I wake up because the cat is mrowing because he's hungry and I slept fifteen minutes later than I usually sleep and he's come over to my side of the bed imploring me to please get up now because he is HUNGRY but I'd like to sleep even though I know I am going to get up because morning and painting. I pull myself up while Violet stays sleeping. The sun is up though not broken over the hill yet so it's still early which is good. When I do the math, it means X number of hours til noon which is the general cut off time to go do other things even though I always think that I could get up earlier. If I wanted to. If I was enough. So I get up. Dressed. Tell the Fi - I'm coming. I'm coming. I open the blinds in the living room. I pull out his bowl. My mind, sometimes feeling defeated early in the morning, too many loose ends and threads that I don't understand, people to call or emails to send but ultimately, for now, just looking for the thread to the brush.... I make tea. I feed the cat. I carry my tea downstairs to my studio. Then I go back and get the Fi because he's old and has a hard time navigating the stairs. I sit in my chair, drinking tea, staring at my painting finding the thread - where I left off - the place I pick up again - and the part of me that wants to stand there for another 4 or 5 hours knowing there's tired feet and a tired tailbone waiting for me. I drink tea. Eventually, the moment is right and I stand. I put some paint on my palette. I pick up the brush. I poke. I prod. I shade. Eventually, along the way, I wake up. Mind and heart scream and yell or whimper or plead or whisper entreaties of all the things I can do or be. Mind and heart - they just do what they do on and on and on. But, eventually, somewhere along the way, I hit that note. I strike that chord. And it's all going and flowing and golden again, like it has always been. It's that dance again that I know so well and love so much and am honored and humbled to explore every day and will do it over and over and over again oh my god I love painting so much. And when I walk away from that easel, I am again.

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