True joy under the tree


Joy under the tree

“Joy under the tree”. New painting. Available for purchase HERE, as the very first of a series of small and affordable paintings on Etsy, yay!

Strange how we humans create traditions and then keep them up long after no one can remember or manifest their true meaning. Strange how just a little awareness can shift that.

One day a most wonderful Christmas tree presented itself to me. A tree standing alone in a winter landscape. And yet not alone.  It was part of a beautiful world of life, not visible to the eye unless you were able to see through the cold winter earth beneath its roots. There were presents under the tree! But a very special kind. The kind that makes you still with wonder and joy. They were pure life energy and juices from trees and plants withdrawn into the ground to be stored and renewed during the cold season. And they were wrapped in a deep understanding of the cycle of life and death.

P1030188

I saw a world of promise and new life. Forces making ready for the year to come. And I noticed how the tree was settled, knowing that what the eyes can´t see is still there, as pure joy under the surface. That this is another kind of spring, felt by those who are able to be so still that they can hear what goes on under the surface.

Detail from York Minster

Detail from York Minster

This December I will try once again. To do what I can and leave the rest. And not be driven by traditions. But rather use them as an opener and guide to what may be a hidden truth. Remembering that true presents has joy and connection and don´t come with a demand. I know it´s not easy in this world. But I firmly believe we can create our own new traditions, little by little. Traditions connected to something true. Something real. Even if it´s something we can´t see it with the eyes.

Here´s to lots of  true joy under the trees this year!!!

Xx Lise.

PS: part of my sanity in times like this comes from the small (or sometimes big, yay!) moments of reconnecting with myself through writing morning pages. Lifesaving. Really. 

P1040550

Circus of Balance

Circus of Balance

(New painting, “Circus of Balance”, more details here. To purchase, contact me)

I am guessing you know this circus? I am actually quite certain that any living person on this planet knows the task of constant balancing this whole thing called life.

If you are the slightest like me, you have probably tried feeling stressed about things that are supposed to be joyful happenings. Like being invited to someones birthday? Or having to be present at your childs theatre play?  Or a friend knocking on your door? Or, and this is a tricky one: having to create your dream-life right here and now when all you feel is worn-out and short of time?

I know life offers so many beautiful opportunities. But I am not always able to see them as that. Mostly because I didn´t prioritize my pauses. Moments of connecting back to what it is that I truly care for. Moments of quiet time just for me. The right to say NO, so that next time I may have the energy to say YES, with an honest and happy heart. The right to get enough sleep. Basically, the art of balancing it all so that all the lifes inside us get their different kinds of food and stay calm and happy.

Lise Meijer profil (11 of 21)( Me, keeping my balance on a tree trunk on Bornholm!)

I guess it´s like a dance really. Life doesn´t seem to want us to stay still in one place. It looks like we are requested to keep flexible and moving all the time, whilst maintaining and nurturing that quiet steady place we each have inside. So that we can move it along with us, in the dance. The place where our true values lives. Where stress and comparison doesn´t exist. Where we are enough, just as we are. Whilst we keep on moving through this landscape of opportunities of growth and joy.

Introducing: Mrs Bathtub!!!

She welcomes you with candle light and scented lavender oil. She helps you relax. She will caress you and take you in, and allow you to stay as long as you want. She is a delight. She is not big, but she is ours and she is perfect!

P1020337

We finally, finally got our bathtub! I feel entitled to say: I got MY bathtub! I have had it on my wish list since I last lived with one, and that is soooo long ago. I was in my twenties and studying. Living in a shared apartment in Copenhagen with other young people. And we had a bathtop – and I promised myself that a bathtub should definately be part of my life, also after I moved from that place. But for some reason I didn´t manage to give it first priority until now. There are some things in life that makes us feel really, really good in body and mind, and for me, taking a bath is one of them.

P1020334

 I often get my best ideas here. A bath makes it easy for to leave the state of being concerned with practicalities. It helps me connect to another more meditative state where creativity is a dance with beautiful ideas coming from outside of this planet.

Slow down

“Slow down” Original painting for sale, details here. Also avalable as a print (on sale rignt now!) here.

In all the years between then and now I did take baths, though, and I will pass on the secret on how in case you also love baths but don´t live with one now: I simply bought the biggest plastic-childrens-bathtub I could find on the market, and squeezed myself into that, using wet towels and a watercan to cover the parts that didn´t fit in. It worked fine, I definately recommend it as a plan B solution!

P1020335

Still I am utterly thankful that we now have a real one in our home. She will be used again and again…..

Being fabulous

The stream

(“The Stream”, acrylic on canvas. Original sold, print available by request)

I was thinking about the word fabulous this morning. I guess I didn´t feel so fabulous right then- even though it helped a lot with the first cup of coffee! I sipped my coffee and tasted the word.

Fabulous. Like fables. In danish Fabulous is actually called Fable-like, “Fabelagtig”. Fable-like. Like who we are when we are shining bright. Special beings with strong powers. The words we speak, the art we make and the songs that come to us when we are more than ourselves. The way we can be present, be friends, husbands and wives, parents or colleagues when we elevate to a place where logic and creativity come together and form a cup. A cup that can collect drops from heaven. Fables. “Fabulous-ness”. Stories that surprise even us. Our human hand meet our divine hand and they cup. Creativity ensures it is a spacious, adventurous and beautiful cup. Logic makes it durable and make sure it will be there tomorrow. When the two gather, the magic begins. Drops from heaven can land. Fables. Right in the middle of our Fabulous-ness.

