Feather & Bone, Three White Ravens & More

 Feather and Bone

A small medicine pouch /talisman I am working on. I am going to add some embroidery and a strap.

3 White Ravens

My first attempt at making an art quilt and doing free motion embroidery 

Click on Photo to See Full Size

The Greatest of These

My first attempt at thread sketching on a beautify piece of heavy hemp cloth

With a little color added. I think I liked it better without the color. Live and learn!

Woman and Crow

Water, bone, bed, bedrock—  

whatever is underneath, below what’s below. 

Sudden touchable quiet, shadow

of a shadow. Weather. Sadness turning

ordinary. Nameless illness coming on.

A knock at the door so gentle

it could be anything. Distance.

The just thing not said, or said too late

or said exactly and without mercy.

Wind rising. Whatever might rise.

~Dan Colburn

Do you have hope for the future?

Do you have hope for the future?

someone asked Robert Frost, toward the end.

Yes, and even for the past, he replied,

that it will turn out to have been all right

for what it was, something we can accept,

mistakes made by the selves we had to be,

not able to be, perhaps, what we wished,

or what looking back half the time it seems

we could so easily have been, or ought...

The future, yes, and even for the past,

that it will become something we can bear.

And I too, and my children, so I hope,

will recall as not too heavy the tug

of those albatrosses I sadly placed

upon their tender necks. Hope for the past,

yes, old Frost, your words provide that courage,

and it brings strange peace that itself passes

into past, easier to bear because

you said it, rather casually, as snow

went on falling in Vermont years ago.

~David Ray

Golden Angel

Remember for just one minute of the day, it would be best to try looking upon yourself more as God does, for She knows your true royal nature.   ~Hafiz

Forest Snow

                                                                 Snow was falling,

                                                                 so much like stars

                                                                 filling the dark trees

                                                                 that one could easily imagine

                                                                 its reason for being was nothing more

                                                                 than prettiness.” 

                                                                                        ― Mary Oliver

Night Visitor

Like a great starving beast

My body is quivering

Fixed

On the scent

Of

Light

~Hafiz

 

When She Sleeps, She Dreams.....

And when she sleeps 

She still dreams

of dancing in the rain

Like she did when she was a girl....

Bitten by a Zen Dog

I felt inspired by something Tuesday morning and it sparked a small flicker of hope during what has been a long health storm. Because it inspired me I shared it on Facebook and very shortly after I shared it someone attacked it in a very negative way, multiple times. I found that I was repeatedly  defending something that I originally posted to inspire me. Suddenly I felt as if I was being dragged down by a lead anchor tied around my neck. I was being drawn down beneath the surface into the dark. I spent the day drowning in my tears, asking God questions....no, demanding answers is more like it. I was swamped by grief, the loss of my life as I knew it, closing my art business, my husbands depression over my illness and just plain feeling sick and being in pain all the time. All I could see was what was wrong with my life when the day had started out hopeful.

Natalie Goldberg tells a story of being bitten by a "Zen dog" in one of her books. She was very badly bitten by a dog in a foreign country, if I remember correctly. She said that bite was a wake up call for her. My "Friends" unkind comments were said to dash my hopes, she meant to hurt me. But to look at it another way she was my "Zen Dog" and she had bitten me, hard. I fell into the drama of it and flailed around in my grief for a full day and night. Is my faith that fragile? Is my hope and joy so easily dashed? 

The bite of a "Zen Dog" can infect your mind with a thousand toxic thoughts unless you quickly recognize it for the teacher that it is. The mind has a ceaseless hunger, but it is up to you to decide what to feed it. I didn't need to buy into her faithlessness or whatever despair she was experiencing that made her lash out at me. I could have stood strong in my faith and kindled that small spark of joy into a steady flame. It would have been a much nicer way to spend my day.

Ok, I hear your WAKE UP call, Zen Dog. Woof!

