Release - Plotinus

Let your mind and heart release all that disturbs you.
Let your body be still,
and all the frettings of your body and all that surrounds it -
let the earth and sea and air be still, and heaven itself;
and then think of spirit
as streaming, pouring, rushing, and shining
into you, through you, and out from you in all directions
while you sit quiet.

Plotinus

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Pilgrimage - The Upanishads

Never during its pilgrimage is the human spirit completely
adrift and alone.  From start to finish its nucleus is the Atman,
[the spiritual life principle of the universe, or Soul. or Essence

inherent in the real self of the individual]...  The self-luminous.
abiding point - underlying the whirlpool of transient feelings,
emotions, and delusions...

As the sun lights the world even when clouded over, "the
Immutable" is never seen but is the Seer; it is never heard
but is the Hearer; it is never thought but is the Thinker; it is
never known but is the Knower.

The Unpanishads

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Who Is God? - Fred LaMotte

Be still and know that I am God

Who is God?  The answer comes not as thought, but as breath;
or rather, as the energy of Grace in the inhalation.  This energy
is Shakti.  Breathing Shakti is the answer to the question, who
is God?  Shakti is the Holy Spirit, the divine breath, the supreme
Mother of creation.  In ancient scriptures, whether in Chinese,
Arabic, Hebrew or Greek, the same words is used for both
breath and spirit.  And the Spirit of God is portrayed as
feminine.  Her all-mothering power of creation is God's active
energy, while God himself is the witnessing Silence, the
un-created Source.

What is the experience of God?  Not a belief, nor a remembered
image, nor an esoteric vision - for mystic visions are also
thoughts and activities of the mind [?]  But the experience of God
is simpler than any vision or arousal of imagination.  It is the pure
energy of Silence, Shakti herself...  Therefore the classic Yogic
scipture Vijnana Bhairava declares: Exhalation goes out, inhalation
comes in.  At the still point where they merge, one experiences the
state from which Creation comes forth and into which it is absrobed...

~~

"Gateh, Gateh, Para Gateh, Bodhi Svaha!

Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond.  Gone beyond the Beyond:

At some point, images get in the way, even our favorite image
of God: so we pass beyond it.  At some point words get in the
way, even the divine name: so we pass beyond it.  And at some
point, the soul itself gets in the way: so we pass beyond it.  This
is the meaning of Gateh in the great meditation mantra of Tibet.

Don't assume that this is simply an Eastern teaching.  It is also

the age-old practice of Christian Mystics.  In the early Church,
these mystics were called hesychasts, which means practitioners
of silence.  In the 7th Century, St. Hesychius of Jerusalem wrote
that the core of Christian mysticism is, "The heart's silence, 
undisturbed by any thought."

The heart's silence at first may seem like a negation, yet it is
the most positive experience possible.  For this silence is the
soul and source of creation,  the silence that was here before
God said, "Let there be light."

Fred LaMotte
Interfaith Minister

Uradiance

excerpt from his post:
"To Breathe God"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Soul Fury - Shams Tabriz

Art by Andrew Ostrovsky

born in Odessa, Ukraine
lives in the U.S.

What is your origin?
The Source?What is spirit?

Spend your life finding out...
other mysteries will come clear.

"God" is depth.  And you, you are also deep.
The same depth is in you.

Don't worry about terminology, pre-existence,
the original face, spirit, soul.

Search within yourself,  The great mystery is there.

Excerpts from the Sayings of Shams Tabriz

from: Soul Fury by Rumi and Shams Tabriz

With thanks to No Minds's Land

 

It All Dissolves - Frank Ostaseski

 Earth dissolves into water.  Water dissolves into fire.
Fire dissolves into air.  Air dissolves into space.

Dying [Dissolving], in many cases, does not happen all of
a sudden.  It is a gradual process of withdrawing from life
in form.

When I speak of the four elements dissolving, I am not
speaking exactly of physical form.  Rather, I am pointing to
the ineffable but observable animating qualities...
The animating qualities also dissolve - apparently missing
when we are left only with the heaviness of the corpse
after death.

There is something beyond the four elements - the spirit,
soul, or animating presence.  The inner dissolution happens
simultaneously.  Our medical instruments and devices can
certainly measure the physical disintegration, but the inner
dissolution that happens simultaneously is subtle and still...

