Write from the Heart

 

“It may not look like it, but I am writing now,” I said to Tom as I was folding a new batch of clean, fresh towels just taken from the dryer and still snuggly warm. He was watching me from his lounge chair as I completed the task on the top of our new spring bedspread.

I was heading for my writing room as soon as I completed this household task, something writers often do — put other “stuff” in front of creative time. Yet starting points were bubbling up within me for writer’s warm up, so that’s why I count it as writing.

The next part of my writing was sitting a spell with words by Michele Weldon, author of Writing to Save Your Life, about the quality of quiet in a writer’s life. Something that really attracts me, since I am writing a book titled, Being Faithful to the Quiet,  (subtitle, Finding the Silence that Soothes Your Soul). My book is a mix between memoir and mystery, a long-lived mystery that encircled my life like the ripples formed when a pebble is thrown into the water. And that pebble was thrown at my birth.  It is about the grace of the quiet and the pain lived out in  being silenced.

I relate to much of what she says in one very small section of a great book. Did you know that the genre of books on writing is only topped in numbers sold by the Christian Bible. So many writers write about writing!  Anyway, this is not a diversion, my reading about writing, is is part of my warmup practice to get into the quiet myself and begin writing. Hence, before I begin on searching my words and rhythm for my drafts of my book, I continue warm up with a short contribution to Napkinwriter. I am grateful to  the writing and readership of my five year Napkinwriter blog to keep me practiced in writing. It has spawned poems and memories I either did not know was there or thought I had forgotten. That’s the magic of the written word. So many creative journeys open up.

Weldon quotes Sarah Orne Jewett in a 1908 letter she wrote to Willa Cather,

“You must find your own quiet center of life and write from that to the world.” And she says these words hold true almost a century later. They do, for me. And from that quiet center of life, I also resolved mysteries and dilemmas in my life.  That is what I write about in my book because I continued to find practices of prayer and movement and contemplation, different types all through my life. They were gifts of grace to me. Saving grace, I would even say. And not all grace and prayer look like prayer, just like my folding towels didn’t look like writing.

 

 

 

 

 

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Photo Opp – Changes in My Creativity Room

It’s a process! A little at a time. Some of the changes you can see. Some you cannot. Some of the inside changes are hidden away in my computer files, organizing and planning for upcoming projects.  Some inside changes are taking root in my heart and intention to complete long-awaited and dreamed of “children of my mind” before they become “orphans of my soul” as Anne Murray sang in one of her songs which did not make the pop charts.

Those on the outside are designed to create more light, space and inspiration in my room.  Also to rid myself of the papers and images that I can let go of to make room for the new. This is my plan. I already feel I am sitting in more light as I write this.

Like the blank page I come to most days in my writing practice, I have cleared a surface for work and clear thinking. Also some “moodling” as Brenda Euland, author and teacher, calls it. That’s like daydreaming, which many of us have been discouraged from doing at an early age in the long-gone-by days.  Opening space for the little, unconnected to purpose thoughts that don’t seem to be on the highway to any “big idea.”

Storing, but not putting out of sight my Reiki table, clearing the center space of the room and making it easy for set up when needed. Journals, that need harvesting reside on the bottom shelf, room for Soul Collage essentials on next shelf up, while many more materials are stored away in closet awaiting the next workshop or call to service.

My favorite “go-to” books on writing and spirituality and world evolution have designated positions within the bookcase shelves These are topped off by my $10 garage-sale buy world globe to keep my consciousness open to our world and current conditions. The two turn of the century 1999-2000 memorial white and gold plates refresh my consciousness that, indeed, my gift of life includes living through the time of the 1900’s into the years of 2000.  Fifteen of them so far which with a few more months of grace will include celebrating 50 years of marriage to my true soul-mate and life, service and love to my family of children, their spouses and our grandchildren. It’s been the best life I could ever have thought of.

My prayer chair for reflection and my Reiki panels, and a long time framed picture, “He Shall Hear My Voice”, and surely He has over each of these past 72 years!

