LOVE!!!

First things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sherida, born on the day of LOVE. This is a painting I did for her a coupla years ago. Hard to see here, but the outside purple part is textured with tissue paper and then sparkley varnished. The hearts around the hand are holographic confetti that I glued individually. The symbol in the center of the lotus is Sanskrit, "yam" (pronounced yah-m), and is the seed sound of the heart chakra. The green is a variation on the green of the heart chakra, and purple is a v. spiritual, higher chakra colour. She is a massage therapist and so much more; truly a healer in every sense of the word. I told her once that what she does can't be taught in school or with any technique. When I decided to go to massage school, she was part of my inspiration, because she is THAT good.

And in honour of Valentine's day:

This is the third painting I did for Bulgarian Gal for her skincare line called Chakra. It's a variation on the heart chakra yantra (sacred geometric symbol). And here we go with a poem for today:

May your heart be open to the LOVE

all around.

May your spirit be filled with

God's holy sound.

May GRACE be your guide

with LOVE at your side

As you walk through this life

with arms opened wide.

Grey in a Black and White World

I once had a Jehovah's Witness guy come to my door. He was standing there with his sweet little boy, about 8 years old. He was smiling and we stood on my porch and chatted. He asked me if I feared the devil because there was so much evil in the world. I said, "When your heart is full of God's love, there is no room for the devil." He said, "You must be a Christian." I smiled, "You think?" Then I told him he was on a street with mostly Catholics, so good luck with that.

I think it's human nature to have a tendency to put Panacea Blinders on and think that if everyone _________ (fill in the blank here: became Vegan, went to the gym, learned Reiki, became a Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/whatever) the world would be a better place. And it would, wouldn't it? Or not.

I was watching an interview with that great philosopher Larry David. He said that he got criticized because in one episode of his show, he was making fun of his father-in-law's religion. He replied, "It's a comedy!" It's not real, it's a show. And then he went on to say:

"Your religion SHOULD be made fun of. It's quite ridiculous, isn't it? Think how people spend their lives. They have no idea. They go around as if this is a fact. It's so insane, you know. If I really believed that stuff, I'd keep it to myself lest somebody think I was out of my mind."

The beauty of this world is that we have free will. We are all branches on the same tree. What good does it do to argue the value of one branch over another? But we will. Reminds me of the days shortly after 9/11 when I had a friend who left NYC to stay with us. She was a v. strict vegan and we were out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Her first order arrived and it had meat in it. Then came the anti-eating-innocent-animals rant. She sent it back. The second order she said the enchilada sauce had meat in it (it didn't--but was followed by another it's-wrong-to-murder-animals rant). In the meantime, her starving husband ordered french fries. Finally her food came. During the course of the conversation, she said, "If I were a man and my country called me to serve, I would."

I said, "I find it interesting that you think it's wrong to kill animals, but you're willing to travel to a foreign country and kill people you don't know."

Now, this is not against anyone serving our country. Far from it. It's not anti-vegan. This is not against anyone's religious beliefs, either. But they are just that: BELIEFS. Beliefs are our filters and we will experience the world as we believe:

The world is a beautiful place. Or not. People are basically kind. Or not. God is a loving God. Or not.

It's all in what you believe. And it's not like we are even conscious of our beliefs, it's all programming, as Bruce Lipton points out in his book, The Biology of Belief. The problem is that we then create rules and then we SHOULD all over ourselves and others. We cast judgements and dispersions against whole populations. We try to convert people to our side. Like we know. There's a Sufi saying, "Take responsibility for sweeping your own porch, and all the porches in the world will be clean."

On the eve of Valentine's Day, the ONE day greeting card companies and flower shops have reserved for love, perhaps we can make room for other people's ideas, opinions, and beliefs without judgement. Personally, I think God can handle a difference of opinion. Of course, that's just a belief.

By Cracky!

Downed tree in front of canoe I discovered when all the leaves fell off the trees. I did a post on it that mysteriously disappeared until I searched my blog for "roof vacuuming."

"Roof vacuuming???" you might very well ask. Go see, I'll wait....

OK, so we had a fierce windstorm on Sunday. Fierce! Remi and I were walking outside and the trees were swaying and I was hearing cracking in the woods. And he ran under the deck--when animals take cover, I take notice. So we went back inside. This tree went down at the edge of my field.

Sunday night I got a call from Mum. [Read with Mary Poppins English accent]

I was going to a concert and I got all the way to the end of the driveway and there was a tree across the road. I said, "What, Mum? You didn't whip out your chainsaw and hack it out of the way?" Well. She doesn't have a chainsaw, but only because we didn't give her one for Christmas.

