View My Art on Polyvore

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I'm Wearing Purple Today


I'm wearing purple today in honor of ALL GLBT kids who are bullied because of their sexual orientation. My heart goes out to the families of those who have lost their children to suicide because of this horrific kind of intolerance and hatefulness. Ellen DeGeneres said it well, "Things will get easier, people's minds will change, and you should be alive to see it."

Everyone should hear Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns share his powerful story.

May we all someday learn to celebrate our differences and love people for who they are, as they are.



For any GLBT or questioning teens who are feeling suicidal, please contact the Trevor Project.

Monday, September 6, 2010

What the Heck is Artful Alchemy?

ALCHEMY [al-kuh-mee] (noun) the miraculous power of transmuting something common into something precious (e.g. turning lead into gold)

ARTFUL [ahrt-fuhl] (adjective) done with or characterized by art or skill

Artful Alchemy is about transforming a common life into your golden life through skillfully facilitated art practices.

Why art?

Art is a jumpstart into a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling, a new way of being. The shift can be explained with just a little left-brain/right-brain theory.


The Western World values the left-brain and downplays the value of the right-brain. Most of the time most of us are operating from our left-brain because that's what we've been taught to do. That’s all well and good. The qualities of the left-brain are very helpful and necessary if we’re to get anything done.

However, the predominant voices in the left-brain are the Ego and the Critic. The Ego’s like the map-keeper; it holds the map to things-as-they-are and has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, because then it always knows where we are and what’s going on. So, the Ego, while a useful character for holding us together, takes its job so seriously that it really doesn’t allow us to make significant transformations. The Ego’s sidekick is the Inner Critic. The Inner Critic is the one who says, “You’re not smart enough, rich enough, good enough, deserving enough.” So the Ego says, “Let’s not change a thing,” and the Critic says, “And even if you wanted to, you’d never succeed.” Not a very conducive dialogue for life transformation.

That’s where the power of the right-brain comes in, with a whole different set of qualities and voices. If you want to know what your heart truly wants, the answer can only come through the right brain. If you want to connect to your higher wisdom, to spiritual guidance or to the pure spark of the inner child, then tune into your right-brain. This is where the truly life-transforming ideas will be found. If you want to break out of a dull, common, status-quo way of being and create your golden life, your right-brain is key.

But how to tune out or bypass the dominant, left-brain voices of the Ego and the Critic? Stop speaking their language. Their language is verbal; it’s words. Have you ever noticed how you tend to go ‘round and ‘round about a problem, with the same words replaying over and over again in your head? Break the cycle by breaking out of verbal mode.

What is the language of the right-brain? It’s non-verbal; it’s visual; it’s art.

Try it sometime. If you have been stuck in some way, or if you are facing a challenge that you can’t quite figure out how to tackle, stop thinking about it in words. Draw a picture instead. Draw a picture of how things are, then draw another of how you want things to be. I guarantee you’ll get a whole new perspective on the matter.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Meet Scarlett

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about our “Shadows,” especially since the recent release of The Shadow Effect from co-authors Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford and Marianne Williamson.

Briefly stated, Shadows are those unsavory aspects of our personalities that we’ve repressed, but which continue to subconsciously wreak havoc in our individual and collective lives. If, however, we can bring those aspects of ourselves back into our conscious awareness, we can discover and harness their gifts. This is what’s known as “embracing the Shadow.”

Does that mean that if I have a rage-aholic Shadow, I should embrace that rage and go around consciously hurting people? No, of course not. It means that if I look consciously at the source of all that rage I might be able to take the energy of anger to make positive changes in the world, to right some wrongs. Or maybe I can take the physicality of that energy and channel it into marathon running. Once the rage has a safe and productive outlet, it doesn’t have to sneak up on me (or those around me) anymore.

This past Saturday, I led a group of women in an exploration of a Shadow Self through mask-making and journaling. My own mask, and the work I did with it, was quite revealing and healing.

For the past several months, I have been working to develop the structure and direction of my Artful Alchemist practice with my wonderful coach and EFT master, Rev. Anne Presuel. During the course of our work together it has become apparent that I have HUGE resistance to all things marketing.

In a recent session together, Anne helped me to tap into a key image for what I’ve been resisting. The visual that represents my distaste about sales and marketing is that of a prostitute standing on the street corner hiking her skirt. I don’t want to prostitute myself, I don’t want to sell my soul, I don’t want to be all flash (and flesh!), I’m not interested in offering a quick trick or a fast fix, I don’t want my work to be all about the money, yada, yada, yada. Wow! Juicy Shadow stuff!

