perfect imperfection

because it is in the tumbling that the stone gets polished!

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."
--Leonard Cohen, anthem

Be Love.

"Admit something:
Everyone you see you say to them, 'Love me.'
Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise
someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a
full moon in each eye that is
always saying,
With that sweet moon language,
What every other eye in
This world is
Dying to
Hear?"
--Hafiz

get outside. . . .

I was on a Shamanism workshop weekend a few days ago, and of course there were many things that sunk in deeply with new awareness and wisdom.
But this important one I need to share with you now -- when people are asked where they have felt connection to the Divine, where they felt they had some meaningful life experience that changed their understanding of themselves and their connection to the world, most, if not ALL people say that being in nature they had a feeling of deep connection and revelation.
We deeply know this, as we snap photos of beautiful landscapes, look at pictures of oceans and mountains as our "screensavers" and always feel more peaceful when we look at images of Nature.
So why don't we go outside more?
Part of my deep thrill living here in Colorado is the outdoors is so close! Even with a foot of snow yesterday, the sun was shining and the weather was beautiful and we could go out and enjoy it.
One reason having a dog is so healing is we have to WALK them every day outside.
Get Outside.
I will say it again.
Get Outside.
Working in my journal does involve a desk, supplies, papers and glues and markers and inks - indoorsey things.
But one of the best things to do is start playing with some images, then take the journal OUTSIDE on a date to Nature, to add some words and doodles.
And if you can't bring it along, at least get yourself outside, then work on your journal when you come back in.
I love that from all over the globe, we can find each other here on our magic computers, but we tend to spend way too much time looking at these little screens and not nearly enough time in direct revelation with Mother Earth.
She is healing and loves us. She can work in our hearts just like our journals do . . . .
Let Nature's healing power work on you, then put it in your journal!



"And always the faint weedy smell of the river, and the air so soft and warm against the face that one was hardly aware any longer of the frontiers between self and not-self, but lay there, separated by no dividing surfaces, melting, drowsily melting into the circumambient air."
--Aldous Huxley Eyeless in Gaza

make a collage and see where it goes.

"Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if
you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they're doing.
Do things without always knowing how they'll turn out." --xkcd

what is on your agenda for today?

Maybe your journal can help you dream up some new adventure . . .
maybe you have a vision of change for the world . . .
maybe today is the day to start a path of growth and transformation . . .
just maybe.



"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
-- Lazarus Long

["Un ser humano debería ser capaz de cambiar un pañal, planear una invasión, la carnicería un cerdo, conn un barco, diseñar un edificio, escribir un soneto, las cuentas de balance, construir un muro, un hueso, consolar a los moribundos, acatar órdenes, dar órdenes, cooperar, actuar por sí solo, resolver ecuaciones, analizar un nuevo problema, el estiércol del pitch y un programa de ordenador, cocinar una comida sabrosa, luchar\neficiencia, morir con gallardía. La especialización es para los insectos."]

BeLiEvE

"The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish." --Terrence McKenna

["Le vrai secret de la magie est que le monde est fait de mots, et\nque si vous connaissez les paroles que le monde est fait, vous pouvez faire du\nc'est tout ce que vous désirez."]

What is life if not an adventure?

"Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors." --Hunter S. Thompson

"المشي طويل القامة ، ركلة الحمار ، وتعلم على التحدث باللغة العربية ، والموسيقى والحب وألا ننسى أبدا أنت قادم من سلسلة طويلة من الباحثين عن الحقيقة ، وعشاق ووريورز."

Create some beauty in your day today.

"Our future is our own imaginal activity in its creative march." ----Neville

["Наше будущее нашей имагинальных деятельность в ее творческой марта."]

Magic in your journal

I know we all have learned about affirmation - that when we say something out loud, it is more likely to occur. But I have been learning even more about the power of this - that the word "abracadabra" actually comes from an ancient Semitic language meaning "I will create as I speak".
Speaking, or affirming, something helps it come into being.
So our journals can speak for us in this way - playing with colors and images then adding words allows us to affirm our deepest desires, fantasies, wishes, dreams, and hopes.
and even better, because we are working with the creative, intuitive, right side of our brains, these affirmations can be closer to our true inner selves than the chattering, worrying, rational verbal side of our brain, which doesn't always choose the most sacred path for our desires.
Try using your journal for some affirming, let it work some magic for you. See what happens!



"The magus (artist) knows that anything set into motion - a work, an idea, a thought, a ritual, sends resonate waves throughout the whole system, changing everything." -- Jean Houston

["The Magus (kunstenaar) weet dat er iets in gang gezet - een werk, een idee, een gedachte, een ritueel, stuurt resoneren golven het hele systeem, verandert alles."]

add your voice.

