Notes from the studio journal-

This afternoon I work in silence.
Not an easy thing for me to do.
Silence, I have come to realize, scares me.

My mind has time to settle, to think
My body and soul, time to feel.

I am painting the black line along the dripping mess
As I steady my hand to make a straight line
I realize I must look forward
to get the result I am looking for.

And then it comes to me
In life, we must focus forward, look ahead
to see and get to where we are going.
Looking back to where I had already painted
where I had already been
did not give me the results
I was looking for.

Later I share this experience with a wise young woman.
She comments on some choices she has made in her past
and said she has came to the conclusion
that she does not have eyes in the back of her head
so looking back
does not get her to where she needs to go.

This time of silence
while creating and being
has reminded me that we can learn from the past
but stay there, to stay focused on
or continue to look back
makes the trail ahead
much more difficult.