Give and take

After yesterday's Clay Day and watching everyone work with the coil method of building pots, I'm sure this had an influence on my mandala :-)
I was so restless afterwards, my mind could not still itself. I read a page of my book over and over and over... so I went to the mandala for some focus.
To help still the mind, it is a great meditation.
Never quite knowing what it will be about until it begins to unfold, I began in the center with the spiral.
As I spiraled outwards, it reminded me of reaching out.
Reaching out to community.
We reach out and we pull back. From our centers, we reach out to others, giving a part of ourselves. We touch others with our ideas, our gifts. We teach and we learn.
And then we draw back in, taking with us all that we've received in our relationship with others. We give love, we receive love back in return.
We give gratitude, we receive gratitude.
We give of ourselves and we receive the gift of reflection, understanding, wisdom, friendship.
Give and Take. A constant exchange that benefits us all.
It's about community. What do you contribute and what do you receive?
It's also about a balance between the two.
Putting yourself out into the world, and allowing time for inner reflection.
This seems to be an area that our world needs to remember, as do I, that we need to take the time to go within, to center ourselves and balance it with our giving to the world.

Awakening

I tend to see the Spring as a time of birth and awakening and of course it is, but as I was creating this mandala, this flying creature just wanted to "awaken" and come out of her cocoon. As the leaves change and the pods release their seeds, ending their cycles, she wants to be born.

Autumn is a time that I especially love. It symbols a time of abundance and renewed energy for me. The oppressive heat of the summer is gone. The weather rejuvenates me and I love being outside observing nature's changes. Things going to seed in preparation for new growth to come after winter's slumber.

So after this was done, I questioned the idea of birth and awakening at other times.

Do we get to choose when we will be "awakened", claiming our own cycles of rebirth, to resurface and break away from the "cocooned" existence?

Does it matter what time?

Because I think NOW would be as good a time as any.

Peace Day

Tomorrow is International Peace Day and another prompt for our Mandala Oasis group. Another canvas that was started awhile ago... transformed.

It is just so nice to get back to painting, drawing, just being creative for myself.

And that brings me to what I feel brings greater peace to the world..

We must start with ourselves.

Once we feel at peace, it is inevitable that peace manifests outside our selves,

but first we must bring it inwards.

What steps can you take that will bring peace within.

What will help you to raise your vibrations to that level?

What makes you happy?

What is your passion?

What causes your heart to open and sing?

Do one thing today and tomorrow that brings comfort and peace inside yourself.

Add one more day.

And then another.....

and another....

Letting go

Last year in class at Igor's, I started to put some paint on this round black mat board, just playing around. The center, the green stroke and a little of the purple and the tiny yellow dot are what remains... I added to it for our Mandala Oasis yahoo group's Autumn prompt.

Autumn to me is about letting go.

Lesson from the trees. In time, we all need to release that which is no longer helping us, that which is out worn or just taking up space, collecting dust!

Just LET IT GO!

Sometimes, it is just a little bit of letting go.. a gentle breeze and other times, it takes hurricane winds to release the tight grasp.

What do you need to release?

Emotions? A grudge? An opinion or feeling that you've held on to way too long?

Or is it the stuff in the closet... taking up space, that could be used for something else...

Another canvas that was started awhile ago... I may still work on it. Notice the same whirling leaves in the wind... yep. all about letting go............

An Autumn flower

From a promt at Mandala Oasis, this is one idea... others are streaming forth. Actually, my intention was different, but a flower just wanted to "happen" and therefore it did.
My intention was to come to the page and do something loose and free... I guess I needed something to be structured today!
I went out for a walk with camera and will play with those later.
While attempting to clean up more of the art room, I found an old round canvas that I started with a tree... and well.
That was when "loose and free" was able to happen... so much for cleaning!
Still working on it........

Sunflower Mandala

If I cast the seeds into the wind,

where will they land?

Onto hard, dry, clay soil

rocky with stones

or

onto moist fertile soil,

loose and warm

rich and deep

ready to be nutured

to become

it's full potential

Take care of your seeds :-)

Bloom into your True Self

Nurture your dreams

Grow

May we all be blessed with rich soil

Love and Light,

Doreen

Thanks Pattie :-)

Pattie gave me this award. Thanks and I am truly appreciative. I love her art... go check it out. It makes me smile :-)

Now I need to pass it on........ first here are the rules:

1) I have to pick 7 of my favorite blogs and…

2) The winner can put the logo on their blog

3) Link the person you received your award from

4) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

5) Put links of those blogs on yours.