They are all dissolving - the elements and their associated
states and as a result, the self is dissolving as well.  This is
happening all the time, we just see it at the surface at the
time of dying.

Now who are you?

Fragility and impermanence are in the nature of life.  It's
all always coming together and falling apart - not just the
physical properties of life - and not just at the time of death.

Our sense of self is impermanent.  While illness can contract
us into an even smaller sense of self, many people who are
sick and dying speak of no longer being limited by the 
previous boundaries of their old, familiar identities.

We come to embody much wider identities.  The interior
life and the external world permeate each other,
they commingle.

Frank Ostaseski
The Five Invitations

~

With thanks Death Deconstructed for the photo...

Cosmic Dust...

We are Cosmic Dust...

Star stuff...

Elements of the firmament...
Infinitesimal atoms
coalesced in time and non-time;

non-existence into existence.

Star born,
in luminous womb-like nebulae.
Light, born from darkness.
Carried by Solar winds
among trillions of galaxies...

The Cosmos runs through us -
IS us...

Undying brilliance that death cannot erase;
forever gliding through the Universe...
unconfined by the limits of time and place,
our "spirit" is always free,
unfettered by the bonds of earth.

Shine on...

Mystic Meandering
May 18, 2020

For all those who have lost loved ones
- they are not "lost" -

Their "spirit" is shining forever brilliant
lighting the darkness,
forever free...

Shine on, dear ones, Shine on...

MM

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Spirit and Mind - Etty Hillesum

Spirit and mind should feed each other.  What you must
not do is rely on some external certainty, and that means
being secure in yourself and at peace with yourself, but
also that your mind is allowed to explore what makes life
hang together, not because you want to achieve something
or you want to succeed at something that interests you, but
because you happen to have been created with a passionate
and honest concern for what goes on in the world, and
above all for what goes on in your inner world.

You shouldn't live on your brains alone but on deeper, more
abiding sources...  You should gratefully accept your brains
as a precious tool for delving into what problems your soul
brings forth... And have ever greater trust in intuition...

Etty Hillesum
from: Etty Hillesum - Essential Writings

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Quartz Crystal with reflection of light

Wild Medicine - Summer Solstice - Brigit McNeill

I see your hurts, your fears and your sorrow.

I see them like crumpled black lumps,
and brittle edged bits that feel heavy
and uncomfortable in your flesh.
But I also see your immense bravery,
your wisdom and your courage.
It grows from you like tendrils of
medicine plants; wild and wise.
It's bigger than you realize.

You are so very courageous and you
can do big things, hard things,
beautiful things and
monumental things.

I wish you could see what shines from you.
I wish you could wrap those wild vines
of courage around you.
The ones of wisdom and truth,
of power and bravery.
Wearing them like a cloak, a dress or a
second skin; absorbing and feeling the
wild medicine it brings you, for you have
grown it from within, they are seeds of your
knowing and they can't be taken from you.

You have made it through everything
and now it's time to see yourself as the
warrior and tender lover of your own being.
The one who grows medicine weeds and
sweet flowers from the concrete cracks of
their life.

Brigit Anna McNeill

Art - Tomasz Alen Kopera

via No Mind's Land

Wishing everyone a renewed sense of strength and courage
on this Solstice...

I celebrate 10 years of posting on this blog today!
It's been a wonderful experience.
Thank you all for reading!

~

When you take off your clothes remember
to be thankful for your body underneath,
whatever shape it is.  It's your most tender
lover.  It's doing its best to swim upstream
against the current of all this entropy.
One day it will give up, exhausted,
and slip from you like those clothes,
and again you'll be thankful
for what's underneath.

Elias Amidon

I will not hear my mother's voice again...

I will not hear my mother's voice again - or see the recognition
in her eyes when she was surprised to see me at her bedside;
or see her lift her head up from the pillow, her index finger
pointed into the air, as I was on my way out her bedroom door,
saying "I love you" - as if to remind me for the last time.
And my reply: "I love you too!" - pausing to look back...

I will not "know" my mother anymore - in form - although her
Spirit Essence lives on somewhere now; a comforting feeling,
no matter what one's beliefs are about what happens after death.