So, guess what shadow I chose to explore with my mask-making?

Meet Scarlett, my Shadow Prostitute:


She's actually a rather lovely painted lady and I'm growing quite fond of her. Here are a few excerpts from what she had to say to me through journaling dialogue:

“I am Scarlett, but NOT Scarlett the Harlot as you’ve been thinking of me. Think more along the lines of Scarlett O’Hara. I am strong and resourceful, but not afraid to use my own beauty.”

"What are you afraid of, darlin'? Little Ole Me? Why, I don't bite Baby Girl, unless of course that's what you want."

“I am the one who knows she’s got it. I ain’t afraid to shine, to sparkle, to PUT IT OUT THERE.”


“I am the one who knows my worth and demands it. AND GETS IT!”


“I am the one who entices with flash, but delivers substance.”


"I can help you be a better business woman. Believe me, you get pretty money-savvy turning tricks. You don't get taken advantage of for long. Not when you decide to run your own show, anyway."

Oh, my dear Scarlett! Let me embrace all of that!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Is Emotional Pain Necessary?



Is Emotional Pain Necessary?

This is the question posed by today’s NPR piece, which talks about a recent change in the American Psychiatric Association’s new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. The proposal is to remove the “bereavement exclusion” from the guidelines for diagnosing major depression. In other words, if one’s grief is severe and lasts too long, it should be treated like depression. How long is too long? In the words of the article:

“ . . . if symptoms like these [acute upset, loss of sleep, appetite, energy and concentration] persist for more than two weeks, the bereaved person will be considered to have a mental disorder: major depression. And treatment, either therapy or medication, is recommended.”

TWO WEEKS?!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!

Are we, as a culture, so afraid of feeling the depths of our emotion that we would choose to medicate the pain of grief as soon as two weeks out from a major loss? It seems ludicrous to me.

After losing my son six years ago, my journey of grief (which I chronicle in my award-winning book The Deep Water Leaf Society) took at least TWO YEARS and in many ways continues even today. Were there days that I would have liked to take a pill and make the pain stop? Yes. And if I had, would I have learned and experienced all that I did and healed so completely? I think not. For me expressive arts, journaling and dreamwork allowed me to honor my pain, learn from it and heal by moving headlong into my pain, not running away from it.

It is the conscious journey through our grief that creates healing. In my opinion, if you stuff it down, ignore it, drown it in alcohol or happy it up with Prozac you will miss the meaning, the lessons, the growth that come from being real about how it feels. I learned more about myself and let go of more useless baggage during those two years of healing than I had in my entire life up to that point. I am a better person because of my loss and because of the very real pain it caused. Had I numbed the pain with Prozac, I know my loss would not have created the same level of positive personal transformation.

I am reminded of Kirk in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. When the mysterious mystic Syvok wants to take away everyone's pain, Kirk is the only hold-out while everyone else is all silly with nirvanic joy. "Damn it, Bones,” says Kirk, “you're a doctor. You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!"

I’m with Kirk on this one.

It’s not that we should choose to live in the depths of that pain permanently. And certainly if someone becomes suicidal or is completely unable to function for long periods of time there may be some call for intervention. But to put an arbitrary timeframe on how long it should take to process the pain of grief is ridiculous.

TWO WEEKS?!!! I don’t think it’s we grievers who have a mental disorder. I think the authors of the DSM should have their own heads examined!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Reveal thy Radiant Countenance


What masks are hiding the shining brightness that is you?

In this life, we hide behind many masks.

When we grieve, we often feel we must hide behind a smiling “I’m okay” mask, sensing that our friends, family and other associates are not comfortable with the depth of our pain. We are not comfortable with their discomfort and the responses triggered by that discomfort, so we put on the mask.

Sometimes, we even try to hide the full depth of our grief from ourselves. Fearing its power, we are not willing to risk drowning in a bottomless well of tears. We are not willing to sit with our pain on its own terms. So we find a way to suck it up or dam it up. We put on a mask.

The paradox is that by not honoring the truth of our pain in the moment, we are at risk of internalizing and unconsciously identifying so deeply with it that it develops a life of its own. Some, including Eckhart Tolle, have called the unconscious internal energy that develops the Pain Body. (See a great explanation of the Pain Body and how to deal with it here.)

The Pain Body can take over, masking our true identity, tricking us into believing that pain is our reality or our identity. We think we are wearing an “I’m okay” mask, but it is the Pain Body that’s really masking our own true Light.

The Sufi poet Hafiz said, "I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing Light of your own Being."

