Thursday, October 19, 2006

"New Moon Mandala"
9:45pm

This mandala is a joint project between C.G. and J.A.L.

Every new moon Clare Goodwin creates a mandala for subscribers of the newsletter she and her husband send out. It is designed to be colored. Answering the question that coloring a design someone else made might 'stifle creativity', she says, "If every member of this list colored the free mandala, I can guarantee you each one would be unique." This month's mandala is all the black lines in the above mandala. I added all the color and the background design outside of the circle. Each month it is a new design. They have many resources for those who work with mandalas.

I also have a page with all such Goodwin/Lansberry mandalas
Further, I have an explanation of my meditative process when creating the mandalas, and the symbolism I see within this mandala.

Friday, October 20, 2006 A

"Innocence"
6:43pm

The Photo Friday theme this week is 'Innocence'. I find myself readily inspired by this. Children in zoos often exhibit a delightful innocence, and while in Seattle, I was lucky to capture a young girl examining a butterfly:


If you click on the picture, you can see the butterfly...


One of the lovely butterflies....

Friday, October 20, 2006 B

"Inspired?"
11:05pm

I took a moment to visit with myself for a spontaneous drawing:


Hmm, shall I experiment with painting?

Sunday, October 22, 2006

"Inspired II?"
11:32am

Friday's picture begged for color, is this a way of 'painting'?:


I have the original tif version, as well...

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

"Pausing to Take a Rest"
3:17am

A nightmare awakenened me, and then I took time for some peaceful meditative thoughts. For some reason, this picture of a Seattle man taking a break to read the paper appeals to me. If he's reading of disturbing news events, his break won't be very restful. But let's imagine that it is mentally engaging in a pleasant way:

His time away from work is restorative and he returns refreshed. That is what I want to imagine. Not that he returned, griping about this and that. In what frequently seems a maelstrom of busyness, too often I feel the pressure to keep busy. I get the mistaken notion that if I am not always busy, I am wasting each minute not spent in busyness. But the rest times are necessary to recharge and replenish our spirits. Even if it is just brief pauses through out the day to take a deep breath and 'return to the center', this helps to focus my mind. I am grateful for the rest points along the way. Each is a moment to enjoy my consciousness, whether it is my consciousness 'at rest', 'at work' or 'at play', it is all about the consciousness.

And so in these moments of collecting my thoughts before returning to bed, I collect tranquillity. May you find moments of tranquillity, as well.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

"Of This I Have Confidence"
5:37am


Fuzzy, but still noticeably cute and furry Red ruffed Lemur at Seattle zoo...

At the point of vigorous testing, at this point a decision is made. Bend or fold? Do I learn to adjust, or do I resist the changes being imposed? As I learn to find within me a calm that is not dependent upon the outside world, I grow. This is a change I shall keep. This is Xeper. I will keep this change.

All around me is the storm of uncertainty. So many shouting voices, shouting for so many different reasons. Crisis in Hawaii, crisis in Darfur, crisis in the Middle East, crisis in some small home three blocks down from me, all the shouting. At this time of election, so many shouting, "I am the best candidate. Candidate X is a blockhead who cheated on his taxes, his wife, his life..." Oh, to tune out the shouting for a moment of peace. I must find it within.

It is not that I want to ignore all that's happening in the world. But sometimes all of it can be too much with me. Sometimes the best thing I can do to 'heal the world' is to 'heal myself'. Okay, I don't like the 'sickness modality' that too often the New Age gets into.

I don't want to go there. But there is struggle, here and abroad. I can only answer my own, in this moment. As I learn to be 'proactive' and not 'reactive', tossed by every blow of the wind, I learn a strength. I have confidence this will happen.

I am coming to my ten year celebration of online journaling. And what a celebration that is! I am not the same woman that began October 31, 1996 to save pieces of memory and to hope for creative inspiration. And yet I am that same woman. Nearly thirty eight year old me said:

"And thus this journal begins. Halloween, with the chilling air of the changing seasons, is always a moody time of the year. As leaves decay, I think about my own mortality. What if I don't get the fifty more years I hope for? What if death comes early? What have I done with my life? Am I living as fully as I can? For that is the only revenge against the eventually all too certain grim reaper."

And I so agree. While I have hope I can hold my Ka and Ba against the tide of death and not disperse to disappear within the arms of Nuit, I hold to the moment which I know I do have. This moment now, whatever is happening within it, whatever I am causing to happen, this moment, that is the only sure thing.

So I want to make the most of each moment. Joy will come, and pride will come, and I will be able to say "I have done well." And yet, I am not my doings, I am the one who does the doings. I am she who is aware of THIS MOMENT. I embrace the moment, I embrace me. And I know that whatever lies ahead, however long the journey or short the journey, it will be a wonder-filled one. Of this I have confidence.

Friday, October 27, 2006

"Drunken Fly"
6:08am

At dinner last night, we watched a fly, mezmerized as it would not leave Julia's almost empty martini glass. I thought it would be fun to make a haiku of it:

Drunken fly
zig zags thin glass wall,
plum wine drops!

(I thought 'plum wine drops' sounded better, it's Japanese like the haiku form, besides 'martini drops' is too many syllables!) The waiter came and removed the glass, and the fly still held fast. It did try to return to our table and my lemonade glass. As I was not through with the lemonade, I no longer let the fly linger!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

"Why This Picture is Taking So Long"
4:37am

Basically, I screwed up. I've learned that it is most wise to make a black and white line drawing of the initial sketch. Yes, it takes considerable darkening of the mid tones to get a version that isn't a bunch of scattered black dots. But I got in a hurry with this picture. I skipped this important first step. So now I have a bunch of pixilated garbage that won't color in properly:


magnified 600x...


...which results in ugly speckly crap like the above...

So now I have to fix these areas which are most noticeable in the dark shaded areas pixel by pixel. Grrr!

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