AWAKENING: THE WORLD ENDING AS I KNOW IT IS A PROFOUND LESSON OF TRANSFORMATION

AWAKENING. When I move, I change. If I inhabit a room and it becomes too small, I leave. This is change too. It is also a form of awakening. I appreciate the vulnerability of my wallaby. His need to be comforted alerts me to my need. We are one in the same. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for CHANGE my dear fellow pilgrims! Hallelujah for that surprising flash, ZAP, that knocks you in the head--or you knock with your head--and you are transitioned into a NEW REALITY! It is possible that this CHANGE, this NEW REALITY, is an AWAKENING!

Yesterday, I crashed while riding my bicycle on the Atlanta Beltline. Don't worry--I am okay because I was wearing my helmet. I did suffer some scrapes and bruises, and my neck hurts from a sudden whacking of my head on the pavement. I will survive swimmingly. Therefore, I am allowing this literal "knock on my head" to represent the symbolic "whacking" and "cracking" I am experiencing currently in my humble life as an artist, teacher, and blogger.

WHEN THINGS GO WHACK! This image of my animus (Wandjina) reassures me and strengthens me in in times of change.(Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Related to this "cracking" or "whacking" of my head is a quote I recently posted on THE DAILY CREATIVE PRACTICE (my Facebook group)  from Mark Nepo:

“When in the midst of great change, it is helpful to remember how a chick is born. From the view of the chick, it is a terrifying struggle. Confined and curled in a dark shell, half-formed, the chick eats all its food and stretches to the contours of its shell. It begins to feel hungry and cramped. Eventually, the chick begins to starve and feels suffocated by the ever-shrinking space of its world."

CRACKING THE SHELL. And the world as I know it, is coming to an end. Change is constant, and the one who listens to the change can learn from it. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

“Finally, its own growth begins to crack the shell, and the world as the chick knows it is coming to an end….”  From “The Chick Being Born” in THE BOOK OF AWAKENING (2000), Mark Nepo

Hallelujah for Mark Nepo and his beautiful insights! In the entry "The Chick Being Born," Nepo goes on to discuss the profound lesson of transformation. When we grow, it is almost like experiencing a death because we must leave an old way of being behind in order to experience the new way of being. And this change can be frightening, triggering fear. Remember Chicken Little (Henny Penny) running around repeatedly proclaiming:

THE SKY IS FALLING!

Well, when one's world is changing, it might feel as though disaster is imminent! However, "the falling sky" or the "whack" on the head may be and most likely is an announcement of the call to CHANGE!

As you all must have guessed, I am going through an AWAKENING, a TRANSFORMATION, in my life that is requiring the courage to leave one room and go into another, leaving behind a broken shell the way a baby chick does. 

Up until now, the structure of my life has nurtured and sustained me. And now? This structure is too small. I am cracking the shell. My head hit the pavement yesterday in a resounding "whack." I am being summoned into another room. I am awakening to the call! 

HARKENING. I am being called forth on a new journey. The summons excites and alarms me. This CHANGE is essential if one is to go on living vibrantly. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! I am changing! I am awakening to what is next, and I will be SOUL BLOGGING about it! Stay tuned. And SOUL BLOG with me! Tell me what is changing in your life and how you are awakening to the summons!

EMERGING SOUL OF A SIGN: The Making of the Summer SOULstice Soiree Sign for Mulberry Fields Community Garden

EMERGING SOUL OF A SIGN. Paint holds spirit! As I fill out lines with shades of color, something magical emerges from the image. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

STARTING FROM A FAMILIAR PLACE. This image of a mermaid is a familiar one in my repertoire of drawings (just check the sidebar of this blog, on the right). When I am asked to do something and have little or no idea as to what to do, I begin with what I know.(art by Hallelujah Truth)

photo by Chiboogamoo

Hallellujah for requests for my artistry to support worthy community causes, especially when that cause is MULBERRY FIELDS COMMUNITY GARDEN AND GREEN SPACE in Candler Park, Atlanta, Georgia. When Jesse Merle Harris, one of the founders of Mulberry Fields and a dear artist friend of mine (see my interview with her), asked me to promote the upcoming fund raiser for our community garden, I readily accepted. 