That is also my wish for you. May your own Pain Body be dissolved, may the mask fall away, and may you reveal your true radiant countenance to yourself and to the world.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Are You a Money Magnet?

Are you a money magnet? Does money flow into your life easily, effortlessly and consistently? Or, does it seem like the polarity might be reversed on your money magnet so that it’s actually pushing money away?

Here’s an interesting visual exercise from my Art of Abundance workshop that can help you to check the polarity of your own money magnet. Take a look at the following images, and for each one fill in the blanks of the following sentence:

This image makes me think of __________________ and it makes me feel __________________.


 


Don’t over-think your answers, and answer honestly. Just go with your gut response to each image.

Now, look over your answers and see whether your emotional responses were primarily positive, primarily negative or about even. Which image feels most like your current relationship with money? Was your emotional response to that image positive or negative?

If most of your emotional responses are negative (lack, limits, constriction, fear, worry, anxiety, anger, hopelessness, sadness) then your money magnet may be repelling rather than attracting money into your life. If most of your emotional responses were positive (optimism, expansiveness, hope, happiness, love, humor, joy) then your money magnet is set to draw money into your life.

Why would that be true? Because you are seeing these images through your own money perception filter. The images themselves are neutral – it’s your own perception that makes them positive or negative. And the Law of Attraction tells us that our emotional state is the biggest attraction factor: positive emotions attract more positive results, negative emotions attract more negative results.

So, what can you do if your money magnet is set to repel? You can work at reframing your response to each image, especially to the one that feels most like your current money situation. Is it possible to see the image in another way? In a more positive light?

Here are a few reframes that came from my Art of Abundance students recently:

The money with the belt around it reminded one woman about her enormous student loan debt and about feeling very determined to pay it all off, tightening the money belt as much as necessary to do so. It made her feel determined, but also tense. When I asked her if she could see the image in a different, more positive light, she said the image was actually “kind of sexy” – that belt gave the dollars a real hour-glass shape. I suggested that she approach her bill paying and financial decision-making by thinking about how sexy it was to be in control of her money and how cutting back here and there financially was a bit like dieting to create a healthy, sexy  financial body.


For another woman, the man and woman tugging on the dollar sign reminded her of stronger, more powerful people taking money away from the more needy and deserving. It made her feel frustrated in her charity fund-raising work. I suggested that the man and woman could be seen as dancing with money or laughing over money rather than fighting over it. If she brought the idea of dancing and laughing into her fund-raising efforts, maybe it would stop feeling like such a struggle.

Granted, if your habitual money responses are primarily negative, shifting your money magnet into attraction mode may not happen over night. But by consciously working at reframing negative responses to money, you can turn the tide and learn to become a powerful money magnet.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Shared Dreaming with the Departed


I recently had the most amazing SHARED dream experience! I dreamed of my deceased father and a few days later discovered that my husband (who rarely remembers his dreams) had also dreamed of my dad and his own parents (who are also deceased) the very same night. The details of his dream and mine were so connected that I am convinced we were all sharing a very real experience.

My dream:

Phone Call from Dad
I pick up the phone to make a call, but there is no dial tone. I hang it up and try again and get a different kind of sound than the normal dial tone, then silence. I try a few more times, getting just a bit of a dial tone which quickly goes silent. On my next try, a recorded voice speaking in French says something about the phone not being equipped for French signals. I say, “English, not French! What’s wrong with this thing?” Suddenly my Dad is on the line, speaking in a raspy, Sling Blade kind of voice, but still recognizable as my Dad. It’s like he’s using a voice he hasn’t used for a long time. “Dad? Is that you, Dad?” We have a sweet conversation, although it seems difficult for him to use words. I ask him what he’s been doing and he says, “Well, I caught me a fish.” He sounds kind of delighted and so am I. I say, “You went fishing, Dad? Was it really beautiful where you fished?” He says, “Well, it was nothing like Tahiti.” Then he tells me I am beautiful and he loves me. His words seem to carry layers and layers of additional meaning. I feel totally loved and supported. I tell him I love him, and then he’s gone.
~~

I was so moved by this, and it was so real. I awoke just saying thank you and I love you over and over again. My Dad is French-Canadian, so French is his first language. It would not be surprising for him to try to communicate in French as the phone call initially began. He loved fishing and his passion was sailing. He and my Mom went to Tahiti for one of their anniversaries and he took hundreds of gorgeous photographs. It was the most memorable trip in his life. The very last conversation I had with him, as he was slowly dying of Alzheimer’s and lay sleeping and unresponsive in his bed, was about Tahiti. I put on one of his Tahitian CDs and told him to imagine the aqua blue seas of Tahiti. I told him he could let go and just sail away. He died early the next morning.

