Scatter Joy

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2009-04-28T16:12:00.009-05:00

Artists are dreamers of the soft dreams at times...

I am glad I am an artist of the soft. I am an artist of the light. I am an artist of hope. I am an artist of trust.

Blessings, wishes, and light from Amy.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2009-04-27T06:17:00.003-05:00

Joy Joy

Joy

I love a get away! It is such a sweet retreat into the Creative Spirit!

2009-03-30T08:08:00.006-05:00

I laughed, hugged, painted, SLEPT, lol, shopped, knitted and wrote on a weekend in March that I won't forget soon. The bonus is that you come home to four glorious children and one grand husband completely refreshed and excited! I even got a commission for someone whose friend is starting a retreat! Yay! Thanks Mom for bringing me into your world, ages ago, and again on trips like these! I am blessed and filled with light!

Welcome to Scatter Joy! I am getting excited about sending my art to APW Gallery!

2009-01-13T15:52:00.006-06:00

These are the five pieces that will be for sale at the show.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-11-29T07:50:00.000-06:00

I am so grateful. I Cherish. I Love. I Protect. I Create. I Scatter Joy.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-11-19T10:05:00.000-06:00

I am getting ready for my art show here in Evansville, WI for Artists on the Mezzanine! It is in the beautiful historic Eager Building and hopefully I will get nice photos to show of this amazing building in our small and quaint downtown.

I got to spend time with my Mom on Monday night for just us-time. Cinnamon plum tea that smells like a blossom in the cup and cozying up on her five acres in the soft light of her living room added to the glorious company she always is.

It got me thinking about an amazing lady that after her Mom passed away was spoken to by the muses and began Scattering Joy! Robin Brown of Magnolia Pearl has a site and a blog filled with joy and creativity, light and verdant greens and such a positive mix of using old beautifully crafted laces and materials and some pixie dust and blossoms, that you have to visit often. The music alone makes my four little ones dance with skips in their steps. So, check out this video,

http://www.magnoliapearl.com/fallvideo.htm

if you want to raise your spirits and breathe in inspiration.

I will always enjoy shiny happy people holding hands....

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-10-28T07:46:00.000-05:00

Reach and find the gifts of the mind, no longer sweet leaves inside waiting to burst forth, blooms and growth not just on the vine. Each millimeter a process that leads to the infinite climbs, verdant green goodness, light and love for all time.
~Amy Sperry Faldet

Dragon's blood tree Yemen

2008-10-28T07:45:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-10-24T10:18:00.000-05:00

This post is dedicated to every friend whoever sat on my porch and cried, wrote to me with their hopes and dreams, listened to me cry, laughed, 'til we thought we'd spill tears, been there through the last few months or years. It is for every butterfly changing everyday, growing and finding her way, learning to trust, knowing hugs are a must. It is for every friend who learns to accept who she is, know she can be loved and give love away. Each time a butterfly pauses to sit, visits, takes a sip of friendship tea, light is shed, in the place of tears. Love will shinebrightly throughout the years, never fading.

This is to butterfly kisses meant to raise spirits until they can take flight again. Shower them from the sky to shine sweetly in every sad eye.

Do we enter people's lives for a reason? I don't know.

2008-10-24T09:50:00.000-05:00

Don't cry butterfly, you were meant to be fresh each moment through gossamer growth and grace.

I don't know if people are meant to meet, but, sometimes synchronicity is amazingly sweet.

Through summer days and misty haze the kindness and kinship never fades.

With every leaf that floats and whispers there is a knowing and growing, new faery slippers for showing.

What once we thought we knew can make us blue and rob the fresh summer dew.

Every new leaf is a wondrous fall flower, who made this quote, at what hour, I remember not; But, it is a perfect blossom and truth was wrote.

One should not wish the summer back, the fall does not lack. It is a time when friends return and know the cozy truth of kindnesses, real and many.

Butterfly kisses on site when hopes and wishes seemed to take flight, are never for naught, sweet naive lessons taught. Scatter love to those in need, and harbor the butterfly from the wind's greed.

I am a dragonfly, I have made my changes. I am a dragonfly faery no more am I a nymph or naiad, shell left on the reed.

Butterfly fly, you are the maker of dreams and with every Faery flower you grace the tears will no longer fall from that face.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-10-21T06:41:00.000-05:00

Life is an affirmative! Every breath brings you light and strength. Breathe it in.

Delicate Strength

2008-10-21T06:28:00.000-05:00

"If the body is a lightbulb, and it burns out, does that mean there's no more electricity? The source of energy remains. We can discard the body and go on. We are the source."

