Saying Yes to What Comes Calling
Claudette Dean—artist, poet, writer—will be the first to tell you the journey is all about connections: connection to others, connection to the universal flow. She has always moved forward by following the Golden Thread of connection. She has never found the need to have a set plan. Instead, she says yes to what comes calling, allowing life to take her where it is taking her. If she didn’t, she might never have studied in France, never moved from her home country of Canada to settle in The Bahamas, never become an artist or a writer.
One of the most significant forms of connection at work in her life has been meeting up with just the right person at just the right time. In fact, Claudette says, “Every step of the way, I’ve met people that have led me to the next place.” She can trace this thread through many of her adventures and creative projects. Some of these include vacationing in The Bahamas, visiting art museums in France where the work of impressionist painters was featured, developing her art skills alongside a friend, and striking up a conversation with a woman who was a psychic medium and astrologist, opening up a spiritual path for Claudette when that was just what she was looking for. She credits the universe for sending her these people, they arrive like little gifts coming in when she needs them the most. Even when she feels nervous about embarking on a new path, Claudette stays committed to the yes.
As often happens, there was a period in her life when she was so busy juggling her roles as wife, mother, businesswoman, she was getting lost in it all. “I’d just been doing, doing, doing.” However, she realized she needed to take care of her own needs. She says, “I started feeling that creative nudge.” The universe responded. Her circumstances changed. For one, Claudette and her husband had to close their businesses. Because of it, she found she had time to develop her creativity by taking art lessons. Before long, her work was blossoming, and she was doing shows with a friend. She explains how being in her passion made her happier and how that led to her family feeling happier too. “Everything got better,” she explains, knowing she was being led to these experiences.
In flow with the universe, when the opportunities come, Claudette takes them. She follows the thread, devoting her time to her creative projects as needed. She points out the importance for each of us to stay open to guidance and the need for saying yes to what shows up in our lives, even when we can’t envision the outcome. She explains it like this, “Going with the flow, when something is right in front of you that looks like the next step, taking it, and not knowing where it’s going to go, but it always goes somewhere.” She is proof that staying in flow with the universe leads to the next step in the journey.
These days, Claudette is following connections and guidance into new areas. She is finding fresh ways to reach out with her work. She is open and ready. She says, “It is important to me to be all that I have come here to be.” She is thrilled when she inspires someone through her art, through what she says or writes. Creatively, she is excited to explore where she is at in her life through her paintings, eager to see how it will translate onto a canvas, because, as she says, “Art always comes from the inside out.” She doesn’t need to be hungry, because she knows the path will be shown to her. In that she has faith. By following the thread, she never goes wrong.
