2025 – Kim Upton

Ahhh-choooo

“If you desire healing,
let yourself fall ill
let yourself fall ill.”
― Rumi

First of all, I’m a delight.
Second, everything I’m about to tell you is true.
Third, it’s time for my yearly cold/flu/???

When my body is feeling a little more tactile than normal, I apparently like to walk around in the land of nostalgia. The images in this post are from an art journal I created in 2012 when I was teaching classes on…you guess it…art journaling. It was how I blended being a lay therapist/spiritual director, artist, writer, teacher – and well…all of the other things I was doing at that time.

Y’all I was at my peak – and life was doing what life does. I miss that time, and am slowly working my way back after events in my world created a huge chasm. Honestly, I’m gathering the courage to talk about it – or write about it – and right at a pivotal moment in my reverse phase planning, the annual illness came to visit a little early.

“first turn yourself upside down
empty yourself like a cup of wine
then fill to the brim with the essence

a voice is descending
from the heavens
a healer is coming”
– Rumi

So I guess there’s a little more work to be done, and a little more time to hear the voice descending from within.

Much love – y’all stay healthy and safe out there,
~ KEU

* 30 days

Don’t drive the karma bus

“Our karma is our mind. And the mind stands in the way of a clear view of God.” – Ram Dass

First of all, I’m a delight.
Second, everything I’m about to tell you is true.

There’s always a lot of chatter on the socials about how folks hope that karma works its magic. You know, like when someone cuts you off in traffic, you wanna see them have the same experience. What’s interesting about that, if you’ve read a few of the world’s faith systems, is that hoping someone else has bad karma after they wronged you creates negative karma for you. Not because there is some universal score-keeper, but more along the lines of your intentions of something wonky happening to those who have been wonky to you.

I’ve shared this story before, but it’s good to share again. Years ago I attended teaching given by a Buddhist monk. Every week someone would ask the same question: “Is it bad karma to give a homeless person money that you know they will most likely use for drugs?” The little monk would smile patiently, in broken English – “What is your intention in giving the money to the homeless person? Is it for harm or for good?” Every time the person would say something to the effect of “Oh, for good. For sure for good.” Again monk would nod, smile, and say, “Then it’s for good.” After that came the explanation that the homeless person was going to use that money for blah, blah, blah…and the monk would just smile and say, “Once it is out of your hands, and you are doing it for good, why should you let it bother you?”

There’s more on this topic, and I’ll get back to it soon…however the Sun is shining and I’m making a big Asian themed meal for dinner (which means a wee bit of extra prep). Plus, this morning I slept in until almost 3:30am, and it threw my schedule off a bit. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more rambling – until then know that you are loved, support, and I see you shining brightly as the Sun.

Much love,
~ KEU

*32 days

Alive and Dreaming

“Each of us is an artist of our days; the greater our integrity and awareness, the more original and creative our time will become.”
― John O’Donohue

First of all, I’m a delight.
Second, everything I’m about to tell you is true.

Currently my house smells like jalapeño cheese cornbread, there’s snow falling all around, and life feels pretty okay. Later I’ll whip up my version of chili macaroni – as well as some kind of sweet treat (hopefully).

Before I launch into today’s tale, I just wanna clarify something from yesterday’s post. Reading is always going to be a part of my life, along with books – it’s just that I’m in this cycle of seeking experience in my own life…rather than reading about it in a book. Here in a few weeks I’ll be sharing more about the little snippet (well, a decade…but who’s counting) of time where everything was not as I wanted it to be. Sometimes the Universe has plans for you that look like a bunch of wildness, until you view it in a different light. But don’t worry, I just put a few “cozy” mysteries on hold at my local library. Which, by the way, all y’all should be supporting libraries.

Next, in case I’ve not already given enough info on this – my ability to edit my own work isn’t from lack of trying. My brain gets ahead of me, and well…I know what I wrote. There will be typos. There is a typo faery that dwells in my space, and they really like to move things around after I hit send, publish, or what-have-you. This is a little digital drawing I made of it about 23 years ago.

Last item on the “to post” list is about my “about me” page here. It’s gonna be a work in progress as things move around into their (mostly) final form. It’s like trying on a new pair of shoes, then walking around the store for 20 minutes, to see if they are going to work. Thing is, sometimes you gotta take ’em home to give them the full test run. This is exactly what’s going on with my “bio” right now.

One of the cats keeps trying to type a message to y’all. She loves to sit in laps, so I’m the perfect candidate right now while at my work desk. Which, pulling from a paragraph above, some of my typos are feline driven. It’s just how life rolls around these parts.

While there are a lot of thoughts rolling around in my brain this morning, I think Nature herself is nudging me to spend some time offline today. Gonna load up something to play in the background, get out my glittery gel pens, and have a little creative fun.

Just know that you are loved and supported. I can see you over there shining brightly as the Sun. Also, here’s an old photo of Tootsie (the aforementioned cat) sitting on my lap as I’m working.

Much love,
~ KEU

* 33 days