#and i dont particularly want to spend the creative energy i got on this all day | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kkairosclerosis · 4 years

Text

uncommon things i associate my deities with~

hi guys! im back from a quick hiatus!

i recently moved to the city, but not too far from where i lived previously in the country. living in the city, however, is proving to be a bit more difficult then i had imagined, so ive been taking some weekends to go back home and ground myself again so i can feel more connected to my craft<3.

anyways, this morning, i was sitting on the porch of my parents farmhouse, looking out onto the sunset as my idiot dog ran laps around the frost-covered lawn, feeling more connected to my deities than i had in weeks. i decided, ‘hey, here a nice post idea. maybe ill talk abt the things i associate with my deities that others might not, and hopefully inspire them to as well!’ so, here it is!

uncommon things i associate my deities with!

hermes——««

if this isnt your first time on my blog, you probably know: hermes is my patron. he has been for a while, even before i began to worship him. if you want to know more about why, check out this post.

regardless, you can imagine that i hold very dear everything i associate with him.

in this case, it’s my dog.

my dog is an...interesting border collie named oliver. i got into hellenic worship very shortly after getting him, and i have a very strong feeling he has a lot to do with it.

i am thoroughly convinced my dog is a child of hermes. hes chaotic, but extremely smart. very, very fast, and spends hours running out in the yard. just running. nothing else. its even more intense when its windy, which, if you read the aforementioned post, you know that i associate the wind heavily with hermes. hermes is also the god of animal husbandry, and oliver is quite the farm animal.

watching him run, i always get a strong sense of comfort. i know that the energy of hermes resides in him, its very clear. its almost as if his running brings the wind. like hes running, and hermes says ‘hey, that looks fun! let me join!’

i, very regularly, ask for hermes protection of oliver. i do this because i know of the love hermes has for him. i can feel it. it makes me comfortable knowing hes safe while im not home with him. and i can tell it makes oliver feel safe as well.

aphrodite——««

aphrodite has always been dear to me, even before i started actually worshipping. i remember reading about her in the mythology books i frequented in the art room after i finished my projects, carrying them out to the field to just sit and read. she was an embodiment of beauty to me, and that has not changed since, so its natural that i associate her with one of the things i find most beautiful on this plane of existence: clouds.

when i was thinking of writing this post, i was sitting and looking at a cloudless sky. i was thinking: why is it that we most often consider a cloudless sky beautiful? is it because of the absence of ‘blemish?’ does a cloud signify a flaw? must all beautiful things be completely clear, or without mark?

obviously, i thought this was ridiculous. clouds are so very dear to me. i mean, i have an entire album of photos on my phone of pictures of clouds i have taken. i have always been enamored.

while i was pondering this, it hit me. beauty is unique. beauty is individual. thats exactly what aphrodite is about. these ‘marks’ in the sky are what make the sky beautiful to me. aphrodite is in these ‘blemishes’ because i find them beautiful.

now, i dont mean to wrap this up in a corny way, but i encourage the people reading this to think this way about themselves. beauty is in your imperfections because they make you you. i have not seen one cloud that looks exactly like another i have seen, and thats exactly what makes them so beautiful to me. aphrodite loves all of you, and someone else does as well, so do not disrespect them by being mean to yourself. their idea of beauty is not misconstrued, so trust them. and if you dont think someone thinks your beautiful, know that i do<3.

apollo——««

apollo, to me, has always been sort of an enigma. i have a harder time interpreting his signs, especially recently, and i think that its particularly because of my recent falling out with my creative side. i have sort of abandoned my art, and it think its difficult for him to communicate with me through anything else.

one thing, however, i can feel him in is the sound of the birds in the morning. particularly, roosters.

as i mentioned before, my parents live on a farm. its natural to hear roosters first thing in the morning. some people find it annoying, but to me, its incredibly comforting. it means another morning has come. i’ve lived another day, and i have a whole new one to look forward to, until i hear the rooster the next morning. it means the sun is rising, and apollo rises with him.

