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i bartered with a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago ~ a painting for a bicycle. each evening and weekend i've been hauling ass up mountains to gape over sunsets, riding balmily through the spring flowers, breathing in new and fresh and fast running air.

and damn, it feels GOOD.

the last two days i haven't gone... and i notice the change in me.
i notice how i get bored much, much easier
how i get a bit frenetic and crazy and start barking imitations of police academy 2 at chris. i find it hard to sit down and paint. there is so so much ENERGY in my lethargic body and can't constructively get it out.

me thinks putting energy into exercise doesn't detract from energy into creativity. in fact, i am discovering they exist in a symbiotic relationship, developing further my understanding and enjoyment of them.

shock, horror, i know, for someone who has RESISTED exercise and sport for a long time now.

this afternoon i was going a bit nutty and started recognising behavioural trends in me that are kinda like a hyperactive kid. i get annoying, even to myself. i really, really wanted to sit down in my studio ~ but felt like at once jumping off the walls and shmoozing on the limegreen couch by the windows.

instead, i got my bike, and my hunky lover,
and out into the day we went.

up, up, up the mountain further than i've been before, until my lungs hurt with growing and expanding larger.

if i had said ~ i am going to climb that mountain, i would have felt daunted and afraid and wouldn't have attempted. instead, i just imagined it as stages. all i had to do was get up to the next corner. then the next. then the next. step by step by step. spin by spin by spin. kinda like life really... if you feel daunted by something... just do one part at a time.

up to the top of the mountain, onto a firebreak with our mountain bikes until we were above all the houses looking over the valley. it felt so freaking good to do the thing i thought i couldn't do.

then coasting down, down, down again.

back to here.

and i'm ready to go settle in my studio. drink some chai tea.
paint and draw a little. look out the windows to this marvellous day and do what i can, joyfully.

Leonie's new motto:
Get out. Then go in.

with energy, and joy,
Leonie