9|2|22 Practicing Discernment

It has been a busy week of unpacking, reorganizing and reorienting here in Texas. In between all that I spent a fair amount of time in the studio. Normally that would mean a bunch of new pieces on offer to you, but my time at the bench this week felt more like this:

The new ideas were just pushing at all the gates trying to get through. As much as I love a good run of ideas, just like Black Friday, they don't all turn out to be great deals. So my bench is filled with pieces that look a lot like those shoppers who got pushed to the ground.

But that's part of the process of making. At least for me. Nine times out of ten it's impossible to tell if an idea is any good or not unless it is made manifest. I have a great brain for imagining outcomes, but there is nothing like creating a prototype. It's truly the only way to discern the right from the almost right. 

Discernment is something that's been coming up a lot for me recently. I've been working with a mentor to better understand our connection to the beyond human world and one of the first big AHAs! from that process was the connection to the Greek concept of genius. This idea that WE are not geniuses, but that we all HAVE a genius who works through us (or not!) was something I first learned through Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic. This concept that our brains are not solely responsible for generating all the ideas we think we think is both exciting and liberating.

Trying to suss out which ideas are "mine" and which come from some other source is really tricky for me. I've spent over half a century living largely based on my intuition and inner knowing, but I don't seem to know where that knowing comes from.

That's what I'm hoping to learn more about during the next half century.  Because I suspect that the more I can discern the sources the more sources might make themselves available. Though I for sure don't want my head to feel like this holiday shopping fiasco, I do want to be able to call on as many resources as possible as we co-create the future.

There are only a few new pieces in the shop this week and they are all about clouds. Probably because I spent a lot of the recent 2000 mile journey just admiring the sky. I'll also be shifting around a bunch of inventory, so want to give you a last chance to pick up something you've had your eye on. Use DISCERN for 15% off your order by midnight Sunday.

I hope a few good ideas knock at your door this weekend and you have a stretch of time to invite them in.

Best,




PS:  Four quotes from On Being guests have been transformed into this beautiful animated reminder that "What lies ahead to be discovered is absolutely limitless. We are NOT at the pinnacle of human knowledge. We are just beginning.