The name of the fund raising event is perfect for me, Hallelujah Truth, because it has been named, SUMMER SOULSTICE SOIREE, and I applaud the use of the word "SOUL" in place of the prefix "sol." How magnificent to celebrate all of our SOULS at the summer equinox, the longest day of the year! Hallelujah!

COLOR HOLDS ENERGY. Painting with color is a joyful process! For me, I follow my heart for color choices and love to see what kind of energy is evoked from the calamitous rioting colors. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

ADDING WORDS TO MAKE IT A SIGN. It has been a first for me to make this sign to advertise an event. Figuring out how to write the words was slightly haphazard since I don't like to plan carefully but prefer the result of spontaneous writing (ha ha)! (art by Hallelujah Truth)

FUNDRAISING NAMES AND LEVELS REQUIRE PLANNING. WHOOPS! To fulfill its mission as a fundraising sign for both the Summer SOULstice Soiree event and advertising donation levels, I needed to call in planning and...CHIBOOGAMOO's assistance! Here, in this photo, you can see that I have measured out even lines on the mermaid's body and made rows of light and dark turquoise. Now, that is planning! (art by Hallelujah Truth)

CAREFUL LETTERING. Hallelujah for CHIBOOGAMOO's careful clear writing! You can now see the donation levels and the cool names of each! Don't you want to be a "Stampeding Pumpkin"? (art by Hallelujah Truth)

WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF ROOM, AMMEND. Instead of trying to add all of the information to the painting of the Summer SOULstice Soiree mermaid, I decided to build the sign up and down, adding the Mulberry Fields marquee to the top and the blog for making donations to the bottom! It has been tremendously fun to work with wood and tin again after a sabbatical of two years. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

PROTECTION FOR BEING OUTSIDE AT MULBERRY FIELDS. In order for the Summer SOULstice Soiree sign to live safely outdoors, she needed to be swabbed with exterior polyeurethane! (art by Hallelujah Truth)

FINAL TOUCHES--ASSEMBLING. Hallelujah for felines who can use power tools! Tao, assisted me in the final stages of this Summer SOULstice Soiree sign for Mulberry Fields (And he is with me now helping me write this blog entry by walking all over the key board!). (art by Hallelujah Truth)

Dear Pilgrims, I painted passionately from Saturday morning to Wednesday morning, examining my interior life while focusing on making this Summer SOULstice Soiree sign for my community garden, Mulberry Fields. When Jesse came by with her truck to take the sign away, I felt happy and sad simultaneously.

Hurray for artists and their art. Hurray for me and my connections to community. My Chiboogamoo and I do not have any children; therefore, our works are our offspring. And when these quickly reared offspring go rapidly out into our communities to lead their own lives, there is an  "empty nest" syndrome experience.

SOULFUL MERMAID AT HOME in MULBERRY FIELDS (art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah Truth, photo by Chiboogamoo

However, there is always the next art project and the next blog. And, in this case, there is Mulberry Fields and our garden plot that has been planted with tomatoes, beans, basil, peppers, and eggplant. 

That's Coffee with Hallellujah on this day of June 13th, 2013. What will you do today Pilgrims to serve your community and to plant something that will feed your body and soul? SOUL BLOG with me and share your ideas!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thank you so much SOULMATE, Chiboogamoo!

