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: VANQUISHING the SHOULDS→LIVING BEING in ACTION

Hallelujah for BEING in ACTION! Condemnation to SHOULDS—an absence of ACTION, a stultification of BEING! Uttering SHOULDAs, COULDAs, and WOULDAs, makes my head droop, my shoulders hunch, and my SPIRIT wilt. How can we PILGRIMs CLAIM the PRESENT state of our SOULS—own the actions we have completed in 2010 and YOWL and HOWL to HOWL-LU-JAHs! O Frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Hallelujah is delightfully committed to writing every December day in response to the REVERB10 CHALLENGE. However, I must admit that today, December 20^th, I confronted the most difficult writing challenge so far. Take a look at today’s prompt but be forewarned, it will pop the balloons in your Christmas parade!:

December 20^th’s REVERB10 PROMPT (AVOIDANCE—What should you have done this year but didn’t because you were too scared, unsure, busy or otherwise deterred from doing? ((Bonus: Will you do it?)))

DO SHOULDs have a VALID PLACE in our LIVES? For Hallelujah, “should” is the equivalent of the beastly Jabberwock! It and its cousin’s, WOULDA and COULDA can be vanquished!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

Lewis Carroll (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

In the place of these monsters (Shoulda, Woulda, and Coulda) that eat the SPIRIT alive, Hallelujah recommends dancing and singing. While you are moving and hearing your own voice, you will KNOW from a deep true place what ACTION to take RIGHT NOW.

For 2011, I encourage each PILGRIM to BE and DO what comes from your HEART! First, light candles and build an altar to yourself. Acknowledge the WONDERS of your 2010 ACTIONs. LOVE for ALL begins with LOVE of SELF and BEING in ACTION. Hallelujah!

I acknowledge Alice Teeter, poet and fellow member in the Artist Conference Network, who persistently reminded me of BEING in ACTION. Kisses Alice! Yes and my love to Lesly Fredman, creativity coach extraordinaire!

Soul Blog with me! Share the wonderful things you did in 2010. Please do not mention “SHOULDS”! That BEAST has been SLAIN! Inflate balloons from your SPIRIT and CELEBRATE! HOWL-A-LU-JAH!

REVERB10: HEALING in 2010-2011: HUMONGOUS LOVE

In 2010, I re-imagined LOVE. The old-order LOVE c r u m b l e d. HALLELUJAH for our “biological” families, but even more HALLELUJAHS for our “logical” families. Holding hands with chosen FRIENDS in my COMMUNITY, I relinquished my hold on the HURT MONSTER, the keeper of my LIFE’s vast disappointments and quivering alienation. Thus, the HEALING has begun!

This HEALING, this re-defining LOVE, happened in BURSTS of magnificent spirited human engagement over the past year and in understanding that each one of us makes choices that build our EMOTIONAL HOUSES. I re-evaluated the obligation to be PRESENT with my biological family despite the disharmony and lack of bon mot. Instead, I would CREATE my own circle of intimate relatives—being drawn to one another by long red threads connected to our hearts.

Please acknowledge dear Pilgrim, that while I LOVE my biological family, I did not know how to “transition” OLD FAMILY LOVE to the NEW-ORDER LOVE. I have built a NEW-ORDER LOVE that IS PLEASURABLE! It NURTURES. And it makes me FIERCELY ALIVE.

All of us Pilgrims can have TWO families—the one we are born to and the one we create, pulling one red thread to us at a time! In 2011, I would like to NURTURE the NEW-ORDER LOVE, which I plan on consciously TENDING (with joyous effortlessness).

At the same time, while dancing in the garden of of NEW-ORDER LOVE, I fling open my arms to new possibilities with my biological family. ALL THINGS CHANGE. NO THING REMAINS CONSTANT. I am open to HUMONGOUS LOVE in 2011! REALLY BIG BIG LOVE!

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Acknowledgments: Thank you to REVERB10 for today’s dig-deep prompt. Gargantuan appreciation to Lesly Fredman, creativity coach extraordinaire, who recently took me on a journey about the topic of LOVE. While traveling with Lesly, I really breathed in the LOVE I have in my life—teaching ESL students English, how much I LOVE being present with community artmakers in Decatur and Clarkston, how much I enjoy collaborating with my Chiboogamoo. Finally, I am who I am at the end of 2010 because of the work I do with 3 exceptional women, artists, and spiritual sojourners, The SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS. Thank you Robey Tapp, Cecelia Kane, and Sally Wylde!

