Every once in awhile you stumble upon a piece of art that speaks to you in a hushed voice, asking you to tune out the white-noise of life and to just LISTEN.  Pino’s “Maternal Instincts” has done that for me.  And appropriately so.  I’m always amazed at life’s magical way of syncing with my Soul Song.

This morning was one of those rare and priceless Mommy-Daughter moments that will remain embedded in my heart and mind for all time.  We somehow got on the subject of dreams coming true and Cali asked, “What do YOU think about sometimes when you dream?”

I told her I thought about ways to be a better Mommy…a better wife.  A more soulful artist…a more revealing writer.  Then she hit me with:

“How do you know you’re an artist?”

Aha!  Big Life Teaching Moment!  So I immediately stopped what I was doing and sat on the floor with her.  The conversation went a little something like this:

ME:  I know I’m an artist because it’s what I HAVE to do.  If I don’t, then there’s a big yucky gunky pile of junk around my heart and I get sick.  I know because it’s the one thing I do that makes me feel complete (besides being your Mommy).  I don’t have to work at it.  I create because it’s my authentic self.  What do YOU do that makes you happy inside?  That gives you a warm oozy feeling in your belly?

CALI:  My music…and dancing.  That’s what I do when I’m happy.

ME:  Then you’re a singer and a dancer.  Right now, it’s what you have to do, right?

CALI:  Yeah, but I don’t wanna go to dance class anymore and be scared on the big stage.

(She’s referring to her Spring recital.)

ME:  You don’t have to be on a stage in front of people to be a singer and dancer, Cal-Belle.

CALI:  No?

ME:  No.  You just do it.  Who cares if anyone sees or hears it.  But don’t you dare stop if someone stops to watch or listen, okay?  Don’t ever be embarrassed to do what you love.

CALI:  What’s that smell.  Did you toot?  Nahhh…I think it was Tess.  Tess tooted!

Life lesson complete.  But the more I think about that conversation, the more I think the lesson was just as much for me as it was for her.  Maybe even more.

“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.”  ~William D. Tammeus

I’m trying to think of a name for my “Creating Room”.  Haven’t come up with one yet.  One that I keep coming back to is “The Birdcage”.  Yeah, it’s a movie title, but who even cares.  Truth of the matter is, I’ve inadvertently accumulated numerous birdcages.  I didn’t set out to collect them…..I guess they followed me home.  OH hark.  That’s it!  I’ve decided my room is now officially “The Birdcage”.  So from here onward and overboard, when I make comments like, “I’m heading into the birdcage”….or “I was sitting in the birdcage the other day….”….don’t make rash judgements and call the goons in white jackets. 

So in honor of my newly appointed “Birdcage”, I’ve begun painting a boring old particle board cabinet like…what?!  A birdcage.  I realize all of this is out of chronological order and confusing to those with rigid, one-track minds.  But it makes perfect sense to me. 

Here’s what we started with:

This is what I have now.  Kinda looks like Cinderella’s pumpkin ride..but it’s supposed to be a birdcage…that opens.  Nowhere near finished:

Cali got nekkid and made cupcakes and had a tea-party with her plastic and furry friends a couple of days ago.  Eventually we’re going to have to tell her, “No, Cal-Belle….you canNOT go into the library in nothin’ but your draws…I don’t care if your Daddy goes outside in his boxers…YOU are putting some clothes on.”

Then she made “soup”.  Vile soup:

Captured this little gem of a photo after she went haulin’ down the alley dressed like this, with THAT banana, holding a trashcan and wooden spoon, hollerin’ about “Soup!!!”

One of her fave things is working in the yard with her Daddy.  He was trimming bushes…so what’d she do?  Trimmed some bushes.  With my scrapbook scissors:

…wonderin’ why I snatched them out her hands:

Anyway, that’s about it for now.  Gotta run..the kid is in school today and my painting time is grossly limited.

During the course of packing, I came across this HUGE life-size charcoal sketch of Da Vinci’s “Vetruvian Man” that I had done a couple of years ago. There are only two people I would risk time travel for. Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci. Two of the most original and genius minds ever created, in my opinion.

Are there any great minds among us today? ORIGINAL minds? From the time I was a little kid, I wanted to discover something noone else had. Now they say that everything on this planet that could be discovered HAS been. Every theory has already been thought and taught. What I wouldn’t give to see some weird, hairy little person come crawling out of the wood-work holding a mess of papers under his arm, declaring that he had an announcement to make. Something that would change the entire way we see and think things.

Maybe there ARE original minds out there with ideas that could change the world we live in. I’d bet a penny that they are the very same people we look down our noses at. Those odd-balls that slink around muttering to themselves, rarely bathing and wearing baggy suits found at their local Salvation Army. Look at Einstein! Didn’t talk until he was three years old, had a whacked sense of humor, rambled his crazy ideas to anything who would listen. Two weeks after he announced he was about to make the “greatest discovery ever”, he said to a friend, “Eh. It didn’t pan out.” A 15 year old girl sat down and wrote a letter to Einstein, asking for help with a homework assignment. Einstein responded with:

“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics; I can assure you that mine are much greater.”

Even at the end of his life, he was his own worst critic.

Both he and da Vinci were quick to recognize the true nature of our human race. Da Vinci: “There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”

But all things aside…the mathematical, artistic and scientific genius…these men held on to their humility. They didn’t point their fingers and criticize those who were unable to see their vision. They didn’t judge. Maybe that’s the most humbling lesson we can learn, specifically from Leonardo da Vinci.

They’re all around us, these people. No doubt we’re all guilty of it from time to time. Claiming we know it all. Maybe a certain subject that we feel inclined to expound upon. They’re in the pulpit, the classrooms, local bars, support groups. One of the most important life lessons we can learn is to not judge others based on our own limited knowledge of what we perceive as Truth.

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” ~ Albert Einstein