Suncatcher

         Sometimes things are right in front of you and we tend to see them at a shallow level. I have admired and loved the way a suncatcher captures light, then sends it along in a beautiful way, the light shining through and creating nearly transparent color that spills onto surfaces, the flecks of light scattering around a room, not just reflecting light but letting light flow through it to project light somewhere else.

        Recently I have been working on a couple of beautiful stained glass sun catchers. As I was going through the process of making them, I started to think a little bit about them and wondered who, how, where, when…... Did you know there are myths, traditions, legends, magic, and stories behind suncatchers?

        Suncatchers or light catchers, small reflective pieces of glass were first believed to have been made by Southwest American Indians and are considered similar to dream catchers and wind mobiles. The Native American dreamcatchers or ‘sacred hoops’ were traditionally used as talismans to protect sleeping people, usually children, from bad dreams and nightmares. Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams, both good and bad. When hung above the bed in a place where the morning sunlight can hit it, the dream catcher attracts and catches all sorts of dreams and thoughts into its webs. Good dreams pass through and gently slide down the feathers to comfort the sleeper below. Bad dreams, however, are caught up in its protective net and destroyed, burned up in the light of day.

       Similarly wind mobiles have a healing effect on our body, calm our minds, and awaken our spirits. The resonance and vibration of sound releases stress and emotional blockages in the body and calms the mind thereby expanding conscious awareness and connection with the spirit bringing in a sense of peace and well-being.

        According to a Native American legend, at one time the Ojibwa people lived together in a place called Turtle Island. An Ojibwa spirit Asibikaashi, also called Spider Woman took care of her people there. Legend says that she brought the sun to them each morning. Before long, the tribe grew. They soon moved away from the island and became "scattered to the four winds." Thereafter there was no way Spider Woman could bring the sun to her people every day, so she spun a web to catch the sun's rays for her scattered people. Later, mothers and grandmothers helped her out by weaving suncatchers. The circular webs were placed above the heads of sleeping children. The suncatchers were said to also chase away bad dreams, burning them away with the light of the sun.

        Here are my suncatchers hanging in my studio, bringing in colored light and spilling in onto my work surface. They twirl around with the breeze, bringing me rays of happiness and bright energy and staring at the play of light throughout the day calms my mind. 

credits: https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib4/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/4153/Reading%20comp%20-%20dream%20catcher.pdf

Musings: Passion or Hobby

                 A new job that I am loving and enjoying has kind of sidelined my blog but the creative fire still burns! This year I have been a bit lost trying to figure out if the interests I pursue are just hobbies or can I call them my passions? If I am not driven and motivated to make money from my interests, does it matter?

I recently came across a very thought provoking article titled “How To Live Your Passion: Stop Confusing Hobbies with Passions” from https://psychologyforphotographers.com/how-to-live-your-passion-stop-confusing-hobbies-with-passions

               Am I confusing my hobbies to be my passions? Is it possible to have varied interests and be so happy doing them that I feel passionately towards them?

The writer of this blog post says,

Passions are often confused with hobbies, but there is a critical difference.  A hobby is “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.”

Passions, on the other hand, are not relaxing.  Passions don’t leave you alone.  Passions insert themselves into your life whether you have time for them or not.  Passions soothe you and drive you crazy at the same time.

We think of a passion as something we love, an overwhelming feeling of devotion and obsession.  But in older English, ‘passion’ also meant ‘suffering‘.  And even now, passions will exact a high price from us – but one we never seem to mind paying.

The author goes on to say,

Yes, hobbies can turn into passions, but a mere hobby won’t provide the drive and determination and fight necessary to do something for a living.

So does a passion have to be money earner for it to be a passion? Does it remain a hobby if I do not make a living out of it? Of all the things that interest me artistically and creatively, there are things that I am not able to pursue to their complete depth, nevertheless I love it all including its artistic magicality. And in that I understand the distinction of interest and passion. But there are some of my artistic and creative interests (I balk at calling them hobbies) that I pursue despite setbacks, failures, bad days, mistakes, blunders, cost, and hours that go into it. Would I continue to persevere if they were mere hobbies to me? Is it a hobby only because I am not driven enough to make it a money earner for me? Is monetary gain only what differentiates a hobby from a passion?

Ouch!

              Lucky are those who have found their careers in their passions. It's a powerfully gratifying identification of the self, to easily take your passion and make it something for a living. But for me, it has been a long and slow blossoming of the self to see in me that which I love doing. It's been a long journey understanding the distinction in my feeling towards my interests, a maturing to acknowledge that what I love doing is not just a hobby and realizing that this is what make me feel alive and brings me a lot of satisfaction and joy. I continue to pursue them despite the cost, despite the lack of monetary gains. It's something I cannot stay away from, it's what I think of every moment I get, it's what I spend hours learning and researching about, it’s what I spend hours doing, it's what I cannot give up, it's what grips me.

            A while ago I was cleaning the garage and I came across old needlepoint pieces, broken stained glass work, painted cushion covers, sewn curtains, and a bunch of other stuff, things that I had made over the course of my 20 years here. Thinking back, many I threw out because I tired of them and some because they looked so basic. Honestly, I have developed better skills over the years. I go back home to India and I see remnants of things I made as a teen. Significantly, I realized, I have always made things… I have always loved making things, creating something or the other, learning new creative skills along the way, and finessing them. I can see the evolution in my skills from those discards compared to what I can do now. Should I still call it all a hobby? Is it not a calling? Is it not what my inner self calls on me to do? If I am unable to make a living off of my passion, should I relegate them to hobbies? In fact I believe it takes more to continue pursuing your passions even when you are not making money off of them.

            As much as I agree with “You’re going to live them anyway, so you might as well do them for a living” I do believe passions cannot be that black and white.

           Sometimes I fall into a web of life's obligations, that I fail to make time or fail to get into a state of mind to pursue my creativity. That causes me a lot of uneasiness, because there is not much else in the world I'd rather be doing than a creative project. But a fulfilling job, and children, housework, etc. can make it difficult to find time in my day to do the things I love.

           It's been challenging and eye opening at the same time to slowly be able to figure out what I am most passionate about. It's been difficult simply because I feel I have a lot of creative interests, a lot of creative areas I can say I am blessed with. I still can't say I have narrowed it down to one particular form of creativity, and I feel it’s okay to love doing them all. I might never be able to pick one creative form, I really do enjoy a lot of different forms. For me just being able to make something, create something artistic; is a part of me, it recharges me, it compels me, I obsess about it all the time, even in my sleep!

Would it then not be called my passion?

         I am trying to find a balance between life's obligations and finding time to do the things I love. I suppose in the bigger scheme of things it does not matter what people call it or what labels it fulfills, and at the end of it all I might not “accomplish success” in the traditional sense pursuing my passions but my wish for myself is that this will be a fulfilling and creative life.