One thing about being in the desert so long is that it will show you what is essential and what is no longer essential in your life. 

The desert is amazing to experience. Don’t let its sparseness fool you. It can be raw, harsh, desolate, comforting, surprising, and teeming with life—you have to be still to experience all it has to offer.

The desert preserves what is important and lets go of what is not essential—an invitation I am taking into my day-to-day life.

I spent about three weeks traveling in the West. My plan was to have a creative conversation with Land as I traveled to different areas. Starting in Abiquiú in northern New Mexico, I traveled south and then west with my final destination, Joshua Tree, California.

Almost every day I would seek out Land to be with, create with, play with, and then I would move on.  I was struck by how each area had a different mark, a different personality. Yet each had an underlying deep, still energy that beckoned me to come in closer, go deeper, and open more.  Unfortunately, my “schedule” didn’t always allow me to stay as long as I would have liked.  So at night I would ask Land if there was anything more it would like to share with me; I invited Land to speak to me in my dreams, and it did!

I have been changed deeply from my bones, maybe in my DNA, out and  continue to orient my new internal compass to honor the desert part of me, and not get caught up in the spin here on the East Coast.

I will take the desert’s invitation to go deep and then go even deeper: in my life, workshops, and artwork. I know that I have just scratched the surface and now it's time take the plunge.  It's time to go deeper into the heart of the matter, where distractions are few and it is teeming with new life.

XX Damini