Blueprint For Enlightenment

Blueprint for Enlightenment,  8" x 11"

Ingredients: map pieces, parts of vintage book pages, stamp, woodblock print, acrylic ink, watercolor pencil, magazine cut-outs on Rives BFK paper.
  

Working on this piece was, for me, a meditation of sorts.  Like many of you, I have been following the moon with Donna Iona Drozda's inspirational "Luna See".   I was inspired by this post, in particular the part regarding the solar eclipse of July 11, to "move into the proactive realm of a vision."  On the night of July 11, I could not sleep.  Lying awake with so many thoughts and visions swirling through my consciousness, I felt an energy propelling me to fulfill my life's true purpose, to bring these visions to manifestation.  I know it sounds pretty corny, but that's what it felt like to me- the light was green (hey, Donna!), and I had to hit the accelerator, or get off the bus.  Well, I'm not getting off.

"The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become."   - W. E. B. Du Bois

Still a Freak

A friend of mine recently referred to me as a "tree freak."  It was not an insult, he was just alluding to the fact that we both love these beautiful, huge, sacred beings.  It would be hard to think of a higher compliment.  Allow me to introduce you to some of my newest friends.

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.  ~John Muir

Trees outstrip most people in the extent and depth of their work for the public good.  ~Sara Ebenreck, American Forests

I willingly confess to so great a partiality for trees as tempts me to respect a man in exact proportion to his respect for them.  ~James Russell Lowell

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
~Kahlil Gibran

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods.  But he cannot save them from fools.  ~John Muir

The trees are whispering to me, reminding me of my roots, and my reach... shhhhhh... can you hear them?  Selflessly sharing their subtle song.  ~Jeb Dickerson, www.howtomatter.com

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.  ~Cree Indian Proverb

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914

Interconnections