There is beauty in everything – even Death. It just requires a shift in perception.
Maggie is a rescue dog and she picked me on December 21st, 2011 (Winter Solstice). I’d never had a dog with a sense of humour as big as hers. She’s quite the character. I affectionately call her my “weirdo”. I can relate.
Miss Maggie is a mixed breed; the shelter had no idea what mix she is so she was generically labelled a “shepherd cross”. Earlier this year (2015) I decided to finally have her DNA tested. I was curious as to what she was all mixed up with. Many people offered an opinion and they were all, essentially, wrong!
Other than German Shepherd Dog, the most frequent guess was Doberman (due to her lack of undercoat) and Husky (she has webbed toes). I wondered though whether she might have some hound dog in her, because she doesn’t howl – she bays!
Anyway, it turns out she’s quite the blend of breeds, with the top two being German Shepherd and Coon Hound. Neither parent was a pure-bred, and the top five other breeds found in her genetics are:
Keeshond
Saint Bernard
Akita
Alaskan Malamute
Miniature short-haired Dachshund
Way to keep it interesting Maggie! Now that I know her genetic background, it explains her physical features and personality.
Does it matter what breed Maggie is? Nope, because I love her just the same.
I’ve been keeping written journals for a very long time. Rarely did I insert anything artsy – maybe the odd newspaper article, magazine pic, or doodle. Once in awhile I was inspired to draw … as I did here. Just ink on paper, and colored pencils for the flowers. My inspiration here came from a book on Unicorns. I like Unicorns…
After many years of being in the healing arts, I’ve switched gears a little and have added another modality to the work I do – Creative Journaling.
Everyone knows about journaling – about writing down thoughts, ideas, emotions, events in a blank book. It’s a fabulous method for sorting through our stuff, and the insights gleaned can be life-changing. That, and it’s nice to have life events written down somewhere, because the mind doesn’t always remember past things!
So what is Creative Journaling? It’s a smash-up of art, scrap-booking, and journaling – all in one book. The beauty of this kind of journaling is that it doesn’t require lots of words to be written down. That can (and does) happen, but often just by using colour, old photos, quotes, etc. a LOT can be said.
That, and it’s fun. And, it gets the creative juices going. And, if practiced regularly (even daily), it helps to reconnect us with our Spirit – that greater part of our Self that knows (better than us!) what is going on, where we’re going, and ultimately how things might turn out.
Simply, it connects us to our intuitive voice – our internal guidance system – and when that part of us is activated, wow – great things can manifest in our lives because, when we listen to that inner voice (our heart – not our head), it guides us to places we couldn’t even have imagined we could go.
So hopefully this blog (which is going to be all about Creative Journaling) inspires you to grab your journal, some pencils, crayons, markers, paints (or whatever medium you want to use), and go create!
Much love,
Radka (Artsy Radish) xoxo
You must be logged in to post a comment.