A few days after my dream, something on the TV reminded me of my Dad and I said to my husband, “Oh, I dreamed of my Dad the other night.” He said, with surprise, “I dreamed about your Dad the other night, too. And my Mom and Dad, too.” We quickly determined that our dreams had been on the same night.

My husband’s dream:

Pulling the Boat out of the Lake with a Backhoe
My husband’s Mom is griping that his Dad went to pull the boat out of the lake with the backhoe. He goes to see what his Dad is up to. His Dad says, “I had to pull some old geezer in a sailboat out of the lake.” My husband is surprised to see that the “old geezer” in question is MY Dad!
~~

My husband’s Dad drove a backhoe for a living, grading county roads. The “old geezer” was in a sailboat – my Dad’s boat of choice. My husband’s parents have been gone longer than my Dad. I got the feeling that maybe Dad is just coming into full consciousness of his new surroundings (he’s been gone about a year and a half). He found a lake to sail away on, all right,  but it's nothing like Tahiti. He maybe got himself into a bit of trouble out there on that new lake, and my husband’s folks are there, helping him out.

The whole experience is just so validating to me that life continues on the “other side.” And that we can communicate with our loved ones who are over there through dreams.

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

I would love to hear your own ideas about and experiences of shared dreaming and dreaming with the departed.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Visioning: Cutting and Pasting Your Future



I recently read this great article about vision boards by the wonderful writer and life coach Martha Beck. I love her humorous writing style and I think she’s nailed some things about how the process works (or doesn’t!).

If you are not a long-term student of the Law of Attraction, you may have first heard the term “vision board” in the movie The Secret. It refers to the process of cutting out pictures of things you want to bring into your life and gluing them down in a notebook or on a large sheet of paper. The idea is that by focusing visually on the things you desire, you will (almost magically) draw them into your life.

Having been trained and certified to facilitate a similar but much more powerful and effective process called Visioning® (created and trademarked by Dr. Lucia Capacchione), I was struck by a number of Beck’s reflections.

  • “This whole process [of vision boarding] makes me roll my eyes – as I was trained to do over the course of my very rationalist education – but damn if it doesn’t work.”

LOL! I can so relate to this!! Before I learned the Visioning® process, I had spent over 15 years as a computer programmer/analyst. Talk about rational, logical, linear training! My habitual left-brain view of things had to question how gluing some pictures onto paper could possibly bring those things into my life. But, as Beck says, “damn if it doesn’t work! “

Not only does it work to attract more good into your life, the very process of Visioning® (practiced over time) begins to shift the rigid structure of logical, linear, ego-based, left-brain thinking and awaken the intuitive, creative, heart-based, right-brain modes of thinking that may have been slumbering or atrophied because of a cultural bias for left-brain skills. Visioning® sparks whole-brain thinking, and whole-brain thinking is optimal for problem solving and creating the life you want to be living.

  • “To really work, a vision board has to come not from your culture but from your primordial, nonsocial self – the genetically unique animal/angel that contains your innate preferences.”

I agree with this 100%, but I would word it a little differently – AND I think this is one of the major differences between vision boards and Visioning®.

Visioning® works far better than the traditional vision board because the images and phrases that end up in your collage are selected by your heart instead of your head. Rather than already having a picture in mind and then going in search of it, you allow images to select you as you randomly sift through magazines. If you do this correctly, you will often clip images with no idea why you are selecting them. You will just follow your heart as it draws you to a particular image or phrase. Beck hits the nail on the head when she says, “The only responses involved should resemble these:
Ooooh!
Aaaahhhhh.
Whoa!
!!!!
????“

Your final collage may look nothing like what you might have expected it to – because it has been created from your true heart’s desire instead of the programmed messages in your ego-based left brain. That’s exactly the result you want.

When you follow the Visioning® process up with structured journaling, you are seeding the desires of your heart (as reflected in your selected imagery) back into your rational left brain (because language and words are left-brain functions). That’s when the magic starts to happen because you are beginning to replace entrenched left-brain habits and patterns (which have created the life you are currently living) with new, juicy, heartfelt ideas (that can help you to create the life of your dreams).

  • “This is exactly what you should do once you’ve created a vision board. Stop thinking about it. Lose it. Recycle it. The biggest mistake [you can] make is continuing to push something [you’ve] already set in motion.”

Now here I have to disagree. Sort of.

It’s true, I have seen manifestations come long after putting a Visioning® collage away and forgetting about it. But I have also seen deep insights and fabulous manifestations happen by keeping a Visioning® collage where it can be reflected upon regularly for weeks – even months – on end.

