REVERB10 (CONCLUSION): CORE OF ME? SOULFULNESS

Hallelujah for CONCLUSIONS! Today we bid farewell to the first decade of the 21^st century. And with the last day of December, the REVERB10 CHALLENGE concludes. Today’s final writing prompt asks us to close out 2010 by TELLING A STORY OF SELF. What would you tell others is the central story of you—a story that gets to the CORE of your YOUNESS?

SOULFULNESS is my CORE! I imagine SOULFULNESS. I create SOULFULNESS. I become SOULFULNESS. Hallelujah!

For NOW, my STORY of ME-NESS can be found throughout the multiple entries in this blog, Coffee with Halleluljah. I am a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM on a JOURNEY where ART matters. ART heals. ART informs. WELCOME 2011!

Thank you REVERB10! It has been fun journeying with you through the waning days of 2010. Dear Pilgrims, SOUL BLOG with me in response to December 31^st REVERB10 PROMPT: Core story. What central story is at the core of you, and how do you share it with the world? (Bonus: Consider your reflections from this month. Look through them to discover a thread you may not have noticed until today.)

REVERB10: GIFT for 2010? DISCOVERING ART-FULL-NESS IS OMNIPRESENT

Hallelujah for gifts! In 2010, one of the most important gifts I received (and I received many) was the gift of EXPERIENCING ART-FULL-NESS in EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE I SOJOURN.

By EXPERIENCING ART-FULL-NESS, I mean ABSORBING the fruits of creative endeavors, really SOAKING IN what other ART PILGRIMS have made. Although I have written about this topic in other blogs (See the one on the Abundance of the Georgia Coast or one about Fossil Art in Hughenden, Queensland, Australia ), let me give you a more recent example.

Yesterday, my Chiboogamoo and I JOURNEYED close to 120 miles northwest of Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to visit the Tennessee Aquarium We were craving to be in touch with creatures of the water, and we were dazzled by the Tennessee Aquariums’ collections from rivers around the world, reef animals, and ocean inhabitants. Take for instance, the sculptural beauty of jellyfish.

On our PILGRIMAGE from the Tennessee Aquarium to lunch on what Chattanoogans call "the hill," we crossed a magical green glass bridge and walked along the Tennessee River. It was as pedestrians that we discovered Chattanooga’s love of sculpture! Along the hill in front of the Hunter Museum of American Art are breathtaking sculptures of varying size and media—creating ART-FULL-NESS!

Then JOY! We approached the River Gallery Sculpture Garden! Images forged from ARTISTS’ SOULS certainly lift the SOJOURNER’S SPIRIT! Are you like me PILGRIM? Do you too have the need to SEE the concrete manifestation of the beauty of another’s soul as expressed in ART-FULL-NESS?

And then there was the human made ART, which connected and expanded our visceral awe of the jellyfish! The Tennessee Aquarium and Hunter Museum calls this collaboration nature and artist: “JELLIES LIVING ART.” Stephen Rolfe Powell named his jelly series “SCREAMERS” (See this short video to see the dramatic construction of these glass sculptures).

Cork Marcheschi, along with his partner James Nowak, made these sculptures that appear to hold a living spirit within their glass form. Who would know without an explanation that the “lightning in the bottle” is gas contained in a vacuum and then electrified! This series is called “LIQUID LUMINOUS SECRETS.”

Hallelujah! We can heighten our EXPERIENCE of BEING here on this EARTH with ART-FULL-NESS. Thank you Chattanooga for your dedication to the ARTS! You LIFTED my SPIRITS! Thank you REVERB10 for this opportunity to be thankful for the magnificent gift of ART-FULL-NESS—it is omnipresent!

SOUL BLOG with Hallelujah. Share your response to the December 30^th REVERB10 PROMPT: Gift. This month, gifts and gift-giving can seem inescapable. What's the most memorable gift, tangible or emotional, you received this year?

