Welcome to July on the art/life trail ride! The South Gate on the Natural Calendar and the pathway of Growth, Trust and Love are now open for business!  The ninety days of summer place a focus upon Others. Research and action will hopefully be embraced!

 

Our keyword for this moon/month is Growth.

Last week we were reminded to be bright while standing at the South Gate. The idea is to create a bridge from spring into summer while refreshing a connection with the Ancestors and the elements.

We’ve Arrived

We’re alive and we’re here to thrive!

July puts a focus on the element of water so critically essential for Growth. Water can be gentle or cataclysmic depending on circumstances. Our planet called Earth is deeply stressed. We are experiencing more and more frequent episodes of destruction and many of these involve the water element. Seeing water’s power and capacity for destruction can easily wreak emotional havoc.

Within our bodies the salty sea circulates and here too we may find relative calm or different stages and phases of anxiety and chaos. Standing at the South Gate you are invited to begin a 90 day research project exploring the waters in which you wade and/or swim. Perhaps you’ve set a goal to dive deep. You may have elected to enlist the power of a hydroplane. You might be more inclined to stand on land and dangle a toe in the ripples at the shore. You choose.

Ask: 

Am I floating peacefully, treading in a panic or being pulled under drowning? 

 

During this four weeks the Growth opportunities are rampant! Have fun and notice how quickly the element of water can show you metaphoric waves, undertows and smooth-as-silk surfaces that reflect your ability to grow. Vigilance is required for maximum Growth. Since water is our element this month… hang out near some or even better go float. Water is most often associated with feelings making this a great time for a creative emotional health tune-up!  

 

Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge beach, Drozda, 2015

Welcome to our thirty day creative challenge: Healthy Emotional Growth!

HEALTHY STRUCTURE

Growth of visions and goals are more likely to be achieved when there are structures in place to support flow and forward movement. In the garden; a trellis for a vine or a planter for the tomatoes. Specific tools for tending rows or raised beds. Optimal blend of light, water, soil and air supplied as seeds grow strong and healthy.

Growth happens.

 In the Garden 3, Drozda, Acrylic/board, 24 x 24 inches, 1998

We’re in the first moon/month (July 4- August 2) of the Summer Quadrant (July, August, September).

The 3 moons of summer bring:

Growth flowing deep, wide and high… leading to Trust that is sustainable through the expanding Love for what is and will be. 

Grow UP ^

All research and actions this cycle will help Growth to occur. Think of triumph over obstacles this month. Face demons, name emotions, take a deep breath and swim for shore. Reflect upon emotional patterns that loop you into the tendency to act against your best interests.

One of my beloved Buddhist teachers got a chuckle from the audience when he suggested that a powerful mantra for those who chant/meditate could be to repeat; “Oh So Ha Grow Up!”

Emotional Maturity

Notice if your automatic emotional reactions have meaning for you now or are they simply default settings. Research your emotional/feeling body patterns. No judgment. Are they childish and immature?  Are they ready and meant to be outgrown?

Gently but firmly commit to Growing UP ⇑

Get creative! Learning to release unproductive emotions opens UP ⇑ creative flow.

You may choose to explore a healed and whole emotional state. As adults we have the freedom to take on the role of detective. For many years I folded state-of-the-art therapy techniques into my art making…each one morphed seamlessly into the next with a flow that I continue to find quite stunning. While I worked in my studio I also explored Hatha and Raja yoga, the study of the Upanishads, rape crisis training, talk therapy, drawing/journal making, deep tissue body work, acupuncture, moxiebustion, myofascsial release, running, and floating in deprivation tanks…plus this path of Natural Calendar and its ways to gain a return to balance. Each step we take, individually and collectively brings us closer to and more willing to identify and release dark shadowy emotional parts. 

This is a grand time to take ten steps back and be the observer. Get interested in and curious to know the demons dancing around your bed. Stop and take a deep breath. Face each one. Buddhism  provides profound practices for emptying body, speech and mind of obstructed emotions. You might sit near water and spend time with Pema Chodron or Lama Surya Das.

No matter what healing/balancing modalities I explore my constant and daily fallback is composting and gardening. Composting…witnessing the turning of garbage into gold for the garden thrills me… and weeding…gathering a big bucket of weeds first thing in the morning all through the summer (bonus: my garden sits on the shore of a forested lake cove) brings me home to my center. Each weed represents my willingness to let some not-useful thought go. I do my best. I offer my attention to the task. I have come to understand how counter-productive my old mired patterns can be. We’re never done. We’re never complete, yet how exciting to devote one cycle each year to the tune-up of Growth leading to Trust opening to deeper wider Love for the art/life trail ride. I am an activist and an advocate for freeing up emotional/feeling space all through July.

In the Garden 2, Drozda, Acrylic/board, 24 x 24 inches, 1998

Let’s Do This Thing

Stepping onto the Summer Pathway we spend time near water. As we come back to the trail we notice weeds and invasive undergrowth. There are obstructions on the path that spring up out of nowhere during the night. We tend. We meet setback and difficulty whether we want to or not.

Focus on Growth. Sense into the organic unfolding toward Trust and Love for self and Others. Recognize how Others and Life flow into your creative vision for this Year of Compassion.

What we’re up to here on the trail ride is making our way through the landscape of the art/life. Many of us are now in ACT III and things can get bumpy and disorientation results at the four directional turning points during the Natural Year. Lightning might strike. You want your creative tools shined up  and at the ready. You want to tap into your inner GPS system. Orient back to your Center. Sigh…ahhhh…welcome h’OM’e. You want to stay the course and be on track. You want to get to where you really want to be going.

GROWTH HOMEWORK

‘As above, so below and back again’… results come from action.
This moon want/choose/desire/invoke/request/require of your Ancestors and elemental connections a deeper and wider commitment to emotional health progress.

Research to support Growth:

Dancing the Wheel of Psychological Types by Mary Loomis

The Medicine Wheel Tarot by Carol Bridges

Thanks for being on the trail! See you next week…

Be emotionally healthy.

Be emotionally healthy for yourself, for others and for all of life.

Be centered.

Be centered for yourself, for others and for all of life.

Me at the opening reception beside my mixed media painting
‘The Artist Studio’ at Charles H, Taylor Art Center, Hampton, Virginia, photo by James Warwick Jones