At the very least, you should keep your Visioning® collage where you can see it and work with it long enough to journal about or dialogue with at least a handful of the most powerful images. This is how you move your heart’s desire into full consciousness and clarity. Without this step, it is too easy for the dreams that emerged to be overridden by firmly entrenched habits and the status quo.

It is true that you need to let go of your attachment to a particular outcome and especially release the need to control the “hows” of manifesting your heart’s desire. Here is where you have to trust in and rely upon your partnership with the larger powers of Spirit. The Universe (aka God) knows far better ways of manifesting your dreams than you do. So don’t think you have to go it alone.

That said, manifesting your dream life will take some work on your part. You have to do more than just stare at your Visioning® collage and wait for your dream to land in your lap. Keep your eyes, ears and heart open to synchronicities and connections that can help you move toward your dream. Take action when action is called for. Just make sure that action is heart-driven and divinely inspired rather than completely left-brain, ego-based or habitual.

  • “This is the zone of reality creation: regularly picturing delights that don’t yet exist, emotionally detaching from them, and jumping into action when it’s time to help the miracles occur.”

Amen, Sister Beck! I could not agree with you more!

Feel free to contact me if you’d like more information about the process of Visioning® or you’d like to experience a facilitated Visioning® session. You might also want to check out Dr. Capacchione’s book, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams or visit www.VisioningCoach.org.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

A New Pledge

In celebration of personal freedom this holiday weekend, I just thought I'd share this fabulous video, A New Pledge, by David Ault. Be safe, be free, be happy this 4th of July weekend, and always . . .

Monday, June 28, 2010

Road Work


One of the main streets leading into my neighborhood is undergoing repair.

For the last two or three years, potholes have multiplied in this roadway, opening up after every heavy rain. Every now and then, the road crews would come through and fill the potholes with new asphalt, but with the very next rain those same potholes would open back up and new ones would appear.

Finally, they are doing the job right. They have stripped the entire road down to its base, removing all the old asphalt right down to the roadbed. It’s inconvenient, it’s messy, it’s a big job. But when they have finished laying the new surface, it will be solid, cohesive and smooth. Those old potholes will no longer reappear with every rain.

While I must temporarily adjust my driving habits to avoid this construction area, I am looking forward to the smooth ride to come.

The roadway of my life used to be filled with potholes, even sinkholes, that I was constantly bumping through and falling into: drama addiction, victimhood, fear, worry, not-enoughness. I used to try to fill the potholes any way I could: by overeating, by drinking, by venting and moaning, by telling and retelling my poor-me stories to anyone who would listen. Trouble is, no matter how hard I tried to fill those potholes, they just kept popping back up.

A crisis came along. My son died of an overdose. It was a wake-up call. It was the mother of all potholes and there was no way I could just fill it up and move on. The experience of loss forced me to strip back down to the roadbed, to the very core of me and concentrate on rebuilding the road of my life in a way that would be solid, cohesive and smooth.

I had great tools to work with – tools that helped me to strip away the unstable, unhappy aspects of my life and prepare a solid base on which to build a new, fulfilled, authentic life.

It’s big job and it’s messy. It’s a work in progress. But it is so very worth it.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Huge Bounty of a Small, Daily Harvest

It's amazing what 30 minutes in my garden at the end of a hectic day can do for my mood. Being surrounded by green growing plants filled with blooms and fruit fills me with a calm serene energy. Even when it's hot outside, as it is these days, it feels cooler in the garden.

These few minutes spent together as my husband waters and I harvest create a connection we just wouldn't get sitting in front of the TV. There is a rhythm to each of our routines and together our individual rhythms become a kind of dance. We don't speak much, except to comment occasionally about how big the cantaloupes are getting or how much better the tomato plants look now that we've shaded them. The worries of the day may be discussed later, but not now, not here in the garden.

Within the rhythm of our gardening, we connect to the rhythm of the plants and the seasons. We connect to the food we will put on our plates. We engage more deeply in the broader rhythms and cycles of life.

There are many benefits to gardening, but what strikes me this evening is the huge bounty a small, daily harvest represents.


I have just enough lettuce, herbs, carrots, radishes and cherry tomatoes for tonight's salad for two. The larger tomatoes I'll save to make salsa later this week. I'll roast half the bell peppers and eggplants, along with some of the fresh garlic we harvested last week, to accompany our pork tenderloin. The strawberries will be nice with breakfast tomorrow.