~Joseph Campbell

After you create something, you are lifted. It is a new moment. It is an affirmation that you believe in the next moment. The moment that you look at what you created and know for now it exists because you loved, hoped, tried, and were present. It is not necessary for it to last for eternity to be significant. It is your gift to the world, saying, "I am noticing, World. I am loving what is here. I am sticking around to turn the next corner and walk through the next portal." I love what there is to see and I love to experience each moment with a fullness that allows more to come.

Thanks to the photographer at Poppinstradgard, for letting me use her photo of this cathedral at Amiens, France, as a study in delicate strength. I appreciate your perspective.

What if you raised the spirits of just one person today? What would change?

2008-10-08T17:04:00.000-05:00

Possibly everything.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-10-04T10:11:00.001-05:00

I don't think there is any such thing as an ordinary mortal.

2008-10-04T09:50:00.000-05:00

Joseph Campbell spoke about The Illumination with Bill Moyers in The Power of Myth.
This is what he said,

Moyers: What is the illumination?
Campbell: The illumination is the recognition of the radiance of one eternity through all things, whether in the vision of time these things are judged as good or as evil. To come to this, you must release yourself completely from desiring the goods of this world and fearing the loss. "Judge not that you be not judged," we read in the words of Jesus. "If the doors of perception were cleansed," wrote Blake, "man would see everything as it is, infinite."
Moyers: That's a rough trip.
Campbell: That's a heavenly trip.
Moyers: But is this really just for saints and monks?
Campbell: No, I think it's also for artists. The real artist is the one who has learned to recognize and to render what Joyce has called the 'radiance' of all things, as an epiphany or showing forth of their truth.
Moyers: But doesn't this leave all the rest of us ordinary mortals back on shore?

Campbell: I don't think there is any such thing as an ordinary mortal. Everybody has his own possibility of rapture in the experience of life. All he has to do is recognize it and cultivate it and get going with it. I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I've never met an ordinary man, woman, or child.

Moyers: But is art the only way one can achieve this illumination?
Campbell: Art and religion are the two recommended ways. I don't think you get it through sheer academic philosophy, which gets all tangled up in concepts. But just living with one's heart open to others in compassion is a way wide open to all.
Moyers: So the experience of illumination is available to anyone, not just saints or artists. But if it is potentially in every one of us, deep in that unlocked memory box, how do you unlock it?
Campbell: You unlock it by getting somebody to help you unlock it. Do you have a dear friend or good teacher? It may come from an actual human being, or from an experience like an automobile accident, or from an illuminating book. In my own life, mostly it comes from books, though I have had a long series of magnificent teachers."

I love Campbell's look at this world. The best part about his words are when read as a whole, through his published works, a reoccurring theme is established.

You need others for love, support, inspiration, and teaching, but, in the end, it is loving yourself and being compassionate and patient with yourself that creates a true illuminated being.

Live and light your path.
Scatter joy.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-10-03T18:39:00.001-05:00

The Twelfth Gift of Birth is Faith

2008-10-03T18:34:00.000-05:00

Most artists have faith, whether they realize it or not. It is with faith that you try something you haven't done before. It is with faith that you listen to the glimmers inside yourself. It is faith to stay alive to the possibility in others and yourself. Faith doesn't look one way or the other, you cannot show faith. You breathe it. It is yours alone.

The Eleventh Gift of Birth is Love

2008-10-03T18:11:00.000-05:00

Love cannot be defined. So, this is the way it feels to me.

Every experience, every little, fragile, line, in this new creation, grows every moment. It slowly unfurls, sometimes with lessons, too rapidly. Yet, at every moment the grace of every experience helps it grow. This hollyhock is love in physical form as someone once said. It is for me a metaphor for the care that you give those you love, the support they need, the acceptance they need, the dew drops to refresh their spirits after a fall, love is never simple. Caring for others in pain, is what love looks like. Listening to them when they are lonely, not getting along with family, or discouraged, is love. The look on your babies' faces when they run up to you for a hug, this seems close. Love looks like your husband touching your hair. Love is all of it. The falling, the getting up, the acceptance of help, the trust, in others and yourself, this seems to be love.
Most of all give what you know, stay open, and trust. As an artist, I know when I am full of love for this strange world because the creativity is easy and free. I think this easy and free feeling is divinity, love in physical form, for me. A creator for me is love, nothing else, no judgement, just the creation that comes from love.

The Tenth Gift of Birth is Wisdom

2008-10-03T18:10:00.000-05:00

Wisdom is kindness.

The Ninth Gift of Birth is Reverence

2008-10-03T18:03:00.000-05:00

You look within to see the world without and you cannot help but show love and reverance.

The Eighth Gift of Birth is Imagination

2008-10-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

" Imagination is everything." Einstein

The Seventh Gift of Birth is Talent

2008-10-03T17:56:00.000-05:00

I drew this of DaVinci because he defines talent's triumph through prejudices.