It was a SMALL tree, and I DO have a handsaw...but it's dark.

And if you know my mother, and you may have an inkling if you read about her adventures in roof vacuuming, or previous posts, I'm sure she would have been out there if it were daylight.

No that's all right. I can get it--just a small tree, really. No bother at all....that's my mother. :-)

LOVE Never Dies

I was asked a few months ago to contribute to a scrapbook for Claudette, the matriarch of the Brimhall clan. She has been in my thoughts and prayers alot since last Feb. when she was first diagnosed with cancer. She passed away last week, and her funeral is today. Words fail me at this moment, so I am going to leave you with the poem I wrote for her.

FROM THE HEART OF A MOTHER

From the heart of a mother
To daughter and son,
LOVE shines through
From the Holy ONE.

Heavenly Father
Guides and directs
This heavenly mother
Nurtures, protects.

In times of Light
In times of dark
LOVE from a mother
Is never far.

Her hand of kindness
Her hand of LOVE
Guided by God
From up above

In Spirit and flesh
In Light, in Truth
This mother’s LOVE
Follows you

From here to there
From near to far
A mother’s LOVE
Is wherever you are.

Day of Rest

Remi and I are listening to The Savoy Express, Track Number 4 on XM this a.m. Playing all the hits from the '40's. Growing up, I used to have a huge time-warp-crush on Gene Kelly, circa Singin' in the Rain / American in Paris. Mmmm...he was so dancey. Anyway, post is late-ish due to cleaning attack of my stove. Sometimes I'm my mother's daughter, and when the mood strikes, it's just time to put on the rubber gloves. So really, I guess I've switched my day-of-rest with yesterday when I had a Curb Your Enthusiasm marathon. Happy Sunday. :-) H.

Poetic Advice from Rumi

When I was in massage school two years ago, each class would leave behind a gift to the school. There were various art things, many involving hands, of course. One in particular I liked was a quilt with everyone's hands on it. Another was an OM symbol with everyone's names. So our class, Section 05-L, knew we wanted something hand-related and personalized.
The program started in Oct. and ended in May, and in between there was little time for anything else but anatomy, physiology, and massage. One of my classmates remarked that there was a perpetual pile of laundry on the sofa, and her family knew that's where they needed to go for clean clothes. Back when I lived near civilization, I could spend hours in Michael's. Even tho I didn't have time for art then, I was still there one Saturday wandering around. I saw this huge canvas, 3 X 4 feet in the back of the store. At the time I was just concentrating on muscles-muscles-muscles, had no immediate plans for anything artistic, had never painted anything beyond 14" X 20", and thought, "I'll wait until I get one of their 40% off coupons and then I'll buy it." I walked to the front of the store to get in line and an older gentleman walked up to me and said, "Excuse me, young lady. Would you like this coupon? My wife is not going to use it." And that's how fast it takes to manifest a congruent desire!
I blinked, and two months later, our class was talking about giving our school a going-away gift. And here was the canvas ready to paint. It might be hard to tell, but the hearts at the bottom are each a picture of my classmates. And the picture didn't translate the purpleness of the painting. The hand, the colour associated with the heart, represents healing, massage, and God. The lotus represent the soul. What some people might call a "star of David," is actually a symbol used in Vedic (Indian) art. The upward pointing triangle represents masculine, outward moving, action-oriented energy. The downward-pointing triangle represents the femine, receptive energy. United, it represents the union of heaven/earth, yin/yang, physical world/Spirit. In the chakra system, in sacred Indian art, the triangle is featured in the heart center, uniting the physical body with the spiritual. In the center of the lotus is an OM, representing God, the primordial sound. [In the beginning was the WORD].
The quote is from my favourite Sufi poet, Rumi:

Let the BEAUTY of what you LOVE, be what you do.

The Gift of Presence

"When you're in that place of presence, there are no magic words." ~John Morgan

I reminded John yesterday that he said this to me in a conversation--prolly when he was expounding on the virtues of Eckhart Tolle. "Oh, really? I did?" He didn't remember. He must've said it while in that place. I've been reading Radical Forgiveness--it really is v. radical. I fell asleep after I'd read this:

"Don't pray for peace. Pray to feel peace. That's the most creative prayer you can make. Peace is the strongest power on earth, and it is certainly called for at this time. When we can feel peace in our hearts, we will know Love and our world will reflect it."

So I fell asleep praying to feel peace and extending that prayer to my friends who have lost a beloved family member. I woke at 4 a.m. feeling that place of presence, absolute peace. Warm and cozy, listening to the snores of Remi at the foot of my bed. It is rare that I don't wake up with the To Do List in my head. Nothing from the past, no worries of the future, just the present. What a gift.