Ida Clare Summer is here!

Summer has arrived in Big Thicket.

“Don’t you have more to write about than just the weather?”

Frankly no.  Summer starts here way before the calendar makes it official and ends just after Halloween.  That’s why in all our Halloween photos our witch make-up has puddled around our ankles.  And you thought that was witches brew.

Summer here is like a relative that you were anxious to see come to visit but then overstays her welcome until you want to move out of your own home and just leave it with her, if only you could.   Summer in Big Thicket comes with a big suitcase full of humidity, mosquitoes, fleas, red bugs, and canning.

When I first moved to Big Thicket, I tried to remain outside the loop, so to speak, of the canning circle.  After all, there is only me and my occasional roommate to feed, so why would I go to the trouble of putting something into jars that I can happily buy down at the supermarket in a can that has an expiration date of 2017?

Because it tastes better, it supports the local farming economy, and because people are hell-bent on giving you their excess produce; their plums, their okra, their berries.  And what kind of ungrateful wretch would I be to turn down food grown in the heat of summer that was sown, fertilized, hoed, nurtured, debugged, picked, washed, and delivered to you with a bedraggled look of desperation:

“Puleeze, take these squash, and I’ve got three rows of onions and the tomatoes are coming out of my ears.”

Well, if you insist.

Maybe summer won’t be so bad after all.

Have a creative week,

Ida Clare, You Are a Gift!

My graphic has two images from The Graphics Fairy, one of the best websites on the web for free images.

Dear Creative Chicks,

Are you hiding your gifts, talents and creativity?  Stop it.  The world is starving for imagination, brilliance, passion and ingenuity.   Not somebody else's, not your best friend's, not that annoying super star on TV: Yes, this means you!

It's time to get your moxie on.  Remember the old analogy about the iceberg being more under the surface than is visible above water level.  Well, unless you are The Titanic, this is a good thing.  It means you have resources you can call upon to keep yourself  afloat when things around you are sinking.  You just have to trust that they are there.

When we lose track of what our gifts are by becoming complacent, unappreciative, bored or overwhelmed, we set ourselves up to be cast  about on rugged seas with little hope for change.  You know in your secret heart that you are better at _______ than what you will admit to.  Somebody somewhere told you not to brag and though he/she was trying to keep you from becoming an obnoxious know-it-all that people wanted to pinch, you may have gone overboard on the keeping your gifts to yourself because you got kudos for behaving so well.

You are here in this vast universe for a reason.  You are an experiment and one that will not be abandoned.  Think how intricate you are.  You have your spirit, your mind, and your hands to create outcomes.  Try this:

Go for one hour (or ten minutes) as a witness to the life around you. JUST  BE AWARE.

Feel—absorb, notice, be alive to everything, feel the energy.  Notice your own.  Be in your body, rest in the resting place.  You are a gift to the universe—ACT LIKE IT!

Notice color, texture, temperature, noise, and level of brightness, speed, and tempo.  Delight in the beauty of everything—exactly as it is.   THESE ARE THE DAYS.  THESE ARE THE DAYS OF YOUR LIFE.  Just breathe and live.  You will be the gift you are here to be.

Hugs, 

Ida Clare, It's Happy Mues Day! Imagine That!

Tag from a series I am working on to create a little book.

Dear Creative Chicks,

Keyed up by your imagination?  Does it keep you awake at night thinking about the next and the next project?  Mine does.  Don't you just love having the outcome perfectly executed in your head before you have to go through the motions of bringing it into reality.  There is nothing more delicious. (Well, except have you had any berry cobbler lately?  Berries are ripe for the picking here in Big Thicket and it doesn't take a keen imagination to guess what I've been craving for hot from the oven with a generous blob of Blue Bell Ice Cream.  Sigh. However, I digress.)

I am so grateful for the ability to imagine.  It's what keeps me here in Rancho Wrecko, apart from the fact that I have no where else to go that isn't under a bridge with the Billy Goats Gruff.  In my little house, I can imagine it bigger, cleaner, with less spider webs and more hot water.  I've got big plans for this place and it can all be completed while lying on the sofa of my imagination.

So today on this Muesday, let's find a comfy spot under a shade tree nearest you and imagine your little heart content.

Hugs,
Ida Clare

Ida Clare, I hate change, don't you?

Hello Creative Chicks,

Well, the lightning zapped my computer the other day and I had to have a repair man come work his geeky magic on it.  While that was going on we stumbled into a conversation that was ultimately about change.  We both are in the midst of living out big unexpected changes in our lives.  Unexpected, unplanned, out of the blue, where the heck did this come from change.

Somewhere I read that change is stressful.  Duh.  They even have a rating system.  Divorce, marriage, changing jobs, communities, and schools are the biggies.  Rack up a bunch of those in a year and you are at risk for health problems, insomnia, emotional melt downs and a possible new-found addiction just to cope.  You might have even looked forward to it, welcomed it with open arms, and still found it to be stressful.

For instance, changing the cat's litter box is a welcome change, but stressful by anyone's standard.  I guess I shouldn't compare life's big changes such as marriage and divorce to the cat box, but the truth is they can both be a little stinky.

I hope you cope with change by embracing it and rolling with the flow.  Sometimes, it's good to give up, give in, and just accept what you can't do anything about.

Here are some quotes about change from people wiser than me:

• Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.  -Sydney J. Harris

• Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes. -Hugh Prather

• You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind.  -Timothy Leary 

• The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. -William Arthur Ward

Hugs,