May 11, 2021
Peony Serendipity
By Amba Gale
Several weeks ago, I was staying in a lodge in Southern Washington where my husband and I would be attending a Creativity Painting session the next day. Never considering myself much of a painter, I thought I would enjoy stretching some new creativity muscles, leaning into the “unknown,” letting go of my own painting critic, who has been with me since grade school, and inviting the Painting Muse in.
The night before that painting session, a poem came to me, quite suddenly, and I wrote it down. Peonies were at the center of that poem. I could not recall what peonies looked like, and thought I’d change them to dandelions. But, no! My Muse came in loudly and said they were peonies, and to leave them as peonies.
The next morning, I looked peonies up on Google, found that they grow in the area in which I live, and in Asia. That afternoon, at the Painting session, when I walked in, I found out that the canvas we were to paint was of three peonies! The teacher had a large canvas of peonies she had painted in front of the room. What serendipity! I love serendipity when it descends upon me.
Here is my finished painting. I am, even, okay enough with it to put it on this Blog, along with the poem that came to me in the middle of the night.
I invite you, too, to “set aside” your own critic, fire up your own Creative Artist, and, whatever the medium, allow your inner energy to inspire you!
Available NOW: my “Reflective Journal,” companion to “Crossing Thresholds, Island Reflections.”
The Garden of Love
By Amba Gale
Deep within
the garden of love
the peonies turn
their bright faces
to the sun
and celebrate,
fully accepting
themselves and
each other’s beauty.
