Welcome to the Jungle

“Welcome to the Jungle.” Acrylic painting. 36”x”48”. ©Andrea Sutrick

So if you read in my prior blog post, Wonderfully Made in an Ordinary Time >>> we are now moving out of the holidays into this lived experience marked by growth and signified by the color green. It may feel mundane to get back into the schedule of things. All the unfinished projects, the follow ups, back to the car rider line, and getting dinner made on-the-fly.

You may start to say to yourself, “here we go again…”

Living in Florida, we don’t have to step far outdoors to notice its swamps and wildness. Your ankle “sees” the sharp vines, scratchy blackberry runners, and looming gators. Recall fondly that mistletoe from Christmas? Well, it hangs on the old oak siphoning water and nutrients from its host tree. Or how about the air plants and Spanish moss dangling in the wind? If these plants get too dense, they weigh down or shade the tree, potentially slowing its growth.

After this walk in the jungle, notice you have shifted into “ordinary time.” Your mind may feel like the holidays happened eons ago. You yearn for distraction or interruption from those empty things you don’t want to do.

You are “life-ing” with the grocery shopping, cleaning, mountains of laundry, paying bills, sifting through emails or the daily commute.

This is where the Florida jungle mind begins to set in. All those old existential questions begin to pop in... Is all this labor in vain? What is this “comfort” in living wildly distanced from others on devices and screens? Why does my heart scan for fear rather than connect to what’s safe and okay right now? Why does the jungle feel more of my new normal?

So the work of life is grievous, yet deeply human. We get lost in the sandy soils with the saw palmetto. Those sharp fronds of thick underbrush make us realize our hearts have closed.

So what do you do with all this? Keep walking aimlessly in a Florida swamp?

Look left, look right. Awaken to this moment. Take in all the green growth in your eyes. It’s okay to yearn for a slower way of life. In this timeless space, you can pause to become rooted to trust a bigger process is unfolding for you. Remain steadfast and focused for this “life-ing” thing is not finished. Love for you, your family and community is the slow work.

Hear this old proverb, “Nothing is more permanent that a temporary solution.” Be intentional with your choices. Connect beyond the ‘quick fix’ of wandering the familiar Florida jungle. Notice the eternal nature of green in nature. How might the long and slow hike in this mundane jungle be working towards moving from the ordinary into the extraordinary?

~Wonder how you can tap into your eternal green nature? Therapy with me folds in this sense of mindful presence with creative art therapy expression and the healing benefits of EMDR. Let’s shift out of the mundane towards the eternal together to create your calm for clarity and change. Feel free to reach out for a free consult>>>.

You can also learn more about the work I do on the Meet Andrea page>>>.

I’m here to help, embracing this ordinary time towards the extraordinary.

Andrea Sutrick, ATR-BC, LMHC

So what about the image?

In this image held with shades of green, I became bored with the same color. Pthalo greens shifted to sap green. A landscape of clunky, blocky paint strokes is suspended on the canvas, seemingly unaware of each other. Like oil and water, the desire failed with a this spectrum of green refusing to come together. Sitting in this frustration, why doesn’t the green feel more cohesive? Or simply, can this be over yet? Like a smack to the head, art spoke again from the heart, saying “it’s okay to simply be with the jungle.” The jungle will continue to unfold. It may get blurrier and it may get more focus but it’s okay to simply be with this eternal green.

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