OWOH winners! Recent events! and Heart Your Art - part 4

OWOH Winners!

Thank you to everyone who came to my blog, read my story, loved my story, hearted my art, and made this event so much fun! Mr. Frog and I are absolutely thrilled to announce the winners.......Mr. Frog, frog roll please.....ribbet, ribbet, ribbet, ribbet.................


The winner of the journal is........................... Debby from The Gathering Nest

The winner of the picture frame is.................. Danit from DishVish

YAY!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please email me your address by Thursday. The post office is expecting me on Friday. :)

ps: Anyone who would like to purchase a handmade journal, please contact me at AMagickalMeliss@yahoo.com


Recent Events!

Here's a few pictures to show you what's been going on here: SNOW!!!!

Here's what our garage looked liked after the first 2 feet of snow we got.



Here's what it looks like now, after the second snow. It's a good thing we don't need to get into that door (knock on computer).



Here's the hubby trying to clear off the snow from the roof.


Check out our driveway. It's a pretty steep hill which has several 90 degree turns at the top in order to get into the garage - which means the plow can't reach the top and it has to be shoveled by hand. UGH! We are so buying a snow blower!!

See the pile to the right? Hubby had to climb over and into that pile to get up on the ladder. It was pretty funny.


Here's the front of the house, followed by a picture of our nice little pathway.






Here's the back....the back ended up getting the worst of it because of the wind. I really hope it's a long time before I hear the words "blowing and drifting" again.



Some snow is nice......this much snow is a pain in the butt!

I did have something really wonderful happen this week though! I walked into my studio on Tuesday (the day the second snow was getting ready to hit us) and found this amazing sight!


My friend gave me this plant that had seeded itself last summer into this little pot. I never got around to planting it, so I've been keeping it in the window of my studio. I guess it must get a lot of sunshine - maybe it was the reflection of the sun off the snow.

Isn't that just magickal?? It only last the one day, but I'm glad I got to see it. Spring is coming - the beautiful purple flower said so!!





Okay, onto the business of hearting our arting - Let's talk about MONEY!!

"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're un-cool." The movie ~Almost Famous~

From my journal - January 2009

I still can't seem to shake the yucks. I could be producing a tremendous amount of art, but I'm not. No drive to. Someone was speaking about the exchange of energy. $ for this or that is an exchange of energy. Currently, I have no one to exchange this kind of energy with. But, The Man on The Mountain doesn't seek others to exchange energy with...he exchanges energy with The Earth, The Universe, The ALL!

From my journal - February 2009

What do I want to do with my time?

Take care of the cats
Take care of the house/yard

What else?

Explore Me more deeply

How come all the 'things' I want to do don't make any $?

Why am I concerned with making $?

Cause I'd like to contribute and not just take

Taking care of life/Life in this house IS a contribution. A HUGE one!!

Why do I look at this contribution as not worthy? ("We're not worthy")

Where did that come from? Where did I learn to associate $ with worth?

I didn't know I did that. At least not to this depth. I had a surface awareness of it. But it's never hit me the way it has now.

Society tells us that $ = worth

On a certain level, yes $ is worth 'something' - food, cars, houses......

But on the human spirit/soul/Universal/LIFE level $ = nothing, it doesn't mean squat ultimately (if you believe in Life after Death, someone with $ will never be at higher level than someone without $ simply for that reason)

So, while I do live on Earth and must follow some rules - I don't have to follow them all, especially the ones which are SO easily contradicted and created subtly within the frame-work of society and its values and how 'IT' says we should live.

Where did I learn to associate $ with worth? Shoot......school.....the kids with more $ had the 'right' clothes early on - this began to really matter in middle school and only got worse in high school. They were 'better' and 'better' is worth more than 'not better.' This scenario repeats in college, work, society, government, hollywood, the world, and at home (in our own homes!). Those with the $ are treated better than those without the $.

So, am I saying that I would treat myself better if I was making $ because I would be 'better'???? (this is not even in my journal - I'm saying that to me right now - always learning and growing! now back to the journal)

What can I do to dig up this root?

Work on my self-worth

Sometimes I think what I do (taking care of the house, etc) isn't good, important, or it's my DUTY!!!!!! NOT my Pleasure! Oooooo - that's something. I found another root.

Like my art - it is my DUTY to make something that people will buy so I can contribute $ that we don't really need (it would be nice, but we don't NEED it) so I can be worthy. What a crazy crazy thought. This actually STOPS my art! THIS STOPS ME!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(end of journal entries)

I am very lucky that making money is not a requirement of me. But somehow, I have still felt the invisible pressure of it. I have, like most of us, equated $ with self-value. Having these kinds of conversations with myself (or Goddess/God/Universe/Life/Great Spirit) in my journals has helped me tremendously (I highly recommend it). Even after these conversations with me, I still struggled for many months. I was pleased to notice, somewhere in the last few months of the year, there was growth in this area. I am still processing it though and probably always will be. I haven't arrived yet, but thankfully I am not where I was!! YAY!

Money is an important, tricky, mysterious, emotionally charged (self-value, fear of not having any, fear of having some.........) conversation to have with ourselves and others. But since WE put such a value on it, we cannot avoid it.

What is your experience with the issue of MONEY and how it relates to Your Art?

~magick~
Melissa