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| JUMPING FROM THE EGG (art by Hallelujah Truth) |
#REVERB11 PROMPT (December 4, 2011): Has your standard of BEAUTY shifted in the past year? Thanks to Carolyn Rubenstein (author, blogger, coach), who has stepped in to organize an exciting REVERB11. Responses to her prompts can be found here and on Facebook Reverb11.
In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
(from a Navajo Indian prayer found on Wildmind Buddhist Meditation)
Hallelujah for the SPIRIT, and the JOURNEY! With aging comes the opportunity to relinquish the attachments to the BODY and to joyfully embrace the nuances of the SPIRIT! 2011 has deepened my commitment to understanding that which cannot be TOUCHED--the ESSENCE that exists in each of us that can only BE EXPERIENCED.
I continue to struggle with accepting the wrinkles that alter the contours of my face, the brown blemishes that emerge on my hands, and the extra pounds that encircle my waist. My knees hurt these days. Ouch! Yes, on one level, I want to be immortal and infinitely young. Yet, on another level, there is profound BEAUTY in accepting my own MORTALITY.
As that which is EPHEMERAL changes (the body), I am so CURIOUS about that which is INFINITE and unalterable (the spirit). Being 53 brings such immense pleasure in releasing little things! This past year has been the practice of letting go of expectations, accepting what is HERE, and BEING PRESENT. At this practice, I am like a NEWBORN!
The shift in my standard of BEAUTY in 2011? BEING BEAUTIFUL. BEINGNESS! The Navajo Indian prayer has lines I am particularly fond of:
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.
JUMPING FROM THE EGG! The image I drew for today's # REVERB11 prompt was greatly influenced by the lecture I attended last night at the Jung Society of Atlanta. Pamela Cooper White gave an exciting lecture on CG Jung as and artist by examining The Red Book which was only published in 2009. Many of his drawings repeatedly show an EGG--something with tremendous symbolic import! As a part of my daily drawing practice, I invite whatever has entered my life. This morning I invited Jung's "egg" to be the first thing I drew. Pamela Cooper White mentioned Odilion Redon as one of the artists that influenced Jung's drawings. I devoured his images on the internet once I returned home. The colors in his paintings were in my mind as I began to draw flowers around the egg.
As the "new" ideas found expression, I returned to my mode of meditation...repetition. I drew Wandjina, Hallelujah, Mother Snake, and finally, my precious Misha! Dear Pilgrims,I invite you to interpret this painting!
For now that is Coffee With Hallelujah! Soul Blog with me Fellow Pilgrim about your standard of BEAUTY. Write your responses here on my blog or join us in twittering your responses at #Reverb11.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
thank you for REVERB11 -- I fell a bit behind this w/e, but I am enjoying the process. (For me so far) it's been an eye-opening process and a consolidation process all in one. How nifty is that!
ReplyDeleteAnd I am ever so glad to have met Paleo Barbie, I'm introducing her to loads of people here, and she is making connections and seems to be enjoying herself.
Great stuff, thank you!
Dearest DD, I am so happy that you are participating in Reverb11! Will you be sharing any of your responses?
ReplyDeletePaleo Barbie is so happy that you are introducing her to your friends in England. She is a great admirer if Mary Anning, one of the first female paleontologists.
I accept your invitation to speak about your painting. My first thought was surprise at the bold positioning of the motherly female figure in the partial egg at the bottom center. It's lit up and glowing. Feels alive, solid and vital like a primordial source of life burgeoning up from the bottom of the ocean. Wandjina floats in a sea of color leaping over her, among swaying sea grasses and minute cellular underwater creatures. He is fluid and amorphous, a part of the colored sea. The outline of a fleeing figure exits the scene on the lower right...perhaps drawn away by a current or by the force of the emerging, mysterious illuminated egg.
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