Art, Spirit and Healing

The Summer Solstice Pause

barbara — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:28:48 +0000

The Summer Solstice is a time of just-matured life and lushness as Mother Earth, or Gaia, has harbored the seeds of life and now given birth. Like any new mother, Gaia is both proud and needing rest. And like a new parent, responds well to appreciation and admiration of her efforts. AND . . since we are a part of Gaia, a part of Mother Earth, the Summer Solstice is a time when we, like a new parent, need to stop and rest a bit – to break out of the normal routine of artificial lights, computers – and instead pause long enough to ensure we really expeience the beauty of what she has to offer right now: full lakes, swiftly flowing streams and rivers, green, full-leafed trees and grasses, blooming plants, animals, insects, reptiles and birds, plenty of sun, and the longest daylight of the year . . . for awhile.

So if you’ve been finding yourself feeling tired or stressed, it may be a sign of your sensitivity to the earth’s cycles, to the magical, interwoven connection that we share with our natural surroundings, and a signal to you that it is time to stop your regular routine, your regular work, and spend your time outside, hopefully a little of it in a hammock. The rest of the ‘stuff’ will wait.

Campers and boaters and vacationers and swimmers and hikers and strollers are responding to the earth’s invitation right now, and the warmth of the sun, and doing what we are meant to do during this mid-high time of the year ~ to slow down in the healing arms of Gaia and celebrate her fullness.

Intentional Tue ~ Art as a Sacred Path

barbara — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:24:13 +0000

Life is art and life is an art, that is, to live it well.

The spiritual path can be taken through artistic expression. I am not limiting the arts to the ones commonly considered ‘Art.’ such as visual art, music, dance, and theater, but the broadest of all possible as art: the art of the chef, of the gardener, the therapist, the writer, the childcare provider, the teacher, the grant writer, the journalist, the winery owner, the ‘anything that involves the expression of the creative.’ True creativity demands seeing the world afresh, without limits of habit of mind or action. A wonderful way to break out of those habits, are to take the mundane, the ordinary, and choose that as your focus of creation – this encourages looking at the world anew, with fresh eyes.

Extend your creative expression today to capitalize on the ordinary – search for it, single it out. Then, do something with that creatively. I strongly that you keep a daily journal, and if you do, then write about something very ordinary today, write about how you make coffee and feed the cats each morning (I will do that!) or something equally mundane. Really describe it in some detail; let go of judgment about it not being interesting enough, and write with the eyes of the fawn – as though seeing it anew. Or, if you prefer, creatively express the ordinary moments in your life another way: paint a picture of something very ordinary in your house or daily existence instead of that spectacular sunset, or the visionary painting.

If you are a photographer, try the same approach, or a gardener, or a dancer, or a cook – let yourself dance with the ordinariness of life by paying close attention to that, and just that at the moment. Try your expression of the ordinary with whatever is your favorite way to express creatively. This will bring you into alignment with being completely present to each moment – those are the moments you are truly alive. This is the spiritual path.

Mindful Monday: Ode to Ordinary

barbara — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:11:27 +0000

My totem animal is a fawn. I remember being a little disappointed when I first ‘received’ the fawn in ceremony, thinking perhaps I wanted the eagle, or the bear, or wolf, or something, well, big and powerful, but . . . through sacred journeying with my fawn, I realized its tremendous gift and disappointment was replaced with awe — the gift of new eyes, wide-eyed wonder and even innocence, and fresh, untainted looking and being in the world. This awareness, this way of looking out at the world is key to a vital, juicy, awakened life, one that is in tune with your own unique truth.

With the extraordinary moments come the ordinary ones. One must include the other. And so in your sacred journey of growth, take time today and each day to notice the ordinary things you do and see and hear and think. This noticing takes a different form than the usual habits of mind or action we have. Bring a different spirit, different intent, mindful awareness to your ordinary moments — mindful awareness of the very detail of the scene or activity itself. Even the most gorgeous views out a picture window can become overlooked, taken for granted. The tasks of housekeeping or upkeep can seem tedious, our mind a thousand miles away while doing them, while at the same time feeling impatient or irritable until it is over. A morning orange or banana can seem boring. Instead, adopt fresh new ideas and attentive awareness to these things.

