my art & the language of my life

a piece of the path i walked yesterday

these recent days i am holding several questions - questions that inspire & delight. here are two:

1. what is my art?

2. what is the language of my life?

on monday i explored these questions in one of my journals, starting with the question, "what is my art?" as my words moved through me (& my fingers) & to the screen i started to see that my response to "what is the language of my life?" mirrors my response to "what is my art?" my art is the language of my life & the language of my life is my art. when i ask "what is my art?" & when i ask "what is the language of my life?" i am asking the same question. i also see that my art is & the language of my life is: my gift, my skill & my contribution.

my art & the language of my life is:

• being
• breathing
• showing up
• seeing, naming, honoring & celebrating what is, the wholly holy & the extraordinary ordinary
• presence, peace & practice
• gratitude & appreciation
• creation
• light-full & light-ness
• joy
• gentle-ness, kind-ness & generosity
• healing
• illuminating
• delight
• savoring
• sweet-ness
• enough & perfection
• partnership with Spirit, ancestors, Nature, partner, children, family, friends, colleagues & acquaintances
• loving
• mindful-ness
• listening
• fluid, flowing, impermanent
• simplicity

what is your art? what is the language of your life?

10 questions & 10 answers

i dig the television show, Inside the Actors Studio. one of my favorite parts of the show is at the end when the host, James Lipton, asks his guest(s) a series of questions (questions inspired by Bernard Pivot, who hosted a series entitled, Bouillon de Culture).

here are these 10 questions & my 10 answers:

1. What is your favorite word? gentle (is one of my favorite words)
   
2. What is your least favorite word? hate
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? fresh air
   
4. What turns you off? violence
   
5. What is your favorite curse word? i don't have a favorite curse word. it's not that i never curse, certainly not. it's just that i never feel good after i curse. it just feels off for me/not aligned and mostly i feel icky after i curse and i want to take my word(s) back.
   
6. What sound or noise do you love? the sound of snow falling (i listened to this sound on friday morning...lucky me!)
   
7. What sound or noise do you hate? horns honking in traffic
   
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? being a nurse
   
9. What profession would you not like to do? work in a fast food establishment
   
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? welcome home. you did good. real good. mission accomplished. you listened. you learned. you let go and you let go some more and then some more. you remembered and you believed that i was always with you, guiding you and loving you. thank you for fully embracing and fully living the gift of your creation.
    

want to play along? comment and leave your answer(s) to a question or two or ten or leave a link to a post on your blog in which you answer these questions.

plans/intentions for the weekend

go with the flow...listen...live "in tune"...live in joy...be light...be connected...decompress...allow...practice presence...honor me, my life, where i am on the path...rest with Source/Spirit, snuggled up in Source's/Spirit's arms...dream...read...lounge...yoga class...farmer's market...family dinner at my parents...be at home...create...let go/release my tight hold...surrender...

and you?

just

i've been receiving these "just" messages lately:

*just breathe.
*just do the time. [for me, this means doing the time of grieving & doing the time of healing...as if my life depended on it...which it does.]
*just write.
*just this.

what messages are you receiving lately?

how 'bout it?

what if we related to every surface as an altar?
our bodies as temples?
and, our hearts as shrines?

treasuring...