as a witch who particularly enjoys the sunrise, but has a hard time waking up to see it, the roosters serve as a sort of natural alarm clock. even if i do not physically get up to see the sunrise, i know it is happening, and i am awake for that first moment of dawn. it brings me comfort and a sense of small accomplishment, even on really difficult days.

and the days im in the city, and cant hear the roosters, its the morning songs of the birds in the part right next to my apartment building. this might be even more so, as apollo is the god of music.

its a different type of comfort to wake up to the chill of the morning and hear the birds, knowing its a deity that loves me and wants to see me the next morning as well. i hope you, dearest reader, come to feel the same:).

asclepius——««

now, i haven’t talked about this much on this blog, but to me, asclepius has been such a pillar for me as of recent. with the pandemic and my own current health situation, i rely on him a lot for hope and support. i ask him to protect both me and my friends and family from illness or ailment, and in case of ailment, i ask him to facilitate a speedy recovery. thus far, he has never failed me, and i do not ever expect him to. i put my trust in him wholly.

other than health, i find myself associating asclepius with cleanliness. while i see asclepius as the medic, i also see him as someone who is clean and organized. this is why i associate him with dewdrops.

now, bear with me in my explanation. morning dew, to me, feels clean. it feels almost pure, as it is one of the first forms of moisture a person can be met with during the day.

picture it now. you wake up at sunrise, and venture out into your yard, the chill of the am just tickling at your face, cooling your nose to the touch. you take your first step off of the deck, and your bare feet sink into the grass, cold, and now wet from the dew. the feeling is shocking at first, as your feet get used to the new temperature, fresh out of the warm comfort of your blanket that sits invitingly on your bed inside.

but the feeling is fresh. its grounding. its healing.

that, to me, is how asclepius feels.

sobek——««

i must be honest, sobek is the reason this post came to existence. i feel extremely strong about this one, particularly because i feel that sobek is under-appreciated and misunderstood as a god. i constantly encourage people to include sobek in their worship, as he, to me, has proven to be one of the most reliable gods i have ever worked with. i feel such a sense of comfort and love within him. i could sit in his energy for hours, days even. especially as a person who suffers from bouts of paranoia, his energy is one to learn to accept and become.

for me, i see sobek in flowers.

not many would see this, as sobek has this image of a tough, crocodile, protection god, which he is. but what a lot of people forget, is that sobek is also a god of fertility, particularly in harvest. in fact, sobek has done so much for my family’s farm. our garden is plentiful, and our harvests are more than we know what to do with. we end up making a lot of extra things with it, and giving it away to family friends and neighbors. i genuinely think that sobek creates abundance in our garden so he can give to our community. that is how loving i know him to be.

however, what i specified was flowers. one of the most common offerings i give to sobek are roses. he seems to love them. sobek seems to protect that of which he loves, and roses are a symbol of love for me. i want to attempt to give him what he has given me.

my family has a wildflower garden in front of our home. the morning i was sitting on the porch, i felt his presence, and i immediately looked to the flowers. delicate, yet extremely strong, and persevering. thats how i wish to be, and i can feel sobek in the encouragement of the flowers.

i hope that didn’t come off too corny, although im pretty sure it did lol. i hope that this post was a good insight into my deities and how i understand them to be! again, disclaimer, not everyone experiences the gods in the same ways! some may agree with this post wholeheartedly, and some may have completely different experiences that make them disagree entirely! i am not one to gatekeep and define what the divine is, because the divine shows itself in different ways to different people. i hope you enjoyed this post, and have a wonderful day!

p.s. i love you and you’re worth it!

50 notes · View notes

lutrain2020 · 4 years

Text

Meet the Creator!

Introducing: Mew!

Commissions: Not right now but maybe at some point in the future when I improve.