So take the time to notice the richness of life with the eyes of a fawn: Appreciate the richness of every moment. In our mind and heart, this is also about not judging, not valuing one thing over another, but impartiality. So something seemingly boring or disgusting, and something beautiful, are both held with the same value. Let go of the habits of your mind because they lock you into not really being present, and thus alive, to each moment of life. Do not let your mind go in three different directions while washing the dishes or cleaning up, for instance. Just simply ‘be’ with the activity. Or, if taking a walk along the same road countless times, simply just be with your walking and what your eyes alight on, and let thoughts diminish from your mind – just walk and see. Or — well, I will let you find your creative expression of the ordinary. And I would love to hear what you do.

Love and light, Barbara

Weekend Wanderings: The Swan

barbara — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:11:04 +0000

Poetry by Rilke

This clumsy living that moves lumbering

as if in ropes through what is not done

reminds us of the awkward way the swan walks.

And to die, which is a letting go

of the ground we stand on and cling to every day,

is like the swan whe he nervously lets himself down

into the water, which receives him gaily

and which flows joyfully under and after him, wave after wave,

while the swan, unmoving and marvelously calm,

is pleased to be carried, each minute more fully grown,

more like a king, composed, farther and farther on.

Weekend Wanderings: The Thrill of Painting

barbara — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 17:01:34 +0000

It’s the weekend and time for fun. Grab a bit of inspiration from this short, two minute video with artist Jerry Fresia, on the Thrill That Comes From Painting. Warning: this may make it hard to resist taking up your paintbrush, or whatever media you enjoy . . . and creating!

Tip: enlarge video by clicking on bottom right box

Artist Jerry Fresia says it very nicely: “When I look at something I don’t see houses or boats or water, I see color. In a painting I release the color from my palette, not worrying about the results. You look for color, you try to mix it, you put it down. It’s all about gettinga kick, a thrill, about putting a stroke down so another humanb eing an see the feeling that you had. It’s not literal, it’s not about results nor objects; it’s about brush storkes, the human touch of paint on canvas.”

There is great joy in sharing these things : )

Art and Transformation

barbara — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:41:50 +0000

How many broken love affairs have led to outstanding symphonies and songs? How much cultural and economic suffering has created some soul-sastisfying blues? How much pummeling by life has found expression in the most soaring dances and paintings? How many daily frustrations and problems have been sewn, woven, or knit into beautiful quilts and pieces of great charm and ingenuity? How much angst – personal or collective – has led to soaring sculptural and architectural masterpieces?

Pema Chodron’s wise council: ” . . . never reject what is problematic . . but rather become very familiar with it,” is a challenge to each person’s path to wisdom and happiness. It is also a call to artists! The artist’s way is allowing all of the body, mind, and heart to open, to know, to feel, and to express. It allows our natural intelligence to shine. Sometimes I have a hard time knowing fully what impact something is having upon me, relying on the old human psyche’s standby mechanisms of defense or repression. But painting, writing, drawing, playing the guitar or dancing manages to slide and slip right past these mechanisms; it requires honesty. Whether these arts, or others, such as cooking, gardening, photography, riding a horse, it is a wildly creative way to journey on the sacred path.

It is fun to allow my body to express it’s own intelligence, my heart it’s own fulness, my right-brain its own intuitive knowing. The experience is cathartic and healing, the expression fun, and the product often not only enjoyable and beautiful, but able to be shared. This brings the solitary challenge – to embrace it all, the pain and the pleasure without aggression or repression – back full circle to connection and sharing with others.Please share your artistic journey, path or gifts. There is great healing and joy in sharing these things.

For Women: Trust in Your Genius

barbara — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:09:22 +0000

I was going to call this ‘Self-love and Trusting in Your Genius’ since self-love is the foundation for trusting in your genius, but the title was a little too long, like this sentence. To trust in your self, and the unique gifts you have to offer, is key to a creative, magic, and sparkly life!

When you love your self, you rest with a gentleness, and compassion for self, and feel centered with genuine interest and enjoyment of your self. You offer yourself solace when you need it; in fact, you take the time to know what you need as often as possible, balancing that with outside pulls and demands so that nourishing your inner life is not neglected. For women that can be a challenge, having been expected to be caretakers and givers through the eons of history. As noble as caregiving is, the balancing path for women now is how to take our own energy and life and hold it gently, hold it sacred, and honor it first. When we do that, as women, we leave room and create space for an abundant, wild, creative life to emerge.

