Creating an inspiring space for yourself to be creative and yoga via zoom on tuesday nights

 I am taking a yoga class thru tula with CarrieYourYogi. We are using the book, "Way of the Artist". Our assignment for this week is to think about our ideal space for creating our Art. We were to consider what season inspires us the most and to either draw or collage a picture would show the elements that would be best. I was stuck. I thought , this is sort of a silly waste of my time cuz I can 't really change my situation. I feel lucky to have a small room in our small home where I can do my art.. However, my art these days is mostly writing emails to friends, writing in my journal "memoirs" and learning songs that inspire me .

I am pretty sure that Im' not the only one that has resistance to some assignments that are given to us by our teachers. So, im just writing about the process of where thinking about doing this assignment led me .

It feels sort of futile really , as I 'm quite sure that we will not be moving ever again ( I hate moving!) . So, I resolved that really, this is more for the the young person who still has their whole life ahead of them?

The questions posed were: would I like to be in a city or rural environment? I like both.. What season? I like them all. I live in the small town of Circle Pines. It has a rural feel, but is close to Mpls. Its perfect. Altho my small room is used mostly for storage of art materials that I would like to be using "someday" , I value the space I have to myself to read, or, during covid, I have been attending many classes via zoom..

Which, by the way, i am zooming my Tuesday pm class right now.. 5:30pm . We are a small group of 3 women and we are all long time yoga practitioners over the age of 60 . we are welcoming to all ages, shapes and genders. Since we have body issues, we go quite gently and slowly . exploring different ways of moving. Modifying poses as necessary for our comfort. Right now, we are focusing on heart opening so we work our way into backbending poses. We are also learning the accupressure points for the heart. and the small intestine which chinese medicine pairs with the heart.

So, back to my assignment for my yoga class. just this morning , i came across this picture of Bhutan that is now my profile photo for Body Prayers yoga and i thought, "that's it! That 's the ideal location for my new art space".

However, not likely it is that I go to Bhutan physically, I can always imagine myself to be there..

and I feel inspired by that.

As far as dreaming about my ideal space: to what avail? I'd rather spend my time feelling grateful for what i have instead of wishing for something else. Right now I'm grateful to sit at my computer which is on the floor so that I practice getting down and up off the floor several times a day. I can look out the window as i type and see a big pine tree... I can see the tops of other trees over the roofs of the other small homes (one story, not 3) and I can see the sky and the sun. I see birds flying and squirrels , cats and rabbits running . i see the kids walking by my window on their way to and from the bus stop. i see neighbors shovelling their driveways..

If I could make one small change to my space I would reduce the amount of books i have on the shelves (mostly yoga books - anyone want some?) .. I also have too much space devoted to making art cards.. too many images that i've cut out of magazines. Too many photo albums and hard copy photos to sort thru.. These are tasks that keep me from doing my art..

Conclusion (for now) at this stage of my life, my life is my art and going thru those photos brings much joy and memories to cherish.. I feel grateful