The Sixth Gift of Birth is Joy

2008-10-03T17:36:00.000-05:00

When you ask people what is joy? It is not something done, it is. It just seems to be what nothing else can touch. It is an emotion that can lay next to happy, content, even blissful. But, the word joy just lives in a separate state, it seems to me. It is the only word that gives you a clear look at what one is feeling when, well, joyous. You know it when you see it. If someone says they are happy, but they live with anger or with jealousy, you worry about them, because they do not know real joy. I guess, sometimes, all you can do is try to scatter the joy you know, and use "faery dust" when you can to sprinkle it around. Some will scream, "You got that crap in my eye you moron!" Some will just feel a little better and not know why. Some will see the sparkle in life more than before. Some, though, some will use it to fly. When given a chance, fly.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-09-15T10:11:00.000-05:00

Everyday is a new and perfectly fresh day to believe in yourself and keep hope.

The Fifth Gift of Birth is Hope

2008-09-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

"Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep in mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next. Everything is alive and changing all the time..."

~Don Miguel in The Four Agreements

I am exploring the Twelve Gifts of Birth by Charlene Costanzo and

the Fifth Gift is Hope.

I think as an artist, a mother, a wife and a friend I try to hold myself to a few times in my life when I know I made a difference. These times were when I went out on a limb, so to speak, because some different people in my life at different times, really needed someone to care and listen. I am learning, though, that that standard is not necessarily what everyone needs when I meet them. So, I have learned that sometimes hope is knowing when to do your best, believe in others enough to let them learn from their own path and this, beautifully,

lets me learn my own path.

I can have hope in myself and others without needing to do the same things everytime to show I care and have hopes for them.

I think when you experience life and you see how you helped someone have hopes and follow their own dreams, you can become an optimist who only sees the hope and potential, because that is what you know they have.

You know this because you see it in yourself, potential and hope. You believe others have it because you believe you have it.

Hope is such a lovely thing to spread, that I think sometimes I forget that people need to experience the pain, confusion, and path they are meant to experience

and that the true giver of hope is the person who lets someone feel deeply their own lives, mistakes, and loves, and be there for them when or if they need it. That is a blessed way to live the life of an Artist/Creator, Mother, Wife, Friend with hope. I am learning every minute and this is hope!!!! IT IS A GLORIOUS EXPERIENCE THIS LIFE:) and this is hope. Thank goodness there is always hope.

"I believe that you are here to become more of yourself and live your best life."

~Oprah

The Fourth Gift of Birth is Compassion

2008-09-15T06:28:00.000-05:00

Compassion is one of the hardest concepts to understand. There are times, though, when you feel it coursing through for those who seem to fall all the time, who can't recognize the kindness and beauty in life, or who just live in naivete. My husband says I am the most naive person he has ever met and he has compassion for me and my heart. There is a balance that I guess I don't figure out when it comes to my heart and others, but, as he holds me, he says, "But that is what makes you care for so so many in your life. Don't change that part. Just look carefully at who you think you know." So, the dilemma. Do you stay unattached, inorder to be safe and not naive? Or do you experience and then, learn, and then love anyway? The thing that I have been exploring lately is knowing my boundaries.

I am lucky to have a husband who listens, friends who care, who laugh and cry with me, and especially my children that light me up. My husband often tells me, "Most people don't deserve all that you put out for them, all the love you give is disproportionate to their worth. You should focus that energy on those closest in your life and yourself, then, won't it spread from there? Isn't that how you said it works once?"

So, this morning, I, with the help of bookclub friends last night, my husband, and my inner spirit, I think I finally get that hard word,

Compassion. Let the love shine in your heart, and it radiates through all those you care about and all you create. Thank-you watery world for washing away the cares, creating such peaceful, new paths, and showing me, me.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-09-10T18:33:00.000-05:00

Take a step into the world of The Twelve Gifts of Birth.

The Third Gift of Birth is Courage

2008-09-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

The path you take is yours alone. The courage it takes to take it comes from experience. If you have turned and it led to pain, confusion, or anger it is exactly this that lead you to learning about yourself. Be brave, look with clear, loving eyes at yourself, your art, and especially others.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-09-01T18:06:00.000-05:00

I have been accomplishing some tasks with friends, volunteering, getting children ready for school and turning another year older, so I have been away from my blog. It has been such a fun week and a half. But, I am also happy to be settling into a new routine and the children are so excited for school and friends.
I will post the gifts of birth series soon and some of my takes on them and life and art. For now, you can visit my flickr photostream, if you would like a dip. Thanks and scatter joy.
Blessings.

Welcome to Scatter joy!