My new altar for Spring, with my grandmother’s embroidered linen as altar cloth, the angels guarding me, St. Francis keeping me fresh to be a channel of peace daily in my life.   My Little Sue doll from Rosann, a treasured and loved gift from “the sister I never had”.

The mandala wall hanging is one I bought at one of the IWWG workshops I attended back in the 1990s, and this year it will serve as a permanent mandala design on which I will create my yearly Intentions Mandala.   My 2015 Intention Mandala is titled,  “I Am Living As Love”…..in my mind, my heart, my hands, my life, my world.

I have been creating these Intention Mandalas since working with Janet Conner. The focus of these mandalas in on the inner conditions we commit to live during the year.  What we hope to manifest gets listed on the circumference of the mandala…..these manifestations, large and small, have regularly showed up in my life since I’ve been making these and living by them and it is truly a huge act of faith and amazement.  I am so grateful to Janet, of Writing Down Your Soul that these mandalas are in my life, as well as my soul writing journals.

Onward through my light-filtered room.

As I said, it’s a process. There is much left to be done…..a day or step at a time!

And then, there is this!

I am graced with Grandma Tanberg’s embroidery of the 1940s. She is the mother of my birth mother, who died within days of my birth. I had the great honor to know Grandma into my high school years.  She was my “huggy” grandma who giggled a lot and played with my brothers and cousin Diane whenever we were together.  She didn’t mind getting us in trouble either!

And when I approach the unwritten loose leaf page or the blank computer screen to be filled, I only have to remember these screensaver rules and I am off again.

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Hard Boiled Eggs and Writing Your Novel

I’ve learned the secret to making perfect hard boiled eggs that peel easily and finishing the novel one may have been working on for years.

First, the hard boiled egg. I’ve tried different combinations of making hard boiled eggs over the years. Sometimes, I’m lucky, sometimes not. It seemed more often then not, when it really mattered, as in Easter eggs and deviled eggs when you really want the egg to peel neatly, it didn’t for me.

Another problem was that if I was lucky enough to have the egg peel, the yolk was greenish and unappetizing looking around the edge. The method I am about to share vanishes that problem too.

Recently, I combined two methods. One I found on http://www.cooks.com and the other was in a magazine.  You don’t have to add either salt or baking soda to the water, as other texts call for.

1.  Bring eggs to room temp before using.

2. Place sufficient water to cover the eggs in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil BEFORE placing the eggs in it.

3. Lower the eggs carefully into the water, using a tablespoon. When the water reboils, start timing  and reduce the heat so that the water simmers gently.

(Fast boiling makes the egg white tough and causes the eggs to bang against each other and crack.

4. You should start timing the eggs from the moment the water first boils.

5.  Hard boiled eggs, large size take 10 minutes.

6. Turn off the heat and place the eggs in an ice-water bath and time them to cool for 5 minutes.  The ice water bath will “shock” the membrane in between the egg white and the egg shell, loosening the shell and allowing you to peel it off easily.

7.  Store peeled eggs in the refrigerator.

Now about that unfinished novel.

The humble kitchen timer is the most important creative tool in your arsenal.  Notice the importance placed on timing in order to get the perfect hard boiled egg.

The same is true in the successful completion of your novel,  Melda Maguire , working on her seventh book,  insists. Here is what she says to do:

“At some point you sit down and set that timer for 30 minutes. Work on your craft or your project without interruption or distraction. It does not have to be major work — just focused work. Don’t get up from your seat until the timer dings. ”

“Then do the same thing tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day…”
Are you catching onto this?

To look at the financial side of this, she points out you don’t need to quit your job to be an artist or writer. You don’t have to take out a heart-stopping loan in order to get an advanced degree in creativity. You don’t need to move to Paris (but that might be fun).

You don’t need to change anything about your life. You just need to bow down before the humble kitchen timer, every single day.