*a black & white calla lily "impromptu postcard" from my "lady friends in Maine"
*a fun "4 things about me" e-mail exchange with my soulsister s., my oldest friend (e.g., 4 jobs i have had in my life; 4 movies i would watch over and over; 4 places i've lived; 4 favorite foods); perhaps i will share these bits in another post...
*planning a late june/early july beach reunion with peeps who are family; celebrating nearly 11 years of livin' & knowin' & lovin' one another!
*the dear diary stories, marta writes
*a cup of heaven rooibos tea in my favorite mug, which by the way was found on the sale table at one of my favorite shops
*writing
*The Ganesh Mantra: Om Gam Ganapataye Namah; a mantra known to remove obstacles, inner and outer, along the path. thank you, beautiful t., for sharing this mantra at the perfect/divine time!
*the library
*avocados & grape tomatoes
*chocolate chip + walnut cookie dough
*therapy
*the color yellow; the color of sunshine and ripe bananas
*these words from The Persistence of Yellow by Monique Duval, #317: "Everything melted, rained, unraveled, became, grew wings, attempted flight, flopped, tried again, succeeded. Just another day."
*these words from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: "I remember her taking me by the shoulders and looking me in the eye with a calm smile and saying simply, 'Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth'" (p. 94).
*hope
*imagining
*creating
*grace before meals
*learning & practicing living the poem, "The Journey", by Mary Oliver: "One day you finally knew/what you had to do, and began,/though the voices around you/kept shouting/their bad advice-/though the whole house/began to tremble/and you felt the old tug/at your ankles./'Mend my life!'/each voice cried./But you didn't stop./You knew what you had to do,/though the wind pried/with its stiff fingers/at the very foundations,/though their melancholy/was terrible./It was already late/enough, and a wild night,/and the road full of fallen/branches and stones./But little by little,/as you left their voices behind,/the stars began to burn/through the sheets of clouds,/and there was a new voice/which you slowly/recognized as your own,/that kept you company/as you strode deeper and deeper/into the world,/determined to do/the only thing you could do-/determined to save/the only life you could save."

what are you treasuring?

life savers

when i was in first grade my teacher, sister marie, gave all of her students little rolls of life savers every friday. even after she went to the hospital towards the end of my first grade year for all that time; every friday we were given little rolls of life savers.

sister marie died the summer after i finished first grade. i remember my mother receiving the phone call. i remember hearing the word "died" and understanding it and not understanding it. i think death is like this. i understood it as something big and powerful and incomprehensible then. i still do.

these days as i continue to navigate death, bella's death. as i feel layer upon layer upon seemingly endless layer of loss, sad, broken-hearted. as i feel outraged, ferociously outraged. i'm thinking about these life savers:

*spring (as i said to l. on the phone yesterday evening, "spring is saving my ass")
*music (two of my faves: mixes made by lovely babes c. and s.)
*the physical presence of beloved beings (a weekly tea date with t. in the park, our first outdoor tea date of the year; sitting across from k. at her kitchen table on friday late afternoon/early evening eating chocolate chip scones and veggie chicken nuggets with ketchup; and, surprise breakfast dates with b. & b.)
*writing
*my momma
*ice cream days (days when it's hot and ice cream sounds like perfection)

what are some of your life savers (or, what's saving your ass) these days?

weather forecast

plentiful sunshine.

what's the forecast in your part of the world?

gesture

Gesture

I
put

my
arms
around

the
sun
and

kissed
her
forehead

gently

-by Zoe Peterssen from Whispers from Nature (part 2), Oxford, 1993

who or what are you wrapping your arms around today and kissing gently?

wholly holy

"Sometimes when we quest for a hidden spiritual truth, we miss what's right in front of us. Fumbling blindly for the mystical, we miss what is holy within the mundane event of walking down a city street."
-Ethan Nichtern, from One City: A Declaration of Interdependence

what's the wholly holy that's in front of you, in your mundane?

how are you?

what if, instead of asking one another, "how are you?" or "how are you today (or, in this moment)?" or "how is your heart?", we asked:

*what color are you?
*what tune are you?
*what shape are you?
*what image are you?
*what noun are you?
*what verb are you?
*what adjective are you?
*what animal are you?
*what superpower are you?
*what season are you?
*what food are you?

what other questions would you ask?

here are my responses (in this moment):

*what color are you? ReD
*what tune are you? "Please Forgive Me" by David Gray
*what shape are you? a CirCle
*what image are you? buBBles fLoaTiNg around in the SunShine, under the brIGHT blUe sKy
*what noun are you? eARth
*what verb are you? enGaGed
*what adjective are you? cUrioUs
*what animal are you? liON (RoaR!)
*what superpower are you? liGHt
*what season are you? suMMer
*what food are you? bLuebeRRy

what are your responses?