home exploring in water visualizing it as a lawn quiet the critic asparagus fern analogy perfect, beautiful imperfection journaling living in a 'dream' world? book list We're afraid of feelings. We rush through our lives searching yet not living. For those who have the interest to look closely, life becomes art. - Diance Mariechild	Visualizing it as a Lawn Ever been driving in a neighborhood and just thought to yourself, "these are definitely rented homes"? The houses are not well kept and the yards are in complete disarray. Maybe there's even an old rusted out car in the front yard with weeds and grass overgrown to the bumper. Perhaps you've even lived somewhere the lawn seemed completely destroyed. Visualize that for a moment. Look at all the parts of the lawn. Are there lots of weeds. Maybe several brown spots. Is there even ANY green grass left? Looking at this lawn you might just shake your head and say, "it's just beyond repair" and walk away. When you consider all that needs to be done to bring this lawn to healthy condition again the task just seems too big. Maybe you think, "I'll just tear out this lawn and put down new sod." A quick, easy, painless albeit expensive fix. We approach our lives and the challenges in it in much the same way we approach this lawn. It's possible to change the path of your life in short order if you understand how that is done or have a moment of sudden awareness as you might see with people who have had near death experiences. For them it's a gift. They are given the opportunity to examine their lives at a much deeper level then ever before, in just moments. For the rest of us it is a conscious decision to examine it over time. The important thing here is to even recognize there is a lawn to tend to. You have the choice, the free will, to exist without noticing the beauty of the 'lawn' that is your life. When you are ready the lawn will be there. It can be very tempting to look at someone else's lawn and notice every weed they have growing and are not tending to. This is counterproductive to the care and maintenance of your own life. Just as you would not stop on some street, get out of your car, pull up someone's weeds and mow their lawn, you should not spend time monitoring someone else's life. It's their life, let them tend to it. Ok, perhaps you're a gardener and you are paid to do this work. We'll consider the gardeners to be therapists. They help others with their issues but are not taken over by the desire to fix the lawn, just help maintain it. Do not be overwhelmed by the work required. You do not need to do it all at once. Make the tasks manageable for you. Find the tools that work best for you and begin the process. For some meditation is the biggest part of their maintenance. Keeping the mind quiet while allowing the spirit to speak. Others turn to psychotherapy to 'weed-out' the difficulties that face them or to 'up-root' patterns that do not bring joy. There are many ways to approach opening your awareness and healing yourself. Creative Crackpot is about being playful and expressive. When we are open to our creativity we can uncover parts of ourselves we never knew existed. There are messages to be received in the process of creativity. This is yet another tool and what a fun one it can be! exercise: visualizing Sit quietly for a few moments. Take a few deep breaths and relax. If you have things on your mind or life is just too stressful for you imagine you have written these concerns on a piece of paper, see yourself fold the paper and place it into a box. See yourself put the box on a shelf. In your mind say, "I will put this aside for the time being and come back to it when I am done here." You can let it go for the time being. Take a few more deep breaths and relax all the muscles of your face and body. See your life as a lawn. Don't analyze it or try to repair it in this moment. Just see it for what it is. Look at the details without criticizing. Are there flowers? Is it surrounded by trees? How high is the grass and are there many weeds? How many types of weeds are there? Are there areas where grass is missing? Just be there for a while looking at the lawn. Stay there as long as you need. Again, do not try to fix or criticize it, just be there. Perhaps take a deep breath in and noticing what scents come to you. What are the textures. Enjoy the lawn and return to the day when you are comfortable. You can come back to the lawn and do work whenever you want. It's a process.