2008-08-27T07:44:00.000-05:00

My favorite color is that new green, you know the one fresh, dewy, and full of spring and growth. Pair it with the sweetest pink and white and this is heaven in my heart, heaven on Earth, heaven. The Second Gift of Birth in Charlene Costanzo's The Twelve Gifts of Birth is

Beauty.

The Second Gift of Birth is Beauty

2008-08-27T07:35:00.000-05:00

From
A Book of Luminous Things edited byCzeslaw Milosz

Cobalt
by
Rolf Jacobsen
Colors are words' little sisters. They can't become soldiers.
I've loved them secretly for a long time.
They have to stay home and hang up the sheer curtains
in our ordinary bedroom, kitchen and alcove.
I'm ver close to young Crimson, and brown Sienna
but even closer to thoughtful Cobalt with her distant eyes and
untrampled spirit.
We walk in dew.
The night sky and the southern oceans
are her possessions
and a tear-shaped pendant on her forehead:
the pearls of Cassiopeia.
We walk in dew on late nights.
But the others.
Meet them on a June morning at four o'clock
when they come rushing toward you,
on your way to a morning swim in the green cove's spray.
Then you can sunbathe with them on the smooth rocks.
-----Which one will you make yours?

Translated from the Norwegian by Roger Greenwald

Welcome to Scatter joy!

2008-08-26T07:46:00.000-05:00

For the next twelve days I will visit the 12 Gifts of Birth by Charlene Costanzo until my baby son's birthday. I hope you grow everyday as I do. Blessings.

The First Gift of Birth is Strength

2008-08-26T07:33:00.001-05:00

Charlene Costanzo wrote The Twelve Gifts of Birth which is our favorite book, because the children feel calmer after visiting it.

The first gift is Strength.

"The world never loses an atom; it is our self which suffers."~Tagore

Open yourself to being part of the world and you will truly feel strong and never alone because you have you and you are part of the everything. ~Amy Sperry Faldet

"The fruit clings to its stem, its skin clings to the pulp, and the pulp to the seed so long as the fruit is immature, so long as it is not ready for its course of further life. Its outer covering and its inner core are not yet differentiated and it only proves its life by its strength of tenacity.

But when the seed is ripe its hold upon its surrounding is loosened, its pulp attains fragrance, sweetness and detachment, and is dedicated to all who need it. Birds peck at it and it is not hurt, the storm plucks it and flings it to the dust and it is not destroyed. It proves its immortality by its renunciation."~Tagore

It is love and compassion in physical form.

Welcome to Scatter joy!

2008-08-25T18:59:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Scatter joy!

2008-08-25T18:42:00.000-05:00

Art grows, as do we. If we stay in our safe shadows and do not reach for the fresh, new, dewy, light, we remain a seed. Potential halted momentarily.
This quote I am about to put down was introduced to my class in 1990, freshman philosophy, in college. It, of course, is part of something so much bigger, but what isn't? I grow everyday and think of this paragraph every morning. I will share it with you.
Rabindranath Tagore quoted in the 1990 Real Philosophy ( Interesting title, I know, don't get me started hee hee) from
'Thought Relics' in Sadhana

The life of the seed within the fruit is absolutely different from its life of growth as a tree.
The life which is bound on all sides within the environment of our self, within the limited range of our senses, must be so fundamentally different from the life of an emancipated soul that it is impossible to imagine the latter while we are immured in the sheath of self. And therefore, in our desire for eternal life we pray for an eternity of our habit and comfort, forgetting that immortality is in repeatedly transcending the definite forms of life in order to pursue the infinite truth of life.
Those who think that life's true meaning is in the persistence of its particular forms which are familiar to us are like misers who have not the power to know that the meaning of money can only be found by spending it, by changing the symbol into truth.
The world of sleep is fundamental; it is the world of the mother's womb. It is the world where the grass and the trees live and find their beauty of reposefulness. Our consciousness has freed itself from its embrace, asserting its independence. It is the freedom of the fountain which must come over and over again to its origin to renew its play. The whole depth and spread of the still water finds in our own consciousness that the universe knows itself. Therefore, this consciousness has to be great in order to be true. Our consciousness is the music of the world, its dance, its poem. It has its pauses in the bosom of the original sleep, to be fed with immortality at her breast.

Welcome to Scatter joy!

2008-08-21T14:29:00.001-05:00

Can you find the light in you that believes and trusts? What if life and art is a process of letting go in order to care and create with fresh eyes? This wand is a wand that creates flowers, beauty, and joy, in my story, it is unlike any flower we have seen and it is the, almost rose.

I will always ask myself does my art scatter joy? For some, it may not. Yet, know, at least that this was and always will be my intention.

