This is another take on bloom where you are planted – a visual doodling by Sarah Clark. Yes, Sarah calls it doodling as she sits in the living room during the evening drawing these wondrous creations in her journal. She leaves the channel open for these charming creations as well as the mandalas she creates in her home studio. Sarah says she kept the channel open when I said that this blog, A Poet’s Nanaimo, would need a logo at some point. She leaves a channel or space open to receive that which you don’t expect, she says.   As we’re partners and I have the amazing good fortune of having her support for everything I do, these sometimes “channelled” logos are throughout my website. Some of them are drawn mandalas such as the ones for Writing Home: A Whole Life Practice and Poetry as a Doorway In . . . and A Welcome Home.  The W for Writing Warriors is one of Sarah’s illustrated letters. Oh, and let’s not forget Moira Oenia, the mermaid I’ve had for over a decade now. Sarah designed her while at a small cottage in Bayfield near Lake Huron. You’ll see Moira in the banner on my home page. All of this is to say thank you Sarah for helping me put my creative offerings into the world with all these amazing visuals and good advice.

As for “bloom where you are planted,” Sarah says there are beautiful things to see wherever you are and every garden has something to offer. We wouldn’t have learned what we did if we hadn’t been planted in those various homes and locales throughout our lives including those we didn’t choose for ourselves.

You can see more of Sarah’s work on her website at www.sarahclarkdesign.ca

While Sarah sized photos, even took some of them, and created banners and logos, Kathleen Wilson was in her home office at Raven Hill Meadows in Cedar  doing all the behind-the scenes technological wizardry necessary for setting up a website. I so appreciate her help with getting the bright, fresh and clean look I desired. Kathleen taught me how to make changes myself, add links, size photos, post a blog and I’m thrilled to be learning these new skills.

The phrase “bloom where you are planted” reminds Kathleen of the art of Mary Engelbreit.  There’s a pillow with the phrase in Kathleen’s home. In fact, she says she has many, many pieces of Engelbreit’s work in her house. She’s comforted by the words and takes them to heart. “I try to be grateful everyday about the person I live with and the atmosphere we have created,” says Kathleen.

Thank you Kathleen for your expertise and patience. Have a look at Kathleen’s website at www.graphicdetails.ca.

We never know when we will blossom
into what we’re supposed to be. It might
be early. It might be late. It might be after
thirty years of failing at a misguided way.
Or the very first time we dare to shed
our mental skin and touch the world.

From “Reduced to Joy” by Mark Nepo