Follow your Dreams....

I am reading Patti Digh's book, Life is a Verb: 37 Days to wake up, be mindful, and live intentionally. In this wonderful, inspiring book, is one of my favorite quotes.

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change." - Buddha

It is one of the things I love so much about photography - taking those close up pictures of nature, and being stunned by it's amazing patterns and intricacies. It brings me closer to that presence of being in the now and appreciating life's miracles.

I mean really, stop for a moment and look around. How the @%#*!!!! did all this happen????

How did this all mind-boggling stuff come about? The human body alone!! stars, the solar system.... flowers, insects, this computer.... and of course we just say.. God. Because it's probably too overwhelming for us... maybe we'd all go crazy :-)

On the next page is another wonderful quote:

"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black curious eyes of a child - our own two eyes.

All is a miracle. - Thich Nhat Hanh
This book, with the premise of if you knew you had 37 left to live your life, what would you do.. It puts things into perspective.

Somethings just aren't worth worrying or getting agitated about. Priorities shift.

Petty arguments dissolve.

Creating art moves to the top of the priority list.

I put more love into my cooking.

Everything... EVERYTHING becomes sacred.

My relationships take on deeper meaning.

I can open my heart more and be more vulnerable, take more risks.

I put these laces in my sneakers. They say follow your dreams as a reminder that each step I take should be one that brings me towards love and peace and happiness.

Journey in that direction.

It is better to believe than to disbelieve;

in so doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility.

(Albert Einstein)

Passion

Pondering a dream I had last night, it got me thinking about passion. Passion in doing whatever it is you are doing. Lessons from Nature. Roses speak passion to me.

Leaves changing color, too.

Gracefully moving in the direction of change... not fighting it, but moving through it in beauty that takes my breath away.

Sometimes the changes are so subtle.

Gently releasing... letting go.

In terms of Art, I'm setting an intention to open up more and "speak" from my heart, letting go of "reasons" and analysis for a bit.. I can be a bit heady and so I'd like to move more towards passion and wild abandonment!

Infinite Possibilites

What can we change when we look first to our similiarites rather than our differences?

First find the common ground.

Then we can respectfully find acceptance in our differences...

Because when we are friends, we celebrate our diversity, learn from each other.

Growing, reaching out with love beyond all surface issues because in Truth we are the same.

We are One.

When we work together as one, whole, we can accomplish amazing things.

May ALL Beings be at Peace

Namaste'

Poison Ivy Eyes

As I was going through my pictures, I came across this one and had to laugh...
why?
These ivy eyes are pretty much saying what is going on with me.
Poison Oak! Yes, it is surrounded my eyes, around my face, in my ear...
It's been an interesting week, to say the least and I would love to attribute it to the mercurial hiccups, but it may just be that there are lessons that were not learned, and I revisisted them again. In the cosmic calender, it was written :"The point of Mercury reversals is to allow human beings to review, reflect and re-evaluate what's been happening in their lives for several months, make the necessary corrections and then go forward again having learned some difficult lessons."
How is it that I did not learn this one!?! This is not the first time it's happened.
About early 90's, when I was teaching in a school, I decided to pick some leaves behind my home, for the kids to draw in art class. Same time of the year, as they were changing colors, not to mention in time for Halloween!
Repeat. Fast-forward to Wednesday... I did check to see if there were the three-leaf poison ivy plants and thought I was ok, but I did have to reach for that one that had changed to a beautiful red... needless to say, I wasn't too sure what poison oak looked like, and it just may be the leaf I picked!
My eyes do not look pretty...................
I am now reviewing my past week... heated arguement in yoga class between two students.. (rash behaviour?) yes, that's right, yoga class! Isn't that supposed to be calm and relaxing...... followed by a irrate custodian leaving a message having to do with enough room in yoga class which would have prevented the arguement.
Make the necessary corrections and move forward.
1) Do NOT, repeat, DO NOT go into the back to pick leaves ever again!!!!
2) Communicate DIRECTLY to custodian about space issues for yoga class.
3) Move forward, with lessons learn.

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?