For the past year and a half I have been exploring the mandala as a symbol for wholeness.  In the process I have found that the wholeness of who I am includes many faces some readily seen and some obscured and in the shadows,  I continue to work in the round, the symbol of the circle providing a sacred vessel in which to continue to explore myself.  Lately I have found myself working in an unfolding process.  First I draw the image intuitively using a black Sharpie marker and making peace with the imperfection that arises in the image as it unfolds itself on the page.  Then I pull out my watercolors and again release my expectations and let the paint have its way.  Finally I take my drawn and painted image to the photographic process and use my camera editing software to transform the image again.  The image above has actually had the hue shifted and has been flipped from the positive image to the negative.  What emerged from the digging into the shifting nature of the photograph and then exploring its shadow side is immensely more pleasing than the original image.

My continuing lesson from this process is not to judge as things unfold.  If I can shift my perspective I can find beauty even in what appears to be the negative side of things.

You must give birth to your images.

They are the future waiting to be born.

Fear not the strangeness you feel.

The future must enter you long before it happens.

Just wait for the birth,

for the hour of the new clarity.”   

Rainer Maria Rilke

Body Movement Meditation

Take a few minutes each day for a body meditation based on the teachings of St. Julian of Norwich.

Await
Allow
Accept
Attend

Here is a brief video demonstrating the movements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdGf3aJ64Po

The Web of Life

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle

Rooted

The ground washes away underfoot

Clinging to the side of the hill
Roots burrow deeply into the crumbling bank

Mother Earth grabs hold

Providing the sustenance needed to hang on
 Perhaps even to grow in this unlikely place

Rooting, spreading, seeking the center

Drawing upon the wisdom rooted deep within
 Weaving themselves into a mandala of wholeness

Spring comes with the sprouting of new leaves

~Karen Perrell Campbell

Art is an act of the soul...

Bursting Forth With Possibilities

I am one who is alight with possibilities. Sparking, seeding, ready to take flight. So many creative seeds bursting forth. Which should I follow? Which will land in fertile soil? For now I wait for a puff of spirit wind to lift these possibilities into their flight path. For now I will watch and wait to see where the breath of the spirit leads me.

(Photograph was made in my garden this morning. Even those things that at first appear to be weeds in our life, may bring with them inspiration.)