Earth Day - April 22nd

Reflections on Earth Day

This Earth Day may you take some time to close your eyes, breathe, feel the sun on your face, a light breeze caress your hair, the vibration of the living earth beneath your feet, and your life force flowing and beating strong within your body. Whether you dig in the dirt, lie on the grass, swim in a lake, walk through a forest, take the time today to connect with Mother Earth. Feel and recognize how she supports all of us Earth children with the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. This planet we all come home is a miraculous creation, as are we all.

This planet and the beauty of her nature have left me with feelings of awe again and again. Nature has also been a place for me to turn when life has been difficult and painful. Sometimes rooting myself in nature has been the best kind of encouragement. Even in the middle of turmoil I find that my problems will fade for a spell when I work in the garden, dirt embedding itself underneath my fingernails. Working the soil and planting seeds or bulbs always holds the promise of new growth, new life and beauty yet to come.

In my neighborhood there is this one bush that is ablaze with yellow blooms for a short time frame every spring. Every year I admire it's beauty and this year I was struck by a deeper meaning to it all, which was recognizing the eternal optimism of nature. Every year the flowers bloom again. No matter what has come to pass throughout the year we can always count on there to be new sprouts and new blooms. It reminds me that even though there are ups and downs to life that we just have to remember that spring will always show up and the flowers will always bloom. We can count on it.

A Letter From the Future

Dear Me,

How ironic that I am writing to you just a couple days away from your 40th birthday. Just imagine - in 40 years you'll be my age - a whopping 80 years-old.

I am writing to share some thoughts with you. This isn't advice - because really advice isn't always worth much. You really just need to trust yourself and your inner intuition. Follow your heart and listen to your gut.

What I want to share first is to take care of your self, so that you can experience the joy of good health for as long as possible. Trust me, you want to be able to still be active and doing things forty years from now. So if you want to be active in your future you need to be active NOW.

I am also going to tell you something you already know, which is that you are in touch with something greater, that something that connects us all. It is a web of magic that permeates the universe. Stay open to new experiences, to magic and special connections. Synchronicity happens because you draw those experiences to you. You are indeed powerful.

Don't be afraid. Don't let fear control you. Just stare it down, hop over it, walk by it or smack it out of your way. And failure. Ha! Laugh at that one. It is an illusion. There really is no such thing as failing. In fact what people often discover is the old cliche that when one door closes another does indeed open and what is through that next door is so much better than what you left behind.

What about all your creativity? So what if someone doesn't like what you write or paint. Ask yourself what it does for you and your spirit. If it brings you joy, a sense of fulfillment or completion, then keep on doing it. Odds are someone else will probably like it too anyways.

Dance more. Don't be so serious. Laugh, laugh, laugh and then laugh some more. Be happy. Enjoy the ride of life. Always stay in touch with your inner child because she is still in there. Play!!!!!

Trust in this great big amazing swirling spiraling universe and always be open to loving and being loved in return.

If you were to write a letter from your future self at the age of 80 to your current self, what would you write?

The Looking Glass

Just some food for thought that I offer up today...

Excerpt from Sacred Circles: A Guide to Creating Your Own Women's Spirituality Group

"There could hardly be a hotter topic for a group of women then beauty. most of us are obsessed with how we look and how far we deviate from how we think we would like to look. Addicted to perfection, we have become merciless self-critics. We have heard a million times the old adage that "beauty is only skin deep," but we have never really internalized it. Instead, we believe that our self-worth is directly correlated to our waist size or the amount of cellulite in our saddlebags. What other adages and myths concerning beauty are we under the spell of?

It can be very liberating to hear other women share their obsessions, thoughts, and feelings about beauty. We begin to hear ourselves in others---others we know to be perfectly beautiful. only then do we see a glimmer of the absurdity of our self-delusions. Bettie is our bonafide college beauty queen---Hopskinsville, Kentucky, 1952. To hear this still gorgeous sixty-plus-year-old woman describe her negative feelings about her body is to see the real insanity of the obsession. Listening to her discuss this un-winnable dilemma of never-thin-enough, never-young-enough, never-(place your favorite self-recrimination here)-enough makes us all want to wriggle free of our old skins---too tight now, too made up, too coiffed---and enjoy the gift of who we really are. Truly, there is no ugliness in a circle of happy women, especially when lit by candles!"

Do you think you can wriggle free of your un-winnable obsessions? Wouldn't it be empowering and liberating to just enjoy ourselves how we are right now? Why can't we? What is really standing in our way?