REVERB10: THE MEME STUDIO—A COMMITMENT TO THE EVOLUTION OF OUR MARRIAGE

Hallelujah for moments that are meaningful to one’s life and that serve as “MARKERS” to SIGNIFY CHANGE! In September 2010, my husband Chiboogamoo and I rented an art studio space TOGETHER at Sycamore Place Gallery in Decatur, Georgia, with a sincere desire to COLLABORATE using our distinctively different creativities. Length of Leaseà12 months!

We christened our studio space, “THE MEME STUDIO” as an experiment in our marriage. Because we forgot to have children and will not be passing on our “genes,” we are remembering ourselves in MEMES! That is, we are PROPAGATING OURSELVES by making art TOGETHER—the paleontologist and visionary artist! Here we ARE two strong bold individuals (HALLEUJAHTRUTH and CHIBOOGAMOO) in the equation: ME + ME = MEMEà to perpetuate units of cultural information in drawings, paintings and words!

Four months have already passed since the “defining moment” of signing the lease and moving in our lights, tables, and art supplies. In the EVOLUTION of our MARRIAGE in the MEME STUDIO we are still in the Precambrian! We are gleefully anticipating evolving in 2011!

Thank you REVERB10 for today’s prompt! Hallelujah for MEMEs and GOOD COMPANIONSHIP on the PILGRIMAGE! Dear Pilgrims SOUL BLOG with me by responding to the REVERB10 PROMPT for December 29^th: Defining moment. Describe a defining moment or series of events that has affected your life this year.

(This yellow trilobite with its trail is an example of one of our first collaborations! To make ourselves more comfy in our studio, we made a stencil of both a body fossil and trace fossil and spray painted numerous images in blue and yellow!)

REVERB10: ELABORATING ON THE JOYFUL EASE OF A CAT NAPPING in 2011

Hallelujah for a new year and new opportunities! In 2011, Hallelujah is expecting to continue celebrating LIFE with the JOYFUL EASE of a CAT NAPPING! And e x t e n d i n g that way of BEING into the ALLness of EVERYthing!

What are 10 ACTIONS or THOUGHTS to achieve the JOYFUL EASE of a CAT NAPPING? Let’s playfully propose or compose answers to this question!

1. DO NOT JUDGE—Remember from Natalie Goldberg’s writing workshop: “Not Good. Not Bad. Just is.” (Read her book, Writing Down the Bones for joyfully strengthening your writing muscle!)

2. LAUGH—HO HO HA HA HA! Practice frequent, regular laughing which lowers blood pressure, boosts the immune system, and burns calories! (Check out Dr. Kataria and Laughter Yoga for information about laughing.)

3. CREATE EVERY DAY—No matter what, HAVE COFFEE with HALLELUJAH at dawn. If one has time for a morning drink, one has time to draw, paint, or write. Morning creations are surprising. (I write about my journey as a spiritual art pilgrim in my blog, Coffee With Hallelujah.)

4. RECEIVE LOVE and APPRECIATION—Soak in the LOVING VIBES from everyone around me. Welcome it with open arms. Say THANK YOU. (I learned how to say “thank you” to the appreciators of my art through working with creativity coach extraordinaire, Lesly Fredman. As silly as it might seem, I used to diminish my art in the face of a compliment!)

5. LISTEN with my EARS—Open my ears to hear myself and others. We speak LIFE’s POETRY. Words can be as exciting and thrilling as they are challenging to understand!

6. LISTEN with my WHOLE BEING—Accept with knowing patience the messages I receive from others’ expressions, postures, and overall energy. Speak to them based on this listening.

7. THE KEY WORD is FUN—Replace the word “work” with the word “fun.” For example, Instead of saying, “I’m working on this drawing,” I will say, “I’m having fun making this drawing.”

8. EXPERIENCE PLEASURE REGULARLY—Instead of being a Spartan, gleefully try new media and infinite colors of pink, open my tongue to delightful tastes, my body to luxurious stretches, walks, and massages, my mind to books on philosophy of spirit and art, and my heart to loving YOU, you fellow pilgrim.