A little universal truth that applies here is the the world will not clear out a time and a space for your dreams, art and writing. If you wait for things to be perfect before beginning (or continuing) your work (and play), you will die waiting.

Get yourself a kitchen timer and turn it into a creativity timer. What happens next can only be thrilling.

 

Plus, you can always have a perfect deviled egg waiting for you in the refrigerator when your 30 minute timer goes off. Walah!

 

 

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WHAM-tastic!

Three years ago, I named my Intention Mandala for 2010-2011

My Year of Free-falling into Spirit

and the words of Tom Petty’s refrain verses, Free Falling, have been the backdrop of my life since that time.

And I’m free, free falling
Yeah I’m free, free falling

Now, after my weekend with my WWAM sisters at Skidmore College, in Saratoga Springs New York,  I am no longer free-falling. (Women Writers and Artist Matrix).

I’ve been shot out of a cannon to the stars and I have not re-entered this atmosphere yet.

I have words and I have no words yet. I will return to Napkinwriter with words and images very soon to explain the unexplainable. Or at the very least, shed light upon the magnificence of the experience.

“What is seen was made from things that are not visible.”
Hebrews 11:3

Meanwhile, you might catch a glimpse of me playing among  the cosmic comets.

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The Fierce Power of Imagination

This is how Matthew Fox, author of Creativity refers to the Imagination. He calls it a fierce power!

Imagination is a fierce power. It is a playful power. It is a dramatic power. People pay a lot of money to visit Disney’s Theme Parks, awash in imagination.

Imagination lets us step into a space within ourselves that we too often ignore in the daily routines of life. We, even though we are adults and have gone to Disneyland “for the children”,absorb the magic of imagination just for this special time of our visit.

I remember being highly influenced by the word “imagination” during one of our visits to Disney World.  When we visited the cartoon exhibit, they explained that the scholarships they gave to creative apprentices, were aimed at heightening the appreciation of this quality of imagination within others….to raise the value of it….and to increase the potential of the student to learn from their  creative and imaginative powers.

Einstein, himself, has stated that his most profound discoveries have not come from rational thought, but from imagination.  Dreaming was an important activity to him. In fact, Thomas Edison, found it absolutely necessary to take a nap in the afternoon. That was part of his work pattern.

In Creativity, Fox writes: “In the Kabbalah, the medieval Jewish mystical work, we are instructed that “the firece power of imagination is a gift from God.” To call imagination a “fierce power” is to warn us that we are wrestling with the wild forces when we enter into the arena of creativity. A wresting match not unlike Jacob struggling with an angel can be anticipated.”

Author John O’Donohue points out that in the Celtic way of seeing the world, the soul is the place where the imaginatin lives.

Imagination takes us to the space of “elsewhere.”

I love that phrase – “the space of elsewhere.” O’Donohue continues to describe it as taking us to nothingness, to emptiness, to what is not yet and therefore to what might still be. The space of “elsewhere” invites us to have a living imagination.

We can choose today to be a “space of elsewhere”, where we are busy feeding and nourishing our imagination. We can dance with the rhythms of creativity and not simply sit on the sidelines of life.

Today, I am creating a day with my grandson, celebrating his 14th birthday. We are still in “fluid design” of exactly what the day will bring. But it will bring spontaneity, laughter and fun, I know.

We will view the day as a river of creativity running through all things. We’re going to get wet, jump in, and ride the rapids, wild and sacred as they may be…..even if we only go to a movie and eat chocolate cake together!

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A Note about Creativity and Ireland, on the side

 

I am posting  Suzanne Murray’s blog here as I love to further any notes on the value of “freewriting” and here is a great note with some scientific backup to boot.

I had hoped to travel to Ireland with Suzanne a couple years back, but it didn’t come about. I have an intuition we may meet up someday, either “here” or “there.” We are truly friends that just haven’t happened to meet yet. Well, once I did on Skype and it was a fantastic meeting.