Social Media: Tumblr: @nicetomeetmew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicetomeetmew/

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I'm Mew and that's pretty much the only nickname I have on the interweb (although I was known as Brandy for a while but that's a very long story). I like drawing, writing, singing, baking, video games and messing about with my melodica. My favourite colour is black but I've recent had a fondness for purple and dark pink. My favourite animal is wolves but I also love sharks!

What got you into creating? what inspires you to keep creating?

I got into art because I kept seeing so many amazing pieces online and I kept thinking to myself: "wow I wish I could do that." I mean I still can't, but I'm trying and it's fun! And as for writing: it's actually my mum who got me into it and inspires me to keep going; whether it's fanfiction or an original work.

What's your creative process like?

Honestly I'm so new to this art stuff, I just start throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks (metaphorically, but that actually sounds kind of fun!). The only thing that's consistent is that I always end up covering my page with random shapes before I start. I think scribbling helps me get my thoughts in order and figure out where to start.

What kind of mediums do you like to use?

I mostly use my tablet for drawing, but I like mucking about with chalk and oil paints for fun.

Is there a specific scene wrote that you are particularly proud of?

"On paper, she was perfectly lovely. Her skin was clear and fair, her hair fell in long gold ringlets around her face, and she moved with such elegance and grace she might as well be floating. But that was on paper. In reality… 'HEY! Are you listening?!'"

Is there someone who inspires you and your writing or art?

Hmm... honestly I find myself inspired by almost every artist I see. There's so much unique and gorgeous art out there and I think that taught me that everyone is different and that my art is never going to look like someone else's; because it's mine.

What got you into writing or art?

I just wanted to be able to do something. I have all sorts of thoughts going on in my head and using all the energy to create something seemed like a good way to go (that was actually my mum's idea).

What's your favorite part of the creative process?

I love character planning. I probably love it a little too much. I have a whole notebook book dedicated to backstories and headcanons and all that fun stuff. Nothing brings me more joy than creating a whole new life. I think I spend far too much time on the planning but hey ho. It's fun.

What's your least favorite part of the creative process?

Excluding my character plans: I hate following a plan. If I it so much easier just to fling words at a page, then mess around with them until the make sense and I'm happy with them. I tried planning out a whole story once and long story short, my notebook ended up in next door's garden.

What's your favorite type of scene to write?

I think I find it hard to find the line between "what I enjoy writing" and "what I'm good at writing". But I'd have to say, while it's scarce in most of the stuff I write these days, I love me a nice little emotional comfort scene. Hugs. Tears. Platonic kisses. *Rubs hands together gleefully* yesss.

What's the hardest for you to create?

As much as I enjoy fluffy scenes I find them an absolute nightmare to write because my brain immediately says "make them all suffer." I like angst, I really do but it's a bit of annoying when you're trying to finally write something happy for a character an then before you know it everything has gone to hell. Example: Character A has just won some big award, he patched things up with his bestie and things are finally turning aroun- his house is on fire, his mother ran off and he is now homeless and caring for his baby sister on the streets. And yes I came up with that off the top of my head. It's a real problem is you ask me.

What fandoms do you enjoy creating for?

I don't share all the stuff I draw and write but there are a bunch of fandoms I enjoy creating for mainly: Linked Universe: not one, not two, but nine Links? Yes please. I love brotherly bonding so much. Fire Emblem Three Houses: is probably the fandom where I love creating about ships the most. Sylvix sustains me as much as Dimileth does. Kid Icarus Uprising: Dark Pit. That is all. Legend of Zelda: Do I love theorising about the BotW sequel and writing about it? Yes I do. Very much. Pokémon: Writing about teenagers traveling the land with adorable and cool creature is as fun as you'd expect it to be. And I fit shipping in there too (Haudion and FerrisWheelShipping sustains my soul). Animal Crossing: The only fandom I only draw for. Tiny lil animal friends I just... yes.

What's the work you are most proud of?

