Drift Wood
Tomorrow we're heading to a Buddhist Retreat up in the mountains. Looking forward to it - we badly need to de-stress.
I'm not gonna take anything with other than my clothes. No music, no books, no journal. And NO camera. No camera will be hardest, but in a way it will also be a good thing. I've been so tuned into "photo-vision" the past few months that I can't go anywhere, or look anywhere without zillions of potential photos springing into my vision. Sometimes I get sick of it, and just wish I could switch the "photo-vision" thing off.
So without music to soothe my soul, or a book to escape into, I may well be dealing with a bit of depression in the next 4 days. And I'm going to have to just face it, square on. That's what buddhist retreats are about - facing your "self" without any distractions, whether you're a muggle or a bipolar.
I may allow myself to take my sketch pad with. The driftwood above is the last sketch I did. Like I said sketching is a meditative practice free of concepts, so many people do sketch at retreats.
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As to the emigration, our papers are just about ready to lodge. But it's no quick process - the EARLIEST we can fly across to NZ is the end of next year. And if you think that's a long time - try Canada. I was very keen on Vancouver for a while, but that process takes 3 years before you can actually relocate!
Whatever happens, we're selling the house in the next month or 2. Just gotta get it painted and then we're going to market.
Cu-chingggg....
you are quite an artist.
ReplyDeleteyou ARE quite an artist. I liked the previous sho drawing you showed us. Maybe, I hope, your retreat will elevate your mood. Maybe, one day of tech withdrawal.
ReplyDeleteIf people are selling up is the housing market not on a down turn?
ReplyDeleteThe feeling of the debt free burden will be a major benefit for you. Just don't sit back and enjoy the black balance view.
The retreat sounds really interesting, I'd love to do something like that one day. As someone who is also bipolar I'll wish you luck with yourself, but you never know. Unless you're already in a depressive phase it might just go fine. Just make sure it doesn't go too fine if it does end up going that way.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm saying is that you should aim for a mediocre time :)
I forgot to mention that I liked your previous drawing as well. I do hope you took your sketchpad with. Have you thought about adiing watercolour? You could just tint some more basic drawings to begin with then go from there...
ReplyDeleteI did a bit of controlled meditation myself last night: 90 mnutes of Bikram yoga in a 4o degree celsius room. I met a lady from Australia at the bar where I play guitar and sing songs and she managed to let me talk myself into trying out the class she is teaching. The postures aren't really that hard but I had to sit out the last twenty minutes as I was pretty close to collapsing from heat stroke! I found my thoughts wonderfully clear afterwards, though, and my pores are certainly thanking me today. :-)
Have a great retreat!