ARTFUL GATHERINGS

Prayer

November 15 - 17 2007 

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home. Wendell Berry

It has been a weekend of  extreme emotions. Pat(he is the baby in this photo)  and I have spent the last few days in Florida with Pat's family to celebrate the life of Pat's sister's husband. It was wonderful to see and  be with family members we had not seen for several years....... but also so very sad. Thank God for the children.

Here I am with a few members of the  younger/next

generation.

For all my Blog readers please send a prayer to Peggy (Pat's sister), a prayer of  strength and love to help her through the next days/months/years. She is a wonderful sister- in- law /friend and I am so blessed to have her and her family in my life.

Embrace

November 12- November 14, 2007 "For this reason, the purest acts of faith always feel like risks. Instead of leading to absolute quietude and serenity, true spiritual growth is characterized by increasingly deep risk taking. Growth in faith means willingness to trust God more and more, not only in those areas of our lives where we are most successful, but also, and most significantly, at those levels where we are most vulnerable, wounded, and weak. It is where our personal power seems most defeated that we are given the most profound opportunities to act in true faith. The purest faith is enacted when all we can choose is to relax our hands or clench them, to turn wordlessly toward or away from God. This tiny option, the faith Jesus measured as the size of a mustard seed, is where grace and the human spirit embrace in absolute perfection and explode in world-changing power." Gerald May

Today is hard because there is so much sadness in the air around me. I am sending peace and love to all those I know. I am praying for God to give them a small glimmer of hope. The pain of losing loved ones is horrible but this close to the holiday season the pain feels unimaginable. As I wrote yesterday I am trying to embrace this  moment and appreciate everyone and everything around me. 

So at this moment I digging deep for some feeling of gratitude that I have a yard over run with leaves which I need to vacuum, rake and bag. Dodo (real name Lucky)  here thinks he is going to help. Embrace the leaves.

Live

November 10, 2007 - November 11, 2007  Looking deeply at life

as it is
in the very here and now

Thich Nhat Hanh

I changed my quote from last year because I am living these words from Thich Nhat Hanh. In the past few days I have been taught an invaluable lesson about living in the here and now. Since Saturday three men I have known have passed away. One was 25, one was 39, and one was 62. All wonderful beautiful, kind , giving, and loving men. Two men left behind a wife and children and one left behind family and friends. Two of these men I had been associated with because of mutual friends. The third man was my brother- in- law. Pat's (my husbands) sister's husband. All three deaths were sudden. One man last control of his car at 7p.m on Sunday evening. The second man was hit by a truck while jogging. The third man died from complications with/from Leukemia. As I sit here I have lit three candles and I am sending prayers to the loved ones each of these men have left behind. 

For me ever clique I have heard about life now resonates with me.... live in the moment, live for today, carpe diem, and Go for it now.  The future is promised to no one.  ~Wayne Dyer

May......

November 8- November 9, 2007 

We clasp the hands of those that go before us,
And the hands of those who come after us.
We enter the little circle of each other's arms
And the larger circle of lovers,
Whose hands are joined in a dance,
And the larger circle of all creatures,
Passing in and out of life,
Who move also in a dance,
To a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it
Except in fragments   Wendell Berry

I am shocked that is November and Thanksgiving is fast approaching. Today I am blessed because my life is gaining balance. I offer this wonderful blessing to all who read this blog..........

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work
You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you. John O' Donohue

Contemplation

November 5, 2007 Contemplation is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. Thomas Merton

November 6, 2007  To go out to walk slowly in this wood - this is a more important and significant means to understanding, at the moment, than a lot of analysis and a lot of reporting on the things `of the spirit.' -- Thomas Merton, Learning to Love

November 7, 2007  What miles of silences God has made in you for contemplation! If only people realized what all your mountains and forests are really for!  Thomas Merton  Seven Storey Mountain 

Now that the election is over and there is a vibration of peace in the air and I am feeling the need to develop a routine and consistent meditation practice. For some reason the word contemplation keeps bouncing around my head.  I am envisioning long walks in the woods, sitting by a crackling fire and drinking glasses of red wine or mugs of hot tea. I also see myself spending long durations  in front of my easel.

 Maybe these images are popping into my head because the leaves are finally falling. My deck is sea of brown, yellow and red dehydrated leaves. But I am also sensing a need in myself to continue to connect with nature and enjoy the raw beauty the winter months have to other. It feels as if Thomas Merton was referring to the land around my house when he wrote...  What miles of silences God has made in you for contemplation. If only people realized what all your mountains and forests are really for!  

Thank You

November 4, 2007   Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.............. 

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes. Susan B. Anthony - 1873

I am burning candles in hopes that regardless of who is elected that this nation will come together and strive for peace and love.

Thank you Susan B. Anthony for making it possible for me to vote today. Thank you for making it possible to declare women as "persons". Thank you for making this country a place where dreams can come true.

Contemplate

November 2, 2007- 

 Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here. Wendell Berry

November 3, 2007- 

It doesn't have to be

the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak. Mary Oliver

I have been contemplating my life. Trying very hard to pay attention, settle my mind and practice being here. What is here ?

Halloween

October 31, 2007  Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'Edgar Allen Poe

November 1, 2007  Perfect love casts out fear.  Thomas Merton

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Halloween full of ghosts, goblins and chocolate.

Awareness

October 29, 2007  Cultivating a peaceful heart is the journey of a lifetime when this truth comes fully into awareness we can join it. Gunilla Norris

October 3o, 2oo7  It is gratitude that increases our capacity. We know the saying, “to them that have, more shall be given.” The more we are aware that we have been given, the more we are given. The abundance is never ending.   Gunilla Norris

 

  

Today I was grateful to have the time to play in my studio. I was attempting to cultivate some new ideas.

Dilemma

October 27, 2007  A room devoted to silence honors and invites the unknown, the untamed, the wild, the shy, the unfathomable — that which rarely has a chance to surface within us.
— Gunilla Norris in Sharing Silence

October 28, 2007  Can we recognize that now and then there comes an inner     sense, a fleeting thought, a little yearning 

to live our lives differently? Gunilla Norris 

I am trying to listen to my inner voice and decide my next step. The question that I am am fixated on is  "Should I enroll in a 200 hour yoga teachers training program? " My list of pros and cons is endless and I will not bore you with my ruminations. 

I am taking endless walks in my beautiful community.

I wish I could follow my dogs lead and solve my dilemma's this way........