Alegria! - Joy - a meandering...

"If you have no hope - Create!"

"I see a light shining - Alegria!"

Two nights ago (Aug 11) we were watching the closing ceremonies of
the Paris Olympics.  As the athletes walked into the stadium,
I tried to read what country they were from printed on their
clothing.  I could have sworn one said "Alegria."
And I said: "Alegria?  Where's that!?"
Later I read it again, it said "Algiers."

Something went off inside when I read it as Alegria.
That was a Cirque du Soleil artistic circus performance many
years ago that we watched, and one of the opening lines was:
"If you have no hope - Create! Alegria!" (which means Joy)

Two nights ago that remembrance sparked a light in me to
Create again...

I got out the card table and pulled the poster board and Craypas
oil sticks from beneath the bed, set up a space and began to
Create...  Resulting in the above picture - just movement and color.
That's all that was needed.

I felt the heaviness that I've been carrying lift; a release occurred 
as something within gave expression through color and movement...

I felt the stuck energy unlock.  Having been swallowed up by my
current life experience, I knew my energy was out of sync.

The act of creating heals, frees,
and ignites something within...

I thought: Maybe creating is a way through;
a reclaiming of myself; a realignment...

I'm sure most true artists know this...
I just had to experience it for myself;
to feel it...

And how awed I was to experience that
"The Divine" (however called) speaks
through ordinary means,
like watching TV :) not just in moments
of silent meditation...

Alegria!

Mystic Meandering
Aug 12, 2024

~

Photo: Funky Vortex Art
Aug 2024
Mystic Meandering

 

Ten Thousand Butterflies - Kavi

When you open your inner Pandora's box
Expecting a thousand ghosts and ghouls
And all manner of horrors to be released

You discover ten thousand butterflies
That have been trapped in a cage
And all you ever felt
Was the flapping of their fragile wings
As they begged for their release.

Kavi

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

A Deeper Light...

One must dig deep
*through* the dark night
and mine the darkness
to find a Deeper Light -
within...

Aligning with the Breath of the
Inner Cosmos - the Rhythm of 
the Universe...

Releasing burdens and responsibilities
too heavy to carry - suffocating mind, body -
and dimming the light...

Breathe the Deeper Light
vibrating *inside* the darkness,

Shining through densified layers,
like a soft light shining through an
alabaster vase - a warm honey glow...

*This* Light - shone through stone -
lights the way to a Deeper Reality,
a deeper peace, and opens the body to
Deep Comfort...

Mystic Meandering
Jan. 13. 2024
Day 5 of "The Pause"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

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

 

A Single Leaf Falls...

Leaning back on the soft, stuffed chair back cushion
I sink into myself, and rest there...

I hold my hands over my chest, as if holding 
a tiny infant against my heart.

I realize I am actually holding my self, my own
heart in my hands - cradling and nurturing
my "little heart". as of it were a child;
reassuring it that it's alright;

loving it...

All these burdens that it's been carrying for so 
long, lurking in the dark shadows, in need
of embrace and release.

A deep cry would be good - but the tears don't come.

I breathe deeply into the painful wounds of the heart -

feeling empathy and compassion for the "burden carrier",
as she has carried the angry, shadowy baggage of a 
painful family dynamic far too long.

I'm looking for IN-spiration that I can't seem to find.
Within I only find sadness and tears wanting to emerge,
to be felt - but are held back, as if dammed by a
learned facade -

waiting to explode - and be set free.
Like a river frozen in deep archaic woods,
embedded there for centuries; locked in time,
encoded in the body and mind - needing to flow
through and be released, not left hidden behind a
silent spirituality,
always "up", always "strong", holding it "together."

The facade starts to crumble, being replaced by authenticity,
and a different strength - a "speaker of truth" - her own truth,
that must be spoken,

not drowned in other people's words and ways...

A single leaf falls from a tree outside the window,
a poignant moment in her reflection.
Soon the tree will be bare, naked - and exposed...

Vulnerable without her covering...

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 15, 2023

~

With thanks to Sarah Carlson and her own healing process
for the inspiration for this poem...

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Swan - Rainer Maria Rilke

This laboring of ours with all that remains undone,
as if still bound to it,
is like the lumbering gait of the swan.

And then our dying - releasing ourselves
from the very ground on which we stood -
is like the way he hesitantly lowers himself

into the water.  It gently receives him,
and, gladly yielding, flows back beneath him,
as wave follows wave,
while he, now wholly serene and sure,
with regal composure,
allows himself to glide.

Rainer Maria Rilke

with thanks to Death Deconstructed
and photo too...