L's ama's heART

Sunday, April 20, 2014

some words

This space has been silent for some time. And now? Here are some words:

Creativity - like human life itself - begins in darkness. ~Julia Cameron

My beloved child,

I see you close the ears of your heart and open them to messages that leave you feeling small and broken. The voices of dream stealers and mean girls who drown out my song of grace and Love. In those times your sweet voice disappears.

That dark, safe cave you find yourself in may feel safe and quiet. And it is. For a moment in time. Yet soon it will become lonely and the darkness scary. Unseen monsters shouting to your fears. The darkness no longer a haven. Rather a cloying presence that steals joy and covers my whisper to your heart.

When you open the ears of your heart and listen carefully, you can hear me calling you back into the light. The light of hope. Of peace. Of warmth.

In those moments I will remind you again that light is found in color and texture. In words and shapes. I will speak through your hands and eyes and together we will give birth to dreams and visions. It will become art.

The movement and touch will lead you back to your brave place. That place where dreams soar. Where possibilities are endless. Where light banishes the darkness from your path and your heart.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. ~Thomas Merton

In those moments I will mend your soul just a bit more. The darkness will recede as I draw you near, teaching you once more that you are Beloved and brave and beautiful.

Each time we create meet in this way your brave will last a bit longer. The risks you take will become more daring. Together we will conquer the dream stealers and mean girls and I will set you free to fly once more.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better. ~André Gide

Come soar with me…

The One who Loves you always

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The tree of life

"I wish that I could give you something... but I have nothing left. I am an old stump. I am sorry..."

"I don't need very much now," said the boy, "just a quiet pleace to sit and rest. I am very tired."

"Well," said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could,

"well, an old stump is a good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest."

And the boy did.

And the tree was happy.”

― Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree

At one point I believed in the concept of balance in life.

And then I did not.

Next I held on to the idea of life being like a wave.

It ebbs and it flows.
It rushes toward the shore
then runs back to the sea.
Things come and things go.

There is a rush of activity.

Then there is a time of inactivity.

After untangling the knots of my soul recently

and reflecting on this last bit of time

I have begun to see that life is more like a tree.

This week in the northern hemisphere we head into spring.

The trees are beginning to change.
Where once there was no visible growth,

new life is bursting forth.
Buds seem to appear overnight.

Soon leaves and flowers will break free
reaching to the sun
in their circle of life.

In what will seem the blink of an eye
the leaves will change color

in the majestic pageantry that is nature.

There will come a windy day

to snatch away
the last of the brave leaves.

The ground will catch each one as they become

a new blanket of many colors.

When the leaves are but a memory
the tree will seem barren and dead.

Gnarled branches empty.

Naked to the eye.

Yet it is in this new season
much growth will occur.

Unseen.

Hidden.

Necessary.
Secretly.

These months have been such for me.

From the outside

stripped of what I once was
life may seem barren and dry
looking from the outside in.

Yet Love has slowly put my heart back together.

Knitted the broken pieces of my soul
into a tapestry of beauty, strength, and growth.

Spring has begun to take hold
on the inside.
New growth is being revealed.

I am reaching once again for the Sun.

Like the tree that thought she had nothing left to offer
I have is much to share with others.
It may be resting.
It may be growing.
It matters not,
yet there is much happening in my life.