Watching this little chickadee hang on during the blizzard the other day reminded me the even the smallest of God's creatures are not consumed by the storms that rage all around them.

From Dusk to Dawn

Todays painting for the February Art Daily group on Facebook 

From Dusk to Dawn

Feb Art Daily Day 6 & 7

February Art Daily, day 6

February Art Daily, day 7

John of God & Wayne Dyer

There were 1600 people that traveled to Omega from all over the world to see John of God in 2011 

When Don & I saw John of God, the Brazilian trance medium, in person a few years ago I received tremendous spiritual healing as well as a massive reduction in my pain levels (I never used a wheelchair again). My husband experienced a miraculous physical healing at that time and his issues has never returned over the last few years.

Wayne Dyer was there at the same time we were and he got up on stage and told us his testimony of how John of God had healed him of leukemia. I was star struck because I adore Wayne Dyer and here he was confirming that God was in fact working through John of God to heal people.

Some people do receive immediate miraculous healing from seeing John of God, as my husband did,  but most people receive healing in layers, like peeling away the layers of an onion. For some the illness is so entrenched in the body, mind and spirit that it would be too traumatic to have it torn away all at once. This is why it often needs to be tenderly addressed over time, one layer at  a time. As the body rests into each new level of healing the person becomes ready to release the next layer of illness.

I already have confirmation that I am being surrounded by healing energy. A dear friend on the opposite coast tried to do a Reiki session on me last night and she saw me surrounded  "by a bright, white light". She relayed this vision to me even before she knew what was going on with John of God.

The photos of Don and I have arrived safely in Brazil today and were brought before John of God by a friend of ours. I am opening my heart to whatever gifts God sees fit to bestow upon us over the next few months while we are connected to this sacred healing current. When our friend returns next week we will be given the blessed herbs and blessed water that was prescribed for us when our photos were viewed by John of God when he was in a trance. We will take these herbs daily and allow the process to unfold over the next few months. Only time will tell if that includes physical healing for me, but I am reminded that there are many levels of healing and I will accept whatever is given with a grateful heart.

Here is a link to an article Wayne Dyer wrote about his healing experience with John of God:   http://www.drwaynedyer.com/blog/meeting-spiritual-healer/

On a Distant Shore

"On a Distant Shore" Feb Art Daily, Day 5 not sure if it is finished but my energy bottomed out so I stopped here for now. 

The Arrival of Messengers

Today was a day filled with medical appointments and some storm-related-pain was creeping in so I really didn't think I was going to get my February Art Daily painting done for day 4. Imagine how surprised I was when these 3 guiding souls appeared from beneath my paint brush. Perhaps they are messengers.

February Art Daily

I joined the gang again this year for the February Art Daily group on Facebook. It is set up differently this year, making it a little more confusing to post and it's not as easy to just stop by and  browse through the artwork. But I love the idea of motivating each other to get in our studios and create each day.

For day one I posted the little woven piece I blogged about in my prior blog post. I will post my creations for day 2 and day 3 below.

Tomorrow it may be tricky for me to post anything for day 4. I have another appointment with the Otolaryngologist in Brattleboro followed by a Chronic Lyme support group some distance to the north, in Westminster.  My fatigue has been so crushing lately that I am not sure I will have any energy left by the time I get home to head into the studio to do a painting, photograph it and upload it to the group. I am going to try though. 

Weaving up a Storm

An internal storm has been raging, though the sun is shining. 

Now it is predicted that another snowstorm is brewing.

I am gathering scraps of yarn and weaving in shades of winter. 

A web of sorts, a place to rest my mind and body while it heals.

He gathered wood to burn while I collected scraps of yarn to weave

 The colors of bleak mid-winter are rather calming when woven together

 Sun on yarn and the weave of the basket that holds it

 Weaving together a bit of this and a bit of that

And it seems I have a helper, to keep my yarn stash warm. 

To her is is a throne.

Miss Mia is afraid of storms. 

I tend to find them calming. 

We disagree on this one thing.