9. USE the EXPRESSION “I WANT” COURAGEOUSLY—Trust that the GREAT MYSTERY wants me to want. Experiencing APPETITE with the knowledge of fulfilled GRATIFICATION is JOYFUL indeed. Even unfulfilled WANT is enlivening.

10. BREATHE LOVE—Embrace the LOVE that surrounds me with AMAZEMENT and APPRECIATION. Give love to myself, my Chiboogamoo and family. Give love to my dear friends and students. And yes, give love to YOU, pilgrims, and the GREAT MYSTERY!

Hallelujah to REVERB10 for giving me this opportunity to think about THOUGHTS and ACTIONS to ELABORATE ON THE JOYFUL EASE OF A CAT NAPPING in 2011.

Soul Blog with Hallelujah on December 28^th’s REVERB10 PROMPT: Achieve. What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write that feeling down. Then, brainstorm 10 things you can do, or 10 new thoughts you can think, in order to experience that feeling today.

REVERB10: ORDINARY SOULFUL MOMENTS OF JOYOUS SOUP

Hallelujah for FOOD that nourishes the SOUL! One kind of food that provides the most profound yet ORDINARY JOY is SOUP. In fall 2010, my Chiboogamoo cooked exquisite soups to feed me in the evenings on my return home from school, and the most delightful one was KABOCHA SQUASH and CRANBERRY BEAN STEW!

A yummy warm evening meal with one’s family seems so ORDINARY, doesn’t it? However, my brilliant husband and I had recently obtained a new cookbook, “LOVE SOUP,” by Anna Thomas renown for her first recipe book, “THE VEGETARIAN EPICURE.” Each SOUP my Chiboogamoo produced from this book was tonguefully tastey and JOYFULLY new to us. Try, for instance, ROASTED POBLANO CHILE SOUP, which is a pureed blend of onions and vegetable broth topped with goat cheese and pine nuts. Or another heart stopper was “GREEN SOUP,” which absorbed bunches of kale, spinach, green onions, and cilantro!

But the hearty SOUL TOUCHING soup we will be revisiting this week when we have friends over will be KABOCHA SQUASH and CRANBERRY BEAN STEW! Since Chiboogamoo and I are occasional carnivores but primarily vegetarians, we eat a lot of beans! Finding a bean soup recipe which employs a pound of green fibrous KALE knocked our socks off! This recipe produces such a large batch of soup it seems bottomless serving infinite number of friends with its rich supply of nutrients!

Hallelujah for SHARED meals of SOUP creating vast ORDINARY MOMENTS! Thanks to two days of REVERB10 prompts that had me put “two and two” together. Anna Thomas writes in her introductory notes to “LOVE SOUP”:

There is an old Spanish saying, much repeated: “Of love and soup, the second is better.” But I say, why choose? Be in love. Eat soup. Love soup!

SOUP BLOG with Hallelujah and tell me what SOUP feeds your SOUL! Or respond to the REVERB10 prompts for the two days following Christmas.

December 26—REVERB10 PROMPT: Soul food. What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul?

December 27—REVERB10 PROMPT: Ordinary joy. Our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. What was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year?

REVERB10: ARTFULLY REFLECTING the HERE and NOW in FIXED IMAGES

Hallelujah for images that capture the human spirit! Hallelujah for SYMBOLS in these images that provide meaning and courage to each and every one of us. Today, to meet the REVERB10 December 25^th CHALLENGE, I have chosen one of the images I made at the beginning of my JOURNEY along the Dinosaur Trail in Queensland, Australia.

This image, “Stepping Out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats,” began in the tropical city of Townsville along the northeastern coast of Australia. Because it was the end of June—winter—the cool comfortable temperatures permitted me to sit out on our modest balcony with a view of the Coral Sea, a cup of coffee, and traveling art supplies.