That's the thing I learned through my mother's 3 month "death
experience" - only Love remains - not your spiritual beliefs, or
ideologies, or philosophies about life; your pain or childhood
wounds.  Only Love...  All the left-over parent/child issues
dissolved as I watched her lay vulnerable and weak, speaking in
whispers as her body declined; eventually unable to speak, or
eat, or drink...  Only compassion and sorrow arose as her body
struggled to let go of, or hang on to, life - and she became fearful.
It was not an easy death the last few days.  It became more like
hard labor, giving birth to something unseen...

In the weeks before her passing, as she deteriorated, she saw
things in the invisible world: elves outside her window in the
trees, and people from the spirit world she did not know standing
near her bed.  And what she called a "beautiful woman" whom
she said had come to "help her on her journey."  I surely hope so...

There were no "religious" or "spiritual" overtones to any of it.
No talk of "God", which surprised me from what I knew of my
mother; a sometimes very pious Christian.  There was only this
idea of a playful fantasy of going on a "journey" with "spirit
people" to help her.  Maybe life isn't as serious as we think,
maybe life is a playful journey.

Mom, you are safe now.
May you feel the Love on the other side of the veil...
For there is only Love and Grace at the end of the "journey."

I love you again and again - we all do...

~

Mom breathed her last breath this morning
March 21, 2019
at 10:21 am

6 days before her 91st birthday

~

Written March 10, 2019

"Equinox" - Rumi

Artist: Puisi - ambua.id

Look at love
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love.

Look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life.

Why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad.
Pay attention to how things blend.

Why think separately

of this life and the next
when one is born from the last?

Look at your heart and tongue,
one feels but deaf and dumb,
the other speaks in words and signs.

Look at water and fire,
earth and wind,
enemies and friends all at once.

The wolf and the lamb,
the lion and the deer
far away and yet together.

Look at the unity of this
spring and winter
[or summer and fall]
manifested in the equinox.

You too must mingle my friends...

Be like sugarcane,
sweet and silent.
Don't be mixed up with bitter words.
My Beloved grows right out of my [your] own heart.
How much more union can there be...

Rumi

Translation by Mader Khalili
From: This Dance of Bliss

Poetry Chaikhana

Original title: "Look at Love"

~

The "Equinox" is a "pivotal cosmic hinge"
signifying equilibrium, or equality;
a fluid threshold, poised between 2 seasons.
Or in the case of the whirling dervish,
the union/merging of heaven and earth;

between Divine and human.
The Dervish whirls with one palm open up
to the cosmos and the other palm downward,
open to the earth...
symbolizing the union of our Divine nature
and our human nature...
the fusion of spirit and matter;
being reborn to the Truth of our Being...

As Rumi says -
"how much more union can there be? :)

Inquire Into Truth - Adyashanti

By inquiring into truth, we are led ever deeper into the
unknown, beyond beliefs and ideas, to the very core of
who and what we are...  This inquiry challenges us by
taking us out of our heads and into the heart of our deepest
experience of being, which is beyond limitations of body,
mind and conditioning.  Telling the truth is the secret of
all true spirituality, and in order to tell the truth you must
find out what truth is.

We are in need of a practical mysticism that reveals not only
the deepest core of being, but also addresses how to relate
from that core in the event called "life."  We do not need
another set of how-to instructions, which are so popular
within our modern consumer culture of quick fixes.  What
we need is an ever-deepening inquiry into how spirit
dances *as* this very life, for what we call life is but an
expression of spirit and therefore fully spirit itself...
manifesting as *all* of life and beyond.

Adyashanti

Quietude - Dada Gavand

So we have to work with ourselves and go directly to that core,
to that center, to that root wherein lies the whole secret and mystery
of life.  You need not depend upon anyone, or on any book, in fact not
on anything that is outside.  Just be quiet into yourself.  There will not
be any thought to imagine or demand a thing.  Simply be quiet
with the total fund of energy within, and in such quietude you are
going to discover something new.  You will then experience what
humility is, and what innocence is.  The mind which is quiet into itself
is innocent, humble, transparent and open to discover that which is real.

Then you will know what meditation is.  Meditation is not the chanting
or singing of devotional songs, nor the repetition of any word or
phrase. You will then be in a state of total surrender,
alone within yourself.