Blessings.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-08-18T06:34:00.000-05:00

Please excuse the many typos this time, I published these without proofing and editing and for some reason, it won't let me fix them this time.
It is a perfect lesson for me right now to slow down, double check my expression, and enjoy recognizing, daily, some of the imperfections in life, lol.
Knowing and growing, considering and caring.
Blessings.

I will be as gentle as a soft wave reflecting light, listening to the moon.

2008-08-17T21:18:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-08-17T20:25:00.000-05:00

"The hallmark of a divine experience, regardless of what form it takes, is that it gets your attention and leads you to think something out of the ordinary might be happening to you...

~Caroline Myss

These are left to right.... "I will stand to the side and reflect" and "First layer of looking inside to see the reflection."

Throughout life you encounter extraordinary opportunities and challenges that require continual transitions and adjustments." ~ Caroline Myss

I can say as an artist, most of us would create whether or not we had an audience or art appreciation. It is therefore, a bonus, it is a gift, when you find others that seem to relate to your art and it is understand.

Yet, I have been considering and will be considering the looking glass, perception, and reflection and have realized that each day is truly, only a day, to try to understand self.

How do I show my expression? How is it seen? Am I so expressive that I lose sight? It is a beautiful thing to love what you see and enjoy art or another person. Yet, I am going to also look at people and art like I was standing near a crystalline, calm, lake, too. There is value in that....

Probably, actually, more value.

Art brings out our passions, as it should, but if I am a whirlwind of joy or expression, I can be caught up in a gust and not see, not listen.

Being understood is a joy and an affirmation for an artist,

understanding self is the ultimate joy and affirmation. When you begin to understand yourself and even the way others understand you clarity comes.

In 2003, one of my favorite people gave me a book that I peek at once in awhile, I must need it at slow intervals, and at times I can't relate to it and at times it is so revealing. Of course, I am sure this is based on my perception at different times.

It is Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss. There are many parts I just can't relate to, and then at times,

there it will be,

and I will open it and find some insight into self that I must have needed.

Myss states, (as I oddly open to just the right page for what I need)

"Move your attention into your fifth chakra, whose energy helps you formulate how you intend to communicate externally within a situation or relationship...Do I allow the perceptions of others to open my mind or to help me reviewing actions" (pp.198-99)

Amazing, that serendipity, when you look at your reflection and see that you love, but might need to reflect on how you express.

The artistic world is continually one of growth. I am growing and reflecting. I know this.

Be gentle with yourself, with your art, with others, and the richness of every experience will shine through and not glare. I am going to always ask from now on, what is my art trying to convey? What are my words trying to convey? Am I effective or not listening?

I am glad I have decided each day I will patiently look at myself as I fluid concept and try to present my heart in clarity.

"Dal centro della mia vita, venne una grande fontana..."

"From the center of my life, there came a great fountain." Louise Gluck quoted in my bookclub book, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I will shine some light into me and look at the reflection on the waves and enjoy what I find that will bring me to a better artist, friend, and person. It is a day to celebrate!

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-08-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

The creative mind is receptive. It is an amazing life! The way we choose to filter is completely unconscious, but we have the power to put our energies towards what we focus on. I will always try to choose the energies that focus on the words can, yes, open, light, compassion, creating joy.
As an artist it is essential to surround yourself with people who use can, open, light, compassion, patience, understanding in their vocabulary and live it with genuine love for the world. It will show in them and it will show in you what you are putting your energies toward.
Fill your world with the good light that surrounds.
Fill your world with thoughts that build bridges.
Fill your world with your heart.
Fill your world with your genuine love.

"People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies;
succeed anyway.
What you spend years building they may destroy overnight;
build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous and scorn;
be joyous anyway.
The good you do today, they often will forget tomorrow;
do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it will never be enough;
give the world the best you have anyway..."
~Quote by Mother Teresa

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-08-07T07:49:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-08-07T07:29:00.000-05:00

"My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is"
by
Sir Edward Dyer
1543-1607
My mind to me a kingdom is
Such perfect joy therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That world affords or grows by kind.
Though much I want which most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
No princely pomp, no wealthy store
No force to win the victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore.
No shape to feed a loving eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall,
For why? my mind doth serve for all.
I see how plenty suffers oft,
And hasty climbers soon do fall:
I see that those which are aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all;
They get with toil, they keep with fear;
Such cares my mind could never bear.
Content I live, this is my stay,
I seek no more than may suffice,
I press to bear no haughty sway;
Look, what I lack my mind supplies.
Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring.
Some have too much, yet still do crave,
I little have and seek no more:
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store:
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I leave; they pine, I live.
I laugh, not at another's loss
I grudge not at another's gain;
No worldly waves my mind can toss,
My state at one cloth still remain.
I fear no foe, I fawn no friend, I loathe not life, nor dread no end.
But all the pleasure that I find
Is to maintain a quiet mind.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-07-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

"Art is everywhere, except it has to pass through a creative mind."