This is from: http://creativitygoeswild.com/west-of-ireland/

 

I think the best way to perform is when your unconscious is fully available to you, but you’re still a little conscious too. – Yo-Yo Ma

Creativity Goes Wild  by Suzanne Murray

LETTING GO TO ACCESS YOUR CREATIVITY

I have taught the creative writing process for more than twenty years working in part with a technique known as “freewriting” where I encourage participants to “just let it rip”. We don’t worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar or whether it is good. We suspend the censor and let our first thoughts spill out onto the page. People new to the class are always nervous about this kind of letting go. Since I write and share my own raw writing with the group I was rather nervous when I first started teaching the classes but found that by maintaining an safe and sacred atmosphere of unconditional acceptance for whatever wanted to come forth it really calmed the fear for everyone.

We learn quite early to fear making mistakes. We all have a well developed censor that confines us within the limiting parameters of being socially acceptable. Neuroscientists have identified a part of the brain, the dorso lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) that is closely associated with impulse control. It keeps us from embarrassing ourselves or saying the wrong thing to our boss or spouse.

Young children create so naturally because their censors don’t yet exist. The DLPFC is the last part of the brain to fully develop. Around 4th grade it engages and children lose interest in making art in the classroom. If we are worried about making a mistake, saying the wrong thing or doing something poorly we often end up doing nothing at all. The censor has us holding back our latent talent.

In a study by a neuroscientist looking at brain activity in jazz musicians engaged in improvisation, research subjects showed increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with self expression, while at the same time the DLPFC appeared to deactivate. At this point there is a surge of raw material coming forth but rather than being random or chaotic it is organized or structured by the rules of the form. In the case of jazz musicians they naturally improvised in the right key and tempo. I noticed this tendency in my freewriting workshops. Students bypass the censor yet they also naturally wrote in the form that seemed to most call or appeal to them. Individuals drawn to poetry and who read a lot of poetry had the raw writing take on a poetic quality. The same was true with fiction, memoir or non-fiction. It’s why I always tell people that reading the kind of writing you want to do is one of the best things you can do to improve your work because when you let go and let the creativity flow, your brain then has a sense of how to organize it. When we let go we have access to the vast storehouse of the unconscious mind.

I really encourage creative play and practice free from the expectation that we have to produce something as a way to opening up to our creative gifts and talents.. Learning to let go and create an atmosphere of inner permission, acceptance and allowance can really help us open more fully to our creativity.

INDIVIDUAL & ONLINE>COACHING FOR LIFE, CREATIVITY OR WRITING

& Spring Retreats to Yosemite & Ireland

 

THE HEART & SOUL OF IRELAND – Journey to the West of Ireland

Dublin, Galway, County Clare, The Aran Islands

May 9 to May 16, 2013

for more info go to http://creativitygoeswild.com/west-of-ireland/
or just email or call me if you have any questions

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A Song Just for You

Yesterday, God sang to me. This is exactly how it happened.

I’ve been getting a lot of signs and messages lately to be aware of and increase my joy in daily living. And I have to say, with a rather simple lifestyle, that wondrous quality of joy is, indeed, showing up more as a regular resident of my day. I am quite grateful for that.

To lose one’s sense of joy is quite sad and I have walked days on the Earth with at least a greatly diminished capacity for joy. Being in fear is one of joy’s first evictors.

Here is how one of my signs arrived. I pulled Matthew Fox’s book, “Creativity” off the shelf for some randomly selected reading of his wondrous text. I opened the book to page 169, where I read the heading on the page: “Open Oneself to Joy.” These syncroniscities happen to me all the time as I guide my life more through my intuitive self.

Before I read that page though I had poured myself a fresh cup of coffee and sat out on my deck as the sun was slipping down toward the horizon. Michigan weather, after a dry torrid spell, had recreated itself into a pleasant, blue-sky sunny light breezy environment. I felt joy in the soft sensations on my skin, the sights and sounds of the fair breeze wind in the trees, the white fluff in the richly colored blue sky and the bird flight patterns and happy chirping sounds of their songs in the backyard.

I felt joyful.