The night before, we had watched Fruit Bats, or “flying foxes,” drop from their roosting trees and fly into darkness, their heavy mammal bodies lifted by fleshy webby wings. In the morning, noisy mobs of lorikeets had roared by our windows at sunrise. The Townsville environment percolating around me was rich with seen and unseen fauna. From my perch overlooking the sea, I asked myself the following question: “What does my SOUL want to express about BEING here right now?”

“Stepping Out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats” emerged, with me, Hallelujah Truth, entering the world of SEA and AIR. I am not alone in this adventure. Wallaby, my VULNERABILITY, accompanies me. Flying foxes pull me into the UNKNOWN. From the corner of this UNKNOWN, black cockatoos hover under my feet, singing of approaching nurturing rain. Change is at bay. I am being summoned to an ADVENTURE.

Later in the morning, Chiboogamoo and I drove west, leaving the tropical coastal environment and traveling into the Mitchell Grass plains, flat treeless expanses of rolling grass. Each morning along the Dinosaur Trail, I began a drawing/painting reflecting my state of BEING as I studied fossils of living forms preserved from 100 million years ago.

Since I was accompanying a brilliant paleontologist—my husband—but am not one, this ARTFUL REFLECTION expressed in daily drawing/painting is a stimulating tool for maintaining ME, for integrating my art with my husband’s science (read about Townsville in his blog, The Great Cretaceous Walk)! How fun! How stimulating!

Therefore, “Stepping out with Black Cockatoos and Fruit Bats” is an image which reveals what I love most about LIFE. By BEING PRESENT to our SPIRITS, we can make discoveries about ourselves wherever we are—physically or spiritually! Hallelujah! (Here in Georgia, I have returned to work on this painting twice, and I still consider it “not” finished! I see myself revisiting the fruit bats and cockatoos until I feel the image holds the “energy” I need it to.)

SOUL BLOG with Hallelujah! Share your response to the December 25^th REVERB10 PROMPT: Photo—a PRESENT to YOURSELF—Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

REVERB10: EVERYTHING is OK: ReEnvisioning Reality through the Stories We Tell in Science and Art!

Hallelujah for REVERB10 challenging me to remember a symbolic moment of OKAYNESS in 2010! Based on NOTHING and EVERYTHING, I chose to recall Lark Quarry, a famous dinosaur trackway in central Queensland, Australia. This “hotspot” along the Dinosaur Trail illustrates beautifully how SCIENCE, ART, IDEA, and STORY TELLING collide to create a REALITY we can understand.

Okay…it all begins about 95 million years ago with a high-pitched roar and thunderous footsteps along a riverside! A monstrous two-legged carnivorous dinosaur approaches a large flock of small two-legged herbivorous dinosaurs, causing them to scatter in a chaotic frenzy. Who would be dinner? More than 3,000 of their fleeing tracks were preserved in the muddy soil, leaving an intriguing puzzle to be pieced together by 20^th century SCIENTISTS.

Based on evidence and the understanding of that evidence in 1979, Tony Thulborn and Mary Wade explained the predation story above. (Click on this link to see a short video of this tracksite and hear my Chibogamoo narrate this now-well known story.) To sum it up again: There was a meat eating theropod, close to the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex, that was in search of a meal and went to the river to pick up a small ornithopod or two. A stampede ensued.

This 95-million year old story has been repeated and illuminated by ART. Hearsay is that when Steven Spielberg was making the movie, “Jurassic Park,” his consultant, celebrity paleontologist Jack Horner, referenced Lark Quarry. Another example is the movable metal dinosaur sculpture in the exhibit at the Lark Quarry Interpretative Centre. Exhibit viewers can push a button which causes the mechanical sculpture to open its toothy carnivorous jaws—jaws convincingly capable of consuming a dinner of small dinosaurs. Other art illustrating the story are the wooden cutouts representing fleeing two-legged dinosaurs the size of chickens. The educational material at the centre even goes so far as to give one of the vulnerable ornithopods a name, “Ollie.”

ART is wonderful for holding ideas—until these ideas change. Welcome to the 21^st century and a different way of interpreting the evidence! Based on measurements and complex calculations, paleontologists can now better determine if the fossilized tracks are those of an ornithopod (a plant eater) or a theropod (a meat eater).