6) Leave a message on the blogs of the ones you’ve nominated.

I would like to give this award to:

(I'm doing this in stages) I've come upon some new blogs and would like to give them this award. It's from participating in The Altered Pages' The Pulse.

first it goes to Robyn, who I noticed on Coach Creative sight and love the work she does.

I've bookmarked Thrifty Collage Artist

Just discovered this blog by Lynne Hoppe

and I'll put some more up later... as I really need to get off the computer!!!!!!!

Spiraling In / Out

I blogged my spiral thoughts here and played with the spirals this morning. One spirals in and one spirals out... as a divination, Greer says:

Unfolding: "The spiral suggests that the design you have begun to draw upon your tracing board has much to unfold, if you allow it to follow the directions and dynamics it has already set in motion. Just as the oak unfolds from the acorn, the smallest portion of a spiral's arc already contains the full outward sweep of the finished spiral in potential; follow that potential, and your design will unfold as it should.... the spiral councils patience, attentiveness, and a sensitivity to context, so that the spiral patterns of the future can unfold in their own way."

I took this as a message to move the painting along... giving birth, rather than staying in the "cocoon" stage.

Diminishing: The spiral suggests that the design is spiralling inwards, tracing ever smaller arcs around the point where it will finally come to rest. The same inner dynamics that once sent it spinning outward in expanding curves now bring it back again, and attempting to force it around into a circle will only break the continuity of the pattern and leave something artificial in place of the natural dance of spiralling force."

A reminder that things cycle around... birth and death.. nothing lasts forever. Sometimes it is better to rest for awhile and then pick up the brush and move on......

The quotes are from John Michael Greer in Techniques for Geometric Transformation.

Waiting.....

So far, this is a painting I've been working on... Lots of stuff came up while painting it.
A desire to be connected to nature, the elements... the idea of gestation, cocooning, playing around with ideas and giving birth to them, manifesting them after some gestation period..
when will the eggs hatch or the butterfly be released... what comes next?
Not forcing, just allowing.
The desire to be in touch with the higher Self, the Being I am when all the roles I play are striped away... what still remains.... This desire to be in touch and remain there in this authentic place of Being and not get distracted by too much over analysis. Rather, go to my Heart Center more often, to Feel my way through it.
Here's to all those "cocooning" out there waiting for a new journey to Self. A continuous process I am sure, rebirthing our Selves each time to greater growth, spiraling up from the depths of our souls to higher ways of being.
Namaste'

Some mandalas......

Releasing Seeds
Bloom
Beyond the Garden Gate
Golden Cocoon

I took a break to do some painting... and then took a break from that to do some mandalas.
This last one, golden cocoon, is about where I am right now.
Just as I was about to write, after uploading this, my son called and began to speak of feeling as if he were in a cocoon stage.
WHAT?!?! (I am not alone)
He is an Aquarius as well, so we discussed astrology.
I'm reading Sue Monk Kidd's, When the Heart Waits and she is speaking of the cocoon, the gestation stage. Waiting.
I get it. I get the messages that are all around me and I'm learning as well how others deal with it.
It's not an easy stage, as there is a lot of inner work and quiet time to be had... waiting is key.
Waiting by immersing yourself in yourself. This I do best by painting. Painting is my therapy. It reflects, it mirrors and helps bring things to the surface.. that which is not always comfortable. It helps me to look deeply into that forever question: "Why am I here? What is my purpose?"
Sometimes I get it. That feeling of contentment when everything is all right with the world, love surrounds me and I feel the abundance of All That Is!
and then there comes those times of doubt. Am I delusional?
Beyond the Garden Gate caused reflection on how we need to break from our self-limiting boundaries. We need more passion, risk taking, adventure!
We become torn between obligations and responsibilites, to be the good child, and the lust to take it ALL in. Explore ALL of it.
We limit ourselves with Time and Space... and maybe that is the real illusion.

Nature's Mandalas

In awe of the patterns of nature.
Almost everyday, I watch the unfolding of the sunflowers...
and the bees that they attract.

Mother Nature Y

Feather Dance

Light as a feather,

dancing and swirling in the cosmos,

feeling a bit flighty.

glorious, joyous spinning

dizzy

spinning inward

spinning outward

tangled up in joy

with no where to land

but rather to just be.