Nurturing The Inner Fire

By Maryanna Gabriel

"Fertile solitude..."  

- Adam Phillips

     This year has involved some drastic changes in order to accommodate what now needs to be done and the heart-stopping costs of tuition. There is

Me Nurturing My Inner Fire
(Portrait by Sebastian, 3 yrs old)

opportunity here for growth and it isn't to be thrown away. I just can't. Too much is at stake. Certain activities of yesteryear have had to be crossed off the list. I am hoping that those that know and love me will forgive me as I sink more deeply into this learning process. Fortunately, I never feel lonely. It isn't like when one is younger when being alone was more difficult. Time is needed for the right brain process and for some reason the dial on the clock seems to rotate like something out of a cartoon as one day whirls madly into the next and weeks are impossibly gone.

     The funny thing about writing is that one actually has to do it. It is rather astonishing how life poses such a rich array of distraction and from what is supposedly a primary focus. Somewhere I have read that our creative specialty needs to be at the top of the list of the day, perhaps Julia Cameron wrote this, in order to nurture our inner fire.

     Sebastian is my grandson and I believe I have either three arms in his splendid depiction of me or else it is five legs. I'll take them all.