Winter Solstice

Even now, 

in the sterile age of technology,

beneath the banging, crashing, clashing street noise,

the deafening roar of airplanes,

beneath the sounds of shrieking missiles, exploding bombs,

beneath the humming and ticking of artificial intelligence

(or none at all),

beneath the ceaseless rushing, pushing, struggling... 

still,

the quiet heartbeat of the earth,

turning in her silent cycles,

as she whirls around the sun,

the ancient dervish dance of sun, moon, earth, planets,

ceaseless motion unchanging,

drawing a spiral pattern across the eons...

as it began,

so it remains.

 

and now once again

she retraces the infinite pattern,

reaches 

the apex of her wandering arc,

and turns her face once again

to the brilliance,

toward the one,

the light.

as it was in the beginning,

as it ever shall be,

so it remains. 

10 things I'm grateful for

I saw this on Buddhagirl's Umatku blog, and even though I missed Thanksgiving by a day, I thought I'd do it anyway.  'Tis the season, right?  Here are 10 things I'm grateful for, in no particular order:

1. My health.

 2. My family.

3. My home.

4. My goofy dogs.

5. Good friends.

6. The sweet air.

    

7. The sacred water.     

         

8. The glorious earth.

  

9. All the colors.

 10.  The chance to experience #1 - 9.

Kinneyconnick

This place is sacred to me; a place of peace and beauty. Profound connection with the Earth is an experience for which there are no words, because it is beyond thought- it's in our very blood and bones. Walt Whitman tries to express this truth in his poem "Song of the Rolling Earth", excerpted here.



A song of the rolling earth, and of words according,
Were you thinking that those were the words, those upright lines?
those curves, angles, dots?
No, those are not the words, the substantial words are in the ground
and sea,
They are in the air, they are in you.



Air, soil, water, fire-those are words,
I myself am a word with them-my qualities interpenetrate with
theirs-my name is nothing to them,
Though it were told in the three thousand languages, what would
air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?



Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and
liquid,
You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky,
For none more than you are the present and the past,
For none more than you is immortality.



I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words,
All merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings of the
earth,
Toward him who sings the songs of the body and of the truths of the
earth,
Toward him who makes the dictionaries of words that print cannot
touch.

World Dharma Mandala

I made this collage during the winter, but wasn't able to photograph it until now. I photograph artwork outside on a sunny day, in open shade, and this weekend, the weather was cooperative.

I was talking with a friend last night about the spiritual significance of the equinox. Because the day and night are of equal length at this time, she associates it with balance. Balance, always something to strive for, but difficult to achieve. Balancing all the aspects of life- the work, the play, exercise, sleep, time for making art, time spent with others or alone, finding time for all the tasks that must be done, yet somehow finding time for yourself. Balance, so we don't fall. It's easy to feel overwhelmed, too busy, frazzled, out of balance.

Looking at this piece, I realized that it is about balance. The mandala form is radially symmetrical; it is balanced in all directions, as is the wheel of the dharma. We seek balance within ourselves, as humanity must seek to live in balance with the earth. May we all find that balance.