International Peace Day

Sunday, Sept. 21st, is Peace Day. Here's a painting I did for a "prompt" from the Mandala Oasis group. After meeting Joey today at the football game, I had an idea for next year, providing the case in the town house is clear.. Have the kids in art class make some posters, or paint some rocks, or mandalas... for Peace Day.

It was a gorgeous day which is why I went with myhusband to the game... just for the walk. As it turns out, it was a good day for some networking. I'll have to remember this next time when I think, "why in the world would I want to go to the football game?"

Peace Within = Peace Without

Be Peace.

May all Beings be at Peace.

Namaste'

Spirals In Nature

Yesterday on our walk, I took a picture of this spider. She was pretty big and I was a little far from her for a good shot, but this morning, It got me thinking ...
I've been coming across a lot of spirals in nature lately, as I've become more focused on patterns in nature... more so this year than any other. Probably because of my interest in the mandalas, sacred geometry and "messages".
The spiral is a pattern found throughout nature and a powerful image for me... unfolding that which is hidden or maybe folding in upon it self in order to hide.. expansion and contraction.. birth and decay.
The spider according to Ted Andrews, "teaches you to maintain a balance - between past and future, physical and spiritual, male and female." (Maintaining Balance being the "theme" of this blog)
Reading his mention that the "spiral energy, the links with the past and the future". This I had to laugh about because I ran into a childhood friend... my first "boyfriend" that I played with and like very much.... and I was with my husband. My past and my present/future. (life's funny)

According to Angeles Arrien, the spiral is about growth and change. "It is the process of coming to the same point again and again, but at a different level, so that everything is seen in a new light."
She says flexibility is a majoy requirement and this is the angel card that sits on my desk.
"The spiral in art and the spiral metaphor used in mythological spinning and weaving stories are both symbols for the same universal process of growth. They each announce the desire for diverse expression of creativity." (italics mine)
We all have this natural desire to grow and evolve spiritually with "the relentless power of the creative spirit". Our creative endeavors must be honored and respected. We must listen to that inner creative urge to explore new avenues, go where the muse will take us.. Risk, stretch, grow.
I had a dream last night that I was to travel to Mexico to take a class in clay and photography.
I found a cheap flight from Westchester airport for only $150 and the flight was to take off at 1:50. Not sure what the numbers mean (yet) but I pondered the whole process of the spiral and went into my art room to create a new mandala using the spiral.... of course :-)

Gestation period -

"Thank you for listening to the messages."
This is what she said as we were leaving, after John bought me this beautiful bracelet called "Butterfly Maiden".
I always see messages, probably more so than the average person. Probably too much.
Always looking for meaning to things, hidden meanings.
Sometimes I just cannot ignore them. It's the way of the Seeker.
This summer was the summer of the caterpillars. I saw them 3 different times, each time they crawled into the art tent. I've worked there for 24 years (!!) and it was the first time I saw them. They were big green ones which became filled with yellow hairs.
We were browsing the tables, and we came upon this one table that was selling bracelets that were made with "intentions"... and the one she pulled for me, "Butterfly Maiden" pink and topaz crystals... I thought it very intuitive on her part. We chatted for a bit and told her about the caterpillars and my astrological reading.
Just before this, I had a reading where I was told I was in a "gestation period", a waiting period where it was better for me to wait, rather than "do" anything...... Saturn was sitting in my 12th house and would soon conjunct my ascendant, but until that time, it was not a time of doing, but rather waiting.... and then I would "know" what to do.

I'm reading "When the Heart Waits" by Sue Monk Kidd, which I bought awhile back and just picked it up yesterday. She talks about waiting, the gestation period and the cocoon she found.
The importance of waiting spiritually is often overlooked in our "fast-paced" society.
Here it was again. No accident in buying this book! another message.
I'm ok with waiting, but I'm curious as well... what does life have in store for me when I do break out of my cocoon... what will this transformation look like?
There are things in my life that are working very well for me and I would be grateful for them to stay the same, but there are things that need to go.
Get rid of what is not working to make room for that which is, and to be better able to focus on it more efficiently.
I am painting again.
This brought up a dream, reminded by the book actually, of the giant cocoon filled with many little cocoons that turned into butterflies. I was standing at the doorway of my art room looking into my bedroom where this was happening. I painted this, and put it away unfinished.
Messages of transformation have been repeating themselves to me these past few months, maybe longer.
I've just been having these feelings that something is on the verge, about to change, there is something more... something different... and I am wondering.. what?
So I have gone back to painting, mostly to see what wants to show up. What is it that needs to be revealed. (The magic of painting)
Saturn in the 12th house of the unconscious will move into the 1st house. The house of me.
Who is that? What will my soul reveal to me, my purpose, my mission. I'm ok with being still, going within to discover what that is. To get in touch with the "still voice within" and discover what kind of butterfly I actually am.
I see it as a process, each time I "transform", I grow deeper into my spirituality and discover another deeper part of myself, the true Self that needs to be expressed.
Shedding away the masks we put on for the public and allowing more and more of the Self to express itself.
Amazing process really, but it calls for a lot of patience, doesn't it?