--Louise Nevelson

One of my favorite magazines is Cloth Paper Scissors. In this month's copy there is an article, "The Nature of Art" by Cathy Taylor. It describes how we should begin by taking a stroll through your "...yard, or nearby woods or fields. Bring an old phone book with you as this will serve as a plant press for your treasures..."

My kids and I went on a stroll, this time around the block, and instead of a book for picking and pressing Nature, we brought the camera. We saw moss, flowers, leaf prints in the cement, and mushrooms. It was astounding the beauty all around us. (See my flickr photostream for all the glory.)

Peace comes from patient looking. We stopped on this walk. We smiled at a crazy bug hanging upside down and saw the world from that point of view. We caught the morning sun and preserved it on film and our hearts. I can't believe the inspiration we find from the simplest things, a walk, a flower, a friend, a quote. This necklace is inspired from this photo when one morning we paused and smiled.

Scatter joy!

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-07-10T09:02:00.001-05:00

"There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million."
--Walt Streightiff

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization puts out, with World Heritage sites, "New" Wonders of the World lists. They are a delight to see and ponder. What is a perk of being a Mama of four young children (and an artist) is realizing that children have a list of wonders on their heart as infinite as anyone can fathom. What children feel and see is so real and fresh that there is a divinity in their perspective. It is a pure look like when an adult stops to notice a fresh, green morning. I learn everyday to see again through my children and the joy of listening to others children while at the park or the pool. They see all things as magical and glorious. Their feelings lead how their day is guided and people and places and things are given their little touches like blessings.
Look in the eyes of a child today and make a wish for they have wishing stars sparkling in their eyes from inside their hearts.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-07-07T13:40:00.000-05:00

Ask yourself, "Have you found joy in your life?"

Ask yourself, "Has your life brought joy to this world?"

-- Egyptian questions

When you wake will you seek joy? When you wake how will you see? I feel we all have a built in capacity to attract and create joy. We create how we react to all of the wonder around us and we know how to remedy any so-called gliches in the stream of things. When, I saw The Bucket List, it made me wonder outloud "Why do people wait to see, seek, and spread joy?" What are we waiting for? This moment is ripe and good. It is as ripe and good as any other moment. The moments sing if we listen and love. I will try to create and spread joy today, this moment. I need not know how, the moments are ripe. It will come to me.

Blessings to you.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-06-26T20:07:00.001-05:00

Being receptive opens you up to the mysteries in life. It is the times that we are receptive that we are the most creative. I am quite sure noone makes any progress or creates any relationship or brings forth any beauty when they are in a state of closed thought. I open my heart as I open my eyes each day, like them the heart can get weary, or even teary, but it is open nonetheless. If we feel these receptive times and embrace them we benefit in every way. With some openness comes pain, some joy, but ahh.... the openness is all of it and essential and good. I feel blessed with every feeling and friend that comes my way and I will take the receptivity with gratitude and walk where it leads; for it leads to "every little road filled with possibilities."
Receptivity makes miles disappear and puts you in a land of constant sun, lands you on a western island, and makes you feel at home in the English countryside all while sitting with a beautiful child on your lap. Receptivity opens your art to the art of the heart and makes it sing, and dance and thank-you for bringing it to life. Receptivity helps you realize that all of your lovely works have been leading to some cumulative project that there was no way you could fore see, before you meet a person. But you were open, then, and you are open now and there it is one of the raison d'etres of your art.
Part of living to scatter joy for me is knowing that it connects people (with me involved and it connects people without me being involved), in fact people have told me years later that I had something positive to do with this or that and I was not even aware. ( Sometimes the influence I had was even one they initially might have not been open to or resented, and then it turned out they grew from it.) This happens to all of us every moment, every little road, whether we know it or see the effects. I think it is not actually me, I think it is the same thing that art does, I think what people feel when they meet someone who is open or they look at art, is someone else's little road. A road that only they can walk and oh, what a gift it is to look down someone's momentary, little, road. I love when I tell people look at your heart and all the stories and people on it and find what they gave you. Not what they took or broke or spoiled, even if that is what they did. Rewrite what you see on your heart and it will open you up to the next possibility.
This gives us joy and appreciation. This is what art and an open heart does.
I have met so many people recently that scatter joy, whether they realize it or not. I add them to those who I already have on my heart and appreciate their receptivity and kindness.
Live in the light and
Scatter Joy.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-06-22T08:11:00.000-05:00

