Week 3: Surfing Joy in a Cyclone

Here in South East Queensland, Australia we are expecting a cyclone to hit soon.

The media are having an absolute field day with it. The only thing bigger than the hoopla is the surf. Surf is definitely up!

I thought I’d capitalise on a clever little segue to spin the oncoming cyclone into this series about The Artist’s Way via a conversation I had with a friend recently.

She sent me this sms:

“Hey rad human. I just wanted to say hi and see if there was a chance of a catch up? Miss ya.”

She had me at rad. Hell yes, I wanted to catch up.

I haven’t seen her in years. We did our yoga teacher training together and I always thought what an effortlessly cool person she is. Beautiful on the outside, zen on the inside. A yogi and a surfer.

Since then, she got busy having kids, and other than inheriting some table tennis gear from her to help me keep my kids entertained during the covid lockdowns, I haven’t seen her since those days of yoga philosophy and head stands.

She just turned 40 and said it felt like a wakeup call to start living; not just surviving.

I felt exactly the same. Well, for me it hit at 39. By 40 I thought I had it all worked out!

“I used to surf!” she lamented.

I told her about working my way through The Artist’s Way, this writing series, and that I thought making time to surf might be pretty much the same as making time for creativity.

For me it’s pretty much been a case of turning my daily to-do’s on their head – instead of putting the thing I really want to be doing (painting, writing, playing guitar etc) down the bottom of the list, I put it at the top.

I’m typing this at 6am. I haven’t brushed my hair, I haven’t washed the dishes and I have a superhighway of ants transporting tasty morsels from the half full dishwasher to a hole in the kitchen tiles.

I did brew coffee though!

I suggested that maybe one morning a week she could get up and go directly to the beach for a surf, or at least a bob around on the board and some time to herself to feel the salt water, sunshine and sand in her soul.

Not during a cyclone though!

Hours, days, weeks and years too easily evaporate. Let’s make them count.

Recovering a Sense of Power

As I rush to finish off this week’s entry in case the power goes down in the cyclone, it’s ironic that the title of this week’s chapter is Recovering a Sense of Power.

It’s about overcoming the excuses, doubt, procrastination and self-judgement and doing it anyway. Whatever that ‘it’ is.

And it doesn’t need to be anything grand. You don’t need to change the world. It just needs to bring you joy, and make you feel that you spent your finite time well.

Here’s what brought me joy this week:

Painting the everydayness of my kitchen bench:

And a pink summer sunset at my dad’s farm where I grew up:

Making a tulip bouquet for one of my son’s mates to give to his date for school formal.

Soaking up the rays under the bananas.

Watching Hermanos Gutiérrez and Khruangbin perform under a pre-cyclone Brisbane sky with good friends.

It was a good week.

Before I wrap it up, I’d like to add that if anyone ever tells you you’re ‘playing small’, tell them to get ferked.

Creativity, personal power, living in alignment with your potential, whatever you want to call it is not about getting up on a pedestal and telling the world how great you are. It’s not about grand deeds and notorious success.

It’s about the silent moments you have with yourself and living well.

Leonie x