My first encounter with Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy - known to the Universe as SARK - was in the early '90s, when I found her wondrous book, A Creative Companion. When I first came across Living Juicy, fell instantly in love with its thought-a-day wisdom & inspiration. Little did I know how important that book would be in my life, fifteen years ago and - it turns out, to my surprise - in this present moment.
In her post-SARK years, whenever Mom was hospitalized, her hospital room would be covered with enlarged pages from Living Juicy & SARK's Juicy Living cards. Instantly, it was infused with creative energy, spark, a sense of joy & even play!
During Mom's last hospitalization, where she changed units several times as her condition improved then worsened, the staff voiced their amazement that when she was transferred, everything was taken down & set up in the new room between the time they wheeled her out & got her resettled. By that time, we'd pretty much gotten it down to a science.
Nurses & doctors - including ones with no duties there - loved stopping in Mom's room. As Dr. Bernal - her final (& one of her best) doctors - said, "If I am feeling down, I know a visit to your mother will set things right & I will leave smiling." That was mostly about Mom, but the setting uplifted, too. The staff were used to life & death issues; in Mom's room, there was only uplift & inspiration. Most was Mom, at least a smidgen was SARK.
Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy
That was then. Getting onto now...
A few months ago, I'd taken an older friend to a monthly appointment. In the waiting room was a copy of Living Juicy. The staff let me borrow it. Alas, it was somehow misplaced, so I recently ordered a new copy - and, out of sentimentality, one for us.
Looking through the pages, am stunned at how loudly it shouts out to me. One of my great challenges is having a) a core awareness of the importance of integrating what we've learned & our life experiences into path-forward energy ~and~ b) the awareness of my lack of the mechanics of integration. The nitty gritty.
Who would have guessed that Living Juicy holds a key to grounding my intention of mastering those essential basics?!
As part of SARK's introduction, she shares Confessions of a Dry & Cracked Person:
I believe that we teach what we most need to learn. Can you imagine the pressure of actually living juicy, while writing about it? I found myself eating rows of cookies, taking desperate naps, and hiding from well-meaning friends who said, "I thought you were already done," or "How's the book?"
It's 6 months late, I rewrote it 7 or 8 times, I admit to all sorts of embarrassing things, and it's 384 pages with 400 drawings!
So the truth is, I'm human, and so splendidly imperfect, filled with insecurity, doubt, rage, hope, exuberance, fear, FAITH, and incandescent love.
I send you on your year with every creative morsel that you need to be the same.
Was going to skip over the first topic SARK illustrates (on every level) - procrastination. Thought to myself, "Oh, no - go to the next one. Procrastination hits too close to the bone." Then it hit me that it was time to gather up my courage, wade in & read them straight through. So will start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
Am still shaking my head in wonderment at the power this one woman had in my life, 25+ years ago & now. SARK strikes again!
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