“My Salvation” is my expression of an icon. I have been exploring this imagery for some time now. The ability to take an extensive story and put into one image intrigues me. This story is of a spirited being that has a deep connection to the people of the past and the environment around them. The spirit of this being is full of life, hope and wisdom and is sharing that with the world. Each ray has the potential to impact others. Basswood, Copper, Fur, Feathers, Acrylic and Stain. March 2014

— Drew Michael

But if you do know what is taught by plants and weather, you are in on the gossip and can feel truly more at home. The sum of a field’s forces becomes what we call very loosely the ‘spirit of the place.’ To know the spirit of a place is to realize that you are a part of a part and that the whole is made of parts, each of which is a whole. You start with the part you are whole in.

–by Gary Snyder

I went to McGinley’s for the Irish session on Sunday and followed the steps shown on the journal page. This is what came up when I just let the pen move. I drew the woman standing on the ground, and then thought, “I’ll draw some clouds.” The “clouds” became the other figure. I have thoughts about it, but I am not attaching to them. Just letting things simmer and evolve.

“Ask the Fuchsias”

Out of the ruined houses
nettles leap barking like wolves,
defensive and territorial,
full of contained aggression.

The ash trees sigh and whisper quietly;
new comers they,
a green roof rising from the roofless parlour.

People lived here and left the year I was born.
They took their livestock and their roof with them.

The ash trees are too young to remember.
They know nothing of Death yet.
They could ask the fuchsias: they know.

© mike absalom

I am painting a series of sunrises…

As I begin the sunrise series of watercolors, I see that not only will I be recording each unique sunrise. I will also be recording my relationship with the sunrise, as well as my increasing knowledge of working with the watercolors. Today’s experience was much lighter and more spontaneous than yesterday’s. And I am happy with both.

I have been observing sunrise for several years, as a meditation. This series has grown out of that.

I am palpably sensing the impression of the sunrise I painted in my eyes. I have sensation in my eyes, a gentle, tender sensation. And in my mind’s eye, this sensation is one with the painting that I just did.

THE SOUL LIKE THE MOON

The soul, like the moon,
is new, and always new again.

And I have seen the ocean
continuously creating.

Since I scoured my mind
and my body, I too, Lalla,
am new, each moment new.

My teacher told me one thing.
Live in the soul.

When that was so,
I began to go naked,
and dance.

~ Lalla

The poem is from Naked Song (transl. by Coleman Barks). Lalla Ded (1320–1392) was a Kashmiri mystic. She wrote many devotional and mystic poems, expressing her longing for the Divine.

Last evening I attended the induction ceremonies for the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame at Wilda Marston Theater. I allowed the pen to “do it’s thing,”  and this is what happened. It seems to be the form of an indigenous women composed of lots of people; she also has children on her back. This month I am working on bringing forth the voice of the land through drawing. I got some “tips” as I did this, which I wrote on the page. At the end, I experienced the emerald sparkling energy, which I feel is coming from Ireland. I’ll be patient about interpreting this and just continue to “do” it. Scary.

I think one must finally take one’s life in one’s arms.

— Arthur Miller

I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do was to show up for my life and not be ashamed.

— Anne Lamott

There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level.

— Jim Morrison

I am finding these thoughts to be resonant for me right now. I have had a sense of fragmentation in identity that is beginning to mend. For a very long time I have felt the Divine within myself. At the same time I haven’t been able to connect the dots between all of the parts of me and that divinity.

I had a dream where I was a refugee in rags. It was not a happy dream, and the overall tone was gray. At the very end, as I woke up, I had a flash of a very rich and colorful work of art. This I took as an indication that a new level of integration is about to happen for me. It was a sense that I was going from “rags to riches.” This means that, with increasing integration, I am able to honor all the pieces of who I am and bring them together in a perfect and beautiful way that is truly my own unique creation.

To live in denial of one’s unique wholeness, to live in self-judgment,  is a gray kind of life. I am ready to mend, to allow all of the parts to take their proper places in my Conscious awareness. As I do this, I am fully able to take my place in the scheme of things, and to serve from the heart.

I also strongly believe that many folks are having similar experiences. The sense of oneness among humans is becoming stronger as we all realize that we are part of one Whole, and that we can and will work together in concert for the good of that Whole.

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

— Langston Hughes, “The Dream Keeper”

In 1492 two Irish families, the Butlers of Ormonde and the FitzGeralds of Kildare, were involved in a bitter feud. This disagreement centred around the position of Lord Deputy. Both families wanted one of their own to hold the position. In 1492 this tension broke into outright warfare and a small skirmish occured between the two families just outside the city walls.
The Butlers, realising that the fighting was getting out of control, took refuge in the Chapter House of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. However, the FitzGeralds followed them into the Cathedral and asked them to come out and make peace. The Butlers, afraid that if they did so they would be slaughtered, refused.
As a gesture of good faith the head of the Kildare family, Gerald FitzGerald, ordered that a hole be cut in the door. He then thrust his arm through the door and offered his hand in peace to those on the other side. Upon seeing this, FitzGerald was willing to risk his arm by putting it through the door the Butlers reasoned that he was serious in his intention. They shook hands through the door, the Butlers emerged from the Chapter House and the two families made peace.
Today this door is known as the “Door of Reconciliation” and is on display in the Cathedral’s north transept. This story also lives on in a famous expression in Ireland “To chance your arm”.

http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/Chancing-Your-Arm.aspx