I am in Love | The Dreaming Cafe

Lately I have been very distracted – I am in love.

But, not in any person. I am in love with several new interests.

These new loves invade my thoughts and wrap themselves in and around every idea I have. I see them everywhere and imagine what it would be like for them to come live with me. Their seductive voices whisper in my ear both day and night and tantalize me with fantastic visions of ecstasy and creative freedom.

I wrote about one of them least week in the post A Call to Paint. I can’t get the desire to paint out of my heart, or the intense need to express myself beyond just words.

The intensity of this new love frightens me because as much as I feel like an artist inside, I’ve never done anything on the outside to validate this assumption.

Yes, recently I have begun to indulge my inner artist, but in reality I am an art virgin. I haven’t had an ‘art class’ in almost thirty years (and, yes, that does put me in my early forties) and I have only recently started to play with color using oil pastels and colored pens.

But, this indulgence hasn’t satisfied my new lover. So, after I publicly acknowledged my desire to paint, I began to put feelers out, looking for a painting teacher, a workshop or class to take. Then, out of the blue, the Universe answered my quest for direction in a most unusual way…

A Tweet came my way on Twitter from Connie Hozvicka a.k.a @DirtyFootprints about a workshop she was doing with Christine Reed a.k.a @TheBlisschick and Andrea, a clay artist from Cleveland – Creative Dig: Excavating Self Identify & Story through Paint, Clay, & Word.

Butterflies began to dance in my belly and my heart beat a little faster whispering, “Oh, I want to go.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” my head roared. “You can’t go.”

“Why?” my heart argued back.

“We are saving money, not spending money.”

“But, we have money set aside for travel and education and I really want to paint, and write and play with clay.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to be an artist. I want to meet other artists. I want to experience what it’s like to live like an artist for at least one day.”

Back and forth my head and heart argued, but in the end I couldn’t, not go.

In a few weeks, my new lover and I will fly to Cleveland for a one day affair. I’ll paint and write and play with clay all day and when it ends I hope our bond will have grown deeper, beyond the lust and infatuation stage.

Just as I was beginning to settle in with this love interest, another suitor showed up, knocking on the door, tantalizing me with even greater promises of expressive joy – storytelling with film and video, documentary film making. What a sweet and seductive voice he has.

Several years ago Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me” captivated me. He told a story and educated people at the same time.

Then two recent video clips added fuel to the fire – Erik Proulx’s 30-minute documentary film about losing your job and taking the opportunity to change your life and do what you love. I posted the trailer for this film a few days ago here at The Dreaming Cafe – LemonadeMovie.

And the second was a video Transform :: A short film for ScottKelby.com. His use of black and white photography and words spoken from the heart as the images move past was both creative and moving. The whole time I watched and listened I thought to myself, I want to do this.

I am learning to listen to myself and the soft whispers that point me in a new direction.

I am going to spend a full day immersed in art with other artists in a few weeks. I ordered my first digital camcorder, a book on storytelling and film and I have begun to storyboard an idea I have for a short video.

These new loves are turning my life upside down.

I am totally distracted and totally in love.

Throw in a love affair I began two weeks ago with Svaroopa Yoga, which I’ve yet to figure out how to incorporate fully into my life and my current loves, writing and working for myself and I am feeling scattered and overwhelmed.

But, at the same time all of these new loves have added a new and exciting dimension to my life. They support and compliment my life’s mission “to learn, to grow and to share” and the call I feel to help others and to make a difference.

Where will these new loves take me? I am not sure. They just feel ‘right’. So, for now, I am trying to live in the moment, love the adventure and see where my new loves take me.

How about you? Have you had this experience? Has a new love shown up unexpectedly in your life? What did you do? How did the affair play out? Did your new love find a place in your life or did you discover he/she was right for you?