REVERB10: CONTEMPLATING our EXUBERANT INFINITY--PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

Hallelujah for the Winter Solstice! For full moon lunar eclipses signifying everything and nothing. On this darkest day of the year, we experience a “death” and prepare for a “re-birth.” CELEBRATIONS place us in TIME—HERE and NOW. In response to today’s REVERB10 Challenge, I briefly glimpse myself through INFINITY….

THE FUTURE: Five years from now I envision myself existing as an EXUBERANT GALAXY glittering giddily with gladness. All of my communities rotate with me, around me, or close by radiantly realizing their cherished ideals!

THE PRESENT: Glowing now, today, I joyously toast BEING and ACTION! I explode and collide with YOU in the ever-expanding universe of ME. WE are those binary stars rotating around one another. WE are constellations clustering with one another. WE are black holes swirling in our own GREAT MYSTERY!

THE PAST: Long ago in DEEP TIME, there was a singularity of BEING…all of me that mattered was condensed into ONE point.

oh.

Oh,

OH!

Here I am.

When I was born time began.

When I die the universe will end.

And I am dancing too fast to see

I stretch to the end of everything

You cannot see all of me.

Alice Teeter (extracted from “String Theory,” When It Happens to You)

Thank you REVERB10 for allowing me to reflect on who I am throughout TIME. I feel empowered when I use my imagination. This morning, I invited Alice Teeter’s poems to join me in my contemplation. I absolutely devoured her book of poems, When It Happens to You, when it came out in 2009. I have been absorbing her poem, “String Theory,” over the years (pre-publication) as she appeared around the Atlanta area reading and giving performances of this poem meditating on particle physics. Please watch this amazing video if you want to see how “String Theory” can be danced out.

Pilgrims, if you care to reflect on TIME for yourself, here is December 21^st’s REVERB10 PROMPT: FUTURE SELF. Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?) Prompt Writer Jenny Blake, author of “Life After College, The Complete Guide.”

I bid you Pilgrims farewell on this shortest day of the year with more of Alice Teeter’s “String Theory”:

oh oh oh and to be the one who can see it all.

How we connect.

The lightning strikes.

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: WINTER DREAMS FOR 2011—EFFORTLESS ACTION with the EASE of a CAT NAPPING

Hallelujah would like to befriend and transform the word “TRY” occurring in REVERB10’s CHALLENGE for December 18^th: TRYàEFFORTLESS ACTION. In galloping years 2009 and 2010, I have JOYOUSLY embraced “being” and “doing” with the exuberant ease of a cat napping=EFFORTLESS ACTION. My DREAM for 2011 is to continue the BIG CAT NAP, being in every inch of my BODY and SOUL, stretching from my insides out to all of you PILGRIMS!

In my BIG SLEEP, my WINTER DREAMS consist of the following meanderings:

COMMUNITY DREAMING: I imagine lingering in my Decatur community and building connection with other SOULs and their IMAGINATIONS by making ART together. Whether I am collaborating with other female artists like me, assisting Bhutanese senior refugees in creative projects, or meeting with the Beer Brew Girls to summon diverse female images for their homecrafted beers, I will be Hallelujahing with my COMMUNITY!

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS DREAMING: Hallelujah for the beauty of Georgia! I love our Appalachian Mountains, long-leaf pine forests, and the marshes and islands along our coastline. As a visionary artist, I dream of dancing out drawings and paintings that speak of the LOVE I have of my home state’s natural resources and its fragility. I dream of sharing my creations with the public, so they too can be aware of and connect with Georgia’s environmental richness.

RAISING ART UP WITH CHIBOGAMOO DREAMING: As a childless couple, Chiboogamoo and I dream of merging our imaginations to make art reflecting our understanding of evolution. Even now, we are laughing at ourselves as we ask each other how to do this project with JOYFUL EASE? Is there a route to relaxed parenting?

HALLELUJAH’S BABY DREAMING: Hallelujah for THE JOURNEY. I dream of beginning a book in 2011. I SEE myself NAPPING EFFORTLESSLY and rising to give birth to each chapter. My BABY will speak of PILGRIMAGING and SPIRIT and CREATIVITY.

Thank you REVERB10 and for your December 18^th PROMPT: Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did or didn’t go for it?

I ask you my fellow PILGRIMs to SOUL BLOG with me. What would you like to do in 2011? What would you like to do with the EASE of a CATNAPPING? Happy 6^th Anniversary Chiboogamoo!

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!

REVERB10: HALLELUJAH FOR the GLORIOUS 2010 MEMORIES!

Hallelujah for MEMORY. Hallelujah for both surface and deep time. Hallelujah for ways of KNOWING and BEING here on this GLORIOUS EARTH. I will not forget the color pink, Chiboogamoo’s 50^th birthday celebration, holding my 16 year-old feline Misha every day and appreciating him in his late years more teddy bear than tooth and claw, and the one solid month of teaching English to extraordinary and dedicated Korean executives at GT.

I want to REMEMBER winter explorations along the Victorian coast of Australia—the pungent woody scent of resin on my hands from grasping shrubs along the cliff face, the pounding ocean hammering the gray Cretaceous rocks along the shore, the utter freedom and playfulness of being with the “boys” on a treasure hunt looking for life traces from 100 million years ago.

Still in Australia, but in Queensland, I want to REMEMBER endless hours of driving on one trackroads in the outback seeing kangaroos hop under scrubby eucalyptus trees as we dodged oncoming mammoth roadtrains. Exploring a culture both on the surface and in deep time. Enjoying “cowboy” towns and their saloons, bush poetry, and XXXX beer. At the same time, imagining the vast ocean that covered this expanse of earth millions of years ago and the large marine animals that lived, died and left their bones to be found by curious sheep musterers.

Back in Atlanta, I want to REMEMBER the good 8 months that we four Spiritual Art Pilgrims intensely interacted with each other through our art, yearning to expand our connection with the GREAT MYSTERY. How we succeeded in BEING present to one another and using our art as vehicles to deepen our understanding.

I want to REMEMBER the JOY I experienced “being” HALLELUJAH and “doing” 15 minutes of creativity EACH DAY—even while I was in Australia! I want to remember collaborating with Cecelia Kane, Lesly Fredman, and Jesse Bathrick to make “Sally” prints on my birthday for Sally Wylde’s memorial parade. And the other collaborative art making with Robey, Sally, Jesse, and Karen and all the senior artmakers at the Clarkston Community Center and Sally’s writing group.

I will REMEMBER last moments with Sally imagining her future pilgrimages and holding Luis’ hand and smoothing the hair over his brow. Sunday brunch to say goodbye to Kiona and Syd as they headed off to California to start their business, Curious Cup. I am thankful for and will REMEMBER the deepening friendships with Judy, Jane, Robey, Cecelia, Jacq Marie, Edna, Jesse, and Karen. And how I sparked new friendships with Lisa, Sylvia, Kimme, Kathe, Mary Jane, and Gal in our Decatur community. I will REMEMBER Trixie, Darlene, Tina, Gale, and Rob connecting with me on Facebook as well as how Facebook brought me back in touch with cousins Karen, Annette, and Paul!

Hallelujah for REVERB10 for giving me the opportunity to REMEMBER and HOLD DEAR those very important events from 2010. MEMORY. Hallelujah for ways of KNOWING and BEING here on this GLORIOUS EARTH. SOUL BLOG with Hallelujah and tell me what you want to REMEMBER from 2010.