HUBBY SUPPORT. Chiboogamoo with vegetables for our garden plot at Mulberry Fields Community Garden and Green Space! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

OUT IN THE DARK SEA: When I call "SHARK," the shark is summoned--LEARNING the POWER of THOUGHT on REALITY

THE SHARK WAS SUMMONED. In my fear, I called out, "The shark is going to eat me." Upon hearing his name, the shark was summoned, and he answered my call. He arrived by my side! (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah dear pilgrims! Hallelujah for story tellers and for visual art that help us understand who we are! In recent months, I have been contemplating major changes in my life. At first, my Chiboogamoo and I were considering moving to a beautiful American city out west. After all, we are in our fifties now, perhaps it is time for significant readjustments before we settle into our senior years. 

However, it is May 10th, and our course has been reckoned for the next year. We will be staying in Atlanta. Our continued stay in this busy cosmopolitan city of 5 million left me with a challenging question, one that frightens me!

How do I continue growing into the person I want to be when I am confined by enduring structures of the past 20 years?

Even though packing up a household and moving to another city provides all kinds of challenges, the actions one must take are clearly defined, allowing one to move forward and complete tasks that advance change. You leave your job, pack up your possessions, kiss your friends, and wave good-bye.

But how about ripping the fabric of one's life while living in the same place? Changing things up harmoniously and productively? Taking that fabric and making a NEW garment. For me, this quest harkens me into the unknown, and that unknown frightens me. 

Rebecca Solnit, in her book, A Field Guide to Getting Lost (2005), addresses this question of going into the mystery (of being lost), especially for the tasks assigned artists:

“Certainly for artists of all stripes, the unknown, the idea or the form or the tale that has not yet arrived, is what must be found. It is the job of artists to open doors and invite in prophesies, the unknown, the unfamiliar; it’s where their work comes from, although its arrival signals the beginning of the long disciplined process of making it their own. Scientists too, as J. Robert Oppenheimer once remarked, “live always at the ‘edge of mystery’—the boundary of the unknown.” But they transform the unknown into the known, haul it in like fishermen; artists get you out into the dark sea.”

OUT IN THE DARK SEA. Over the years, I have gotten better and better about jumping into the unknown. It has become a practice! The vast open sea literally terrifies me, so it is an apt metaphor for my fears of the unknown! (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

"...Artists get you out into the dark sea." In order to do that, we artists must venture into the sea ourselves. In December 20ll, I literally went into the ocean at San Salvador, Bahamas, with my Chiboogamoo's Emory University class. For me, snorkeling was a challenge. To get in the water and swim around the coral reefs shook me viscerally. Even though I water skied as a child and got certified to dive when I was in college in California, I have been incredibly uncomfortable around large bodies of water for most of my adult life. Therefore, after almost 30 years of a sabbatical from water, I jumped, snorkled, examined coral reef life, and returned to the shores of San Salvador several times, released from some of my former fears. Not all of them.

However, this actual physical experience of going into the ocean, has provided me with a method for dealing with my psychological fears. JUMPING is a good thing when you know for a fact, you won't get harmed!

A STORY...BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU CALL OUT FOR. When we are fearful, we don't mean to, but perhaps, we create or enhance the existing fear. In this image that I have drawn, I am RABBIT, and I have called out all of my fears, one of them being SHARK. When he heard his name, he answered. This idea and visual image were influenced by a Native American story that Jamie Sams and David Carson tell about Rabbit, the fear caller, in Medicine Cards. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

In a story told by Jamie Sams and David Carson in Medicine Cards, Rabbit is given a curse by Eye Walker:

Art by Angela C. Werneke, Medicine Cards

"From now on, you will call your fears and your fears will come to you."

The lesson learned from the medicine cards is that what you fear most, you become. That by resisting your fears, they continue. So what is a more desirable course of action?

Name the fears, write them down, feel them. "Breathe into them, and feel them running through your body into Mother Earth as a give away (page 158, Medicine Cards)." The Medicine Card authors advise us not to ask "what-ifs" about the future. And, not to imagine horrible things. 

Pilgrims, instead we can go about our lives, managing our thoughts. We have a choice about what we think. 