You have to be really alone and anonymous to be with the inner spirit.
When you are somebody, you are related to the world, you belong to
the world.  And as long as you are of the world, you cannot move
toward the inner spirit; you will have no relationship with it.  So to
have a contact with the spirit, you will have to be alone, on your own.
Then you will get a helping hand from within.  The whole secret is to
come back into yourself by gathering all your energy, and to be there
in quietude and silence.  To be in silence is to be near one's own inner
spirit.

To be in such silence within is the highest form of prayer.  Prayer is not
chanting or singing praises to someone, nor asking and begging for
rewards of the other world.  Desires and supplication of thought on any
level are not prayers.  The silence of one's own total energy in the inner
domain is the true state of prayer.  Such prayer finds its own reward in
a very mysterious way.  The innate energy, when it regains its balance
and stillness, finds its own fulfillment...

Dada Gavand
East Indian Mystic

From: Beyond the Mind

via: No Mind's Land

~

Photo - two shadows on a wall
digitally colored

Buffers of Perception - Mark Nepo

Through our self-will and self-control,
we have buffered ourselves from the mysterious
dimensions of spirit...

When we assume that we author everything we experience
we snuff the possibility of being touched by the more
numinous dimensions of reality...

Our constant insistence that we are self-creators
of our own destiny,
the builders of our own circumstances,
can create a spiritual cataract that blocks us
from being touched by the mystical light of spirit
that so often surrounds us - from
honoring how the Divine speaks directly
through the things of this world...

Somehow we fear such direct contact with grace...

A continual and deep risk for us,
if we are to feel the presence
and friendship of all that is,
is to humbly lift the veils we drape ourselves in,
the veils that insulate us as the self-creators
of everything we experience.

Whether we accept it or not,
we are asked to let life,
in all its unseeable elements,
touch us -
letting the indwelling spirit
pass through us...

We can become dangerously small
and insular if we limit truth to just
what our small lives have encountered.
Compassion allows us to embrace
the underlying truth that all experiences
thread together to form the
living Universe...

Mark Nepo
From - The Exquisite Risk:
Daring to Live an Authentic Life

(Mark's words, my format)

Take Refuge in Silence - Kalidas and Kopp

All sound arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
All thought arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
The universe arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
Suffering arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
The unbounded spaciousness of Silence,
     filled with the clear light of Awareness,
     dissolves the roots of pain and sorrow.
Take refuge in Silence and know
     unshakable joy.

Kalidas – Western Hindu Yogi

Via: No Mind’s Land

Awareness of the Divine Essence as our innermost

true Self requires silence.

It is turning toward what lies hidden within -
to the internal – the all embracing totality of
Divine Being.
It is the way of meditation,
the way of inner silence before Spirit…

Remaining quiet before Spirit is a prayer of silence,
through which we listen to that which secretly speaks to us
in the inner room of the heart.

What is hidden deep in our innermost being lies
in silence and stillness,
and in the silence of the deep
springs the eternal,
inexhaustible,
original
source
of
all
being.

Where words fall silent,
the everlasting
begins…

Wolfgang Kopp – Western Zen Master

From: Free Yourself of Everything

~

Top Photo: Snow on screen
Bottom Photo: Rainbow Lights on wall

Gearing Up to Gear Down...

My inner Spirit calls me to a quiet life, to long periods of Silence, wants hibernation and repose.  Evidently it doesn’t know that it is “Spring” on the calendar and I must “gear up.”  My “surface life” requires me to “gear up.”  And I am having trouble reconciling the two; being faithful to one and responsible to the other.  Sounds dualistic I know, but it is the way of things here, trying to find the balance and flow, the Yin and Yang of life – the harmony between doing and being…

There is “Spring” cleaning and repairs that have been long needed on the house – like roof and soffit repairs, requiring researching roofers on line, making phone calls, leaving messages for call backs that keep me tethered to the phone, and being available for on-sight estimates.  And then there’s yard work - repainting garden chairs and planter tubs.  I think a nice Red Salmon color, or Cinnamon, or Terra Cotta would be a nice change. J   And then weeding out winter’s waste – and pruning trees – and….. and….. and….

And yet, the chamomile is blooming already

 and the tarragon and catnip are rising, despite the fact that the tubs have not been painted.

 But there is no thyme growing this year – interesting play on words, don’t you think… J

The lovage replanted itself over here by the fence in the rocks.

