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September’s meditation is awareness. Awareness is defined as consciousness, alertness, wakefulness and knowledge. What does it mean to be fully aware? As an artist, awareness is a state of being when I am painting. I am aware of the brush moving across the canvas, and aware of the colors being mixed on my palette. I am aware of the spring of the bristles of my brush. I am aware of the image presenting itself on the canvas. 

Being aware doesn’t mean being in control – at least not in the sense of the mind thinking and controlling the actions of the hand and body. Rather it is more like tapping into something bigger. I imagine it to be like a surfer riding a wave; or a musician playing an instrument. The Grateful Dead referred to this when they sang “the music played the band.” I remember the first time I played a song on my guitar and became aware of my fingers moving on the neck of the guitar – without my thinking of where my fingers should go, they seemed to be moving of their own accord. The first time it happened was both exhilarating and frightening.

In this zone of wakefulness there are no mistakes, because you are tapped into the rhythm of the universe, the source of all creativity. There is no fear, because in this realm of being there is no future and no past, just presence.

Painting in the zone gives me a glimpse of how perfect and peaceful life can be.