Spring?????

Happy Monday everyone. It is officially spring now, but here we are getting some snow. I guess Old Man Winter doesn't want to leave, even though he's been pretty mellow all winter. Nature, go figure!

So today I have a mixed media spring garden page, with all these happy flowers. Those yellow tulips look like they are dancing in the sunshine.
I would like to dance in the sunshine. But it won't be today-not with the snow!

So this past weekend the theme was your inner voice. It started Friday at work in a meeting when we got talking about master teachers. The question came up about what makes a master teacher. We couldn't answer that definitively because people (and therefore teacher's) come in all shapes and sizes. It got me looking at my teacher inner voice-because my inner voice is very strong in that part of my life. I work with someone who always wants to be the best and out do everyone else. In a ruthless kind of way. Many years ago she attacked me to the administration and that caught me off guard because I never expected her to go that far. Now I always expect things like that from her, and I usually ignore her, but when you are sensitive and creative and not like that your inner voice always has to be on guard- even if its directed at yourself in that protective mode. 

And then Saturday morning I took a fun little art class at the York (Maine, US) Art Association taught by Corrine. (Thanks Corrine- it was a fantastic morning and fun lunch too!) The whole theme of the class was overriding that inner voice. Now I do have a critical art inner voice, but no where near as strong as my teacher inner voice. But still, sometimes I think my work is too messy or too unimportant.That I should be doing more. I  should make it more of a career move. I should move from kid teaching to art teaching. Do something else with my art. Follow my creative juices and get away from the more and more conformity of public school teaching.

And then back a bit, when I was in New Mexico, my friend's husband and I were having a morning chat over coffee and tea about our next careers. He is 72 and said he is still looking for his. We got talking and he said I should  travel and make photo books of my travels and sell them. Now that does sound wonderful to me, and since then my inner voice has been screaming at me about that. Not in a good way either. I have been trying to ignore her (mine is a her, and looks awfully like an angry version of my mother, from my 15 year old teenage view, when she screamed at me about photography and emotions and all those things an exploring the world and curious teenager does). But ignoring her is awfully hard!

And sometimes I don't think much about my inner voice at all. I just deal with it.

Now strangely, Thursday night, I started reading Danny Gregory's new book.

 Is the world trying to tell me something?

I also heard that Elizabeth's Gilbert latest book is really good.

I think I want to read it at some point. Put it on my list.

Enjoy your day hope it is a good one!