Picture
I took this photo a few days ago while watering my garden.  I saw this beautiful strawberry, large and luscious, hanging from its stem and wanted it to be ready now...I had to stop and laugh at myself and say thank you to the garden for teaching me once again about patience...temperance...balance.  It's easy to want what I want when I want it but sometimes it is time to wait.  Remember that beautiful bible passage...To everything there is a season...a time to reap, a time to sow...well,there is also a time to wait and be patient.  This is such a struggle for me sometimes.  And so I sat and looked at this berry for a while.  I thought about time for action and time for waiting. I thought about forcing life and letting life come to me.  Who knew that all of that was waiting for me in a beautiful strawberry.
For me, the question has always been...is now the time to act?  time to wait?  I find that sometimes I miss out on things because I am too patient and then other times I find that I've, once again, forced something into fruition and the resulting fall out is unpleasant.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if life showed us a strawberry like this so that we knew exactly when the time was ripe for action...well, the more I think about it...life does give us a way to know that the time is ripe for action...it is my inner guidance system...you know what I'm talking about.  That feeling that says...go, go now!  I had that feeling recently about the workshops I'm offering and I know that they fill with ease.  If I had acted sooner when the feeling was "No, too much to divide my attention.  Too much unsettled feeling" then there wouldn't be movement.
So, once again, it is nature, my garden, or the animals that let me know what my lessons are.  Pay attention everyone...the messages are out there...even in a beautiful, luscious strawberry!
 
MOMMA LOVE! 05/19/2010
 
Picture
Sand Tray work is one of my absolute favorite modalities of expressive art therapy.  It feels so much like entering in to a dream world.  It is filled with neat symbols and archetypes and quickly and easily helps me to make connections in my life.  Most recently,  I have done some work with Eileen (the homeopath that I have talked about in prior blog entries) that has led me towards some powerful revelations  When I have these experiences I usually like to  engage in some activity or ritual that honors the work that I've done.  So...I headed to the studio to let sand tray work its magic.  It was/is amazing to me how the lessons that I need to learn show up in this tray...lessons of boundaries and self love and gentleness.  These are good things for all of us to know.

Following the work in the sand tray, I headed off to the Teen Center where I consult.  I was prepared to do some animal totem work with them.  I found that the tray was still working on me as the animal/image that I was drawn to was this sweet momma and baby giraffe.  We used a technique in which the artist becomes the animal selected and gives it a voice.  We write in the first person about all that we see, feel, think, wonder, do...that kind of thing.  I wrote:

I am gentle.
I am tall.
I am a mom.
This baby is mine and I adore her
I nuzzle her with my cheek
I feel love, love flowing from the bottom of my tall, tall legs to the top of my long neck.
I wonder how she will grow.
I wonder if she sees how beautiful she is.
I am filled with Momma Love
All is calm
All is right
This is right where I am meant to be.

Once you finish writing from the animals point of view, the creator goes back to the words and lets the words that jump out at them direct their art.  The words for me were MOMMA LOVE.  And so I created a very simple piece to reflect this next lesson of the sand tray.
Picture
I added these words to this sweet image:

Let me roll you up in my momma love,
safe and warm.
Let me show you the beauty
I see in you.
Snuggle into the
sweet
Momma
Love.




What a sweet lesson for me about the gift of letting the expressive arts show me what I need to know.  I love this work!!!! Can you tell?
 
 
Today I decided to climb Cowles Mountain.  I'm working towards better conditioning so that this summer I can climb this volcano in Guatemala and also, because I love just getting out and connecting with nature....anyway, today is kind of a big day for me and I thought that working off some physical energy might help with my mental energy...which it usually does!
Anyway,  as I entered the trail I asked the mountain to show me whatever I needed to learn or pay attention to and that I would gladly listen.  As I began up the steep incline, I began to notice hummingbird song.  Lots of hummingbird song.  Then it began...hummingbirds traveling with me for the entire hike.  I'm not just talking one or two hummingbirds but every few feet there would be another bird or two.  I must have seen 25 hummingbirds today on this hike and heard even more.  No one said that Mother Nature is subtle!  What is beautiful about this, is that hummingbird reminds me to connect with life's joys, the sweet nectar of life.  Great message for me as I started out a little anxious and nervous about my day. 
Finally, as the hike came near its end, there sat lovely lizard...a reminder from my walk at the lake yesterday (I must have seen 10 lizards from 3 different species along my way yesterday but that is a different story!).  A reminder to listen to my inner voice.  To connect with stillness and to pay attention.  At the very end of the hike, I walked through a thick and tall stand of mustard...you know, those tiny yellow flowers that bloom everywhere in spring.  What was fantastic about this journey through the mustard was that it was vibrating with bees.  The sound of the buzzing was intense and I could feel the vibration of the buzzing all on my skin...I love this...bees are always a great thing as they remind me that anything is possible.  I finished this hike with not only physical conditioning but mental, emotional and spiritual conditioning as well.

All of us can connect with nature in this way.  There is a Sioux word, Mitakuye oyasin which means "with all things we are related".  This is what the hike felt like today.  If I, or anyone, goes into an adventure in nature with open eyes and an understanding that nature relates to us in many ways...then I, or anyone else, can benefit from the gifts of nature.  Mine, today, came from beautiful and joyful hummingbird.
Picture
 
 
I am excited to say that I have successfully created some new and wonderful spaces at the studio. I have been working on the new meditation garden for about 6 weeks now and it is finally done.  All that is left to do is to create beautiful art to adorn the fences and open spaces.  It is a wonderful feeling space with room to breathe and just clear your mind.  I've been sitting in it each day and it just keeps feeling more and more beautiful.  I can't wait for the summer workshops to begin so that I can share all the new developments.
Take a look at the pictures in the studio spaces and garden page.
Picture