I have had a very ‘happy birthday to me’!
I tend to have an extended birthday; I herald it for while and then fully live it. It is important that we always take responsibility for our own happiness!
I love celebrating birthdays in style, but if no one knows it is your birthday then how can they make it special.
When we hope that others will ‘make us happy’ then we are lost, or even hope others will remember our birthday – particularly if they are boys!
When we know that happiness is a choice rather than something that is random, then we can gain in inner freedom and we stop looking ‘outside of us’ to make us feel good. When we feel good inside we affect and effect our outside reality; the inner state reflects in the outer experience…
Of course beautiful things and beautiful people can inspire us to find this place – nature and love can touch our soul and ignite the light within us, but it is up to us to keep the flame burning bright within.
So; I had fun over my birthday weekend, despite it being rather a case of burning the candle at both ends, as I continued to run of course.
I love artists and have often had them as boyfriends or friends, but I have learnt that they are night creatures.
My artist expression has always been through my running and through my work; I am an ‘active’ sitting still talking, thinking, philosopher. I spend my days in dialogue or in contemplation and healing and yet there are bursts of activity when I head out the door to run.
I find that the running bit of my self expression tends to express better with sleep and clean living
Whereas artists can create and perform on late nights and not necessarily quite such body awareness.
I have had an ‘artistic birthday’ on all levels – nights of theatre and film and sound art and mornings on the downs bright and early
It is at times like this when I think sleep would be good to half – but body says ‘no’
The sound art was exceptional – my friend Joseph Young was part of the aural detritus concert series which was held in Brighton as part of the festival.
I went along with Jane my artist friend and we met up with Joe and Kay his partner – also an artist!
The concert was incredible – indescribable – it went through my body and I was in another world.
We all went out to eat together afterwards and only a few hours later I visited Kay’s incredible ceramic house, http://www.juliaarmstrong.com/index.php?id=826 with my friend Ange, that was part of the Brighton open house. The standard of her ceramic house is exceptional – it is an art gallery, a beautiful experience.
Somehow I arose on Sunday morning feeling still bright and ran 14 miles with Fi – feeling alive and happy and glad to be 53 and still out running and partying and returning it feels to the days of my youth when nothing seemed too much – everything was possible and it still is
Our imagination allows us to see further and our belief systems then can extend and expand and our lives can transform in the twinkling of an eye
A 14 mile run allows for a lot of creative dialogue and it is common for Fi and I to return cleansed and changed and new ideas and possibilities and magic seeming to come from within
This is why I love art and sport – they are from the same creative wellspring…
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