A journal helps show you your truest inner thoughts.
Messing with images and color in a journal not only feels fun and wonderful, but it also helps reveal something fundamental and sacred.
I am always amazed at what comes out in my journal.
It might feel like you are just playing, but play is serious and meaningful and very connected to our deep intuitive, non-linear brain way of knowing, a way of knowing that we all share -- a way of knowing that makes us understand how connected we all are.
The more you do this work, the more it feels like a spiritual practice and a calling.
The more, for me, it feels like what I am put here to do.
Thank you for letting me share all this here with you - what a privilege to live in a time in human evolution that we can share our path with the whole world from our own little computers, and know we are connected in this amazing way!



"Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do. With such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling." --Vincent van Gogh

["Uw beroep is niet wat brengt de startpagina van uw salaris. Uw beroep is wat je op aarde zijn gezet om te doen. Met deze passie en intensiteit, dat zij tot geestelijke in de roeping."]

and why not?

"When I'm playful I use the meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude for a seine, and drag the Atlantic Ocean for whales. I scratch my head with the lightning and purr myself to sleep with the thunder." --Mark Twain

["Als ik speels gebruik ik de meridianen van lengte en breedte voor een zegen, en sleep de Atlantische Oceaan voor de walvissen. Ik mijn hoofd krabben met de bliksem en spinnen mezelf in slaap met de donder."]

Live in harmony.

If it resonates with your soul, then go toward it.
It it fills you with joy, jump into it.
If it makes you smile when you think of it, then do it.
If it makes you want to stand on a soapbox and tell the world, it must be the right thing.
Are we here to suffer?
Not by choice! There is enough suffering to go around, let's start making our life work the relieving of suffering.
Let's start figuring out what we were put on the Earth to do.
Do you have no clue?
Here's my secret - a journal can help you figure it out.
Tear out some images, throw some papers into a shopping bag and rifle through them to pull out some ones you find lovely, find some words that move you.
Color some pages and play with these images and papers and words.
Add some doodles and spirals.
Be with the collage, and see what it tells you.
You might be surprised.


"Leap, and the net will appear." --John Burroughs

["Sprong, en het net zal verschijnen."]

Journaling to find joy in your day.

"If you see a whole thing, it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives ... But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern." --Ursula K. LeGuin

["यदि आप एक पूरी बात देख, ऐसा लगता है कि यह हमेशा सुंदर है. ग्रहों रहता है, ... लेकिन ऊपर करीब एक दुनिया सब मिट्टी और चट्टानों है. और आज के दिन तक दिन, जीवन एक कठिन काम है, तुम थक जाओ, तुम स्वरूप खो देते हैं."]

Go For It.

“In life you will come to a great chasm. Jump.” -J.Conrad

["In het leven komt u bij een grote kloof. Jump."]

Your journal can be a sacred tool.

"Let the beauty we love we what we do." --Rumi

["Låt det vackra vi älskar vi vad vi gör."]

Journaling as a spiritual practice.

I practice something called Shamanism - in Shamanism, we use repetitive drumming to enter an altered state of consciousness, which then allows a connection to Spirit. The more one does this, the clearer the information gets, the stronger the relationship is to Spirit, the more precise the wisdom that is given.
and I am coming to learn that creative journaling is really the same thing.
That as we let go of our left brain verbal chatter, as we connect to the right brain intuitive expanse, we connect with this larger thing.
In an amazing Ted talk, Jill Taylor Bolte talks about a stroke temporarily killing her left brain, and the right brain reality of total immersion in the flow, with no judgements or critic or rational control.
It is terrifying to have it happen that way (and she since totally recovered enough to write a beautiful book about it.)
But in our journals we can learn to get there - we can let go of the critic, the judge, the naysayer, who harps on how wrong it is, or how bad it looks, or how careful we need to be to color only in the lines.
In our journals we can let shape and color and image and beauty flow in a way that pleases us just because it pleases us, not because it accomplishes any goal.
and this is a Spiritual practice!
Let your journal take you to this magic place of your very own.
It's wonderful.



"Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self." --Jean-Luc Goddard

["Arte nos atrai apenas pelo que ela revela de nosso eu mais secreto."]

Allowing yourself to be in the flow.

