HOWLS TO HOWL-A-LUJAHS (hallelujahs)!

Greetings SOUL BLOGGERS, PILGRIMS! As the HEROINE in our own magnificent JOURNEYS, each and every one of us experiences TRANSFORMATION. Once a PILGRIM leaves the home of the FAMILIAR, she will DISCOVER new relevancies in this vast and glorious world—guaranteed! I suspect that is what we all secretly hunger for 24/7! For me, HALLELUJAH, I have gone from HOWLing to HOWL-A-LUJAHing and back again!

(At first JOURNEYING is scary and unpredictable. A PILGRIM does not KNOW who she will meet, whether it will be a quadraped, hexaped, octaped, or a regular old biped!)

(At the second Beer Brew Girls beer tasting event, Beer Brew Girl Kim Wolfe howls along with Hallelujah because she and her Chiboogamoo won a special collection of crafted beers from the BBGs! To see additional pics from this celebratory event go to the Beer Brew Girls website.)

(Dana Kemp, who possesses one of my "Howl to See" paintings, loves to howl. Well, in fact, she really needs to howl on a regular basis! See her fantastic photography, especially her old boyfriend series on her website.)

Going deep, going to the gut, growling and howling—hooting and hawing to get to the JOY, the HALLELUJAHS! Let the groans out, be they pain, desire, hunger, yearning, or unlearning—I believe with all my HEART that we need to LISTEN to the rumbles of our SOULS, our CORE BEINGS! Let our BELLIES and VOICES make the UNSEEN palpable. HOoooooWwwwwLLLLLLL…HOooowLaaaaaaLUJahhhhhhh!

I have been a CONSCIOUS HOWLER for three years now (see an earlier blog for the awakening of my howl). And whenever I need to, I get other PILGRIMS to howl with me. It is no longer surprising to me, how WILLING and READY other SOULS are ready to HOWL. Almost everyone I ask to accompany me in a HOWL, smiles, struggles at first to find where the HOWL comes from, and then the HOWL trots out from the previously silenced SOUL! Laughter ensues!

(A wall of HOWLs! I painted about 30 HOWLS! Simply HOWL to SEE and to BE! Oh and I paint dinosaurs too because my Chiboogamoo is a brilliant paleontologist, and I love paleobeasties!)

There is much delightful history to the HOWL in the last 60 years! Here are a few that influenced me. Just think of Allen Ginsberg’s “HOWL” written in 1955! (See the exuberant beat poet reading 10 minutes of this poem.)

And the year I graduated from high school in 1976, the bicentennial of the US, theAcademy-Award winning movie “Network” came out with its famous “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore” speech and nationwide rant. (See character Howard Beale, a TV news anchor, lead everyone in this belly howl.) This “howling” even then struck me as therapeutic and a path towards healthfulness.

Yes, and only last year Maurice Sendak’s children’s story, “Where the Wild Things Are,” debuted on the big screen. Max, the main character, journeys to the realm of pure emotion. Listen to a few of the HOWLS as he travels deep into his HEART.

Our JOURNEYS bring new relevancies. My HOWLING PILGRIMAGE has brought me to HOWL-a-lujahs! JOY. After establishing a HISTORY of HOWLS, I felt something else, existing simultaneously along side the yearning and unsettling ways of BEING. I felt a treasure chest of abundance at BEING alive. I felt THANKFUL to the GREAT SPIRIT. And I felt united with myself, and this SELF extended out to other SOULS--YOU! Hallelujah erupted from as deep a place as the belly HOWL—I heard myself proclaiming HOWL-a-lujah! Hallelujah! Thank you…I am full of THANKS to YOU, FELLOW PILGRIMS.

(At the Beer Brew Girls second beer tasting event, I met an incredible FELLOW HOWLER, I'm not kidding. Mary Jane Mahan, author of "Love at the Pub," took to my HOWL paintings immediately because she too lives in AUTHENTICITY. Check her out at her website. We traded. I got a copy of her book and she got my HOWL.)

I NOW call myself HALLELUJAH TRUTH. This name holds the HOWL and my given name RUTH. It contains the PRAISE I give to the UNIVERSAL SOUL and keeps me focused on my journey towards the TRUTH. I am the HEROINE in my LIFE’S STORY: From Howls to Howl-a-lujahs!

(My PILGRIMAGE began in 2009 when I began to ease into JOURNEY by joyfully catnapping.)

Joseph Campbell wrote about MY journey (and YOURS too) in his book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” Campbell describes the stages the hero (in my case—the heroine) must go through on her PILGRIMAGE. After answering “a call to adventure” and leaving home (a familiar place), the heroine goes through a series of “initiations” before returning home with NEW knowledge that must be integrated into the former existing life. HENCE, Hallelujah Truth!

That’s the HOWL for NOW my dear SOUL BLOGGERS. Write Hallelujah and tell me about your JOURNEY! I want to learn about your “call to adventure,” the howls that accompanied you, and your new relevancies! Thank you for your precious HOWLING selves!