But “Spring” is not the only reason we are “gearing up.”  We are “gearing up” because we want to “gear down” – to simplify our lives, to rid ourselves of the physical clutter that has accumulated over 35+ years of marriage and 17+ years of living in this house.   And so I have to start somewhere!  And this seems like the best place – in the basement - often likened to the sub-conscious where our inner clutter lies… J  This should be fun…

There is a neighborhood garage sale mid-May where we will try to sell a lot of this “clutter” stuff, which means cleaning out the garage.  Then we will start an e-bay store to try to sell the more “valuable” clutter. J  In the mean time it means several rounds of decluttering - deciding what to throw out, what to give away, what goes to garage sale, and what goes to ebay. It’s a daunting task – at least from my current perspective.  When I *think* about it all I start to feel overwhelmed.  So much for meeting life events as they come – they are coming too fast, and I am feeling a little out of control. J  So as you may have gathered I am resisting.  Like writing this blog post instead of digging into the rubble of my life J 

I discovered that the mind loves the “busyness,” finds it soothing, because it has a focus, “to do” lists, going from one thing to the next on the list, which doesn’t leave much time for meditative Silence and time for just Being – which I need a lot of.  I’ve not had a quiet day yet this week – and I can feel a case of the crankies coming on. J  But I took some time perusing what needs to be done in the back “garden” today, snapping photos, and felt the Presence of Silence in the solitude there.  I’m thinking this is where I’ll start – scraping planter tubs and chairs, and weeding out the detritus…  Very therapeutic… J

Part of the reason I want to gear down is to have more time for living what truly matters, not burdened with house and chores, which means letting go of the clutter that tends to take up the time - and dam the Life Flow... This requires listening to a deeper Flow - the deeper internal, intuitive Flow of Inner Being that runs through me, and through life; paying attention to the Spirit of Life within – to what *feels* right and what doesn’t; getting the priorities straight – waiting for the “yes” – putting the Inner Flow first.  Letting myself sink into those Silent depths within for only a few minutes a day reminds me of the deeper Flow that remains undisturbed by the chaos of life events, the Flow that actually carries me through the day…

~

“We are all innately aware that
 a deeper truth exists within us
than our day-to-day existence
and mundane concerns…
We must live life from
this more encompassing
state of Being -
and understand our
divine nature -
giving us
a means
to
enliven
a
truer identification
with
 the
 stunning
 beauty
 of our
    Being.”

Dennis Holtje

Postcard from the Heart...

"There is some kiss we want

with our whole lives,

the touch of Spirit...

Seawater begs the pearl

to break its shell.

And the lily,
 how passionately

it needs some wild Darling!

At
 night,
 I open the window

and ask the moon to come

and press its face against mine.

Breathe
 into
 me.

Close the language-door,

and open
 the
 love
window

The moon won't use the door,

only the window."

Rumi

And what if the moon should silently whisper…

”I want to know what your heart aches for,
and if you dare to dream of
meeting your heart’s longing…

Remember…
you belong to the Sacred…
You are an embodiment
 of the sacred Mystery,
surrounded
and
held
by
The Beloved.”

Oriah

We are loved beyond measure… ♥

~

Photo: The Kiss of Spirit

Solitude...

“Solitude is the furnace of transformation.
Without solitude
we remain victims of our society
and continue to be
entangled in the illusions
of the false self…”

Henri Nouwen

“The great omission in American life is solitude;
not loneliness,
for there is an alienation
that thrives most in the midst of crowds,
but [it is] that zone of time and space,
free from outside pressures,
which is the incubator
of the spirit.”

Marya Mannes

“Awareness of the Divine Essence as our
innermost true Self requires silence…
It is turning toward what lies hidden within -
to the internal - the all-embracing totality
of Divine Being.
It is the way of meditation,
the way if inner silence before Spirit.

Remaining quiet before Spirit is a prayer of silence,
through which we listen to that which secretly speaks
to us in the inner room of the heart.

What is hidden deep in our innermost being
lies in silence and stillness,
and in the silence of the deep
springs the eternal, inexhaustible, orginal
source of all being.

Where words fall silent,
the everlasting begins…

Wolfgang Kopp
From: Free Yourself of Everything

“Spiritual joys come only from solitude.

A little while in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given…”

“To be one with the truth for just a moment
is worth more than the world and life itself…”

Rumi

~
~
~

PLEASE NOTE:

  I am not suggesting that we all live a cloistered life of solitude and silence!J 

I don’t think I could even do that! 