Last July, when we saw Anthony Romilio, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, standing on the Lark Quarry floor in his stocking feet with measuring tools, little did we know that he was about to TRANSFORM the long-standing predation story. And he has!

Using current methods of calculation, he has startling evidence that the large dinosaur, which caused the stampede at the riverside, was not a carnivorous theropod! It was a large herbivorous ornithopod, which was not looking for a meaty meal. (Read the news story at this link, to learn more.)

The Lark Quarry site most be RE-STORIED in ART. What will the new images look like? Will the large moving metal dinosaur sculpture have to be removed? Will the educational images on the signage at the interpretative centre change? Will the dinosaur museum at the Corfield and Fitzmaurice building on Winton’s mainstreet have to change its dramatic Lark Quarry diorama showing a victimized ornithopod?

SCIENCE and ART! IDEAS and STORIES! REALITY! I am OKAY now and forever as long as ALL of us PILGRIMS travel with open minds and hearts—changing our stories as we need to in order to reflect REALITY as we understand it NOW! Hallelujah Truth!

Hallelujah welcomes all PILGRIMS to soul blog with her on December 24^th’s REVERB10 PROMPT for today! Everything's OK. What was the best moment that could serve as proof that everything is going to be all right? And how will you incorporate that discovery into the year ahead?

Chiboogamoo has written about Winton and paleontology in his blog, The Great Cretaceous Walk, and has an upcoming blog specifically on Lark Quarry, so stay tuned!
Hallelujah Truth right outside the Lark Quarry Interpretative Centre in Queensland, Australia

REVERB10: HOSANNA NEXT HALLELUJAH: NAMING MYSELF

Hello PILGRIMS! Let me re-introduce myself. My name is Hallelujah Truth, pronounced “HOWWWWWWWL-a-LUUUUU-YAH! TRUUUUUUUUUUTH”! I wear this self-adorned name like a BLAZING GOLDEN CROWN of RED FLOWERS.

Two years ago I discovered my new moniker, HALLELUJAH TRUTH, after fatigue with my mono-syllabic given name, “Ruth.” Isn’t LIFE too short to have a one-syllable name that begins and ends with hard to say consonants “R” and “TH”? My international students have massacred my given name, “Ruth,” for more than 20 years. From their mouths, “Ruth” emerges in various forms of LOOSE and RUSE. Occasionally, the beautiful vowel, “U,” (which sounds like ewww…) gets mangled and is produced as a shorter, lesser magnificent vowel, creating a name like ROTH. Some speakers even get creative and call me a similar sounding but easier to say name like BRUCE. One Russian speaker just shook his head and said, “I will call you HOOFIA.”

As a result of these variations of “Ruth,” I begin teaching students my name by saying, “I am called RUTH like TRUTH.” I would strive to get them to call me “Ruth” accurately with additional encouraging words: “If you greet me by my name “Ruth” every day, when it comes time to express your opinion about something, you will be able to say, ‘I THink so, instead of I Sink so’”! Perhaps these small matters of an interdental fricative (th) only matter to teacher of English as a second language!

Over time, RUTH like TRUTH got shortened to RUTHTRUTH—a very dogmatic name. My friends began to spur me on to speak bluntly, giving the appearance of speaking the TRUTH. Although I had acquired a second syllable to my singularly syllabled name, RUTHTRUTH was not FUN! Nor was this name CELEBRATORY.

WORDS MATTER! Think about this causal chain: THOUGHTàWORDàDEEDà? A quotation attributed to Ralph Waldo Emmerson answers my question:

“Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.”

As I explored possibilities of new multi-syllabic musical names, I tried on many ending in the syllable “UH”—Hannah, Annabella, Isabella, Estrella, Carmella. Then I stumbled on Hosanna—it had symbolic meaning—an exclamation of praise or adoration. But I found the “N’s” were too hard on my tongue as it stopped on the back of my upper teeth—HOSANNA. Next, HALLELUJAH popped out magically. I sucked in a really big breath! The possibility of claiming a word, which means “a joyful word of praise to God”, frightened me. After all, respecting the GREAT MYSTERY is part of my heart and soul.

