Welcome to the art/life trail.

I thought we’d open this week with a salute to Kindness Week. Even though the week is now behind us it’s worth carrying random acts of kindness forward as the trail stretches out ahead.

February brings us the Renewal Moon cycle. How powerful and focused it is to consider those parts of ourselves that are worth investing in.

How Do You Commit?

Random Acts of Kindness create instant Renewal in the field. I know that we can share kindness with one another in many ways on our daily trail yet there is something quite special and profound when we do something random that impacts someone we may never see or meet.

Last week I was picking up supplies for my Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art kids. I laid my purchases down for the cashier and she informed me that the person before me had left “this five dollar bill toward your purchase”.

How kind.

How very friendly.

How lovely to be the recipient of someone’s thoughtfulness.

Drozda image, Kelly Johnson graphic design, Wise Words by Lao Tzu

Reflecting

Back in October, during the Experience Moon cycle, we began to consider the power of the dismount. We had been riding full out through the spring and summer. By mid December, during the Strength Moon, we were willing to jump off the horse in favor of Becoming Horse. We began to pace ourselves so that the rush to get somewhere transformed into our yearly opportunity to BE. Each year we receive six moon/months to practice being…15 minutes a day taps you in.

With October’s inner turn toward the Underworld we travel in and down to find our roots. By February we have traveled far and wide…Being Horse. As we approach March 20 and the spring equinox turn attention toward renewal. Wake up and purify thoughts and feelings.

Drozda image, Kelly Johnson graphic design, Wise Words by Aesop

In the last post we considered the quality of the maelstrom. Look at the Topside world. Listen to comments overheard in conversation. Listen to the news. Note differences of opinion. See countless examples of how current chaos creates confusion, depression, frustration and a sense of wrong.

Keep Your Focus

This is your time to keep the focus upon the inner realm of the gold mine/mind below the surface…think of the storm at sea and how beneath the roiling waves there is the calm life carrying on deep below. During this time of distraction consider where your wealth lies and on what you can afford to invest.  

This week we include two prayer/poems from my book Twenty Two Prayer Poems for Care Givers…

Laugh Life

Can you imagine what it means to have no cares, no worries, no anxieties, but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time? This is what time is for, to learn just this and nothing more.
ACIM

Dear One,

Once again I stand on the edge of unknowing.
I am willing to be helped.
Today I ask only that You assist me.

Help me to welcome and remember
That there is nothing my holiness
Cannot do as a child of the Light

As a child of the Earth.

This place and all of its problems and concerns
Seems unreal at best and deeply frightening at worst.
Send in all of the Angelic Helpers.

Lift me up above the battlefields.
I am here only to be truly helpful.
You have taught me the You
Will live with me and teach with me.
I need only to think with You.

Clear my mind of any clutter.
Lift my spirit and take me home
Where lightness surrounds.
This place can seem so serious.
I get caught in trying to be certain.
I experience such self importance.

Carry me into the atmosphere of joy.
I breathe in the awareness of You
Being closer than my hands and closer than my feet.

Amen

Falling

Come to the edge.
No, we will fall.
Come to the edge.
No, We will fall.
They came to the edge.
He pushed them and they flew.
Appolinaire

 

Dear One,

When I look into the face of death I want to run away.
I feel so helpless.

What can I do for this one who lies before me?
How can I say any words that mean anything to this one
So soon to depart this world?
I touch a hand that soon will carry no sign of life.

I listen to breathing that is gasping for a hold.
I see a body that is weak and suffering.
I taste an odor in the air that reminds me of the
Path I also walk and I become unsettled
And squirmy and afraid.

Help me to be present for this one today.

Touch in on my fearlessness and gently take my hand.
Listen to my breathing and calm my mind.
See my body infusing the atmosphere with compassion
Radiating from the quiet center of my heart.
Help me taste the sweetness of the sacred
Rite of passage.

It is truly an honor to visit this edge with You beside me.

Thank You in advance for what I will face this day.

Amen

A Deep Hunger, Drozda, Acrylic/board, 18 x18″

I’m so glad that you are here. I invite you to consider the ways in which you can continue to renew your commitment to the beauty, wonder and goodness of your art/life and to the world.

This has been an exciting week in many ways. I had a birthday and turned the Wheel of Life for the 68th time on February 15. I feel steeped and surrounded by love from all directions and I am so grateful for so many well wishes…thank you all.

To mark this new personal beginning I also give thanks for the call that came last fall inviting me to be included in an article on The Art of Saving the World  now in the current issue of Distinction Magazine.

I look forward to seeing you next time on the art/life trail.