Mindfulness Wall Art

Still 8x10 watercolor print by WindGullDesignCo on Etsy

I ran across this lovely watercolor print today on Etsy.  It is always interesting to me how saying the same thing in a different way can help us understand and connect with its meaning.

Inspired by the Little Bird Tracks

 

Mindfulness Reminder Necklace with Little Bird Tracks by CenterRings on Etsy

Yesterday was a snow day in Minnesota.  (Yes, many of us here were groaning a bit that is was April and we still had snow.)  At our house, we also had an abundance of little Juncos in and out and all around our bird feeder.  I just love the little prints they made in the snow--so much so that it was my inspiration for the pattern on these new hammered brass rings.

Slow down

Take a breath

Be in the Moment

Hold your thoughts and feelings as gently as you would a baby bird

Let them go

Just be

Mindfulness Like Celadon Must Be Experienced to Be Understood

When creating a listing on Etsy, one of the things you do is add tags that describe your piece, such as  color, shape, usage, etc. so people can find it more easily in a search.  It is often difficult to decide what colors to use.  Do you just use the word "green" when it is really a lime green?  If someone is searching for a green necklace are they that specific?  Needless to say, the answers are quite illusive, and you just use words that seem to be the most direct.

Describing the color of the little green-blue bird on this necklace yesterday I had to stop and really think what words to use.  One issue is that describing color can be very personal.  What looks like blue to one person might look like purple to another.  It is actually quite difficult to find true colors.

 

Mindfulness Reminder Necklace with Little Celadon Bird

Then the color "celadon" popped into my head. Yes, the little glass bird was celadon in color.  I typed it in with the other tags and posted the listing.  But I could not help wonder if what I thought the color celadon looked like was really the same color in the little bird charm, so I googled "celadon" in Google images.  Above is a picture of the necklace with what showed up in Google images, which confirmed I had found the right descriptive color.

It was interesting to read a bit more about celadon.  It is actually used most to describe a certain Asian glaze in pottery.  (I know the little bird charm is actually glass, but it is the same color as many of the celadon glazed.)

I was quite struck by this description I found for celadon green in Wikipedia:

These pots have blue-green glazes and are made in elegant shapes and were produced in kilns from all over China. Korean celadon pottery has been described by ancient Chinese artisans as having a quiet elegance whose color is "beyond description", in that it must be experienced to be understood, and its simplicity of form and style has been compared to the spirit of Zen Buddhism.^[49]

I really like how they describe celadon as:

"having a quiet elegance whose color is beyond description"... "that must be experienced to be understood..."

That really is another description for mindfulness, and it is really not as illusive as it seems at first.

Giving Ourselves a Soft Place to Land

Colorful Textile Mindfulness Reminder Necklace

Yesterday, I tried something new and different adding a some color.  As I created this necklace, these are a few thoughts that streamed through my mind:

• What does it mean to offer ourselves a soft place to land?
• What does it mean to accept all our thoughts and feelings--the good, the bad, the easy, the hard, the right, the wrong?
• Do we even need to label them or judge them?
• By giving our thoughts and feelings a soft place to land, will they never go away?
• Is giving our thoughts and feelings a soft place to land in a way a metaphor for acceptance?
• We don't cling to them or shoo them away.  We just let them be there.

I wrapped the metal rings with embroidery floss to make this necklace.  It is much more colorful.  I notice that when I give myself to the present moment, I notice things I would not notice otherwise.  Sometimes, what I notice more is color--the different greens in a leaf, the pink of a blooming gerber daisy, or the turquoise of an ocean bay.  Yes, all these are a soft place to land.

May you all find your own soft place to land.

Mindfulness Reminder Necklace with Hand Stamped Ring

I had some fun stamping brass yesterday.  The brass circle is not a "perfect" circle, yet isn't that how our lives really are?  Today, I am embracing my wonky circle.  So many times beauty really is in the imperfect nature of things. 

May you hold yourself gently today--wonkiness and all.

Little Blackbird Mindfulness Reminder Necklace

This song may or may not apply to the practice of Mindfulness, but it went through my mind when I was making this new necklace.  :)

Little Blackbird Mindfulness Reminder Necklace

CenterRings Little Etsy Shop is filling up!

CenterRings on Etsy

Slowly but surely,

I have been listing the Mindfulness Reminder Necklaces in my Etsy shop!

Come take a visit! 

First Etsy Listing!

I started working on this idea of CenterRings over two years ago, and I finally made my first listing and opened my Etsy shop.  That may seem like no big deal to many of you, but I was reminded how much work goes into getting an item ready to sell.  If only I could just make these necklaces and they would magically be photographed, described in writing, priced, weighed, measured...  I went through all this before when I opened my Etsy shop prayer bedes (which I hope to get active again soon.  And I am telling myself that "soon" does not mean 2 years, like it did for the first post on this website!)

The pricing and shipping parts of selling my work are my least favorite.  In order to just get this off the ground, I decided to simply charge $18 and include complementary shipping in the US.

So, here it is--my first listing in my new Etsy CenterRings shop.  There will be more to come, today!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/600878667/center-rings-mindfulness-reminder?ref=shop_home_active_1

Mindfulness and the Woodpecker

I saw this video the other day on Facebook, but it was not until today that I really thought more about it.  It is quite an amazing thing to see--a woodpecker hanging on to the side of a car window while the driver drives through Chicago on his way to work.

We have many woodpeckers in our yard.  They can be very annoying.  We even have holes in our house to prove they have been there.  On more than one occasion I have stuck my head out the window to attempt to frighten them away as they hammer their little beaks into the siding of our house.  They are very bold, and sometimes just keep hammering away even when I am only three or four feet away trying to shoo them away.

Yet, they are quite a beautiful bird too.  I see the large pileated woodpeckers hammering away at the trees in our woods. The funny thing is that it is not the large woodpeckers that seem so bold and peck on the side of our house, but the smaller ones.

When I first watched this video, it was mesmerizing to see how long that little woodpecker hung on to the car's open window.  I thought the wind would cause him to fly away.  Then the bird decided to fly into the car.  That is where I became a little concerned.  I pictured the bird flying around, feathers flying, and pooping everywhere because it was so scared.  But no.  The bird just hopped around on the driver's shoulders and chest, seemingly without a care in the world.  That little woodpecker was not annoying but quite amazing.  It is also very sweet the way the driver responded to the situation. 

So back to today and recollecting that video.  I could not help but think about how much those woodpeckers are like my panic during a panic attack.   I have a good imagination, which when I am having a panic attack is not a good thing.  Maybe I can imagine those little woodpeckers next time I have a panic attack, or for that matter any annoying thoughts and feelings that arise.  How might I treat those feelings differently if I thought of them as woodpeckers?  What if I treated them like the driver treated the little woodpecker that rode with him through the streets of Chicago?

Here is that video of the woodpecker in the car window.  I found it on YouTube.  I bet this guy filming the event never thought it would be something that helped someone else deal with panic attacks.  I must insert a smiley face here.  :)