Chew on this!

Before leaving for vacation, my husband and I went to the Wainwright house for a Healing Arts fair. We went to a few lectures and I had my astrological/tarot reading done (which calls for an entire new post).

The last lecture we went to was given by Lorraine Gengo called "Discover your Essential Nature through Ayurveda".

I have always been confused about what my dosha was. Still am.

John is so clear cut, emphasis on Pitta, whereas I am all over the place.

So during my wonderful and relaxing vacation, I spent a good deal of time reading. One of the books called Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution by Dr. Robert E. Svoboda.

As I was reading, one of those aha lightbulbs went off.

It occured under the chapter Balance.... mmmm. . . just what this blog is about, me bringing myself into balance.

We all know how stress, or the reaction to stress, wreaks havoc on our immune system and allows dis-ease to enter our body. It seems that is the "answer" given nowadays by doctors... "it's stress" .. easy, lazy answer.

We all have stress. Every time something new, some change, comes along, usually unexpected, it brings stress into our lives. We need to know how to deal with it. Our natural reaction to it is determined by our constitution ( our dosha). We are capable of changing it, but first comes awareness.

The three doshas are Vata, Pitta, Kapha.

Vata is the more unstable form, Pitta is more reactive, and Kapha is more inert.

To use the example given by our lecturer, if stuck in an elevator, Vata would freak out pushing buttons and well, freak out. Pitta would pick up his cell phone and call for help. (Yes, John would do exactly that, because he would actually have his cell on him) and Kapha, would just stand by, "no worry, someone will help us" and that would be me because after all, I'm with John, Mr. Pitta who has the cell phone!

Aside from stress, it is written that Indigestion is the base of all physical disease, the condition from which all other disease conditions arise. ... the inability to digest any physical, mental or emotional input, is the sole disease of living beings.

Disease starts in the mind as "an offense against wisdom" and then projected from the mind into the physical body.

We KNOW eating the ice cream or cookie isn't good for us, but we eat it anyway... "an offense against wisdom". So, a clogged system is the punishment for this offense.

According to this ayurveda system, it is most important to be able to digest our foods, taking all the nutrients from it and eliminate the rest.

No burping, no discomfort after eating, and you have a nice poop with no problem :-)

That's the physical... but there is also the mental reaction, which again is not to have mental discomfort, you don't "burp" up any reactions, or have disturbing thoughts or dreams.

Now here comes my "aha" moment.

"Don't bite off more than you can chew", words that I have heard my mother repeatedly tell me. Not so much with having to eat, but with work. And yes, guilty I am of this (but consciously working on it) and I have looked at this as a result of self-employment. I say yes to everything that comes my way, because what if it stops coming..... (fear based thinking).

Life has proved this to be untrue, showing me that "the universe provides" but I need reminding.

Holy Shit! I realize here it is in the physical as well. I have been criticized for eating too fast, even being called a "hoover". The next bite most often goes in before I'm done chewing and have swallowed what is in my mouth.

I'm "biting off more than I can chew" literally!

This leads into issues of holding on as well. I tend more to hold on to things "just in case I need them"... thoughts jotted down on paper, notebooks filled with ideas, magazine, books, old clothes that "might" be recycled into art projects. It's that "waste not, want not" mentality.

Conscious change occurs when one is aware. Once you become "enlightened" about a situation, then you can take the appropriate path towards recovery, sometimes or maybe often times, with the support of a friend to help you stay on the path.. to point out to you that you may need to "chew on something" for awhile. And this is what I am doing.

Being more conscious of my eating physically to properly digest it all will help me "digest" all the mental stuff.

My new moon intentions are to eat more consciously. PUT THE FORK DOWN! while I am chewing. swallow. then I can take another bite...

If someone offers me a "job", chew on it before I answer. Do I really want to do it? or am I taking it on out of "fear of lack".