WE ARE THE ATOM OF GOD: SEPARATE AND UNITED ON THE INFINITE WHEEL

THE INFINITE WHEEL (All Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for OTHERNESS and METAPHORS that explain the differences and the similarities we experience as individuals in our communities! Each one of us is UNIQUE, yet we are powerfully connected and similar to our neighbors in some deep and meaningful way. Mark Nepo, poet, philosopher, and cancer survivor, explains it using a metaphor of a WHEEL with SPOKES:

Hallelujah Truth at the Rim of the Infinite Wheel

Imagine that each of us is a spoke in an Infinite Wheel, and though each spoke is essential in keeping the Wheel whole, no two spokes are the same. The rim of that Wheel is our living sense of community, family, and relationship, but the common hub, where all the spokes join is the one center where all souls meet.

 

It is at this hub, “where all souls meet,” that Nepo calls the “ATOM OF GOD.” I found this idea of individualized SOULS uniting into ONE BEINGNESS so exciting and the metaphor of the INFINITE WHEEL so compelling, I burst into a flurry of activity to visualize the concept for myself in the drawing you see here. Spending hours penning spirals, flowers, miniature wheels, and creatures, I contemplated my position on the INFINITE WHEEL and made some conclusions about MY HALLELUJAH SELF in relationship to all of you, MY FELLOW PILGRIMS.

THE HUB (The Atom of God)

First of all, I concluded that I prefer to stay close to the CENTER of the WHEEL with GOD. Since I was a child, I have been immersed in a contemplative life, dwelling in my imagination, reaching in deep, feeling the bottomlessness of my inquiries. As a young person, I sat on the edge of the WHEEL’S hub peering into the MYSTERY, surprised at its deep dark black unknowable infinity. It has been my life’s “struggle” to SEE what exists in this fertile darkness where all SOULS meet. As an adult, I have transformed the “struggle to see” into a JOYFUL JOURNEY of patient surprising discovery!

THE SPOKE (The Individual)
As a result of my natural preference for hanging out at the “inner” hub of the INFINITE WHEEL and its proximity, I have spent a lot of time in SPOKEDOM, delighting in being an individual “spoke” emanating out from the hub (the ATOM OF GOD), cultivating my uniqueness, that which makes ME different from YOU.

One of my greatest hungers in life has been to be heard, to have a VOICE—a distinctive way of speaking that distinguishes ME from EVERYONE ELSE. I know I am not alone in this QUEST. In fact, I would venture to say EVERYONE of YOU reading this blog entry would express a similar desire to be listened to and to be appreciated for your unique perceptions and articulation of LIFE! The visual art I make and that you see on my blog Coffee with Hallelujah is an expression of my ME-NESS, my SPOKEDOM-NESS! Hallelujah!

THE RIM (The Community)

In my image of the INFINITE WHEEL, I have drawn Hallelujah Truth lounging at the RIM, staring out at ALL of US. There she is in the outer world of community, neighborhood, and workplace. I am suddenly aware that this positioning of myself there at the RIM is awkward, and I look forlorn and unengaged.

This ART piece of mine speaks to me—challenging me to explore how I feel about my participation and role in community and subsequent relationships to YOU and YOU and YOU. Sparks fly in my visual imagination, and I acknowledge the need for me to keep drawing and exploring this metaphor of similarities and differences in future drawings of the INFINITE WHEEL.  Hallelujah Truth needs be drawn multiple times at the HUB with GOD, positioned inside a SPOKE, and then returned to the RIM of community re-envisioned.

It is in this way that ART MATTERS to me! ART HEALS me where I am and the space I inhabit. ART can TRANSFORM all of US and MOVE US FORWARD in our SOJOURNS. I am certain that my image of Hallelujah Truth will change from forlorn and disengaged to something else on my SOULFUL JOURNEY!

PILGRIMS soul blog with Hallelujah Truth! Write me about where you find yourself on the INFINITE WHEEL today and where you have been and where you are going! What do you think about BEING THE ATOM OF GOD? Hallelujah!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Most loving thanks to my sister-in-law, Elizabeth Schowalter, for recommending that we read together and discuss The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo. In deep appreciation to Mark Nepo, who I first learned about through Sally Wylde’s reading of his deep and beautiful poetry (see her art work at one of my former blogs). Always thanks to my Chiboogamoo who travels lovingly and adoringly with me from the HUB to the SPOKE to the RIM!