The remaining squash, eggplant and peppers will store in the fridge for a week or longer. They will not go to waste, as it will be several days before more of these will be ready to pick again. And when certain plants are producing more than we can use within a few days, I can freeze some away for the future or lavish my excess bounty on family, neighbors and friends.

And so, tonight and every night for months now, I have enjoyed the just enoughness of my small, daily harvest. The pleasure of eating what my husband and I have grown with our own hands. The sure knowledge that there will continue to be just enough - that as soon as I've used up the eggplants and squash picked today, more will be ready to harvest. That a wonderful apple harvest will follow a month or so after the peaches and the oranges will arrive at Christmastime. And all of it will be just enough to fill our needs and allow us to be generous with any surplus.

What if, at the end of each day, I took stock of my whole life this way? Would I learn to appreciate the perfect just enoughness of everything? Would I begin to trust that as one life-crop (a job, relationship or stage of life) slows down, quits producing or dies off completely, the next is ready to bloom and bear fruit? Instead of worrying so much about where my bounty will come from and scurrying to store it away for the future just in case there won't be enough later, perhaps I could simply surrender to the natural rhythm of just enough and the huge bounty of a small, daily harvest.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

I Weep for the Turtles



The oil spill will undoubtedly affect many creatures of the sea and coastal wetlands. My heart breaks. Been having disturbing turtle dreams - the sea turtle has been a totem energy for me and I weep for the affect this is having on these beautiful creatures. Examiner slide show of turtles affected by spill.

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. (Ho'oponopono prayer)

Donate Life!


Donate Life!

I'm so proud of my son for making the selfless decision to be a live organ donor. Please send prayers for a safe procedure and a swift recovery for both he and his recipient. Surgery is scheduled for June 16.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Sekhmet



Lest you judge me as a heathen or an empty-headed New Age bimbo, or evil, or whatever, let me say that I believe the human mind is too small to conceive of the all-encompassing greatness of the Single Power that rules all. And so we create manifestations and approximations of various aspects of the One that we perceive only in glimmers.

I have a strong connection to that aspect perceived as Sekhmet, and this is a tribute to her.

She is misunderstood as the goddess of destruction, war and pestilence. I have come to know her more clearly as the goddess of the Dark Night, the birther of the new that follows the death of the old, the Light that shines through hearts cracked open by trauma and grief.

I feel the world, humanity, is entering a collective Dark Night of the Soul. But this sacred energy of death and rebirth, by whatever name (the Celtic Babd, India's Kali, Egypt's Sekhmet) must be remembered as having BOTH aspects: death and rebirth.

We fear the death of the old, but it always brings the birth of the new. Today, as so many old systems fail - health care, finance, education, ecology, politics - let us remember that this is a potent time for recreating our world in a stronger, better form.

I call upon Sekhmet to help us rebirth this planet.

A few of the hundred names of Sekhmet:
Lady of the Place of the Beginning of Time
Flaming One
Pure One
Awakener
Opener of Ways
Lady of Transformation
Enlightener
Empowerer
Destroyer by Fire
Wanderer in the Wastes
Great One of Healing
Winged One
Powerful of Heart
The Aware
The One Who Holds Back the Darkness
The Beautiful Light
Beloved Teacher
Mother of the Gods

Friday, April 2, 2010

There's a Reason it's Called "Good" Friday



(This was first published on Good Friday last year at Open to Hope)

I’ve been thinking about the Easter story as a metaphor for my own journey through grief. I’ve been thinking about Good Friday and the days leading up to it, because in reality that’s where the Easter story begins. It begins with the dark night of the soul. It begins with a death.

In my life, the darkness wound through years of watching helplessly as my son Cameron struggled with addiction and, at times, homelessness. The darkness only deepened with his death by overdose in the county jail on May 3, 2004.

As in the Bible’s story of Jesus’ death, there seemed to be a great deal of betrayal involved. I felt that I had betrayed my son by not doing enough to save him from his addiction. I felt that he had betrayed himself, betrayed his potential, by using drugs. I felt the system had betrayed us all by choosing to punish substance abusers rather than rehabilitating them and, especially, by allowing addicts to keep using drugs while in custody.

I had often wondered how Mary must have felt, losing her son Jesus in that horrific way. When my son died, I felt like I had died, too. I felt a huge unmovable weight, like the boulder that sealed Jesus’ tomb, lying heavy in my heart. My world was shattered and I had no idea how to put it back together again. I couldn’t see, in those first months of despair, the amazing promise of the Easter to come.

Unlike the boulder that sealed Jesus’ tomb, the boulder in my heart was not moved so quickly and easily. I had to chip away at it slowly and painfully, sometimes with my bare hands. Yet as with Jesus’ boulder, I had help from grace and angels in moving mine.