In my BotW 2 deprived state a wrote a lil fic called Don't Be Afraid, based on the very little we know from the trailer. I put off posting it for weeks but I finally mustered of the courage to do it because at the end of the day, whether people like it or not, I'm proud of it. https://nicetomeetmew.tumblr.com/post/619037409470971904/dont-be-afraid

Where do you post your finished works?

I don't post a lot of my writing (okay I've posted it twice in my whole life heh) but it's pretty much just on my Tumblr. Although I do have ao3 and I have a longer fic in the works which I plan of posting there (eventually). https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicetomeetmew

If you have any fun stories about the pieces you made, please do share!

The only art I've really shared so far is the Links from LU as Sailor Scouts (Sailor Links if you will). And, fun fact, that all stemmed from a simple discussion about what if Wild had a magical girl transformation when he changed gear with the Sheikah Slate. So I draw him doing the Sailor Moon pose in his Vai clothes and that's that, right? Nope. Next day I was watching Sailor Moon and I couldn't stop thinking about Sailor Wild so that next thing you know I'm drawing Wind as Sailor Mercury and then I'm making a list of the Links as Sailor Scouts and The Sailor Links was born. I even drew Fi as Luna. So a full month was filled with a project that was inspired by one simple discussion. And I'm eternally grateful because it was an absolute blast to do (drawing Time with a tiara is just as fun as you'd imagine).

#Meet the Creator #lu train2020 #linkeduniverse #lu

19 notes · View notes

artofpeacelove · 4 years

Link

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

As states across the country issue stay-at-home orders to limit the spread of COVID-19, an increasing number of people are working from home, or they’ve lost their jobs and are navigating unemployment and hoping for the best. While this is all happening, countless memes and tweets joke about how people are perpetually watching Netflix or stress baking sourdough bread. One particularly contentious tweet asserted that people need to capitalize on all the “extra” free time:

If you don’t come out of this quarantine with either:

1.) a new skill 2.) starting what you’ve been putting off like a new business 3.) more knowledge

You didn’t ever lack the time, you lacked the discipline

— Jeremy Haynes (@TheJeremyHaynes) April 2, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The idea within the tweet—that we should use our time at home to be as productive as possible—isn’t a new one. But it has become more widespread and controversial during the COVID-19 pandemic, when some people may have more perceived free time, but are also feeling more stressed and anxious. The tweet “sums up all that is wrong about our hustle, work harder, be more culture,” says Lee Chambers, an environmental psychologist based in the United Kingdom. “It doesn’t take into account that many people will be in situations so challenging that purposely acquiring a new skill or business is not a priority right now,” he says.

Ericka Quezada-York, a certified nurse-midwife who works for a hospital-based OB/GYN practice in the Bronx in New York City, says that even though she sees a lot of her patients through telemedicine chats now, reducing some pre-appointment interaction time, she is spending even more time at work—so even her “normal” free time has become even more limited. “Because I spend so much time reviewing my charts to see who needs to come in face-to-face and who can be seen remotely, I estimate I spend an extra 60 to 90 minutes daily at work compared to before the pandemic,” she says. “On top of that, I spend a lot of time treating my patients for their pandemic anxiety [on top of everything else], and it takes me longer to take the [subway] between work and home because of transit reductions.”

Even if you do find yourself with new pockets of time, other emotional factors may be otherwise clouding your energy, precluding you from nimble productivity we glorify in more normal times. Take Erica Harvey, a bar owner in Las Vegas, who says she had to lay off 47 employees. After she closed her business, she made a list of everything she wanted to accomplish during the month she plans to have “off,” but she feels an overwhelming amount of guilt and depression from laying off her employees. “It’s all I can do to get out of bed,” she says. “I can’t even watch new shows or movies. I just keep watching old movies I’ve seen multiple times because my brain can’t process anything new.”

Even people who are safely working from home have had trouble adjusting to their new normal. Noel Liotta, who works in sales and marketing in Raleigh, North Carolina, says she’s working harder than ever because her company had to lay off employees for the first time in its 18-year history. “I’m just trying to keep some pulse on what normal is,” she says. At the start of the pandemic, she pulled out her guitar and keyboard, but she hasn’t touched either in almost two weeks. “I’m childless, I’ve still got a job, but I’m not doing anything extra or anything out of the ordinary except for a new Saturday night game night with friends via Zoom.”