Then I joined in the joy and sang a song of raise and praise to the birds. It is a song we sing for special intentions at our Monday night prayer group meetings.  This time I sang: “I praise you birds, I raise you birds, in the name of Love.” I repeated this several times over, letting my voice sift out to the trees at the end of our backyard.

Then I was quiet for several moments of enjoying the goodness of creation.

This quiet was entered into by two birds that flew a straight path from a tree limb onto the wooden deck railing exactly in front of me. They faced me directly. Then they sang a short little duet together, chirping quite exhubertantly.

Then as quickly as they came, they flew off. They didn’t even stop for a snack at the bird feeder. I was amazed….and I thanked them for their visit.

Matthew Fox says, “To know joy, we must know the heart. We must live where the heart lives. There is no other path to real joy. ”

He also believes that learning is one of the most spiritual, ecstatic, mystical and prayerful experiences available to us all. He is interested in learning the new creation story from science and cosmology.  I found out, to my own surprise, that I was too when I studied evolution and spirituality with Barbara Marx Hubbard this summer.

Fox quotes Thomas Aquinas, 13th Century Dominican theologian, that “by dwelling on creatures, the mind is inflamed to love the Divine goodness”…and that we “love and know God in the mirror of God’s creatures.”

So Fox wonders why we tend to ignore the value of creation in our lives.”Divine Wisdom first appears in the creation of things,” says Aquinas. Fox points out then, that creation becomes our doorway (direct) to Divine Wisdom.

He encourages us not to take it for granted. Not to ignore it. He says to begin to inflame the mind again to love the Divine goodness or blessing inherent in all creation.

My heart was filled last night in the experience on the patio. In fact, my heart was quite full in the silent enjoyment of creation around me before the arrival of the birds and their song.

The feeling I have about my life is that I am living from the heart. I am also paying attention to the creatures. Their presence and gift certainly inflamed me past the sense of fullness.

It was an exciting, creative moment in time.

And in return, I received a gift of God  singing through the birds!

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Katie G’s Cookie Art

Great art appeals to the senses. You know — what the eye can see, the heart can long for, the ear can hear.  But, oh, what the nose can smell and the mouth can taste! The cookies of my niece, Katie appeal to them all. (Not sure where the ear fits in unless it may be the tip off, “mom’s batch of cookies are ready!”

Kookies by Katie G can be found on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kookies-by-Katie-G/290777210933783

She has taken her immense talent in art to her kitchen. After painting many images that are now wall hangings in doctor and business offices, she has switched mediums to flour, sugar, frostings and designs that delight the imagination.

By the variety of selections and special orders coming in, it looks like her productions are pretty hefty in number also. And why not? Even if you can’t taste them here, just enjoy the delightful designs and imagination of this artist:

Katie met my nephew, Jeff, when they were both students at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

I remember one time that Jeff confided in me, it was pretty soon after meeting Katie that he knew she was THE one.  And sure enough, soon after the college diplomas were earned, Jeff and Katie were married.

There are many people today who are insisting that  we are going to make a real difference in this world by living and giving the truest gifts we have within us. While Katie has this beautiful gift of artistry in her, I believe the greatest gift they give to each other and the world is the love they give and live with each other.

They are a family encircled in being and doing family things. While Katie must be quite busy in the kitchen, Jeff is on his own Facebook page touting some event in his life with his children. They have one beautiful daughter , Megan, and two terrific sons, Jimmy and Nathan.  Perhaps, they are the inspiration of some of Katie’s creativity, like…snow cookies.

daddy and snowangels

Jeff is a marketing professional in his work life and works from his office in his home. So when he is not on the road, he gets fringe benefits of being asked every once in awhile to be a taste tester. What a bother, right! He’s also not far from the ball field he is on often with his children.

Hitter at Bat

Well, I’ve left Katie in the kitchen for awhile now, so  we better go back and see what she’s been up to.

Corporate Orders and Logos

Ladies Night Out

Religious Celebration

There’s a Cake!