Could I use HALLELUJAH as my new name, summoning its common usage as an expression of happiness—a positive exclamation? YES. DEFINITELY! HALLELUJAH gradually grew attached to my given name now embedded in the TRUTH!

HALLELUJAH TRUTH! Thought becomes words (Hallelujah Truth)! What deeds will come from these words: Hallelujah Truth? What character? For now, I use my name Hallelujah Truth for signing my artwork and writing on my blog, “Coffee with Hallelujah.” Occasionally, when one of my students has trouble saying “Ruth,” I will offer “Hallelujah” as an alternative! And the syllables of Hallelujah dance off their tongues as they repeat it more than once. Soon a swarm of students are laughing and singing praises to me by saying, “Hallelujah.” What a triumphant name. I will keep this name for now. It suits me.

Keep Soul Blogging with Hallelujah Truth. Tell me about YOUR JOURNEY and what new name you will give yourself!

OH, and here is December 23’s REVERB10 PROMPT: New Name. Let’s meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why?

REVERB10: TRAVELING as a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM, EVERY DAY and EVERYWHERE

The Min Min finds you. You don’t find the Min Min. So goes the explanation of the sudden and mysterious appearance of an extraterrestrial ball of yellow light in the outback of Queensland, Australia!

As TRAVELERS on the Dinosaur Trail in the Queensland outback, my Chiboogamoo and I learned about the Min Min phenomenon when we came to the small city of Boulia (an Aboriginal word for watering hole). With a population of about 300, this one-street town possesses a tourist center including a Min Min exhibit, so CURIOUS VISITORS can listen to recordings of locals retelling their encounters with this bewildering ball of light.

Down the street from the Min Min tourist center and a couple of blocks into one of Boulia’s neighborhoods, there is another tourist destination—the Stonehouse Museum, which amongst the local British pioneer artifacts and photographs of Aboriginal interactions, is a building dedicated to fossils! And “Dinosaur Dick” will explain the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs to you!

Hallelujah for TRAVEL! Hallelujah for LEARNING! In 2010, I traveled every moment of the day as a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM (SAP). As a SAPer, I seek MEANING and desire to express my understanding in an ARTFUL way! When I TRAVEL from the “routine” ARTFULNESS of my domestic life in Decatur, Georgia, my goal is to continue living ARTFULLY.

In today’s blog entry, I am joyfully explaining what I mean by living ARTFULLY while TRAVELLING. I have included a piece of my art, “Hallelujah Truth Flying with Dick’s Dinosaurs in the Min Min Light,” to illustrate. The morning following our sightseeing in Boulia, I made myself a cup of tea and spent an hour drawing my response to BEING in Boulia. Tuning into my heart and gut response, I “channeled” the Min Min, a plesiosaur, and an ichthyosaur using watercolor pencils. Our travel itinerary afforded me enough time to paint the entire background. As part of my SAP practice, I did my sketching and painting without judgment (not good, not bad, just is). Then I had to stop with the painting unfinished and unthought out.

Until today, I had not returned to continue this image journaling my TRAVEL in Boulia. Inspired by REVERB10’s December 22 prompt about TRAVEL, I chose to work towards completing this particular image. In doing so it allowed me to think about “how” I TRAVEL along my SPIRITUAL ART JOURNEY.

I TRAVEL with an open heart, a love of local myth, and a fascination for science. It is with these qualities that I approach my daily 15 minutes of creativity—which with inevitable grace expands to an hour or hours. In 2011, I plan to continue TRAVELING as a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM, to discover more about the GREAT MYSTERY of BEING.

And you Fellow Sojourners? Hallelujah invites you to Soul Blog with her and share your response to today’s REVERB10 Challenge below.

REVERB10 PROMPT: TRAVEL. How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would like to travel next year?