There are some artists that believe one has to suffer endlessly to be endlessly avant garde or creative. Not the artists I know. I started contemplating intelligence recently because some miss all the creativity and brilliance around them because they are too concerned with judging others intellect. The saying goes, "Ignorance is bliss,"yet some seem to go as far as to think the blissful are ignorant. Life brings with it adversities and disappointments, it will always be true. How we choose to see what happens and lead our lives will determine your bliss or lack there of. I tend to believe that a true sign of intelligence and creativity is forgetting about "the learning curve" and seeing that every moment is an opportunity to help others, practice patience, appreciate other's gifts, and recognize the pitfalls of spreading misery or sarcasm. Is it intelligent to choose over and over the sardonic wit? A sign of a true creative genius to me is someone who brings forth light to every situation, finds positive ways to contribute to this world, even the business side of it, and who recognizes the potential for bliss in front of them. Being bubbly with compassion and the joys and questions of the world will always be my measuring stick in terms of how smart someone is. You see if you lead with your heart, the intelligence of every choice shines through. It is the highest degree of learning to be a compassionate soul. It is the highest degree of learning to see the potential in others and ourselves and bring that out with kindness and patience. What will you scatter today?
I will try to Scatter Joy.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-06-20T07:16:00.000-05:00

Your heart is your castle.

When you hear "Your home is your castle." you know exactly what it refers to, but what if we decide, "Your heart is your castle"? Where ever you go you have all the inspiration and love you need. Follow your heart when you think you are lost or uninspired, because it knows that you were never truly lost. Just on an "Explore" as Pooh bear would say to Christopher Robin. Create, smile, love, and hope.

Most of all, Scatter Joy!

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-06-17T08:49:00.000-05:00

Success weighed.
I will never define success. Successes have feeling around them for me, but it is not concrete. I know when you look at yourself, closely, like an artist, you will see successes.
Scatter joy.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-06-17T06:33:00.001-05:00

How do you measure success? Reflect for awhile. I'll be back soon.

Scatter joy.

Now

2008-06-16T14:24:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Scatter Joy!
Now is never smooth, it is what it is. Life doesn't have to be pressed smooth. Life doesn't have to be straight to have value. I don't need to know everything that is ahead to be calm. In fact, I am quite sure that there is no true looking ahead, only now, looking in, in order to look out.
When I feel I need things to be calm or content, I am not calm nor content. When I need space to be me, I have no space to be me, in my thoughts. When I need quiet to write, I am not quiet to write. I have what I think I need every wrinkly moment.
It flows around me, comfortable and loose. Who needs more than peace? You have it in your mind. You, sometimes, just choose discord. Fighting what is around you, is fighting yourself. Greeting the world with clarity and understanding is greeting yourself with clarity and understanding. Your decisions will be glorious when you understand and don't fight the wrinkles in life.
Wayne Dyer wrote in You'll See It When You Believe It, "The universe does not forgive because the universe does not blame" (248). He states, "This is how blame works in us, and why it is a futile and destructive activity. As long as we blame others for the way we feel today, we will have to wait for them to change before we can grow out of our current immobilized state"(252).
Art is everywhere. You do not need to wait to see it at a museum or a smooth, polished, gallery. The table you sit at, the pencil you hold, everything around you is someone's "now" moment of creativity. Don't wait for the smooth days, make everyday a "now" day.
Wrinkles in life are not to be judged or blamed. The perception that life needs to be smooth to be peaceful negates your potential. Life and art becomes more interesting with the twists and wrinkles.
"However mean your life is, meet it, and live it; do not shun and call it hard names. It is not as bad as you are thinking. It looks poorest when you are richest! The fault finder will find faults even in Paradise. Love your life."
--Henry David Thoreau

Can you tell me how are you?

2008-06-15T05:42:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

Part of being an artist and a human who watches and listens is that you are told so much without words. Expressions tell me so much that there are times I wish I could freeze a moment to help someone feel that they are listened to (even before they have said a word.) Could that be it? Could that be why art gives us something that we know can't be given in other forms. Words have so much behind them, yet, the poetry of a face is infinite. It is as if words, divine and infinite, can be seen in one look to the side, one closed mouth, one welled up tear. What do we do with this when there is all the distraction of the world and the need for someone dear to let things spill. The words get stuck. I will always believe that every human is an artist because one glance, one gesture, sends out the most divine stream of creation, thought, insight and emotion that little does the person know, but they have created a world. When you see someone you care about, with their thoughts, flowing at you without words, feel it. You have stepped into their creation. Listen. Love. Scatter joy.

Love to those who are suffering from the floods and tornadoes. Peace.