Prayers of the Cosmos

I attended a workshop/talk with author Susan G. Wooldridge this week. She wrote the books Poem Crazy and Foolsgold (which I posted an excerpt from just a few days ago. It was a wonderful workshop, though much, much too short. I could have spent a much longer time hearing more from Susan about writing and it would have been delightful to have had more time to play more with words and learn more about the other attendees.

Susan spoke of many things last night in the short time frame and in my notes I jotted down several titles of books that were recommended. There was one in particular that drew my attention. It was called Prayers of the Cosmos.

Susan shared briefly how the author had gone back to find the original Lords Prayer in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and the people of his time in that part of the land.

Susan knew part of the prayer in Aramaic by heart and it simply sounded so beautiful to hear the words spoken aloud. I went in search of finding the whole prayer and it was available for viewing on Amazon.com.

First I will share here the Aramaic version, then the translation direct from Aramaic and lastly the King James Version. Comparing the King James version side by side with the Aramaic translation is fascinating. One would think that they couldn't possibly be translations from the same document. Yet that is the case.

The Lords Prayer in Aramaic

Abwoon d 'bwashmaya

Neth qadash shmakh

Teytey malkuthakh

Nehwey tzevyanach aykanna
d'bwashmaya aph b'arha

Hawrlan lachma d ' sunquanan yaomana

Washboglan khaubayn (wakhtahayn) ay kana
daph khnan shboqan l ' khayyabayn

Wela tahlan l'nesyuaa

Ela patzan min bisha

Metol dilakhie malkutha urahayala

wateshbukhta l'ahlam almin.

Ameya

Aramaic to English Translation

~ Our Birth In Unity ~

O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos,
you create all that moves in light.

O Thou! The Breathing Life of all Creator
of the Shimmering Sound that touches us.

Respiration of all worlds, we hear you
breathing - in and out - in silence.

Source of Sound in the roar and the whisper in the
breeze and the whirlwind, we hear your name.

Radiant One: You shine within us out side us
- even darkness shines - when we remember.

Names of names our small identity unravels
in your, you give it back as a lesson.

Wordless Action - Silent Potency -- where
ears and eyes awaken - there heaven comes.

O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos!

King James Version

Our Father which are in heaven

Hallowed be they name.

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen

What do you think?

Thoughts on Emptiness

I wanted to share a brief excerpt from a book called foolsgold by Susan G. Wooldridge.

"The creative, it seems, is spawned from emptiness. Giving over to silence, waiting, allowing, listening. Coming to emptiness may mean coming through grief. Something has been lost, a marriage, a child, a house, a city, a world. An idea of who we are. Whatever seems familiar, tried and true.

In the emptiness we might get an inkling---as if something lights up and twinkles---of how we'll begin to form and open to who we're becoming, who we most truly are. We need to leave space both for what we'll discover and what will emerge to discover us."

At the end of this particular chapter she shares a thoughtful poem by Rumi.

The human being is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as
an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who sweep
your house empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you our for some new delight.

Letting Creativity Unfurl

I am working on a series of paintings. They are for a special long-term project. Long-term because I think it will take me a while to complete the whole series. I keep telling myself to just take it one step at a time, or in this case, just one painting at a time. I also remind myself that the joy comes from the journey and the act of creating and painting. Sometimes I am not quite sure what will appear on the canvas. I just start and let the creative process unfurl and take on a life of its' own. I am reminded of an affirmation that says "Creator, you take care of the quality and I'll take care of the quantity."

I am still not quite finished with Trust.
I have let this one sit for awhile.
It doesn't feel quite finished to me yet
so I am awaiting that final inspiration.
The swirls and the flowers just don't seem quite right to me.

Trust

Here is my mandala style painting called Divine Connection.

Divine Connection

I also have some touch up work to do on Turiya,
which I began painting just last night.
Turiya is the elusive fourth level of human consciousness.
It is supposed to be a state of pure consciousness.
This too is a mandala painting.

Turiya

Lastly I also included the sketch I have ready for the next one
called Ahimsa, which is a Sanskrit term that means "do no harm."
I traced my left hand as well as each of my daughters left hands.
I am hoping to have some time today while my
daughters nap to begin painting this one.

Ahimsa

The ABC's of Spring

Advancing, allergies

Buds, blooms, blossoms, birds, breezes, birth

Clean, creeping, colds

Daffodils, dandelions, ducks
Emergence, Easter, eggs

Flowers, feasts

Grass, green, geese

Hyacinth, hay-fever

Ice-melt

Jacket

Kites, Kleenex

Life, Love, Lent

Mow, mud

Nest

Open

Puddle, plant

Quiet

Rain, rainbow, restless, runny noses

Shine, showers, snails, sweaters, sprouts, sniffles

Tulips

Umbrella

Vacation

Wind, warming

Xanthic

Yellow

Zest