SOUL BLOG with Hallelujah. Share your thoughts in response to this REVERB10 PROMPT: HEALING. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

May all of you experience HUMONGOUS LOVE!

REVERB10: WE HAVE ALL WE NEED RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW

Hallelujah for the PRESENT! Hallelujah for BEING HERE RIGHT NOW! Dear PILGRIMS, if I learned one important lesson in 2010, it was KNOWING this: WE HAVE ALL WE NEED, right here, right now.

2009 was a year of loss for me. Three friends died too young, unanticipated deaths. Mark, Luis, and Sally—all three should be drinking eggnog, wrapping gifts, and celebrating the holiday season. Instead there is an absence, a gap, a yawning yearning for their presence, for LIFE to CONTINUE as ALWAYS.

But MY LIFE and YOUR LIFE, dear PILGRIMS who are reading this, our LIVES continue—we HAVE LIFE. Being ALIVE meets part of our “having” needs. Then there is the need of being present to ourselves and one another—LOVE.

In 2009, I celebrated a “niners” party—my birthday fell on 9/9/09. So I invited nine women to be with me on September 9^th. I asked each person to bring a poem, art, a dance, or an idea as a gift. Sally Wylde made me a humongous black card 18” x 12.” An image of HALLELUJAH was dancing on the cover. The only words inside written in yellow were: “WE HAVE ALL WE NEED.” I laughed. It seemed so simple!

Thank you Sally. In 2010, as you confronted the end of your LIFE, you were 100 percent present. YOU HAD US, and we felt HAD. Thank you for this simple lesson.

Since your death, I have dwelled on this concept of having all I need. In 2011, I plan to breathe deep and love what is around me. I pledge to be present to what I have and to honor everyone and everything. Hallelujah!

Thank you REVERB10 for Devember 17^th’s PROMPT: Lesson Learned. What was the best thing that you learned about yourself in the past year? How will you apply that lesson going forward?

PILGRIMS SOUL BLOG with me and let me know 2010 lesson and its application in 2011.

REVERB10: HALLELUJAH FRIENDSHIP: WE ARE NOT ALONE

Hallelujah for FRIENDSHIP! During 2010, I deepened many “human” friendships and have written about them in my blog, Coffee with Hallelujah. Today, in response to the prompt challenge for REVERB10, I am posting a Hallelujah Truth image, one that is populated with my “imaginary” friends or fragments of my psyche.

Each morning during 2010, I sat down with my coffee, watercolor pencils, crayons, paper, and micron pens. NO WORRIES—I accepted whatever image came to me. I was not concerned about “invention” or “novelty.” Instead, I invited images to reappear as frequently as they would like.

While entertaining Wandjina, Green Mother, Turtle, Snake, Spiral, Crocodile, Wallaby, I met new characters: Rabbit Ears and Leaf Head. Sometimes, I consciously invited images to join us. For example, during the month of March, I was tutoring English to Tenzin Norbu, a master Thangka painter from the Norbulingka Institute in Dharmsala. In exchange for the tutorials, I attended a Saturday art class at the Carolos Museum at Emory to practice Thangka painting. When Tenzin Norbu left Atlanta, he gave me a book with grid-lined images of Buddha. For the mornings that followed, I began my Hallelujah drawings with one of these images of Budhha. However, Buddha did not linger to have coffee with me in the mornings or become part of my psyche.

The three images that grew closest to my SOUL in 2010 are Wandjina, Wallaby, and Green Mother.

Each time I draw Wandjina, I am reminded of the BALANCE to my feminine nature. With his masculine energy, Wandjina gives me strength and force to take ACTION, to be BRAVE!

Wallaby reminds me of my VULNERABILITY. I hold Wallaby close and protect him. In doing so, I choose to be vulnerable but with scrutiny. Being open does not mean getting slammed by “soldiers of harsh reality.”

Green Mother emerged from the images I was drawing as a reflection on my female Muslim students at Georgia Tech. After repeatedly drawing women wearing hijabs, I found Green Mother. Green Mother became an abstracted form PULLing me into the UNKNOWN—part of the GREAT MYSTERY in my LIFE.

If I had to pick one FRIEND that I have gotten to know this year—it would be HER—GREEN MOTHER—GREAT MYSTERY. Our friendship has been gradual but deepened each time she appears in my drawings. Hallelujah!