2008-06-14T08:26:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-06-13T07:26:00.001-05:00

by
Amy Sperry Faldet

2008-06-13T06:48:00.000-05:00

Deepak Chopra notices in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, that giving and receiving is essential to the flow of life. As artists, everytime we create it can be a struggle to let our beauty flow out into the world. Humans and artists, for they are really one in the same, are naturally affluent and filled with abundance. (Chopra) Remember, always, that every life is meant to scatter joy, in all the diverse, interesting, ways that we are all diverse and interesting. Giving to the circle of kindness is what will bring kindness back. Giving to the circle of creativity will bring creativity back. If I can be candid, I have never met more selfless and giving souls as that of artists and parents. Artists have a innate knowing that the more joy they scatter by selling and giving away their works, the more joy they feel and the creativity intensifies. Given, in my look at life, I feel all humans create and are artists in some way, therefore, the more knowledge they know about themselves, the more they feel free to give with ease, joy, and compassion. The best way to get to know themselves better is to create a sacred space, a nest, in reality or inside themselves (preferably both). To do this, first intend that kindness is the ultimate goal. Without kindness, you will not treat yourselves with the compassion needed to feel welcomed into your own sacred space. If you have unexplored thoughts and emotions and try to create, there can be a block to the love you will spread with your art. Give yourself time. Take ten minutes and only allow kind, abundant, joyous, thoughts into your mind and your sacred space. It is transformative. You will be ready to create and therefore, scatter joy.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-06-13T06:39:00.000-05:00

"This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new... Thy infinite gifts come to me only on those very small hands of mine. Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still there is room to fill."

--Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali

Look and dream.

2008-06-12T11:41:00.001-05:00

Reverie

2008-06-12T11:21:00.000-05:00

What is a dream? There can be so many different definitions. I see a very visible thread running through all of them. The thread runs like this...
Aspiration~Inspiration~Reverie
Aspiration puts you in the state of asking.
Inspiration puts you in the place of being with who you are with these questions.
Reverie has as its base word, "reveiller" or to wake up, the ultimate clarity.

To be a dreamer in many circles is to be foolish. It is said, usually with exasperation about someone whose aim is not appreciated or known.
It is interesting that this train of thought has occurred; it has boggled my mind for a long while, actually. I suppose because most would call me a dreamer. I tend to "float with aim"
Yet, I have seen the world all my life, as being full of dreamers. My view on it has not changed.

I think the reason some don't see themselves as dreamers is because they have defined it. (Always a dangerous thing to do, in my opinion.) Anyone with an aspiration, with inspiration, and a goal, has dreamt. They have hoped. Anyone who thinks is a dreamer and a creator.

Somewhere along the way, a definition, implying foolishness and impracticality became associated with being a dreamer.
Accountants, scientists, farmers, and any manner of hard-working citizens are just as much dreamers as any other human.

Accounts exist because someone put the money in. Accounts are balanced by someone who aspired to know how much was in them. Accountants ask to find out the amount, be with the findings and then are clear about the possibilities for that money.

I challenge you to look at those around you and find one person who is not a dreamer in some way, shape, or form.
It is time "to awaken." Stop limiting yourself.

Awakening doesn't mean stop dreaming.

Awakening is seeing that "...merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."

Wind

2008-06-12T07:28:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

"Who Has Seen the Wind?"

Christina Rossetti

"Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you:

But when the leaves hang trembling

The wind is passing thro'.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I:

But when the trees bow down their heads

The wind is passing by."

When you create, know that it is not necessary for you or especially for someone else to see what will result. Trust the way you feel when you are inspired, listen to that voice that reminds you, "This is fun and so truly real." Every person in this experience is an artist. No one, not even your own mind, can tell you you are not. You cannot see the wind, you may not recognize all you create or are capable of creating and you don't have to inorder to cherish your gifts. So, no matter what anyone may tell you,believe that you are a gift to the world, scatter your creations. Scatter joy.

Welcome to Scatter Joy!

2008-06-11T23:49:00.000-05:00

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
--Annie Dillard

My wish is to always scatter joy.

2008-06-11T22:50:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Scatter Joy

Amy Sperry Faldet

"I dream of an art of balance, purity, tranquillity, devoid of disturbing or disquieting subject matter...something akin to a good armchair."

--Henri Matisse

"Keep close the people you love, the ones who stay engaged and open to life, who bring joy and peace to the house and garden."

--Dominique Browning

Welcome to my first blog! My goal is to Scatter Joy and cherish the beauty of the world's artists.

2008-06-11T17:06:00.000-05:00

Everything that I find or think that promotes compassion and creativity and connectedness will be on my blog. I am one who sees that the world is absolutely divine just as it is and that seeing and looking at the way you see, is essential to finding tranquility and beauty in all aspects of life.