Free time is a luxury, especially during a pandemic, when parents are trying to become teachers at home, health-care professionals and other essential employees can’t stop working, and those being laid off or reduced in hours are desperately trying to make ends meet.

Prioritizing productivity can lead to burnout, but it also changes the concept of “free time.” “When we are in this productivity mind-set, the concept of free time just doesn’t exist,” says Ander Camino, a therapist with Alma, a community for mental health professionals. Not only that, but when most people get off work, if they still have jobs, they might check in with family members and friends via phone, take care of their children, and meet their own basic needs. “We can easily fall into the mistake of perceiving [any free time] as an opportunity to invest and do more.”

But “more,” for many people, isn’t possible right now. Free time is a luxury, especially during a pandemic, when parents are trying to become teachers at home, health-care professionals and other essential employees can’t stop working, and those being laid off or reduced in hours are desperately trying to make ends meet.

Kelly Small is one of those parents, along with their wife. [Edit note: Small uses they/them pronouns.] A creative director living in Toronto, Small has struggled with the demands of homeschooling their 7-year-old child. “We both work full time from home,” Small says. “It’s chaos to try to manage kids and clients all at once.” Any semblance of “free time” has nearly vanished.

Quezada-York says it’s much harder for her to find free time than it was before the pandemic. Her wife, who is a stay-at-home parent, is now supervising their 9-year-old child’s remote learning program. Their three year old also just started speech therapy and physical therapy—the latter moving forward over video chat. “Our whole schedule of doing chores and all those little household-running things is way off,” she says. Pre-pandemic, she used to enjoy reading during her commute, but she thinks that wearing a mask 11 hours a day makes it hard for her to focus. Even at home, she says doing anything other than resting is difficult. “Once I’ve finished all my work-work and my household work for the day, maybe [before the pandemic] I would have watched some TV or done some reading or played a game, but now I just want to sleep,” she says.

That makes sense, Chambers says, because for most people, now is not the time to take on more. He says people need to prioritize their own well-being, and if they have free time, consider helping those who don’t. “Everyone has their own challenges in this period, and those with more free time should be looking to support the most vulnerable and the overburdened, not being individualistic and having tunnel vision, missing what they could be doing for their communities,” he says. “It is the time to be more for each other, to do what we can to support ourselves and others through the challenges we face.”

from Good Advice – Well+Good https://ift.tt/2xQ5loq via IFTTT

#No #we actually *don’t* have a ton of free time right now. Why we need to stop perpetuating that myt

0 notes

leacadioulab-blog · 7 years

Text

I promised I would post my reflection today, but as I open this computer I realise that today already turned into tomorrow ... I won’t blame the fluidity of time, so my apologies for having postponed this for a bit too long. Let’s start , So first, assessing myself .... Well. Let’s precise before all kinds of considerations that I am actually quite disappointed at myself for having been so inactive on this tumblr during the past two weeks. I know I am talking to comprehensive people, I am not about to try and justify myself for this, no : I honestly regret this lack of activity and the way my department project suddenly took so much importance in my days ; because indeed, I was really enjoying making this project for LAB, and becoming more and more inspired as the process went on. The LAB focus moments should have happened more than they did these last days. Because if we look at the rest of this LAB trimester, I did get involve, I did enjoy it, a lot, I also put a lot of energy, curiosity and implication in it and I think I did manage to focus on a process and give it some relevant directions whenever it was necessary. I think I also happened to be demanding with myself in a way I am not used to, which is directly linked to this full autonomy.