As I continue jumping into the unknown, this mysterious dark sea of life, I will re-imagine what I find there. It is time for TRANSFORMATION in my life, and I am summoning LIGHT, LAUGHTER, MEANING, LOVE, and FRIENDSHIP. Using ART is my mode of transportation. I remain here in Atlanta, but I will create a NEW LIFE for myself! And I will not be summoning sharks!

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me what fears you summon to your life and how you will learn to make choices for different outcomes.    

MEDICINE CARDS. New pick--Armadillo! Guess what story Armadillo tells? Get your own Medicine Cards and have fun discovering new ways of understanding yourself!

HOW WILL YOU GO ABOUT FINDING THAT THING WHICH IS UNKNOWN TO YOU?: Leaping into the mystery as a way of knowing!

LEAPING AS A WAY OF KNOWING. Portrait of me, Hallelujah, with Mother Mystery behind me (right), and Mother Turtle (center), like a full moon, guiding me. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Good Morning Pilgrims! As the month of April 2013 concludes for me here in Atlanta, Georgia, I am celebrating the GREAT LEAP. 

At the beginning of April, I established an open  Facebook Group, THE DAILY CREATIVE PRACTICE  (come join the group, here) and I explained (in this blog) that its purpose was to document our UNIQUITIES and share our creative processes. The past four weeks have seen this Facebook Group bursting with frequent postings and comments. Clearly all of us SOULS have a strong desire to connect through our CREATIVE PRACTICES!

So why is this blog entry titled, "How will you go about finding that thing which is unknown to you?: Leaping into the mystery is a way of knowing!? Great question!

GREAT MOTHER MYSTERY.  Part Guadalupe, part human woman in a hijab, part me, part of all of our feminine selves. (Art by Hallelujah)

Leaping has become my way of knowing. I am not alone when I jump. I have good companions who watch me and keep me orienting to my TRUE NORTH. None of us is alone! It is up to each one of us to find OUR TRIBE so that we can experience the vibrant connections that enliven us. 

Recently, in one of my leaps to enlarge the members of MY TRIBE, I began a book club on the topic of Brain Health and Creativity, and one of the members (Cecelia Kane) recommended that we read REBECCA SOLNIT's  A FIELD GUIDE TO GETTING LOST, 2005. It is a book filled with philosophical meanderings, and yes, you do get lost in the author's thoughts. I think you are supposed to! Here is a quote from the early pages of this guide to getting lost:

“Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, where you will go. Three years ago I was giving a workshop in the Rockies. A student came bearing a quote from what she said was the pre-Socratic philosopher Meno. It read, ‘How will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?’ I copied it down, and it has stayed with me since.”

For me, as an artist, I am intrigued by this question asked of Rebecca Solnit by her student—how can we find something when it is unknown to us? (Read A Field Guide to Getting Lost to learn Solnit's answer.) Although it is pleasurable to BE HERE NOW, it also fun to pursue novelty—the unknown. Why? Because it makes the neurons in our brains pop and crackle, and we feel that we have grown. And, indeed we have and this growth is positive!

TA DA! LEAPING MORE.  Leaping has become a way of knowing for me. My art documents the progress of my SOUL. This image belongs to a group of images that were conceived last summer while listening to Clarissa Pinkola Estes and I was forming my world of my FULL PLANETHOOD. I believe I completed it yesterday, April 28th, 2013 while my Chiboogamoo was grading final exam. I love the big black question marks in this! I am learning to love the QUESTION! (Art by Hallelujah)

WITH LOVE AS ALWAYS TO MY CHIBOOGAMOO. We are not alone! Thank you!

SUNDAY EVENING IN DECATUR, GEORGIA. We companion each other in our separate endeavors as often as we can. This past Sunday evening was complete working together after a meal of homemade chili and a growler of Terrapin's Tree Hugger beer. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me what TRIBE you belong to! What leaps are you taking into the GREAT MYSTERY! And you are invited to join the Facebook Group, THE DAILY CREATIVE PRACTICE!