23 Jul
Before the Creative Process
18 Thousand Days or So
Ever get those crazy thoughts as you’re nodding off to dreamland?
Care to know my latest?
(Since you’re obviously reading this, I’m gonna assume you’ve just glanced up and given me a nod so here goes!)
The thought flitted across my mind so quickly that it was almost hard to capture and do the quick math.
Another day.
A day out of 18 thousand or so.
(Guess that’s why it feels so easy to let one day blur into the next. The 18K or so, of course, varies according to mileage. Now in my 60’s—a quick 300 x 60 gave me the low number of days I have lived. The accurate number is much closer to 24K.)
My thoughts were in a swirl at this sizable amount.
Counting days feels much different than counting years. That’s a lot of days, many moments, a lot of memories, an extreme abundance of choice.
I lay there thinking. The enormity almost impossible to get my head around. Realizing how casual my thoughts were about an individual day. Just a day. There would be more. I had already spent so many. I reflected on my choices—especially those unconscious ones. Days where I’d let fear, worry, indecision—you name it— rob me of the day.
And so I thought. Deeply, upon my silk pillow in the darkness, I thought.
I don’t want to miss any more moments.
Be so distracted that I miss the sweetness right in front of me. Rinse and repeat life because making a new choice feels too scary. With so many days now spent, I want every step forward to be conscious, deliberate, love-of-life filled. I want every day to count.
I considered the framed words hanging on my bedroom wall—the ones I can read sideways laying on my silk pillow.
Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
and the other
When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.
One laughs at my fears while the other challenges me to live.
Really live as opposed to laying low, dreaming smaller. Or perhaps most frightening of all–being okay with one day blurring into the next.
Not sure why the thought came now and not 15 or 20K ago. The thing is, it came and I’m here.
Listening.
In the darkness, on my silk pillow, I’m now wide awake.
(In the dark and wide awake—a metaphor for life me thinks!)
I’m enchanted with the thought of living the next few thousand wide awake.
Free-falling into life, living this one wild and precious life like every day counts.
Because, my sweet friend, it does.
Thursday, July 8, 2021 I painted the piece shown here. Painting restores me and gives shape to that particular day. So does a phone conversation with a dear friend, time spent with family and a good meal with a glass of red wine. Life is delicious in all that it holds for us. Let us agree to fill them with joy from morning ’til night. Let us agree to make every day count.
Love you!
My Kind of Morning, 12 x 24 oil
Love, love your painting and colors. So inspirational. I hope to save up to take a course.
JOY
One of your most beautiful and powerful letters yet! Thank you.
Dear Dreama
You are just a breath of fresh air. Your words speak to me and your paintings are full of so much joy! Who knew years ago when a friend introduced me to your site that I would be so blessed. You have encouraged me to believe in my painting ability. Your beautiful writings speak to my 💜. I just want you to know how grateful I am for you Ron and Desiree this Thanksgiving. I’m so glad to know you even though we have never really met. Thank you for sharing your gifts with all of us💞
Awww Toni!! Feeling love and gratitude as I read your message ❤️😊. Thank you so much !!
Thank you Dreama for blessing our lives with the colourful rainbow of light that you are!
Each painting is a gift to self, firstly, and then is offered to the wider world. The chosen image, the harmony of colours and the power that moves your hand to apply the paint to follow the form preserves a moment in time that was fleeting.
I came across Arkiane Karmarik’s website many months ago. The blog that I read was about life. What we do with it and how we leave it. It is believed that when we leave this earth plane we can always be called forth again if there is at least one person on the earth plane that thinks of us with Love.
I think that we, as artists, are very lucky as we leave a greater legacy of ourselves via all of the pieces of our art that people can admire. All pieces of ourselves. Arkiane was working on a self-portrait and she included into the painting a strand of her hair, some threads of the clothing she was wearing, a small sliver of her wooden artist’s palette, etc. Her very essence in that moment in time has been preserved. Maybe in decades to come when her earth journey has ended there will be thousands (or millions) of viewers of this self-portrait who will think of her with Love. She can come back here (and pick up where she left off). Are we not immortal, spiritual beings just having an adventure in a physical realm?
You are right to be selective of who you interact with as they either add their wonderful energy to your life or may deplete it. This goes with all of those who follow you on the internet too. On the days when your 45K followers are flowing their energy to you it can lift you so high and they receive you love from every beautiful painting that you upload to share. Thank you. Cheers from Crystal in Australia
Oh my God, Dreama, what inspiration! Yes, your one wild and precious life, what will you do? I know this may sound crazy and wrong, but all I ask for is the gift of “ordinary”, That may be difficult for some to comprehend, but those of us who have a very unordinary life are envious of the lazy days of summer, the anniversary in the same old restaurant with the same old person who loves you the same old amount (which is with all their heart), the old cat and the old dog hanging out on the old porch together, a home to come home to. How I wish I could paint like you, and that it would restore me as it does you. But I’ve had to reconcile with the fact that when it comes to painting, I am not Dreama Tolle Perry. I am Lisa Hering. And I struggle with painting. I can often do a mediocre job of copying you, but it never comes easy. But that’s OK. Because then I’m forced to rely on my own talents, to be me. I love to write, and that restores me. I absolutely love my stories. And, through an amazingly unordinary path, they bring me eventually back into the ordinary, the best place to be, especially after an exciting journey to the edge of the universe. Thank you for the beauty you bring to the world. It would be a different place without you. In order to balance things out, a few of us have to be the very best at something. And you do Renoir, Monet, and van Gogh better than they did themselves! And you can also write.
Every moment spent with you is a special one! I find I have much to gain from you and much to share. I also have my own business. But you reintroduced my love of painting to me (Tuscany course) and I will always be grateful.
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