"I'm at a creative stopping point, and I don't know where to go next," I wrote in my final post.
Well, it's been a month since I said goodbye, and now I'm saying hello again from this new blog. I'm not sure where it's going to take me. Not knowing is one of the fun parts of a new creative venture. I hope you'll come along for the ride every now and then as I open my heart and head to a Good Girl Project.
Back in the days of my Bad Girl Project, I chronicled my research, experiments and studies about wild women past and present--and my struggle to be more like them. Now, I'm going to try to free myself to be "good," whatever that means, and look for new role models. For many modern women, yesterday's vice is today's virtue. And often, good and evil are mirror images of each other.
Just the other day, my yoga teacher here in Brooklyn told our class: "Bow to your good qualities." It was a phrase that stuck with me. My yoga teacher is Buddhist, and every now and then he tells us about karma, which means that you get what you deserve in life, good or bad. If you do good, good follows you. If you do bad, bad follows you.
Now I've just got to work out what good is. I've spent the last three years worshipping bad, evil, wicked women, so I've got a big job ahead of me. Especially since I generally admire the women of the world who have been judged by society to be bad.
I'll start with a story from Buddhist teaching, followed by a photo of myself trying to be virtuous while balancing on one foot. The journey toward goodness begins. I expect I'll stumble every now and then. In fact, my friend had to take the picture below several times because I kept falling out of the Tree Pose.
The Instilling Goodness School in California tells this Buddhist story:
"Once a very old king went to see an old hermit who lived in a bird's nest in the top of a tree. 'What is the most important Buddhist teaching?' The hermit answered, 'Do no evil, do only good. Purify your heart.' The king had expected to hear a very long explanation. He protested, 'But even a 5-year old child can understand that!' 'Yes,' replied the wise sage, 'but even an 80-year-old man cannot do it.'
Well done, it takes a while to gradually to graduate to 'growing up' it was the same for me. Born to be wild, haha, hm, kinda gave me many bumps but it has been a good teacher all experiences led me to a more peaceful loving way of life. May many more find this liberating way, the way is wide and open that leads to peace.
ReplyDeleteKeep look to Buddhism for answers. They are all there if you know where to look and how to look.
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