As I’m writing this Bliss Blog entry, I’m sitting at my dining room table with my dear friend Cindy Greb who I have known for 28 years. She is a new Beliefnet  columnist (Blessings Abound) who is visiting back East from her new home in Crestone, Colorado. Cindy has the bright curiosity of a child, the wisdom of an elder (she and I are both seasoned women with the laugh lines to show for it) and a traveler’s soul. She has lived in four states and has visited many more. Everywhere she goes, she draws in kindred spirits with all of those attributes.  When I heard she was going to be coming here to see her family, I immediately called dibs on some of her time. She is also an exquisite artist and photographer, writer and as a bonus……massage therapist extraordinaire. Looking forward to my table time tomorrow.

We are both working on our blogs and I know that we are each feeding the flow. I am blessed to have many friends who help me color outside the lines with my creative juices. I continue to attract writers, painters, designers, photographers, dancers, drummers, singers, multi-instrumentalists who inspire me to let my own wildly wondrous word wrangler out to play. She spills forth copious amounts of verbiage, not able to staunch the flow. I am feeding it by diving into life head and heart-first, sometimes in hyper-drive. Lately though, I have noticed the beauty inherent in silence and serenity when once it would have been nearly unthinkable….me slow down? Heavens no, the world might stop spinning.

What I particularly love about co-creation is that no one person has all of the ideas available and stream of consciousness thinking sparks each other’s imagery. Painting word pictures, we writerly types open the door to new worlds. I was speaking with someone today about his creative ideas. He says that he primarily writes for himself, not caring much about feedback and peddling his words to the public. I toss it off to being young since he is 19. I remember brimming with youthful idealism and when I look back at my journals from my college years (circa late 70’s- early 80’s) it amazes me still that I was able to crystalize concepts. In the interceding three decades, it feels like my brain is a sponge that lives to soak up impressions and wring them back out to drench the imaginations of those who choose to slurp up the words.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/blessingsabound/

http://youtu.be/VmItkmpZ7Dw Tribute to Obatala (Yoruban Orisha-God of Creativity)