Transitions

days like these are meant for feeling into the weather, for noticing the shifting quality of light, and how the leaves rejoice in their new golden glow   for delighting in: the black bird who bathes in the drizzling grey rain, and the victory of the heron, for having just snagged a fresh worm   […]

Trust Life Again

Like you, my life as an artist began with paper and crayola crayons. Over the years it’s kind of converged, back there, to that innocent place again. Mainly because making art can be so intimidating that you never even try. In college, I became an art major not because of inherent talent or encouragement but […]

Butterfly Logic

  I willingly surrender the illusion of my own personal evolution -that healing through THIS will lead to a better, more complex, more Evolved me- everyone tells me this, though the tarot cards the spiritual books all those damned butterfly metaphors   when I sit with Nature I witness something else   the caterpillar is […]

My Soul Said Yes

  To the thing my mind vehemently objected to   To the thing I had a million and one fears around doing   To that which I’ve carefully planned around avoided dreaded –and for good reason   To all that is rational, practical, real and reasonable   My Soul Said Yes   Impossible! My mind […]

Soft

I like soft things blankets of rain, falling in sheets then, the fresh smell of the morning-after the downy fur of the small creature I nuzzle my face into and soft colors: blues, lavenders, pinks   I like soft features a round, open, trusting face the curving lines of a generous hip and mouth open-ness, […]

My Life Story, In A Nutshell

  You asked, Oooh, what’s wrong? You are unhappy. Tell me, what do you need or want? I said, I want… what I most want is to be free of the limiting conditions placed upon me.  You replied, That may not be possible. Would you settle for inner freedom?    Yes.   …On days when […]

Freedom

  To me… Freedom is the ability and means to contemplate life from a comfortable perch, notebook and pen warm cup of coffee Nature all around, singing to me so. much. life. this is when I feel inextricably bound up in apart of and essential to Life’s Beauty this is when I feel most in […]

Meet Ella Rae

Meet Ella Rae: my niece and marketing guru. Ella Rae is a Gemini, a GapKids model, jewelry designer (she designed this fish piece; I merely executed it for her) and the biggest champion, and customer (so far), of ButterfliesandCoffee.com. I recruited her services when she visited last week. Ella Rae: “Auntie Jess, how many of […]

One day you will know

  there are so many things we yet don’t understand of the world, and of others but can feel the Truth of them deep in our bones we don’t understand what it means to be different – not like that, exactly oppressed, confused by, struggling with, in that particular way they do but we do […]

In the time it takes…

in the time it takes for a turtle to return to its place of birth and lay new eggs for the riverbed to slightly bend, to allow for a new stream for the winter snow to melt into spring water in the time it takes for a broken bone to heal for the shoot of […]

Permission

You have Permission To want things that are out of your reach Then, you have Permission to release the wanting, so you can feel peace You have Permission to change To no longer do what you have done, be who you have been You have Permission to no longer want what you once wanted You […]

Dedication

Just as the Sun rises new every day, every moment is an opportunity to experience a new beginning.  To start all over again. Clean slate. Yet as we mature, habits and memory, and even familiarity, comfort, qualities that create stability, can stymy that new day feeling. I have mental habits that prevent me from being fresh, in […]

on the small loosening of stuck things

you can recover from shock, loss, grief one frosty breath at a time by finding the stillness at the frozen center breathing life force and energy back up and in even if the water does not penetrate you yet feel where it is blocked feel it flow underneath and around – Life allow the slow […]

What To Do With Old Journals

1. Leave them to sit in your basement to ferment among the natural elements (most popular method). 2. Save them for your family to read after you are dead (honestly, an okay idea only if you never wrote about anyone -or- you are a sociopath who doesn’t care about other people’s feelings). 3. Get them […]

Things Worth Exploring

dark academia art journaling dressing like STEVIE NICKS making my own card deck speakers that inspire spontaneous dancing portrait drawing dresses The Artist’s Way (again) embodiment & somatic experiencing writing poetry sketching sunset picnics making my own podcast homemade ice cream writing with others on Zoom (MAYBE) gingerbread and peppermint essential oils rediscovering my internal […]

What If All I Want Is…

What if all I want is an ordinary life? What if all I want is a quiet life of seeking refuge in stillness and small moments? What if I have no desire to be the Queen of Social Media or participate in conversations that do not open my heart?   What if I only crave […]

What Did You Love as a Child?

“What did you love to do as a child?” I asked my Leo Sun husband. He instantly replied: go to Radio Shack and get the battery of the week, then figure out where to use it. He loved leatherwork (he and I both. I, too, enjoyed visiting the Tandy leather store). He also loved to […]

You Okay? (I AM, even here in Hawaii)

Over here in Hawaii we’re on alert for a potential hurricane, and so the whole state is practicing our emergency preparedness. I had to smile because this (image above) is the card I pulled yesterday. It is from my (COMING SOON) Intuitive Energy Oracle Deck. I hadn’t planned on sharing this with you yet since […]

I AM Human, I AM Divine

I have off days. I have days where I am not feeling quite like myself. Days I fall into wormholes of conditioning, conditioning that I’m not sure I know how to work through. I have sleepless nights, nights where I awaken a lot and feel shitty. Nights where I just want the morning to arrive […]

A Creative Woman

A woman who takes creative risks is a rare thing, indeed
She has done the work of undoing the ties that keep most bound
to mainstream, consensus, the middle of the road
She’s discovered the freedom and joy of playing outside the norms of convention
of experimentation
of boldly doing what those around her are not

by listening to what makes her own wild heart beat
no longer fettered and hemmed in by fear, opinion or expectation
She has discovered the delicious freedom of artful living: