Dreamboard for the Full Wolf Moon

I hadn't had a chance to make a dreamboard around the holidays and new year, so I felt a strong need to make one for this full moon. I like that there are images that reach upward and also downward, the pull toward heaven and dreams and at the same time grounded and deep watery imagery. Also the comforts of warm wool, earthy and orangey tones, and wood.

Dreamboard for the Full Frost Moon

 

Things have been a bit hectic, but I did want to make sure I did a new dreamboard during this powerful full moon eclipse. With not much time to write about it, I think I'll just let it be for now in my heart and mind, more than in the words on my blog. For sure, I think the board is asking me to go to the next level in the path of my dreams: rock the boat, real world lessons, raise your standards. Well, hello, to the wild animals on my board and a whole plethora of masks. Hm, I wonder what those mean. There are as usual some elements of music, journeying and traveling, some sparkly bits. This time there's also a glamorous moment in front of the camera. Earlier this month I had some photos done in the studio by a talented photographer friend, but I wonder what's coming.

Dreamboard for the Full Harvest Moon

I feel like there is something different about my board this month but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Is it less orderly? More mysterious? There seem to be elements in my dreamboard that seem more chaotic, but perhaps also they can be seen as very energetic. The table full of dice seem to say there is an aspect of the unknown, of chance. The café chairs and tables create so many sticks, angles and shadows, like the arrows around the Trojan horse, the pigeons on the street, the caribou running as a herd. With so many scribbly lines, and the muchness of jumbled intersections there is a certain electric vibe to this dreamboard.

Music is often an element on my board, and this one is no exception. “Illuminate your year with great music” are the only words on my board this time. There is the violin and the maestro, to symbolize my instrument and powerful, spirited music making. Dance is also a frequent presence on my board, and this moon includes both pause for a kiss and a fiercely kinetic conflict. This is balanced just below by the image of a chair and a giant lotus, almost as if these two pairs are meant to be together: the beautifully intense and the beautifully contemplative.

Usually there are images in my dreamboard that bring to mind flight, and on this moon I have the birds, the shadows of flying nuns, and the outstretched arms of the swan-dancer.

There are reminders of spirit here, in the cross and the bells and the nuns. I am invited to sit in contemplation, and be in nature. The glass jars of veggies may symbolize a way of thanking the universe for its colorful bounty and appreciating what I have gathered, giving me a way to prolong the enjoyment and extend gratitude.

The other images capture my imagination but again, I want to spend more time with my board to tease out the meanings – of the bubblegum flower girl, the fan dancer, the metallic beads and nails, the horse head sculpture on the garden bench. I look forward to spending this month with my board, to find out what else it has to say to me.

Check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online to learn more about it. Also, you can see what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

Dreamboard for the Full Corn Moon

Creating this board took more time than I had planned, but this was completely okay  as I needed to slow down anyway. As usual I had cut out too many images so there are many that didn’t make the board. In the end, I really enjoy letting my eyes fall on this board. I’m not too sure what much of it means right now, but it feels so juicy and oozes with sweet possibility.

I find this board really beautiful, and also magical and mysterious. The first things I notice about my board are the gorgeous reds on the board and the blue expanse of water. As to the empty costumes on the left and right of the board, I can’t tell whether it is before of after their wearer. Are the clothes waiting, or are they reminders of something past? Both natural and man-made beauty are here, but it feels like always the inspiration is in nature. I might need to put on the red hood and venture out into the woods, perhaps even encounter the wolf. Red is the color of energy and passion, and I feel a renewed pull toward one of my favorite colors of the past.

I think this board is asking me to consider and use gorgeous gifts from the universe, to honor them by celebrating their beauty and noticing – tuning into the wisdom of spirit, at one with the messages of water, earth, sky and fire. I think my board is telling me: Notice and celebrate. Dance and be free.

• My dreamboard is expressing my yearning for the open road, nature and adventure
• I need to notice beauty, and take in the gorgeousness of this world
• I want to find the inner truth of my life and turn it into my life's work
• I think my guide on this board might be the mother earth dancer on the island. She is a giant who works with the power of the earth and water and sky to create beauty.
• But also, I think the elephant is a strong guide as well. Today I was delighted to notice a subway poetry poster with two swimming elephants on it. I wonder what all these elephants are trying to tell me.

I've been making dreamboards pretty regularly since mid-2009, when I discovered Jamie Ridler's blog and became interested in creating a dreamboard for myself. Check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online to learn more about it. Also, you can see what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

Dreamboard for the Full Sturgeon Moon

Why does this happen almost every time I create a new dreamboard? I choose images, I feel like the dreamboard is going to be c%$^, and then I love it.

This month's question was: What is my intuition telling me about my dreams? And so I began collecting images, not sure of why I was drawn to them, doubting their relevance to my dreams. It wasn't until I arranged them on the board, again trying not to think too much about it, that I begin to see what my board is telling me.

I've been impatient lately, feeling something stirring beneath the surface, tired of having felt like this for a couple of years now. It feels like an impossibly long gestation period, waiting for "whatever that thing is" to pop into my awareness and into being. I've been doing a lot of searching, and sometimes it feels like I'm onto something and then it feels like I've lost the thread again. Frustrating. 

My board seems to be telling me that I have more relaxing and savoring to do, that this is not the time to push to an answer. It seems to be asking me to see that I belong here, to allow spaciousness, to savor and be present to the beauty and color around me, to be open to adventure. Perhaps in this I can find my muse, be bathed and reborn, find my community, and find a happy new title. 

There are many things on this board that seem counterintuitive to an active process of discovering and living my purpose. But perhaps the calm face of the turtle is counseling me to take it slow, to stay in the moment. I notice also the balanced symmetry of quite a few of the images on this moon's board, and maybe that is about finding my center, and letting the raucous energy of new life emerge from that calm groundedness.

"Who says you can't shake it up?" Around these words I see images of an intense voice of inquiry or explanation, a creature listening, an orderly representation of a supposedly solid building. Perhaps it is time to break with the so-called inarguable edifices, ways of being I've taken as truth, to huff and puff and blow the make-believe tower down...

If you'd like to make a dreamboard yourself and even share it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online. Also, look at what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

Dreamboard for the Full Buck Moon

• the sky says to me limitlessness and infinite resources
• there is enough to sustain a tree and to give, for blooming season to return
• there is light, places to focus, to turn my attention outside and see that there are infinite ideas, infinite inspiration, infinite abundance
• performance, stage, stars and lights
• red, the color of aliveness, vitality
• there is introspection, whirling, sitting, writing, praying, meditating
• a luminescent quality, sources of light and reflection of light
• there are words to urge me on: passion, whiz, blooms, the giving tree, infinite ideas, infinite inspiration, groundbreaking composers who changed music forever

It's challenging right now, but I think my dreamboard is saying to bring together money and divine energy. The board seems to be telling me to take a higher view of the material world and money. There is a religious icon of perhaps the virgin, and there is the Buddha, and there is a woman with a large wrap on her head, which to me symbolizes the crown, the connection to the divine. There are also lots of sources of light, the candle, the chandelier, the heavens or the woman herself in the image with 'passion' across it. I think this board is telling me to pay attention to the blooming, the infinite, and passion, to connect with a source and to connect to giving. It feels very multi-hued and rich, saying there are many ideas, and much beauty, many points of light to bring to my issues and challenges around money.

If my power for the full buck moon revolves around spirit and money, I don't feel powerful yet but I'm will to listen to my intuition and spend time paying attention to these things. If you're interested in making a dreamboard yourself and even sharing it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online. Take a look at what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

Dreamboard for the Full Flower Moon

Dreamboard for the Full Worm Moon

I had a dream last night about insects, a hairdryer that transformed them, into a peacock burrowing into a brick wall. I don't know that this has anything to do with this month's dreamboard, but I know that things are stirring.

I'm often feeling like the clock is running ahead, leaving me in the dust, and I struggle with being productive and also feeling like I need more time to take care of myself and refill the well. I think this board is asking me to take care of my body, with sunlight, fresh food and plenty of dance and movement. Also there are lots of little bits and jewels and things strung together, clustering that creates flowers, bugs, a curtain. I wonder what this means for my creative projects? And finally I also see living out loud in the mouths, the firebird dancer, the microphone. I'm being called to say something through my art, and I hope I can accomplish this.

My dreamboard urges me on.

Total clarity. Remove doubt. Potential. Music.

Dreamboard for the Full Wolf Moon

[click on image for a larger view]

When I look at my first dreamboard of 2012 I see that I am longing for something that is real and instinctive, something almost animal. There have been a lot of animals on my boards lately. Here they are: three "birds" (or winged creatures), two feathers, a snake, a fish, a mule. What do the animals mean to me? Birds are all about flight and freedom. The snake is low to the ground, some sort of instinctive fertility, perhaps about transformation since it sheds its skin. And the mule is about work.

There is an upward reach and a tree that grows out of the dancer's up-stretched palm. She is reaching and balancing. A ball, a sphere on her face and a tree in her hand. There is a yearning for upward growth, something that comes from listening to the heart and spending time within. This seems to be a time that I want to spend inside and taking care of thoughts and energies moving inside of me.

There are a lot of things I am hungry for at this time, and I love how this board is starting to make it clear to me. It seems this board is more about an internal process and less about putting something out there. Maybe that's just right for this month in the winter season. I am looking forward to what I can do to honor my desires.

• A longing for flight and freedom, growing wings
• Reaching upward and growing
• Taking care of myself with meditation, writing, time in the studio
• Feminine touches and beauty
• Following instincts and animal nature as inspiration
• Having quiet time, a place to retreat
• Making art and being in the studio
• Connection with the divine in nature's messages
• Moving my body, dancing more

Honoring my desires, honoring myself. These are good words. It seems dangerous to not honor oneself, doesn't it? Satisfying hunger, well that has a different quality to it. Perhaps that is what happens when you let desire go unheeded for too long. You become very hungry. But that is also a message. You had better pay attention. Now.

Dream for the Full Cold Moon

It seems I haven't been very active on my blog lately, and maybe it's because I've been so active in my creative life. Of the treasured moments to myself, I have enjoyed making dreamboards monthly with each full moon of the year. I missed the previous one, and the energy was pent up I suppose, because this month's dreamboard is crammed with images and lots of surprises. I feel it will take some time to learn what I need to from this board, but I want to make it a practice this month to gaze at it and discover what the dreamboard is inviting me to do or be right now.

December is often a really difficult month for me, as it contains in it so many energies. Being born in December I'm trying to celebrate my birthday while people are busy with the holidays, preparing for the holidays while looking back at my year for highlights and for unfinished business, looking forward to the new year -- all this swirl make for an unsettled kettle of emotions, happy, wistful, anxious, proud, hungry, nervous. I try to take things down a notch, and as the years go by I think I get a little better at it, but there's still that bubbling stuff just under the surface. Perhaps I just need to make peace with this, just as it is.

As I gaze at my board, I think it reflects this jumble of energies I experience in December. I long for a simple message I can latch onto, but it seems this is just not in the cards. So I'll have to learn to love the smorgasbord of offerings, often contrasting or clashing:

• A longing for peace and rest
• Busy-ness and stimulation
• Animal instincts and animal wisdom
• Nutritious food and sweet treats
• Flowering and growth (my windowsill orchid is sending up a flower stalk right now!)
• Magic and surprise

I'm thankful for having this regular process for tuning in to my dreams and desires and intuition. It has been so useful and nourishing to my spirit to have a way of checking in with inner messengers on a regular basis. How wonderful that it is tied to the moon's cycles as well. If you're interested in making a dreamboard yourself and even sharing it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online. Take a look at what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here. Here's to celebrating 2011 and looking forward to what 2012 will bring! All the best to you and yours.

Dreamboard for the Full Corn Moon

I had that familiar feeling while doing this dreamboard: "What are these images I'm cutting out? Nothing seems to be making any sense!" But because I've been through this experience a few times, I know that I can just move on and trust the process. And wow, what a process of discovery and self-reflection this practice continues to be. And now, I love my dreamboard for this Full Corn Moon. I'm continuing to explore and learn more about the images, and I love Jamie Ridler's suggestion to dialogue with the board, journaling to discover more meanings and symbols in the images on the board.

I'm intensely aware of making a leap, and that "works & process" and "ever after" remind me that the creative process constantly calls for us to make leaps. In certain ways, it can feel like being a beginner, a young one trusting to leap on rocky ground. Yet learning to be comfortable with this discomfort, this stretching for something not yet possible, is a vital part of being a creative soul. As creatives we are always looking to "expand our horizons."

I notice in this dreamboard a richness and depth in the colors, which I associate with royalty and maturity. "Dynamic works" and "You'll shimmer" say to me that being a confident artist also calls for an acknowledgement of what I already have in my bag of tricks. On my dreamboard there are some women who have achieved great things in their creative careers. Mature and in their prime they are doing great work, and have been for years. Meredith Monk and Vivienne Westwood have qualities I admire. They do not follow the crowd, they just do work that they believe in and their genius shines through. They are willing to push the edges, look at things in new ways. The torchbearer in my board powerfully raises her arm to throw light onto the stage, to help me see something.

My intention for this moon cycle: to approach my work as a confident and mature artist, a powerful woman.

I feel this dreamboard is really rich with messages for me as I move through the coming weeks and this new cultural season. I look forward to the discoveries and inspirations I'm sure this will spark.

If you're interested in making a dreamboard yourself and even sharing it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online. Take a look at what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

Dreamboard for the Full Sturgeon Moon

I did this dreamboard at the full moon on August 13, but I haven't had a chance to post about it until now. Better late than never...

The first thing I noticed about this dreamboard is how colorful it is. There isn't a predominance of any color, and it's quite summery. There is a rainbow of possibilities here.

• I'm looking forward to kicking back and enjoying the colors and tastes of the last days of summer. My dreamboard is saying I need to kick back and relax a bit.
• Fitness is also a focus for the month. Getting lean and fit, especially for dance fitness, is important. I want to dance well again, and getting tough and fit will serve me well.
• Plumbing the depths, of ancient ideas. Religions, pre-religions and history, will be a source of inspiration. They give me some food for thought.
• I need to ask the stone faced, ancient messenger what message he has for me.
• I want to spend some time in gardens. Nature offers her beauty and I want to stop to smell the roses.
• I see both craft and un-craft. Assembling and disassembling.

Perhaps this board is expressing my desire to deconstruct what it means to perform. The guitar is smashed, the violin is whole, the artesan is focused on the task of aligning the coils, the woman is shining onstage. I want to conquer the world and take care of my body. I want to write. I want to be outdoors. I want to receive inspiration from nature.

There is coiling and uncoiling. There seems to be some sort of message about energy here. Strings make forms. Not just lines, but strong and useful forms.

My guide in this dreamboard could be the rock climber. She might offer wisdom about preparation and meeting challenges. She is looking upwards, always seeking to scale the next big challenge she has not met yet. I could ask my inner rock climber what she wants and needs today.

July dreamboard - Full Buck Moon

Oh, things have been quite busy for me lately, so busy that I almost didn't do a dreamboard for this month. It just didn't feel right to do that, especially as I wanted to receive some messages from "the deep" in preparation for my trip to a collaborative music-making residency program. My compromise was to do a much smaller one, this one fitting across a couple of pages in my visual journal. I love having this visual journal which gives me the freedom to draw, paste pictures, scribble doodles, write any which way on the page. I'm enjoying not having lines to conform to.

What strikes me about this board is it has two prominent colors, oranges and blues. They have very contrasting energies: high and charged, cool and calm. The most mysterious images to me are the dress, the other-worldly Alexander McQueen outfit, and the whale shark. I have a feeling this is going to be quite a moon-th!

I'm planning to bring my visual journal with me, and its size and portability give me a way to spend time with my dreamboard even as I am away from home. As the weeks go by I'm hoping to learn from the messages in this board, and be inspired to step out and own that rock star energy. I admit I am a little afraid of that power, but perhaps the image of swimming with the huge shark is encouragement to face my fears, stay calm and enter the deep. I'll keep asking the shark what messages it has for me as the month unfolds.

June 2011 Dreamboard - Full Strawberry Moon

Lots of delights are in my dreamboard for the Full Strawberry Moon: cool water, luscious fruit, bird messengers, the beach, travel, nature, air, lightness, lanterns and candles. I think my soul is asking for more space to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. I can be more like the dogs with their heads out of car windows, such simple joy! The words for this month: "Delightful ease."

While there are some elements that carry over from last month's dreamboard -- a showy bird and seashells, vases -- the energy is quite different. While last month's was crackling with energy, this dreamboard has a sunny easiness that is perfectly in tune with summer's vibe. I've been working a lot lately, and it seems like I need a vacation, or at least some replenishing downtime.

If you're interested in making a dreamboard yourself and sharing it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online. Take a look at what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

May Dreamboard - Full Flower Moon

The first thing that strikes me is the symbol for 'real' and the breaking of bricks, the martial arts, power. It is a very masculine image and full of strong energy. Right by it is the peacock, confidently strutting his stuff. All this "starts with a single step." Full of dynamism, this month's board has touches of red all over it, with "just done it," and all the corners have some red. The coral may represent treasures from the deep. The airborne dancers are saying something about my ability or desire to soar, and the woman with the megaphone is nearby, declaring "this is the music." But also, there are a few touches of more quiet and feminine energy. The flowers, the vase with marbles, the woman in a dress of the fifties, the bell jars protecting plants and specimens.

I am desperate to create this month. I can see it in the dynamic red-haired girls, in the multiplied violins, in the megaphone. Perhaps even loops and duplications are called for, at least that's what I initially thought when I saw the layered violins of different colors. "Just do it" and "just love it" are the two things that need to happen with my art right now. I know that I am capable, I just need to do it. Perhaps the martial arts master is saying, you must focus your power. He says that it takes discipline, and that you must believe you can do it. I am ready to create and to learn to trust myself and my own power.

What does it mean to be powerful? What does it mean to be full of vitality and inner confidence? Vitality: the moment is full of life. There is movement and not stuckness. There is boldness of action. There is presence in the moment. There is a certain fullness of being that celebrates the power of the moment. Confidence: I am full of trust in myself. I know that I can do what I set out to do.

I am really looking forward to discovering what else this board has to say to me this month.

If you're interested in making a dreamboard yourself and sharing it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online. Take a look at what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

April Dreamboard for the Full Pink Moon

The birds have been pecking at what's left of last summer's basil plant. Pulling at the dried leaves and stripping bits of stem to line or construct their nests. Their little bodies jump into the pot and beaks pull at the bits left. Maybe the chive plant did not lose its dried leaves to a strong wind after all. I imagine how the little birds just plucked them cleanly off, as if a pair of scissors had given the chive plant a haircut.

I love thinking about how our windowsill has become a bit of a natural world, in this clattering city. The birds are frightened when I come to the window, but if I stay back and move very slowly, they are so absorbed in their work.

The tree that was stripped of bark seems to be coming back somewhat. I don't know how strong it will be, or if the stripping has now hardened enough so that there won't be that much loss of moisture. It was hard to see that happen, and it made me so angry last summer.

I've been directing a lot of disappointment at myself lately. But I realize that so much of this is a kind of mental noise. Not helpful. How do I turn it off? I look at the dreamboard for the Full Pink Moon, and one of the most prominent images is that wooly brain. I've had knitting on my mind, as I've suffered a couple of weeks with no knitting project in progress. Perhaps that's part of the message. But also, I felt that this airy, wooly brain was a message that I need to see beyond it, I need to escape the tyranny. It's not so scary as it wants me to believe. I know that nature helps, I know that adventure helps, I know that going to quiet inspiration helps. Maybe even the two go together. I can find my peace by knitting. Perhaps even knitting to music can be helpful. I can study music and get the overall flow of the Brahms by listening to it over and over, and knitting knitting knitting.

I've been in a dark place about my own playing lately. I feel I suck. I feel that I am not playing what I want to be playing. But perhaps that is the message and the challenge. The next challenge could be to find a place, discomfort allowed, that I am pushing toward something I can't quite do yet, and I am also at peace with myself and where I am at the moment. It is kind of like the Kenny Werner book. I can't even remember the title, but I remember that idea of "fear-based" practicing, playing, composing. I have a need to move beyond that. If I don't loathe and fear myself, perhaps I can just accept and love what beauty issues from my mind and my instrument. I am a beautiful musician too. There is no need for me to be stuck in a place of hating my own sound. I know it's not helpful. I've been doing a lot of recording lately, and it feels really disappointing to feel that my best stuff is not getting down on tape. But what does this really mean? If I can get to my 80% place on tape consistently, that is pretty good. I know there's internal work to do.

I feel I am okay, but I want to be great. I want to be able to achieve these wonderful phrases and jazzy sounds, and classical-like sound and expression, and folky expression. It takes a lot of work and a lot of internal wisdom and patience. How do I get there? What can I do to help myself reach this place? Perhaps my dreamboard can show me the answers as I'm ready to see them.

Dreamboard for the Full Snow Moon

Although we've had plenty of snow this winter, this week is offering almost spring-like weather and my board seems to reflect this energy.

I'm looking forward to spending some time asking this board some questions. It's the second time this year that a question (mark) has been central to my dreamboard. I guess I'm in a period of transition and questions, but something is on the horizon (the "turning pointe"?). Yellow is also showing up, a color I associate with sunny optimism, lifting spirits, turning lemons into lemonade, and the woman in the yellow dress is drinking in that inspiration.

There is a lot of mystery in this board, things turned upside down, eyes in shadow, ancient structures. I think my dreamboard is asking me to be comfortable in not knowing -- that the mystery and paradoxes are not to be answered right away, and that the process of active searching and puzzling over the unknown can be creative inspiration too. As archetypes I can look to for guidance, there are many possibilities in this dreamboard. They all stir up ambivalent feelings in me, but perhaps this is the point: to lean into the appeal and discomfort that appear simultaneously in these images and personalities.

The big gooey question mark gives me plenty to ponder during this moon cycle...

If you're interested in making a dreamboard yourself and sharing it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online or try A Year of Dreams. Take a look at what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

Dreamboard for the Full Wolf Moon

As I pulled images from magazines for this dreamboard, I felt uninspired and concerned at how I might not like this one. It's not the first time this has happened, so I was again relieved and delighted at how this board came together. There are a few more mysteries in here, waiting to be contemplated and discovered, but so far this is what I feel this board is expressing:

• Paying attention to the flowering of beauty all around me
• Joyful dancing and moving from the core of myself
• Radiating outwards boldly and luminously
• Receiving inspiration
• Celebrating transformation
• Embracing what is
• Expressing artistically my own story, my own angle
• Tuning in to what and who I love
  
• Entering and being inspired by sacred places, in nature or made by humans
• The beauty and energy of circles
• Sparkly, joyful abundance
• Resting in comfort and beautiful surroundings
• Being able to wear lovely, impractical shoes

If you're interested in making a dreamboard yourself and sharing it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online or try A Year of Dreams. Take a look at what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.

Dreamboard for the Full Cold Moon

(click on image for larger view)

For this special full moon, complete with lunar eclipse and occurring on the winter solstice, I decided I would spend some extra time, go deeper, and create a Soul Reflections board by following along with Jamie Ridler's Soul Reflections Home Edition workshop in a box.

It's the second time I've created a board this way, and each time I look at this board I'm seeing different things in it. As I started creating the board I was concerned it was going to turn out an ugly, confused mess. However, as I pasted images down it felt better and better, and now I love it.

This board celebrates the feminine. Even the "tough" elements are "tough-glam" with sparkle and flair. It seems the board is telling me to pay attention to feeding my soul with beauty, pampering, rest, yummy things, nurturing environments. Flowers and butterflies symbolize the unfolding and transforming journey I'm on. I feel a lot of power when I look at this board, and I'm looking forward to discovering more of its messages.

Enjoy your holidays, with peace and joy!

Dreamboard for the Full Harvest Moon

It's been a really intense period lately and I've been feeling it all in my knotted stomach and achy shoulders, neck, head. In one day, 10 days ago, I learned I need to have knee surgery and I arranged an interview with a freelance assignment. I have been a ball of stress lately, and I've been pulling out anything from the tool bag to try and help myself, hoping for quick relief. Almost nothing seemed to help, but I have to admit a couple of things did make me forget about my pain for a moment.

I performed with Mark Lamb Dance last Saturday, in the full storm of intense stress. I arrived at the venue exhausted, but by the end of the evening I was feeling energized by the inspiration and artistry all around me. Performing improv forces me to be completely in the moment -- and that means temporary relief from my worries about health or work. But it also gives me another perspective: there is more to me than whatever I am experiencing at the moment. I know these troubles will eventually be worked through, because I am committed to taking action. But also I am reminded that my soul needs dance and play and art. When I pay attention to what my soul needs, I'm able to jump, soar, transform, and kick ass. Red is such an important part of this board, and I think it symbolizes the energy that will help me move through a challenging time. I feel a whole lot better today, so perhaps the energy of the full moon has helped me release some stuff.

If you're interested in making a dreamboard yourself and sharing it with others, check out Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards Online. Check out what others are dreaming for themselves for this full moon here.