P1060335

I don´t think it takes genious to be fabulous. But it takes invitation for the two energies to find a place they can merge. So that our cup can hold the drops when it rains with fabulousness.

And perhaps an extra nap or a walk, to help the logic and creativity level with each other so magic can land in your cup!

Surrounded by helpers


Goldship

(The goldship is made from paper, covered with pure gold leaf. I got it from a visionary artist friendLiza Krügermeier. Attached was the little note that reads: “Inspiration for all the ships you are going to be launching”. Totally melted my artist-heart!)

I feel surrounded by helpers in many forms these days. And I am so grateful for that. It helps me literally keep faith in my vision during a time that seems to hold a lot of tests. The kind of tests that inevitably comes when we begin to act in the world in a new way, winning new territory. Starting my own business based on the joy of creating and passion for life definitely means winning new territory.

Lise Meijer profil (14 of 21)

(From a recent photo-shoot with the incredibly talented photographer Justine Hoegh, taken on the danish island Bornholm.)

It is as if this year has been a vacuuming process of my inner household. A crowd of little gremlins come out each time I turn on the vacuum cleaner, looking astonished at the housecleaning going on. They usually search for a new dirty corner to settle in before giving up and quietly leaving the establishment. And this cleaning seems unstoppable; when one room is done and the sticky residents has left their nest in the corner, the alarm bells goes again in the next room of my inner house: if you want to use this space to create something true and beautiful, there are a few uninvited ancient sticky guests that need to be shown the way out, lovingly but firmly.

On my easel and life

(A picture of a full, evolving life: Paintings on the easel, boxes full of cards to be packed and suitcase for travelling the country, selling the cards. In the background on the door: my visionmap 2013)

Deep exhaustion  from the process that apparently includes everything from economic tests to, well,  personal imbalances, coexist with an emerging deep faith. A belief that wonderful things can and will happen. A belief that everything that I deeply want in life is not only possible, but has long been on the drawing board. And that I at this very moment am laying the foundation for those things with my housecleaning, and with my growing deep wonderful-possibilities-faith. And every now and then, a helper comes around, sometimes in the form of a person I barely know, other times as my own dear husband, who recently decided to give me weekly help with administration! Those helpers all seem to bring the same message: just keep up the work, believe and be genlte with yourself whilst you proceeed….you are on the right track. I am so, so grateful for eacj encouraging whispers, in whatever form it comes along!

Rune

(Rune – my husband – during the building of the house we now live in)

Footprints…and wanting the wisdom of an old woman NOW!

I have been feeling strangely quiet and filled with worries lately. And at the same time enjoying to the fullest that spring is finally here and the snow is gone. I feel like I am in such an important period of my life. Business-wise, but also personally. A feeling of “make or break”. And a deep certainty that there is so much I can do, if only I can do it, if you know what I mean? And that sometimes even though I do my best I may be blind to what is wise.  Wanting to gain that wisdom and use it NOW, but knowing that is not the deal.

Moving balance

(Moving balance. Painting for sale by request, prints available here)

The deal here is to walk even though we can´t see the whole way ahead. To dare. To be and do. Most days, I stuggle with the doing part of life. I knock on doors. Get inspired or worn out. I waste my time and know it. And pull myself together and on track again. Then I gently knock on more doors and they may not seem to open. I forget about it and then, whilst resting or drinking tea the telephone rings with that call I expected and wanted so badly. Only, the call came from a different person/ place than I thought it would.

Here is a small tale about loving the overview-part and yet knowing that it takes getting up for action to create things:

FOOTPRINTS

I am sitting at the edge of a lake. A deep, deep lake. Waiting. The mirror in the lake is whispering: “Stay here forever, look how beautiful it is here. I show you all your possibilities, and here you don´t have to do, just dream.” And I so wish I could stay. But I know that everything I see as tempting and enticing here is merely a reflection of the reality that awaits me. A kind of pause, a glance at life that holds it all. A beautiful picture I am allowed to enjoy for a while, so that I may feel strengthened to trust the journey that awaits.  A calm overview.

P1010355

(Painting in process, a BIG one!)

But now it’s time to get up and go. Into the forrest of reality and action. Inside that forrest I can´t always see the whole context. I get blisters on my feet and loose my breath. I worry about supplies and shelter. But I walk. I move. Set my footprints on the gound. And learn again and again that only with the heart’s compass can I find the right path. And do what I’m here to do: To create and become a living expression of those very images I saw in the beautiful reflection in the lake whilst I was waiting.

P1010217

(My husband came to me one late evening when I was painting, claiming that he read “The artists way” (By Julia Cameron)…and that it clearly prescribes drinking redwine together with painting after 11pm. I didn´t disagree!)

Springlight Lise

(Me, in the doorway to spring, trying to balance it all and keep going with the seasons. Some days it simply helps to wear a beautyful skirt and my favourite shoes! Celeste, 10 yrs, took this photo)

Select your currency
EUR Euro