 But it is about being with our deeper inner Self/Being,

 listening and hearing the deeper Voice of Silence

 and responding to the inner movement of That.

  We can be in solitude while cleaning or creating.

  And sometimes that Voice speaks to us through the voice of
others, as these quotes here did for me,

 and as so many of you do through your blog posts. J 

 I merely wish to point out that

 part of the angst and entropy we are experiencing in the world

 is due to a lack of spending time in solitude and silence,

 becoming aware of and getting to know our deeper,

 mostly unknown, Divine Self/Spirit/Beingness…

The Journey of a Lifetime...

The Journey of a Lifetime
© Paula Finn
Blue Mountain Arts, Inc.

“You’re on the journey of a lifetime…
A journey no one else will travel
and no one else can judge -
a path of happiness and hurt,
where the challenges are great
and the rewards even greater…

You’re on a journey where each experience
will teach you something valuable
and you can’t get lost,
for you already know the way by heart.

You’re on a journey that is universal

Yet uniquely personal, and profound
yet astonishly simple ~

where sometimes you will stumble
and other times you will soar.

You’ll learn that even at your darkest point,
you can find a light – if you look for it.
At the most difficult crossroad,
you’ll have an answer – if you listen for it.

Friends and family will accompany you
part of the way,
and you’ll walk the rest by yourself…
but you will never be alone.

Travel at your own pace,
There’ll be time enough to learn all you need to know
and go as far as you’re meant to go.
Travel light.
Letting go of extra baggage will keep your arms open
and your heart free to fully embrace the gifts
of the moment.

You may not always know exactly where your’re headed,
but if you follow the desires of your heart,
the integrity of your conscience,
and the wisdom of your soul…
then each step you take will lead you to discover
more of who you really are…”

© Paula Finn

"Canyon Spirits" - The Evolution of a Painting...

I started this painting nearly a year ago in a moment of frustration, thus the red color and hash marks all over the place, painting in circles.  I am an intuitive painter, so I do not have an “intention” for the painting when I start.  I like to just see what evolves and what emerges out of it… Painting this way is a “practice” in letting go, of not having expectations – hopefully J - in not being “in control” of where it goes; like life actually – not being “in control” of life, but allowing oneself to be open and vulnerable to how it unfolds.  It’s very challenging actually to live that way – as well as to paint that way…  There can be lots of frustration…  It originaly looked like this (below) and sat like this on the easel for 7-8 months.

Every time I looked at it I kept seeing the face of a Tiger, and wondered how I could make it *look* like a Tiger, not having the trained artistic experience or skill to do that.  (The Tiger is no longer apparent, as other things emerged.)  When I started painting again in May/June I was still trying to figure out how to make it look like the Tiger that I saw, thus the single painted in eye, as that is what my mind saw. 

And then a “voice” said: keep looking, look deeper.  I wasn’t hearing things, it was the voice of my husband actually, as I discussed my frustration with not being able to create what I saw in my head.  He said – don’t stay fixated on your idea of what it is supposed to look like, but keep looking and see what else is there.  Something we need to do in life as well – look deeper, beyond the surface, and see what is really there.  So I kept looking.  And suddenly *many* different faces started emerging!  (see close-up below). Initially I saw what looked like the outline of a man’s face in a window with closed eyes, and nose, (near the middle), blended into another partial face slightly under the first one.  A woman’s silhouette in a window appeared on the right, up against what appeared to be two back to back “caricature” profiles, with a flat hat.  And then an owl appeared on the far left, and blended into what looked like a coyote face with mouth open, which blended in with the man’s face, and so on…  There’s even a little fox face tucked in there somewhere… And some teepees too :)

 The whole painting took on a different look, a different feel.  It had transformed itself.  It became a terracotta desert canyon against a night sky – and another realm beyond.  Totally unintentional…  Amazing. 

In the lower right hand corner there appeared to be a grouping of hash marks standing around what appeared to be the glow of a hidden fire…  To me they were Native peoples standing around a fire as smoke rose into the canyon and beyond, where a Raven glides through firey skies…

In the lower left hand corner there was the clear outline of yet another fire, with two “figures” nearby.

And so goes the story and evolution of a painting that took on a life of its own, inviting me to look more deeply… Like life…