Bluebird Day

6.5" x 11.75" watercolor

April 2016

I almost never take selfies (and, in fact, don't usually care to have my picture taken).  But I just had to document my permagrin on a bluebird ski day.  An attempt to capture the joy.

I grew up in a very, very flat region of the Midwest.  Downhill skiing was, in my mind, an exotic sport for crazy, reckless people.  People too lazy to put forth the effort required for cross-country skiing, which has been one of my favorite activities for many years now.   

Moreover, one of my Achilles tendons was severed almost two years ago, and recovery has been a long process (though not painful 6.8 months post-surgery, there's residual assymetry and weakness, and another tendon is torn but I'm not having that one surgically repaired).  My wonderful husband persuaded me to take up downhill skiing this past Christmas.  So when I go downhill skiing, I'm not merely having a good time.  I'm feeling the full effect of having worked past (though not entirely) tremendous fear, judgement, and physical limitations.  Such joy!  It's exciting, involves brain-healthy new learning and finesse, it's terrific physical therapy for my healing leg (and more of a workout than I expected), and I meet super people each time I go.  The camaraderie at a ski mountain feeds my soul as much as the activity itself.  

I took one liberty with this piece: what is reflected in the goggles.  Science-minded viewers will smile smugly, knowing the phenomenon that would cause a reflection of a shining image facing the opposite direction of the actual sun.  My Oneness family will smile at seeing the Jyothi Rupa :)

MAY YOU WALK THROUGH LIFE'S OPEN DOOR WITH JOY!

Throwing Petals

9.25" x 12" watercolor

April 2016

This is from two photos I took during an extravagant, elaborate, Indian-style puja (ceremony) at my house in 2013. A participant had brought her young daughter, who was the sweetest, cutest, most delightful child; many of us later agreed that she was the best expression of enlightenment there!  So it was only fitting that we asked her to officiate the ceremony, which is normally performed by a clergyperson or similarly ceremonious officiant.

We were all powerfully moved by the sight of this child offering flower petals to the Divine as we chanted in Sanskrit.  She had a great time.  At one point, she scooped up a whole armful of petals and heaved them up... not necessarily onto the altar, just up.  Flower petals were everywhere!  You can see one petal still falling (look at the hair of the bottom image).  Everyone in the room was laughing, filled with such joy, for a long time....  The ceremony stopped completely for awhile, as we all simply observed this little girl.  After heaving one armful, she sat down on a heap of petals, looking down, taking it all in....  In the next moment, she was crawling to gather another armful to do it again, and the laughter rose up again!  We all were touched by how the most glorious offering to the Divine  - petals, joy, awe -  as well as the most powerful sense of Divine Presence -  happened when the ceremony stopped.  

This painting shows the child's real mother squatting and reaching out in uncontained joy to her little girl (both in one photo), who represents Divine Child, looking down at petals as well as herself-as-human (in the other photo), who is reaching out to Divine Mother, symbolized by silver padukas (not in either photo).  We did have silver padukas on the altar at this ceremony.  In this painting, I showed them as mimicking the foot of the girl's human mother (as some padukas do have toes and toenails designed into them).  Padukas are an ancient Indian tradition that represent the feet of the Divine.  They are primarily associated with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, but I know of many people of several other faiths who use them.  I think they're a beautiful symbol.

Petals Falling

8.25" x 12" watercolor

I was drawn to do this still life to express an idea from a well-known story in Chinese culture:  A poet/calligrapher (a facet of my ancient Chinese hermit-scholar fantasy) was at his writing desk one day, working, a vase of flowers on the desk.  Noticing petals falling from the senescing flowers, he was overcome with a clear sense of the ephemeral nature of existence.  This was so dramatic that it changed his life.  Something so simple can be the greatest teacher.

This piece was started March 28, 2016, about 30 minutes before a surprise, life-altering event for a friend of mine I went to see that night.  The event is my friend's story to tell.  The coincidence of the timing of that event and this painting is significant to me because I was thinking strongly of this friend when I started the sketch.