Almost from the moment of Cameron’s death, synchronicities started guiding me toward healing and awakening. Over a two-year period, I was guided to one person after another who could help me to let go of the past and reclaim a joyful future. Over that same two-year period, I gathered the scattered pieces of my heart and myself and put them back together again, throwing out much of what was no longer useful.

In the story of my own resurrection, there is no one magical moment when the sun rose, the Earth rumbled, and the guards stared dumbfounded at an empty tomb. No, my own personal Easter was more like the slowly spreading glow of sunrise after months of Antarctic winter night. The sun’s light and warmth were at first dim memory, then the faintest glow of fragile hope, and finally the full-blown light and warmth of rediscovering love and joy and peace in my once-shattered heart.

Near the beginning of A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle writes about how often great loss precedes an awakening. And I’ve heard it said that without Judas there could have been no resurrection.

In the online Wikipedia, one definition of the dark night is “the letting go of one’s ego as it holds back the psyche, thus making room for some form of transformation.” In other words, it’s a chance for the small self to get out of the way of the Higher Self. It is the betrayals (real or imagined) and the losses in our lives that challenge us to grow into someone better than we are now — into who we were born to be.

There’s a reason it’s called “Good” Friday. Within our greatest losses, our greatest gifts await discovery. Even in the darkest night of the soul, the sun waits to rise again.

Copyright 2009, Claire M. Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wanna Get Lucky?



Tonight I hosted my monthly Wonderful Wednesday group and the theme for the night was Luck. Everybody got to do a collage but me :-( so I decided to do a quick one here!

The left-brain material for the workshop came from a book called The Luck Factor by Dr. Richard Wiseman (miramax books, 2003). He did some research on what makes the difference between being "lucky" and "unlucky" and he came up with 4 main principles: maximizing chance opportunities (or Networking, as I've called it here), listening to your lucky hunches (Intuition), expecting good fortune (Optimism), and turning bad luck into good (Alchemy).

So after all the left brain information, I had to get everybody into right brain mode with an art activity. We created 4 leaf clover collages with images to represent each of the 4 luck principles. It was awesome to see everyone in the group pick such different kinds of images. Each person's 4 leaf clover became a powerful message to them about how to create more luck in their lives.

How can you use these 4 principles to create luck?

Networking: The more people you meet and the more open you are to new information, the more likely you are to catch a lucky break. If you meet 20 new people a week, at least one of them is bound to be able to do something positive for you. So get out and mingle! Talk to strangers in waiting rooms, go to parties, attend networking events. And be open to the connections that come your way.

Intuition: Your intuition often knows more than the "facts of the matter" show. Don't ignore the rational evidence, but give it a boost by tuning into your gut. You can increase your intuitive abilities by practicing meditation or other activities that quiet the mind.

Optimism: When you expect good things to happen, they do! If you are a student of the Law of Attraction, you already know this. Focusing on the future with positive expectations draws positive results to you. It also makes your "now" happier when you can replace fear and worry with positive, happy thoughts.

Alchemy: When something unfortunate does happen, you'll feel a lot luckier if you look for the bright side of the situation. No matter what has happened, it probably could have been worse. Think of the impact of the unfortunate event in the bigger scheme of things. Will it matter as much 1 year from now? 5 years from now? At the very least, you can learn from what happened. Turning the lead into gold as often as possible will ensure fewer misfortunes and increased good luck.

I highly recommend Dr. Wiseman's book, The Luck Factor. It's a fascinating read full of great advice for anyone looking to get lucky. Master these 4 skills and your luck is bound to improve!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

My inner castle holds . . .



My inner castle holds
ancient wounds
and ancient histories
mysteries
older than the sands of time

I came here with my work boots on
to dig down through
the timeworn layers
of the pyramid self
back down to the bones
the ancient circle of standing stones
my origins
my Truth

Most masks have fallen away
yet still today
secrets lie
behind fortressed gates
waiting for me
to turn the key
and set the child
completely free

My Wild Things,
benevolently and loosely ruled,
have found a place
to safely roam
their color and form
dancing through unlined pages
filling book after book
with my own
Sacred Story

Now
for every fallen or broken heart
I find a dozen more in the sand
and the one that beats
in my chest is bound
and balanced
dancing between
the falling apart
and the coming together
destruction and creation
and all of it Love

In the end
which is the beginning
what remains is the sea
and the ever blooming tree
that is Life

~Claire, the Artful Alchemist

Friday, February 19, 2010

My Brain Hurts



Anybody else feeling this struggle?

