Picking Up the Crown...

A few months ago, my friend Lennis of Windbent sent me a link to an article.  The post was called, "Becoming Sovereign" and was created by the fine folks of One Willow Apothecaries.  CLICK HERE to take a look at it.

The words and images stuck with me.  As the world descends into the depths of winter, we are called to look inward.  The outside world, cold and uninviting, becomes a mirror that asks us to look deeper and to examine who we are and how we live our lives.

Over the last year (and before that), I've been swept up in politics.  Many of the things that I care about deeply have undergone attacks at the hands of the current administration.  I am happy to agree to disagree, as we all have our own reasons and motivations for doing what we do... however, after daily threats to the things I love, there has been this psychological breach and it feels like I'm hemorrhaging all my energy.  I feel tired and worldweary much of the time.  I grieve for those without voices and am angered by the blatant hostility and derisiveness.  I've grown to feel powerless.

And as I sit in front of my window and look out on the cold landscape, I go inward.  And I see that I've allowed outside influences to diminish my personal power.  I've given control over to others and given permission to others to determine my mental wellbeing and emotional equilibrium.  And that just doesn't sit right with me.

So, I was moved to regain my personal power.  To win back my clarity and focus and realign how I let the outside world impact me.  Easier said than done!  Basically I've had to do a lot of self-work on finding out where I want to go and how I want to get there.  One of the ways, is to embrace my creative process again.  When you make a living off of what you create, it's an easy pitfall to allow your physical needs to take priority over your mental, emotional, and spiritual.  "I'm going to make what sells so that I can pay my bills."  There's this sense of satisfaction when you're engaged in making, but it's a false sense of satisfaction if it isn't rooted into something deeper.  So, I have been mindful to follow my muse and not get distracted.  Again, easier said than done.

One of the things that I did to kind of embrace my thoughts and feelings was to create this polymer clay coin pendant.  It says "sovereign" and pays homage to the original article.  In all likelihoods, this will probably not be a best seller.  It's an obscure enough word not to have that ready accessibility.  It also has a lot of connections to monarchy and that isn't always a popular idea.  Even so, I wanted to tap into something deeper and harken back to the original post – to regain personal power and follow your own heart and mind and not be subject to the whims of the outside world.

These will eventually make their way to the Allegory Gallery Etsy shop and the brick-and-mortar.  CLICK HERE to take a gander at our online shop and see some of the fun things we've got there, including some of my quote and word pendants!