REVERB10 CHALLENGE: DON'T WE ALL FLOW from the SAME GREAT SOURCE?

The prompt for Wednesday, December eighth’s REVERB10 CHALLENGE is “BEAUTIFULLY DIFFERENT”: Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different—you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

Some people prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate, or white chocolate to fruit-filled chocolate—but chocolate is still chocolate—N’est-ce pas? Hallelujah, who teaches English and art to international students from all around the world, adores differences—yet finds more delight in acknowledging the universalities, the truths, those startling similarities across the lines of “what is mine” and “what is yours.” My 52-year WALK in LIFE has taught me repeatedly that WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL!

I ACKNOWLEDGE US ALL for the FOLLOWING BEAUTY:

*Our PASSION to discover the MEANING in our LIVES

*The DRIVE to express what is on our HEARTS

*Infinite LONGING to be LOVED by ourselves and others

*DESIRE to establish what makes us UNIQUE

*Our inner SPARK that can ignite CREATIVE FIRES

*YEARNING to do good

*An unabashed NEED to CONNECT with OTHERS

ME ME ME? What makes ME “beautifully different”? Is it the “language of self” that I speak in my visionary art? Is it my blog, Coffee with Hallelujah, where I proclaim myself as a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM seeking like-minded souls? Is it the wonderful fact that I am married to a brilliant paleontologist who cooks pasta for me, rubs my shoulders, and listens to my ideas with intense interest and compassion?

I am a TRAVELLER in my PRECIOUS LIFE meeting REVERED OTHERs and reveling in their OTHERNESS because of our universal human SIMILARITIES. As all chocolate originates from the same cacao bean—don’t we all flow from the SAME GREAT SOURCE?

CREATIVELY LINKING HEART and SCIENCE through ART: My Love of Australian Mammals

HALLELUJAH PILGRIMS! HALLELUJAH for ALL LIVING CREATURES, especially monotremes and marsupials! Marsupial moms are resourceful mammals, raising their young from embryos to young juveniles outside their wombs in pouches! Envision the comfort of being tucked inside a warm blanket of maternal flesh and fur with an ample supply of milk for sustenance! HALLELUJAH for the CREATIVITY of this DESIGN!

 HALLELUJAH encourages ALL of you PILGRIMS to enthusiastically participate in the ACT of CREATION by SEEING with your own unique vision. Look deep inside objective reality. Penetrate the “obvious” that your physical eyes see. Perhaps, there is a baby marsupial tucked inside! My ART results from SEEING with my own vision, my “inner” eyes acquired from a lifetime of experiences! Right now, I will turn my spirit seeking radar on marsupials and one monotreme to share with you how I creatively envision them.

Here in the United States, where I live, we have one modest marsupial, the opossum. Unfortunately, most of us become acquainted with this shy pinkish gray animal when we see one dead on the roadside. However, other world citizens are more fortunate. On the continents of South America and Australia, there is an abundance of marsupials ranging in size from a mouse to a kangaroo. My Chiboogamoo, who is sitting across the table from me, explains that the occurrence of marsupials on these two continents is a result of their origination on the super continent of Gondwana more than 100 million years ago! Thank you Chiboogamoo! Praise SCIENCE! Praise intelligent SCIENTISTS!

Chiboogamoo, my faithful guide and companion, stops to figure out where we should go next at one of the nature parks in Tasmania!

And Praise how CREATIVITY and SCIENCE (and artists and scientists) inform each other! Look at these endearing Australian marsupials—a BILBY, TASMANIAN DEVIL, QUOLL, and a monotreme—the PLATYPUS—I have depicted here. In reality, these animals have a “fetching” physical appearance. So it was easy to paint images of them that most viewers respond to favorably—often with murmurs of delight, I might add. They are thrilled to be “engaged” with a marsupial or a monotreme! In addition to experiencing curiosity about the natural history of these critters, viewers also express a connection to me! Why? Because of the way I have folded in my perception and feelings based on my experience, viewers get the opportunity to SEE me—HALLELUJAH—simultaneously with the animal! I AM in the ART!