Each woman, each person, has a genius within. It expresses that special something what we came to this earth plane to share. The art path, the creative path, has much power. It is a sacred path also. Although a largely patriarchal history has most often recognized and rewarded male artists of all sorts, the arts naturally spring from and express a female type of energy. Now is the time upon this earth that we have the freedom and power to express it. We are all creative goddesses.

So trust your thoughts, your sparks of wild ideas, your creative process. Pick up the pen if you write and pen that poem or piece. Let your paint brush flow for a half-hour with no thought of outcome, compose that song wherever you are, dance your own unique dance. Do not censor your creative gestures, nor be indifferent. They contain the juiciness of your unique self, your gift. And with the expression of art comes an abundance and joy that gives meaning to your life, and increases the energetic flow.

Write about what you want for your life this year, dance what is arising at this very minute, paint the mysteries that spring from your connection with the divine, sing what is in your heart. I love to combine the art forms, enjoying the synergy, my favorite being to use music as my inspiration as I paint . . . claim your creative genius in whatever way you feel inspired to do. The arts have many forms and media, not just these mentioned here. Trust in your genius. Express it. Delight in it.

The Beating of the Great Collective Heart

barbara — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:43:25 +0000

We’ve heard for quite awhile now how the planet has been shrinking. With the advent of the internet, communication with, and awareness of, ‘the other’ has increased exponentially. It is in recognition of this that the creator of Facebook is named Person of the Year; it is not about the business model, or the person, or the drama of the story, but about the increasing impact of the internet to the web of connection between us — different countries, different cultures, different religions, different places, different climates–united in awareness of each other’s existence and experiences, large and small.

Living here in California, USA, it is easy for me to get caught up in the news cycle with its emphasis on the violent, the disruptive, the negative, the hard schlog of continuing to rail against that which is unjust, or cruel, or indifferent. And there is a place for that. But also, now, the potential to link awareness of the higher vibrational energies of what is good, what is beautiful, what is joyful and comes from the heart, looms like a huge flock of majestic eagles soaring overhead, commanding attention and awe. Two of the highest energies to enjoy and spread are the positive ones of joy and compassion, the face of unconditional love. And never has the time been so ‘auspicious,’ to use a word suddenly popular, as to take advantage of the increased potential to increase joy and compassion through our increasingly connected world.

I have a sister whose family has given a single, on-her-own, displaced pregnant older teen a job at their family business, and a place this year at their family’s Thanksgiving dinner table. A brother-in-law annually gets up early on Thanksgiving day to help his small community prepare and put on a full Turkey dinner for those whose options are limited. This is not peculiar to America; this is the human experience in all countries, all communities. There is great kindness and caring, and joyful sharing by individuals, families and communities in the world – that is important for me to remember with the onslaught of negative happenings. It does lift my spirit!

These changing, advancing technologies present, I believe, still more untapped power in the ability of people to connect. There is no endeavor or project that would seem too large with enough people behind it. I notice that Huffington Post, that online news site that relentlessly, often dramatically, highlights mostly US news, much of it critical (not without good reasons), has started a Great Person of the Day feature on their website, with notice sent out via email to those interested. It seems to be a purposeful balancing of the negative with - well, here is today’s email post, if you haven’t been following this:

“Robin Steele, Founder of Cheerful Givers

Every day on HuffPost, we’re highlighting one ‘Greatest Person’ – an exceptional individual who is confronting the country’s economic and political crises with creativity, generosity, and passion. Today, we’re profiling Robin Steele, who provides gift bags for parents who can’t provide birthday treats for their children.

Read more about Robin.“

This is one way to start to manifest the collective heart of a nation, and I think, really, of a world. With the environmental crises added to the mix, and the economic and political crises all over the world added into the equation, we the people, starting with one person — me, you — can add to the compassion and beauty and health of the world. Like the Hundredth Monkey Principle, imagine what happens when more and more people join in together in one joyful cause, one joyful thought, one compassionate action. Let us add to the world with this positive energy; let us believe there are no limits here, and let us see if caring, compassion, and joy, the yearnings of so many, can become the dominant force.

