Inviting Reflection and Taking Action
August 14, 2012
Patrons at the Tacoma Art Museum (dressed to match the painting — serendipity!)
“Anything that invites reflection becomes a point of departure.”
— Maxine Kumin
I don’t take enough time for reflection. It seems so easy to breeze through my days doing the work I’m paid to do, getting lost in a book, being entertained by television shows and DVD movies. But after a while, that’s just not enough. I need to transform all this passive input into action. I need to find meaning, to work with my hands and make something.
There’s a constant need to feed the soul, but then also to create something out of that nourishment.
“Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Journals, November 4, 1852
Do you feel that, too? What do you do to invite reflection? To get grounded again?
The paintings in art museums invite reflection.
Are you transformed by art? If not art, what then?
Rosemary's Blog 
August 14, 2012 at 6:15 am
Rosemary I use nature/garden to ground me and help me reflect…now that is hard to do in winter sometimes as the garden is asleep under many feet of snow, but then that is the time for me to go inward as well and delve deeper.
August 14, 2012 at 6:30 am
Fun post today. Reminds me I need to get into a museum to feed my soul. keep up the great posts!
julia
August 14, 2012 at 8:20 am
As a recovering alcoholic and 12-stepper, I used to review my day each evening to recall moments of joy and gratitude and to recognize where I might need to apply a little more focus. I was diligent about it 10 years ago, but since then, as is human, I’ve lapsed. I also have an (alas) intermittent meditation practice that is really nothing more than being still for 20 minutes a day. I find that when I do this regularly, I begin to experience moments of greater clarity (mini-epiphanies) during the rest of my normal walking/talking life, and a deeper awareness and appreciation of all that is here and now. At the moment, I’m feeling grateful for your blog!
August 14, 2018 at 6:03 am
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