And I believe that the “me” in the art along with my “subject” has POWER. I believe that it is possible that my VISIONARY ART can link world citizens to SCIENCE—in this instance—to the science of marsupials and monotremes and the precariousness of their longevity. We are powerful actors on this world stage when we merge our HEARTs and HEADs.

Here is what I want you to know about the TASMANIAN DEVIL: The Devil, a curious carnivore, lives on the breathtaking mountainous island of Tasmania, south of the Australian continent.  

During our week-long  trip in Tasmania during a cold April day (it is fall in Australia then) in 2006, my Chiboogamoo and I had the good fortune to observe Tasmanian Devils in close proximity at the East Coast Nature World 7 miles north of Bicheno.

Bone crunching and yowling, the TASMANIAN DEVIL is in terrible danger now from tumors mysteriously occurring on its face. These fatal cancerous facial tumors are demolishing huge populations of the Devil. Up until now, this cat-sized black and white beast has kept Tasmanian roads free of road kill, but now as its populations decline, road kill is left unattended or consumed by other animals like birds, which end up getting hit by oncoming traffic!

The BILBY, a grayish pink floppy-eared marsupial, is nocturnal and omnivorous. This “cute” marsupial has been chosen by Australian environmentalists to replace the iconic Easter Bunny for two reasons. First of all, by getting profiled for a holiday celebration, the BILBY, which like the TASMANIAN DEVIL has waning numbers, might become better known to the public.  A chocolate Bilby and wine--perfect for an Easter celebration in Victoria, Australia!

The PUBLIC has the power to take steps to preserve the BILBY. Second, the Bunny Rabbit represents an ecological hazard to the Australian continent. Rabbits brought by the British have thrived and multiplied, causing extensive damage to vegetation and displacing native animals. Has anyone seen the movie, “Rabbit Proof Fence”? Thousands of kilometers of fences crisscross the continent, attempting but failing to stop the rabbit’s invasion. Embrace the BILBY as the new icon for Easter celebrations! A marsupial is worthy symbol for fertility and the promise of new life!

The QUOLL is a very attractive nighttime carnivore. Yet, most of the QUOLLs that I have seen have been stuffed ones in museums of natural history!  Yes, this spotted marsupial is also endangered! 

Loving animals of all kinds, my Chiboogamoo found them alive and dead in museums and parks. Isn't the Quoll an amazing beast!

Although my Chiboogamoo tells me that animals’ disappearing from this earth is the natural order of things (Extinction has been going on for millions of years.), I take in a big breath and emit a sigh. How many more animals will become extinct in my lifetime? Which extinctions are “natural” and which ones are human made? Yet all is not gloom and doom about QUOLLS. I have seen a family of black and white spotted QUOLLS at a nature center in Tasmania! And they were amazing!

Finally, I will celebrate the PLATYPUS, which is only one of two monotremes living today (The echidna is the other existing monotreme.. A monotreme is an egg-bearing mammal). My Chiboogamoo and I were fortunate enough to see some of these furry duckbilled mammals frolicking in their natural environments in Tasmania. We also tracked a male PLATYPUS along a stream in the Healesville Sanctuary, a nature center, in Victoria, with Murrindindi, an Aboriginal tracker. Murrindindi entertained us with the romantic adventures of the particular PLATYPUS we tracked that day, and its image lingers in my imagination today. The PLATYPUS is threatened because of changes in its environment, but it is not endangered.

HALLELUJAH for these magical animals from Australia and for all living creatures! HALLELUJAH wishes that all of you PILGRIMS will travel your JOURNEYS delighting in both your HEART and HEAD! How beautiful is the MYSTICAL and how thrilling the KNOWN! My Chiboogamoo suggests I conclude this blog by reminding ALL of US of our ancient lineage. Whether we are monotremes, marsupials or placentals, we ALL descended from the same source! We are ALL connected!