When you have about 20 minutes to spare, check out this video on Ted.com: Jill Bolte Taylor's Stroke of Insight for some fabulous insight on the workings of the right brain after a stroke incapacitates the left brain.

I'm not advocating giving up the left brain altogether, however I'm all for more right brain function in the world!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Parched



"When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song. When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest. When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner, break open the door, my King, and come with the ceremony of a king. When desire blinds my mind with delusion and dust, O thou Holy one, thou Wakeful, come with Thy Light and Thy Thunder."
— Rabindranath Tagore

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

What My Soul Knows


what my soul knows

there is a part of me
that is timeless and eternal
there is a part of me
that lives among the stars
there is a part of me
that knows what is written
in the book of my soul
there is a part of me
that sends me Light
constantly
despite my lack of awareness
there is a part of me
that knows every experience
is about transformation
and soul growth
there is a part of me
that knows
Love is stronger than anything
there is a part of me
that knows
I am loved
I am loved
I am
Love

Monday, February 1, 2010

Nesting

As women, we tend to be good "nesters." We are the keepers of home and hearth, the moms, the nurturers. We create a comfortable nest for those we love. We also create a comfortable nest for our dreams - feathering it just so, admiring the egg(s) we place there to germinate and gestate. Every so often, we take out one of our dream eggs, blow the dust off of it and sigh with longing, imagining what it would be like to live that dream life. The problem is that we're such good "nesters" we may never allow our dream eggs to hatch. We grow so enamored of the egg - the idea, the dream, the ideal - that we avoid the hard work of birthing.

You've all heard the expression, "you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs," right? Well, you can't birth your dream(s) without letting the shell crack open. There is a time for gestation and a time for birth - action, forward motion, risk, adventure, unfolding. Don't hold your dreams so close that they become stillborn.

Here is an art piece and a poem that captures this idea. Actually, it's what triggered this blog post . . .



genesis
by Claire M. Perkins

behold!

dawn's prism fractures the night
spills color and life
through your once dark world
reveals what's been
too long hidden
beneath your ruffled breast

it is time, Little One

warm your nest no longer
stand aside and
reveal its gem-laden mystery
allow the shattering shell
to scatter its jewels
they are but dull paste
to the genesis that awaits
~~~

Friday, January 22, 2010

to dance with the wind . . .



I've always had an affinity for trees. They seem so wise and magical. They are rooted in the earth while reaching into the sky, the perfect blend of physical and spiritual. They embody what I long for in my life. I wrote some time ago (full post here) of a summer thunderstorm and how the trees gyrate in ecstasy with the winds, reveling in the chaos even though it may be their demise.

There's a wildness in me that longs to dance with the wind the way the trees do. That longing is what I tried to capture in the image. Oh, the freedom of that! To simply sway and bend - perhaps even be lifted up into flight. To be in the dance instead of on the sidelines trying to choreograph. To just BE. To dance with the wind . . .

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Art Therapy Pieces in Support of Haiti

A number of artists at Polyvore.com have been creating art sets in support of Haiti. Click on any image to see it larger. Please give what you can.

HAITI

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Peace Pie Mandala

Last night's Wonderful Wednesday event was a prayer of peace expressed through meditative art. Six lovely women joined me for a Peace Pie Mandala workshop. In this method, developed by Jennifer Star (www.peacemandala.com), a group comes together to individually and collaboratively create a mandala-shaped collage expressing a vision for peace.

We began with a guided meditation which helped us each to tap into the heart and feel our way into our individual perceptions of peace. We then each individually collaged a wedge-shaped piece of paper, selecting images and words from magazines that spoke to us of peace. After some quiet reflection and journaling with our individual expressions, we assembled all the wedges into the mandala.

(click the image to see a larger version)

Seeing all the individual visions come together into a whole is an amazing process. It mirrors the way we create peace in the world: first, within ourselves, then in making our own unique contribution to the whole and, finally, by coming together in groups and communities to do the work of peace. Finding common themes and threads of color running through the whole helps us to see how connected we are. Recognizing unique themes in our own piece of the peace pie helps us to see how important our individual perceptions of and contributions to peace are.

Some of the powerful messages that came through included:
  • staying playful and joyful in the process
  • finding our inner peace first
  • connecting with and creating nature
  • seeing children and animals as teachers showing us the way
  • honoring diverse traditions
  • finding peace in the midst of chaos
We ended by disassembling the mandala so we could each take our piece of the peace pie home with us, knowing that the collective vision is not shattered by doing so. We then made a circle by holding hands and sang the Peace Song: Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.

May you be at peace and create peace in your community and in the world this New Year!