Something I questioned a lot, and might challenge more if I had to do it again would be the fact that I did not take very uncomfortable paths. I, as we all did, started from a personal fascination, but I ended up working with colors, materials, surfaces, which are fields I’ve always felt attracted by and probably the fields I was the most skilled for. Not that what I did was something expected ! Not at all..The experimentation part in the end took the lead on the other parameters ; but still, this is what I’d reproach myself, looking back.

Second, this trimester brought me several things. It definitely changed the way I perceive my relation to work. Working in a very autonomous way made me point out some of my natural attitudes or reflexes I adopt when having to take decisions. I realised for example, that my decisions are often very influenced by either other people’s potnetial opinions and thoughts towards my project, either ideas about the way my work cannot be realistic/usable/interesting/relevant in the context we live in. For instance I often here myself saying “ yes but, this is not what people need” or “ this is not doable in industry” “ this would be impossible to afford for ‘normal’ people”, and “I do’t bring anything” etc... These remarks - simply the fact of asking myself the questions that lead to them - are , I think, valuable. But - and this goes back to the Color article I wrote some weeks ago - I can’t let them have too much influence on my projects, not because they are wrong or anything, simply because I reamin what I am : a student. And as a student I have the right - and after reflection I would even say the duty - to allow myself to try, to experiment, to propose crazy things and imagine unrealistic scenarios. LAB taught me that as well. If some people’s lives can be the most valuable source of inspiration for me, the way I see the world might talk to some people in return, and I should not forget to dare, be creative and also... please myself a bit. Because indeed, last but not least , the utility of things is not necessarily where you think it is, it is not in the most obviously pragmatic thing, the most rational approach ... personal fascinations can be a great starting point for many things that don’t, at first, look useful.

Third, I think the collaboraton is the good moment to step backward, look at the couple of valuable elements you could potentially extract from your project, and confront them ! This idea of confrontation taught me a lot, because collaborating is in the end combining different worlds together and getting ne perspectives on things you were sometime observing from one and only point of view. That’s very rich !

Fourth ---> this should come soon

Fifth, I think my biggest pride of this trimester is to have found a way to combine various mediums within a progressive process, to have let them express by themselves, renouncing to the notion of control, of plans, of expectations ; letting things speak, with very few interventions, a lot of patience and ending up with a result that opens many new doors for me. Basically, I am proud of having trusted a process instead of focused on a fantasmatic result.

Sixth, I don’t know what could change. I think a way to make it more rich could be to open up the borders a bit more : showing people things they dont usually see ( like the first lecture on fungi and mycelium ), or giving them information they would not have got otherwise. I know lectures are expensive, but sometimes, documentaries or real life experimentations could also be an option.

What is good is definitely the teaching. I think the trust you put in us, the fact that you don’t put any value judgement on the projects, any particularly targetted expectations, any “it has already been done” from you is sooo precious !! It is really rare to be taught things with such free and openminded minds, but also with honest care about how we are doing FOR REAL. Thank you for that, cause it also made me think a lot about the various types of pressure I put on myself... and on others.

Seventh, if there is anything I could reproach to this academy, it is the current module systems and the lack of relevance and the teaching ‘gaps’ it contains. I was very satisfied about lab, I think I told you already, and I am being honest. But spending half of my working time on forum last trimester was to me, concerning a big part of it, a lack of energy. I dont think I learned anything, or if yes, not a lot, and it is a pity because this class, if more structured, more focused and with teachers whose specialities were more linked to each other, could have been very rich. Other problem about atelier, I heard for the past two trimesters people being overwhelmed by work, having to renounce to do part of their department work because of the intensity of the class and the amount of homework asked to them. I think it sometimes goes a bit too far. Also, speaking about minors next year, I also think their could be more minors focusing on making and learning new craft skills. But I guess this is mainly a problem of facilities. For the rest, I just wanted to say that it’s a really nice thing to sometimes have two instructors working in the same workshop at the same time ! I talk mainly about plastic in wood cause in my case that’s where I have spent fiifty percent of my life lately. It really changes a lot. The answer number 4 should be completed today - which is tomorrow if you followed - See you next week !

0 notes