hi friends,

with so much going on in the world—and in our personal lives as well!—i find it always helpful to remember to keep things simple and to remember what and who i really am. In other words, to always try to not get swept away by the comings-and-goings, the ups-and-downs, the rights-and-wrongs of other people, our culture, and most especially, world events. to do this is sometimes easier said than done. that’s why i like to make art, and appreciate others’ creative expressions of the inner state, whether music-dance-words-or a life lived well and simply. These reminders help me remember what makes life so special. However many ways we can find to tune into each moment and feel how important, how unique every minute tick of time is….this is what i strive to do and this is what i’d like to share with you today. How I stay focused on the CORE of what life really is. Here’s a sample of what I mean that i’d like to share with you (focusing on a work of art that pins us to the moment, rather than sharing with you, in words, about what my current life is filled with: the spanish classes on skype, the garden that always needs attention, the work that keeps us afloat, the ongoing conflict with an associate, the troublesome malfunctioning of our septic system, the deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan, Thailand, the incarceration of Aung San Su Chi….the list goes on and on). Instead of life’s woes …. please allow your senses to jump into this for a moment, and “see” and “feel” what comes up for you. I’ll share with you what comes up for me, which always surprises me, even though I am the artist (ha ha! the magic of creativity never ceases to amaze me!).

to paint this, I put myself in a state where I could feel what it is … to be a storm. not a person pretending to be a storm, but what it feels like if i were an actual, huge, massive, God-made weather system, one whose job it is to wreak havoc upon the unsuspecting beings that trod the earth. People—like you and me. So…in order to become something that I am not, a storm, i had to forget ALL that was going on in my day, at that moment when I painted this picture. And then I allowed myself to take on the attributes of an energy mass, another form of creation, one that’s definitely not even a “being” or a “creature,” and allow this new storm-ness to take over my senses. And then, when I felt the storm in my deepest place, i picked up the paint, and let the inner experience create the image. NOT me. Certainly not the thinking part of me, at least.

I tried this exercise–getting out of what I think I am, allowing my consciousness to become something totally different—with other subjects. Try this one on for size:

here I immersed my senses in what commonly is referred to, in yogic philosophy, as unity consciousness. The more I tried this exercise of shape-shifting for art’s sake, the more fun I had! Here’s another example of jumping into another energy, and altoghter different life form than my usual human one. Can you tell what it is? If so, please leave a comment for all us to see. Thanks, and happy consciousness-expanding to you today.

hint: this painting’s title is Plantman.

in the Light, lordflea