Poppies and Lupines: who inspires me to create….

My sister Julie

Everyone has had someone in their life who teaches them how to see and who lets them know that they are seen.  I have been lucky to have several people who have opened my eyes in this way, but the first was my sister Julie.

Julie was my idol who was four years older than me.  She was everything I wanted to be, a biologist, an independent, liberal thinker, faithful, a musician and fearless.  She took special interest in me as her little sister and made it clear that she had special plans for me.  She saw me in the future as brave, talented, happy and thriving, and she never let me stray from that vision.  Even though she left home to go to college, she wrote letters to me regularly, sent me poetry and encouraged me to be the best I could be.

Here's one of her poems that has stayed with me for over forty-five years:

i think perhaps that it is because i am a biologist

            a student of nature’s systems

            a searcher thru mazes for connections

            a seeker in mud for diamonds

that it is because of precisely what i am

            that i so love

                        the wilderness of your soul.

On a sad evening in the summer of 1978, Julie fell asleep at the wheel of her car and died when her car hit a tree.  Probably a big oak tree that she admired many times on her drive home.  This time the tree took her home.

I followed in Julie’s footsteps and applied to her college, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and barely got in.  I was accepted into the biology department and spent evenings sitting by the tree that was planted for her on the lawn in front of the biology building.  It only took a year for me to realize I wasn’t Julie.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to get her back that way and I began to hear my own voice.  Probably the voice Julie heard all along. 

I applied to the Landscape Architecture program, a perfect blend of horticulture and design and found my first career.  I’m sure Julie was rooting for me the whole time as I ventured out from behind her shadow and into the beginning of my own personal path.

Journal prompt:

Everyone has someone who believes in them.  Who was the early person in your life who took you under their wing and encouraged you to be yourself? 

Is there a particular object that comes to mind when you think of this person?  Julie used to take me on hikes in the spring wildflowers and identify them with me.  I remember the lupines and poppies.  Lupinus and Eschscholzia californica.

Hugs to you all-

Marilee

P.S. Just below you’ll see a link that takes you to how I create…This is a step by step guide for a Lupine and Poppy sketch that you can add to your journal in the How I Create section. Namaste!

Buy my Creativity Journal on Amazon and fill your book with all ten projects! There is space for journaling, ideation and to create the final project. The QR code in the book links you to the journal so you can take it with you and be creative anywhere you go. You just need a pen, curiosity and joyful effort!!