I think of the metaphor of the great eagles soaring and bringing in wisdom and joyful energy – the majesty and specialness of these great birds’ togetherness, birds that usually fly solo, the way they use the uplift of the air to keep them soaring – let’s soar, not just alone, but together. Even to share energetically, so to speak, is powerful–to give and receive these positive stories and events. There is great joy in sharing these energies together.

Grateful Each Day

barbara — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:48:37 +0000

There are many benefits to practicing gratitude in daily life. I usually include feeling grateful as a formal practice each morning. This helps gratitude become a stronger habit of my mind. Just as I am beginning to sit in quiet meditation, I take one minute to think of the basic things, people, situations that I am grateful for, sometimes even just the sunlight streaming into the backyard patio. One minute isn’t very long but it is amazing how much gratefulness I can find in that time. Most of the things I am grateful for are exactly the same, and then I add a few extra.

I naturally take a deep breath and instead of holding worries or resentments or the many other negative feelings I can start to dwell on in the morning, no matter how subtly, I come into the present moment. I feel grounded and ready to start meditation and my day. Best of all, I relax into the opening of my heart.

Grateful people are happy people. When we have an open, grateful heart, we more easily see the good around us. What is negative can be seen in a different context: that some good comes from it somewhere, perhaps a learning opportunity, a deepening of wisdom, a new desire to help somewhere, or a stronger level of compassion for those close to you. Being grateful promotes optimism as opposite to depression or pessimism, lessens tension in the body, and lets us see the light at the end of the tunnel when needed. I find myself feeling grateful more easily throughout my day, which is a good thing since the world around me, both immediate and the larger scope of things, offers many instances to feel the opposite.

Being grateful is a great way to come into the present moment very quickly. We realize that the past is gone, the future is yet to be, and what is here is simply ‘now.’ The feeling is expansive – a childlike, wondrous openness exists in our hearts and minds, while an ageless wisdom seems to open our intuitive clarity, creativity, and knowing. It feels good. This is the happiness that resides deep within and does not depend upon external circumstances nor our expectations.

The simplicity of genuine happiness that arises glows from our own internal connection with self and the divine, or whatever word you want to call it. It is with this kind of heart that we can choose and act from a giving place, to our self, our relationships, our community, our world. The healing of self is also the healing of the world.

Love Fantasy vs. Reality

barbara — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:50:52 +0000

Relationships of the intimate and sexual kind seem to bring out our hidden craving for a state of perfection like no other situation or relationship. Why? Perhaps it sounds strange, but this started off way back, when we were infants — then our parents or caregivers were everything, the world to us, perfect. We had no awareness of their imperfections. The infant’s thinking is at a very basic level, of course, and engaging in this basic thinking is to provide it with security, holding, satisfaction. An infant needs this to survive and to build a strong internal, emotional foundation. However, this thinking is magical; a wish for things to be perfect, and a corresponding belief that parents and the environment are perfect, always there for us, despite logic, sensation, or evidence to the contrary.

As parents of teenagers know all too well, there comes a time when the child realizes that parents are not perfect, that there is no Santa, that things don’t work the way we want them to. But when it comes to grown-up relationships of the closest kind, the reawakening of a craving for that first state of perfection that we thought we experienced seems to emerge. I suggest, too, that on a spiritual level, our desire for perfection is a sense, deep within us, that there exists perfection in our souls, in our connection with the divine. Perhaps we remember.

In a love/sexual relationship, which can feel perfect, there always comes a time of first disappointment. This is a good time to look at our hope, our dream, our wish, for perferfection. Believing, some of this unconsciously, that we had at last recovered that long ago golden age, upon its loss we can feel anxious and empty. How we respond to those feelings depends on habits we’ve already established for dealing with those emotional states. To consciously and mindfully deal with the situation is to realize that the ideal we had set up about our partner is a fantasy – harsh sounding perhaps, but true.

Once we can accept that, we can relax into a truer satisfaction, one that compels us to let go of control, of expectation, of trying to make perfection happen. The Buddhist word, anatta (no self), refers to these misbeliefs about ourselves and about life, and the need to let go of craving perfection in the outer world. It is then that we also also open to the true nature of our lover and ourself as well. We can get on, then, with the business of truly loving.