Holidays, School Days, and Birthday Parties

Next to last, a Princess Cake my granddaughter would love!

And then comes………

CHRISTMAS! Can you just imagine?

I would guess Santa really looks forward to this stop on his Christmas Route. Family Life is sweet and happy the way they are living it. May the blessings continue.

Katie your artistic gift is A M A Z I N G……keep on giving. Jeff, I enjoy the joy you share of your family life. Happy Father’s Day.

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Creativity, the Mystic & the Soul

“The times we live in call for a new kind of mystic, a Creative Mystic. A Creative Mystic has a foot in both worlds: the physical world of laundry and picking up the kids from soccer plus the spiritual world of synchronicity and magical creation.

The word “mystic” may conjure up a picture of an eccentric, gray-haired hermit, who lives on a mountain top, watching the clouds and deeply contemplating the meaning of life. However, most of us have no such luxury and may not even consider such an existence attractive.”

These words come from Jean Slatter’s website,  “http://creativemystic.com. At this website you can find all kinds of Jean’s work that will help you align your own life purpose and creativity with the help of spiritual guides. In fact, in her best selling first book of 2003, Hiring the Heavens,  she actually hired her spiritual helpers, gave them job descriptions, and duties and deadlines!  And she insists they got their jobs done and created much good for her in the process.

Well, I haven’t done any work with Jean yet, but I’ve been the lucky recipient of her Creative Mystic Journal Pages in my email and they have given me lots of inspiration and more to think about. What she says and believes rings true in my experience as well.

Recently in her journal page, she talked about words that are words we are concentrating upon in Barbara Hubbard’s ACE training program (Agents of Conscious Evolution)

Words like: life purpose, Essence (Barbara’s BIG word, more on that later,)… Being, Doing… Calling… and Soul’s Mission.

Slatter says her personal life essence is one of inspiration (that’s the Being”.) She helps people bridge the gap between the spiritual world and the physical world. (That’s the doing.)

In summary, she says her essence is expressed as an “inspirational spiritual bridge, showing people how they can access spiritual guidance in their lives easily and comfortably, without superstition and the confines of dogma.

“Like breathing, it is something I do. But it lives in the background of my being, requiring no effort on my part unless I am off tract in my life. As I undertake this ‘doing” characterized by the essence of inspiration, who I “be” in the world uplifts both me and those around me.”

So, she says being a spiritual bridge is just a natural part of being who her highest self is. And that it actually takes effort not to do it.

I know there is an Essence part of each of us. The biggest teacher of this in my life is when I’ve had to struggle to hold back (withhold or hide out of fear or non-trust) what I feel to be the naturally good self in a given situation. There were many of these times in my family times of growing up.

But there were more when I should have known better. I had to have many experiences and meet certain “more-evolved” people in my life before I could dig deep and stop playing the camellion who could and would change colors to meet the situation and come through unscathed or unembarrassed.

Barbara Marx Hubbard, in her process called Emergence to the Universal Human Being, says the main shift to be made to be successful in the emergence is the shift from Ego to Essence, describing the Essence to be the true, higher self in each of us, our true nature.

To turn a phrase, this really is about being “all about me” (the Essential Me, who naturally acts from the highest realm) without Ego singing the main melody! There is truly a Me we can each trust that doesn’t come from Ego’s demented attention-getting tactics.

Jean Slatter believes there is no barrier or separation between you and your divine nature. As we get further into Barbara Hubbard’s Emergence process, we find she believes the same, from her own experience and believes it to be a universal truth. The Divine is absorbed within our humanness.

God made that choice. Jesus told us of this Truth in many ways….and His words have been interpreted and/or set in doctrine in ways where some may cry “heresy”. Yet the readings of the ancient hermit-type mystics, who wholly dwelled upon God, more often than not concur…….the Divine within us is LOVE ….totally capable of consuming us…..very capable of showing up in our lives as the good God meant to create…..yet we are free…..yes we have free will…… can you imagine…..

we have the capacity to say NO to this great choice.  We can choose to live in love and creativity (the very Essence of God, Source, Divine Being, Soul) or ……

not.

