If you take photos, and you rise with the sun, you will always be rewarded for it. Some wonderful creative inspirations for me this morning.

FIrst I got up at sunrise and went out to feed the donkeys and the barn cats and dogs. Was blessed by the wonderful sight of the sun popping up over the farm.

Gallery 99 is already a triumph for the creative people involved in it. Artists moving forward to show that they are relevant and necessary, along with the banks and insurance companies and lobbyists of  the Corporate Nation.

They are solitary people, who have come together in a community to speak out for their art. They are anxious people, who have found the strength to move beyond lament and struggle and make some wonderful things. They are creative people, using their gifts and skills and imaginations to tell a new story about art and artists and story-tellers. They are alive and well and needed. An exciting thing. Check it out here. Starts tonight. Wonderful art, unbelievably cheap.

And then, a message from my friend the Rev. Mary Muncil, who I did not know a year or so ago, but who has played such a significant and positive role in my life. She married Maria and in the spirit we sought last June. She taught me how to water raft in the Battenkill. She is my spiritual counselor, and has helped me to begin building a genuine spiritual life, and she has now answered her own creative call and started a blog from White Feather Farm. Blogs have the worst name in the history of creativity, but they are wondrous sometimes, powerful expressions of individual thoughts and ideas. Mary is the real deal. You can see her new blog here. She does not need luck from me, but I congratulate her on such a great step forward. Giving voice is my thing, I think, and it is always a miracle when I see it in other people. This is a blog I will read every day.