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In the swim of things.

"The invariable mark of wisdom 

is to see the miraculous in the common." 

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thought for today

"You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?"   --Rumi

Another Owl

"Something that you feel will find its own form."  

--Jack Kerouac

quietness

"I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth."     --Gandhi

I am ready for Spring.

"We must not run after it, but we must fit ourselves for the vision and then wait tranquilly for it, as the eye waits on the rising of the Sun which in its own time appears above the horizon and gives itself to our sight."   --Plotinus

make some beauty

A few years ago, Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock, 8 billion miles away. Voyager, in case it's ever encountered by extra-terrestrials, is carrying photos of life on Earth, greetings in 55 languages and a collection of music from Gregorian chants to Chuck Berry. Including "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" by '20s bluesman Blind Willie Johnson, whose stepmother blinded him when he was seven by throwing lye in is his eyes after his father had beat her for being with another man. He died, penniless, of pneumonia after sleeping bundled in wet newspapers in the ruins of his house that burned down.   But his music just left the solar system.

Love Birds

(photo of red cheeked cordon bleu by Vivi Moreira, collage art by me.)

today is the day to mail Valentines!

"Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon." --Rumi

To whom do you belong?

"My heart tells me the world does not belong to me, but I belong to it.  I know my place."
--Craig Chalquist

words?

"It's all the unwordable things one wants to write about, just as it's all the unformable things one wants to paint – essence."  --Emily Carr

keeping the dance going

"Only from the heart can you touch the sky."   --Rumi

barn owl

today

I am focusing on what's working for me, and letting what doesn't work fall away. Why should our thoughts dwell on suffering? There is too much beauty in the world to spend our time that way.

"You knock at the door of Reality. You shake your thought wings, loosen your shoulders, and open." --Rumi

Creativity

Yesterday, in our monthly journaling group, I tried to follow my own advice and start by just grabbing photos of whatever caught my eye. Strangely, all three images I found were of colorful, beautiful men. I didn't even notice until they were all attached to the page, and after I had colored them up even more than they were.
It brought to mind the idea of decorating the self, of making the body the canvas. I don't decorate myself much, but I think I am going to try to be a little more flamboyant in my clothes and accessories.

Why should we not celebrate our artistic vision by making our own bodies be a sign of who we are? I think this sends a message that we value individualism and self expression, that we value the Spirit that has breathed the creativity into us.

"In the language of the Tewa Indians, the three syllable term that is translated as "art" or "creativity" actually means "water-wind-breath."  This is a beautiful evocation of the creative process.  It's about catching the current, about breathing in and breathing out.  In-spiration is literally breathing in Spirit; exhalation is releasing it into the world."
--Robert Moss

Just Do It.

"Come, come, whoever you are. / Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving - it doesn't matter, / Ours is not a caravan of despair."  --Rumi

2 0 1 3 !

It's a new year.

It's a new era on the Mayan calender. It's a whole new time in world history. and in honor of all these monumental upswings of the timeline of humankind, I am going to make this blog thing a bit more reactive. actually, I mean interactive. maybe I need to be more active. anywho, print this image:



 It's conveniently sized at 8 1/2 x 11 just for your printer. now doodle on it. collage on it. add something. maybe words, maybe drawings, maybe cutouts from a catalog.

Loosen it up a bit.
Then maybe paste it in your journal, or mail it to a friend or a stranger.
Pin it on your bathroom wall.
Burn it.
Just do something!

Ha e Fu ! (can you guess the two missing letters?)

WeLcOme, 2 0 1 3 !

for the end of 2012

Since the Mayan Armageddon didn't come, why don't you get out some art supplies and enjoy life!

"Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through, and be silent." --Rumi

It's all good.

"Every object and being in the universe is a jar overflowing with wisdom and beauty, a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth more shining, as though covered in satin."  --Rumi 

where are you going today?

This sentence from an artist's bio got my attention:

Hali Karla is a paint-slinging, word-wrangling, music-loving, earth-walking Artist devoted to communing with Creative Mystery through the intentional exploration of the river where spiritual practice joins creative process.

How can we not be inspired by those words?