The more I let go of the ego, the more Spirit steps in.
I am learning, (and it takes years, decades, lifetimes) to deeply know that I actually don't know best, and to know how to move forward in life keeping that in mind and heart.
That the serendipity of Spirit astounds and amazes me if I submit to the wisdom of that path; if I just let go of what I think I need and want, and submit to the higher good, all shall be well.
It all just sounds like words.
Blah Blah Blah.
But to really live this is a radical change from the way we are taught to control our own destinies and live in our brains.
For me, I an learning that it works better if the heart is the leader, not the head.
My art journal helps me work on this and remember it.
It helps me access that intuitive, right brain, spirit-connected place.
You?


"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." --Mark Twain

["Όταν θυμόμαστε όλοι είμαστε τρελοί, τα μυστήρια εξαφανίζονται και στέκεται ζωή εξήγησε."]

Spread the news . . .

"The church says: The body is a sin.
Science says: The body is a machine.
Advertising says: The body is a business.
The body says: I am a fiesta." --Eduardo Galeano

["Kanisa anasema: The mwili ni dhambi.\nSayansi inasema: Mwili ni mashine.\nAdvertising anasema: Mwili ni biashara.\nMwili anasema: Mimi ni Fiesta."]

Take a journey.

Life is a journey.
and much more interesting when we find ourselves in new places and new situations. I am now living in Colorado - a place I had only visited before now. I have been here 2 months so I now know where the stores are, I have the new library card and the new driver's license, and I can find my way around the mountains to some good walking trails. It is so wonderful to set up a whole new set of rituals and routines, to meet new, but like-minded people, to find groups and communities that welcome me. I, of course, miss some loved ones dearly, but I also thrive in setting up a whole new life. We have done this a few times before, and although hard, it is always good -- all your priorities get re-set and it is a fresh new start.
and in the midst of all this, I am reading lots of travel books! My latest is a remarkable story called "Four Corners, One Woman's Solo Journey Into the Heart of Papua New Guinea," by Kira Salak.
Kira as a 24 year old, tired of routine and regularity, quit grad school, saved enough money for a plane ticket (and a bit more) and just went. No plans, no contacts, no tour groups or reservations.
and what she finds, of course, is herself.
and some remarkable adventure.
It is a very dramatic story, and I doubt I would ever have that much courage, but the idea of this sort of travel is wonderful. She talks about why Americans don't travel. So many people seem to think travel is spending heaps of money on a cruise (many Americans' only experience of another country is a twenty minute shore stop from the decks of a floating apartment building.) Americans seem to think travel is exorbitantly expensive. Americans just seem afraid of the world.

I have found any time I wander in another place, good things happen. Careful pre-planning in traveling destroys the serendipity of what you happen upon, what lucky situation you find yourself in that makes a trip a miracle.
People are wonderful around the world, and ready to help if you need help. This allows such wonderful connection, and we can know we are all in the same family.
Living in a new place can do that too - you don't know what you will find, and it might feel like you are jumping off a cliff, but landing in the water from 50 feet up sure is exhilarating, and it makes life all the more interesting.
I found a family in Aix-en-Provence willing to host my daughter and I for free for five days in June (couchsurfing is so awesome) so I am planning on visiting that town where I studied art 25 years ago, and helping my daughter work on her French with the two teenage girls we will live with.
and my brother is living in the Lake District in Northern UK, so we are planning on seeing them and hiking along Hadrians' Wall.
So I have some very exciting travel to look forward to, and will come back with lots of journaling material to keep the journal happy.
and in the meantime, I am enjoying discovering a new state, wandering in the foothills of the Rockies, and settling into some new routines here, that keep it all fresh.
So go have an adventure.
There is no reason not to learn and grow and experience the wonder of the Earth, see something apart from your little corner.



". . . poetry wells up of itself, and one only has to drift into dreaming . . . " --Paul Gauguin, writing in 1901 when he left Tahiti for the wild and remote Marquesas Islands.

["Poesi brønde op af sig selv, og man behøver blot at glide ind i drømme."]

Creating = healing

I got some lovely mail art the other day in my mailbox. I found images of flowers that I loved in the New York Times Magazine. And I have a great new black marker that makes juicy flowing lines.
Put that all together and here's what happened in my journal:



"Pick out the fine things in life, and if you can't find them there, pick them out of your own head."
--Marie Knowles, age 104.

["Выделить мелких вещей в жизни, и если вы не можете найти их там, забрать их из вашей собственной голове."]

A random act of kindness . . . .

Let's try to do one today.
With no expectations of reward or praise.



"There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic." --Anais Nin

["Ada sedikit sekali manusia yang menerima kebenaran, lengkap dan terhuyung-huyung, dengan cepat iluminasi. Sebagian besar dari mereka memperolehnya fragmen dengan fragmen, pada skala kecil, dengan perkembangan berturut-turut, cellularly, seperti mosaik dengan susah payah."]