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The Real Energy Crisis May Be Within

Merridee LaMantia Art

During her final show, Oprah Winfrey spotlighted a clip of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, famed neuroanatomist who successfully recovered from a stroke, and went on to educate us all about our brain tissue and value of life.

Winfrey went on to thank Bolte Taylor for a simple but powerful lesson, which was given to her on a sign by this courageous woman. The sign read: 

Please take responsibility
for the energy you bring
into this space.
                     Jill Bolte Taylor

Winfrey said she had the sign on a wall in her office and home and that it is a great reminder that all life is energy and we are transmitting it at every moment. “We are all beaming little signals like radio frequencies and the world is responding in kind,” is a quote from Dr. Taylor’s book, “My Stroke of Insight.”

This sign is available from artist Merridee LaMantia, the artist at her website, www.merrideelamantia.com/bolte

Not a bad idea to spread this vibration out into the world, and so I share it here with you and put in on my wish list to purchase when I am able.

Looking around Merridee’s website describing her art, her philosophy, and her interests in life was a bright experience for me and the energy vibrations of good and peace rippled right across the internet into my room.

She values and drew early in her life upon imagination as a communication medium with the world.  She played with dimensional aspects of defining space for floor plans in her elementary school years and architectural drawing by the time she was in college.

She met and married a fellow artist and together, she counts their creation of three daughters as a most creative endeavor.  “As the years pass, I’ve expanded my inspirational focus and now grow natural materials to incorporate in my work,” she explains on her website.

Peace Like A River - LaMantia

Peace Like a River is a 7’0w x 4’6″h x 4″ deep artistic creation of curly willow branches, Lotus pods, bamboo, cloth, raffia.

As an artist, she has made a commitment to be a participant, rather than an observer, in the world’s life-changing events. She strives to transform ideas into positive visual communication, instead of pointing out the troublesome, self-serving political injustices occuring daily in the world.

Her feeling is that creative thoughts, emphasized, can become positive actions. While the artistic expression takes mental discipline and persistence, it first of all requires an openess to simple intuitive truths.

That’s the power and wisdom I find in her artistic creation of a quote from Bolte Taylor.   We need to be aware of the power of our energy of pure Presence.  It is even more fundamental than the axiom “Be sure brain is in gear before mouth opens.”

Our energy is our building block — our internal furnace — that which stokes us  — our integrity  — OR  it is our “hidden agenda”, what can be felt by others regardless of how we appear or what we say. Our energy is the truth of us.

I would not mind being reminded of it when I walk into a space that contained this message on the wall: Take Responsibility for the Energy you bring.  I would agree to keep on target with that.

One of the energies Meridee LaMantia shares with the world is that of Illuminating Peace – A Global Perspecitve. It is a traveling exhibit as a “dimensional vocabulary for peace”, a strategic counterforce to current violent conflicts taking place on our planet.

Using imagery of other world cultures and symbolism regarding “peace”, she interprets the essence of these discoveries into eight artistic fabric panels.  Her written vision is, “May peace prevail on Earth” (in 50 languages) as a way of honoring the hope connecting our one world family.

Illuminating Peace - Merridee LaMantia

This Indiana artist uses her love of light, texture, space, color and fabric to communicate this universal message that peace is powerfully alive in human hearts around the world.

I can’t always tell this by watching the 6:00 pm news. But I know it to be true because I share the same initiative and do in my small ways what I can do to share the presence of Peace. I know of many women and some men who share this same message through their gifts of writing, art, photography, music, drama, blogs and program presentations

 — none of them seem to shine the light on themself, but instead through their work and their works, they encourage others to stand right up and …….Take Responsibility for their Energy.………….and if that energy calls for them to take their writing, their photography, their healing out of a small space and share it with the “world-space”,  they have made the best creation of all. 

The creation that keeps on creating.

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