sometimes the desire to be lost again, as long ago, comes over me like a vapor. With growth into adulthood, responsibilities claimed me, so many heavy coats. I didn’t choose them, I don’t fault them, but it took time to reject them. Now in the spring I kneel, I put my face into the packets of violets, the dampness, the freshness, the sense of ever-ness. Something is wrong, I know it, if I don’t keep my attention on eternity. May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful. May I stay forever in the stream. May I look down upon the wind-flower and the bull thistle and the coreopsis with the greatest respect.

[emphasis above is mine]

Mary Oliver just had a way of succinctly saying the thing you need to hear.

Here’s another doozy, that you probably know, which might be the best manifesto for life I’ve read.

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

You may remember last year, a raven asked my to pay attention, and forever more, when I see a corvid, it is a sign, a reminder to take notice and be present. So this has been brewing for some time and becoming ever present in my life and my work.

Pay attention. Watch the world around you. See what bubbles up. Listen to your body. Take notice of what is going on right here and now.

Be astonished. Let yourself be taken with the world. Marvel at all the wonderful things. Be a witness to the horrible ones too.

Tell About it. Report on your findings. Tell other people about your experience. Interpret the world through your unique lens.

And that’s what I’m trying to do. With my art, with my writing, with my life.

Which brings me to my next show, “Attention is Devotion,” opening Thursday, March 12th in Jackson, Wyoming at Gallery Wild. I’ll have a whole new body of work of encaustic and cold wax paintings. More of the same, but always the next step in my journey. I’ve had some big breakthroughs in the last couple of months. Which is crazy, because I thought I had breakthroughs last year too. And while I’m still working on the show, about 6 more to go, I’m really stoked.

Contact Gallery Wild at info@gallerywild.com to be included on the preview list and get updated as soon as the work is available for sale. And if you’re in town, please join us for the opening reception.

But back to the manifesto. Last week, Anna Brones wrote in her newsletter about creative manifestos and about being creatively proactive. I was (as always) very inspired by Anna’s post and wanted to write my own manifesto. I sat with it all week doing nothing, but then, this morning’s magical garden dream pushed me into inspired action, and I jumped out of bed eager to get to my journal to record my thoughts and write my own creative manifesto.

I started writing a list of what was important to me. Turns out it was a long list. I also wanted to include ideas that form the basis of my own thinking. Premises from which I stand and beliefs that serve as my foundation. Call it faith perhaps. Then I took that long list and tried to make it more compact and succinct. I can’t get any more succinct than Mary Oliver’s - she wins the prize on that one. I wanted it to read like a poem, like an invocation, like a prayer to myself, for myself.

This is my rough draft, and like everything, it’s a work in progress, and I reserve the right to amend as I grow in this journey called life. I meant to write a “creative manifesto” but I think it’s just a manifesto for my life as a whole. Here goes:

Thanks Anna for the prompt!

What I’m Into This Week

Resist and Unsubscribe

Do you listen to Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway? We’re big fans. A couple weeks ago, Scott started talking about an economic strike as a way to combat this administration and especially the big tech companies who are bending the knee and giving him money. The premise is simple, for a month (or longer if you want), UNSUBSCRIBE from some of the major platforms as a protest against their support of Trump and all his awfulness. We all subscribe to too many things anyway. Perhaps a good way to save some money, and a good way to stick it to the man. Suggestions for what to unsubscribe from here.

Great Podcast Episodes

This American Life - What Is Your Emergency?

If you listen to nothing else this week, be sure to listen to This American Life.

On With Kara Swisher - The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny

The Ezra Klein Show - Is Your Social Life Missing Something? This Conversation Is for You

The Interview - Rev. James Martin on Our Moral Duty in Turbulent Times

Catherine O’Hara Honored at the Westminster Kennel Dog Show

We lost a good one recently, and I love that at the Westminster Kennel Dog Show in New York last week, they honored her with a moving tribute, especially for her role in Best in Show as Cookie Fleck and her terrier Winky. But I especially loved her in Schitt’s Creek.

Brew Pubs, Food Trucks & Hanging Out With Friends

On Friday, Matt and I invited a lot of friends to meet us at the new location for Offset Bier, a local brewery that had just opened up its new spot. I don’t know about you, but I miss just hanging out with friends. Maybe you feel this too, but it feels damn near impossible to get together with people. I have been trying to crack this nut, and I am grateful for a casual place like this, which serves good beer and NA options, plus they host a food truck on most Friday and Saturdays. Tell your friends you’re gonna be somewhere (brewery, coffee shop, local park, library, book store, etc) for a couple hours and go hang out, on a regular basis. Make it a thing. We gotta start hanging out again. It’s been too long.