Visual Art Journaling and Playing

I really believe that play is an important part of our lives.  Yes, even when we are all grown up.  But can you remember the last time you played?  Plato said: Life should be lived as play.  Can you imagine what your life might look like if you lived it as play instead of as work?  I often refer to my studio as my "playroom" and I believe everyone needs a place to play.  If you don't agree, have a look at the research done by Stuart Brown in his book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.


And if that doesn't persuade you perhaps Bernard Shaw will.  He said "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."  For example, try skipping instead of walking and see if that doesn't make you feel younger!


Last weekend six creative women came and played in my studio and created amazing journal pages by playing on the page with paints, paper, image and word.  Here are just a couple of images from the workshop. Thank you Jodi, Janet, Debra, Linda, Eileen and Janet for letting me share them, even though I know some of them are still in process. 

Journal cover by Janet Jones

Journal cover by Debra Bridges

Journal cover by Linda Hartzig

Journal cover by Eileen Orlowski

Journal cover by Jodi Helmer

Journal page by Janet Hince

Light

One of the photographers in the Drawing with Light retreat, Carol Trull, gave me permission to share her photographs. It seems that Carol really connected with the energy of the place where the retreat was held which is called The Light Center. 

The word photography comes from the Greek and means drawing with light, so this was truly a perfect venue for the retreat.  And Carol truly recorded the essence of light in this image. The Light Center is "dedicated to helping you expand awareness of your inner light and to pray more effectively", so light was in and around us in many ways.  The dictionary defines light as "the energy producing a sensation of brightness that makes seeing possible" and as "God as a source of spiritual illumination and strength" - both of which applied in this weekend retreat on photography as a spiritual practice.

When visiting The Light Center you are generously given a package of information about the Center which includes the seven steps of effective prayer which are:

1.  I release all of my past, negatives, fears, human relationships, self-image, future, human desires and judgments to the Light.

2.  I am a Light Being.

3.  I radiate the Light from my Light Center throughout my being.

4.  I radiate the Light from my Light Center to everyone.

5.  I radiate the Light from my Light Center to everything.

6.  I am in a bubble of Light and only Light can come to me and only Light can be here.

7.  Thank you God for everyone, for everything, and for me.

And Carol also made this amazing image of butterflies.  In ancient Greek the word for butterfly is psyche, which translated means soul.  Truly a soulful weekend in a soulful place.

Time to Unfurl

This past weekend was spent in Black Mountain, North Carolina with a wonderful group of ten women.  My intention was to give them time to unfurl their creative wings with their cameras.  And they did more than that.  They let nature speak to them and listened and recorded the images nature gave them.  Butterflies, dragonflies, water, flowers, dandelions and more offered themselves to be photographed.  On one of our walks we were escorted by butterflies on both sides of the path down to the river.  And the butterflies even posed for us. Nature re-connects us with the sacred in everything.

Turtle Energy

The morning of spirit circle hosted by Mary Lemons in my studio, my husband found this baby turtle in the garden.  So small and so perfect.  Last time Mary was here the deer came to visit.  I am always filled with gratitude when the animals let me know they are here to support us.

In the book Animal Spirit Guides we are told that if turtle shows up, it means, among other things, that this is a period of increased sensitivity to the earth's vibrations and those of the collective human consciousness.  Also that it is time to nurture yourself, to slow down and pace yourself.  It is suggested that we spend a few hours in solitude, away from noise and people.  I think this is guidance we can all relate to.  Time away from the usual fast-pace of life allows us to absorb and make sense of what's been happening in our lives.

The turtle joined us for spirit circle in his own little box and after everyone had left I found a safe place for him in the garden outside the studio.  I checked on him in the morning and he was still hiding under the foliage.  But by midday he had moved on. As the saying goes: "Behold the turtle.  He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out." 

Perhaps he was reminding me that working slowly and steadily toward my next project (online classes) and enjoying the journey is more important than feeling the need to rush towards completion.

Our Words

I've just completed binding and getting ready the latest collaborative book done by the Photo Art Journals Yahoo group which I moderate. For this book I asked members to decide on a word to name their year which would help them focus their intention for the year ahead.

What would their lives look like if they embraced and lived this word daily?

And then ... they had to creatively photograph their word!  I then had fun creating a Wordle out of all the intention words that were chosen which I used as the cover for the book.

Thanks to the wonderfully creative members of this group for making this such an enjoyable project for me to put together.  You came up with some great ideas!

Here are links to photographs created for this collaborative book by some of the participants.  I love reading about their process of deciding on the word they chose.
Karen Dorcas in Alaska.
Louie Shellenberger
Paul Bogdan

The Mystic Path: Unitive Vision

Unitive Vision is the final stage of the mystic path. The best description I can find of what this is, is from Meister Eckhart, a 14th Century German mystic.  He says: "If I am to know God directly, I must become completely He and He I: so that this He and this I become and are one I."

If I consider the dark night that comes before this stage of union as a time of germination, then perhaps this stage is one of re-birth into a new reality.

To try and understand this more fully I once again looked to the mystical poets and Hafiz (as translated by Daniel Ladinsky) once again gave guidance:

 

The Seed Cracked Open

It used to be

That when I would wake in the morning

I could with confidence say,

"What am 'I' going to

Do?"

that was before the seed

Cracked open.

Now Hafiz is certain:

There are two of us housed

In this body,

Doing the shopping together in the market and

Tickling each other

While fixing the evening's food.

Now when I awake

All the internal instruments play the same music:

"God, what love-mischief can 'We' do

For the world

Today?"

Does my SoulCollage® card have any wisdom for me?

Take it one step at a time.
The way is always clear.
Let light guide your path towards the Light.

The Mystic Path: Dark Night of the Soul

Most of us have experienced the "dark night of the soul" in one form or another.  Mystics are as human as the rest of us and also experience times of deep sadness and fatigue when nothing seems meaningful or even makes sense and when one feels abandoned. But it appears that this period of the "dark night" also is a period of growth.

St. John of the Cross, who is most well known for the phrase "the dark night of the soul" talked about it as a "passive purification, a state of helpless misery, in which the self does nothing, but lets Life have its way with her".

It seems to me that if I think of this stage of growth and discovery as similar to that of a seed in the deep darkness of the soil.  Essential expansion is taking place within, even though from without it doesn't look as important as the more exciting phases of budding and blooming.  Perhaps this is a time of "gestation of the soul".

And the wisdom from my card?

I am the one who waits patiently in the dark allowing the sadness and despair to wash over me.
I am the one who knows that there is no light without darkness.
I am the one who is growing wings in my darkness, although I am not aware of them sprouting.