Women In-Spirit

. Spider in the garden sitting pretty...      Spider has been trying to get my attention  this past week. It seems that I wasn't paying attention to her subtle and stealthy movements around me so the other night I suddenly awoke from a sound sleep as I caught movement above my bed. Between  the darkness, being half asleep and the fact that I didn't have my glasses on  I saw something seemingly hovering above me but it didn't register until I put the light on. It was a fairly large spider dancing on the end of her silk suspended from the overhead light fixture! She got my attention!      Then upon reflection  I realized that spider had been spinning about me for at least a week on a number of walks, in books and articles, as well as in the house. I even had unconsciously started wearing my spider ring this past week. Yes. I own a spider ring.  It was my Moms and is a silver Native American ring. It had been sitting in my jewelry box and the other day I must have s

     Ultimately I believe that we continue to experience certain lessons in life, over and over again, until we become mindful of the patterns that we actually have a big hand in  creating. It's easy to fall into the trap of being a victim and of the blame game; conditions, other people, the planets, etc.. Whatever the circumstances the responsibility ultimately is our own.     Life is uncertain. Something may work today and not tomorrow. People can be mean, rude, unfair, cruel and demanding. Things may not go the way you want them to; your current path may suddenly take an unexpected detour and send you spiraling in another direction; or someone you love may treat you unfairly or callously or even fall completely from your life. Things change. Period.     And, what do we do?  We react. We complain, whine, cry, rant and rave about the unfairness of it all. We hide, escape, criticize, and punish others and ourselves, and the list goes on. You name it, we do it all except take re

     The next two art journal explorations in my continuing journey through "The Sufi Book of Life- 99 Pathways to the Heart", by Neil Douglas-Klotz, deal with the opening and closing of our own boundaries. I believe most of us struggle with the setting and keeping of boundaries throughout our lives. Pathway 20, Contracting Boundaries.      To be honest, when I sat down initially to read and collect images for collaging pathway 20, Contracting Boundaries, my thoughts and the images I chose, were decidedly dark. I had been experiencing feelings of hurt and was in the process of closing myself down, retreating to the safety of my cave in true Scorpio fashion to lick my wounds.  In other words contracting my boundaries. I realize though that I needed to sit with those feelings and cry  and get it out, to voice my pain to my Self so that I could clear it. When you stop and witness your emotions their power over you dissipates. I could sit with myself and just be my own

     Well, if it's one thing I have learned it is that life is always in a state of change. Just when you think you are going in one direction  life decides a detour is in order. The last time I posted about my continuing art journey through "The Sufi Book of Life- 99 Pathways to the Heart" by Neil Douglas-Klotz, I was making a major move and life change. It didn't work out. I moved again, back from whence I came and that's okay. I am happy!      Someone said to me that perhaps I had made an error in judgment, but no I don't believe that it was a mistake. Sometimes we just have to try anyway. I believe these detours reveal something that we needed to see, feel or experience.  Funny thing was I was never so relieved in all my life to  leave a place. In fact I am proud of my Self for not staying. I have a tendency to stay and try to make something work when I know full well it is not healthy or right for me. I am also loathe to disappoint but I have also lear

     I am a walker by nature. To immerse myself in the landscape, rather than merely viewing it from afar, is to experience a real connection to the land, a kinship.      Perhaps it is my creative eye that constantly seeks out the details of the wonders that hide within the tall grasses and wildflowers, on the woodland floor, or even in a city park; to catch the sparkle of reflected light from the wing of a dragonfly; to trace with my fingers the imprint of a deer's hoof left in the mud of a creek bank; to hear the hollow drum sound of a woodpecker rhythmically tapping against a dead tree trunk; or watching as a hawk drops from the sky, talons first, as he hunts his dinner....all of these things speak to me intimately. Bit more importantly,  being in nature fills my heart to overflowing.      This earth, I believe, is more than a place that we are merely living upon, separated in our existence from everything else, but rather that we are extensions of a whole and vital