BLIND/drawing 3

BLIND/drawing 2

Blind Contour Drawing

Doug sitting in bed on a cool November morning with the window slightly open and the kids in the school yard playing loudly.  Doug without a shirt sitting in front of me so open and available and sexy and warm.  He had just brought me green tea that he made from the tea we got at Flower Power last week.  He made it too strong and we had to dilute it by adding hot water.

BLACK/friday

Black Friday is coming up in just a few days.  I've been seeing hyped up, big blow-out, sale-of-the-year marketing campaigns everywhere.  Even the site I use to upload my photos has a blaring video announcing Macy's Black Friday sale.  At the same time I am also being sent links and seeing posts on Facebook and Twitter asking me to not spend a cent on Black Friday. So I ask myself, what do I do.  I appreciate the sentiment of the Spend-No-Money-On-Black-Friday protest, but I think there's a more practical and effective way to create change around how we spend money.  The slogan I created for myself is this:  You money is your vote.  What are you voting for? It means being conscious about what you are supporting with your dollar.  Before going out this holiday season to load up on gifts and holiday treats take a deep breath and consider what you are voting for.  Instead of shopping at Walmart or Target or some other big box store try making your holiday purchases at smaller, independently owned shops.   You might think about buying some of your holiday goodies from your local natural foods store. Whenever possible make the effort to choose consciously how you are spending your money and why. Talk it over with your friends, family and loved ones.

Doug and I have decided not to buy each other presents.  We decided that we would put whatever money we would spend on gifts into a fund for travel or for something that we do together.  We also want to honor the tradition of gift giving so we agreed to make each other something handmade.

Enjoy your holiday season however you like to celebrate.  Eat well.  Indulge some.  Give gifts from the heart, and remember that most often less is more.

Ps.  A unique gift idea might be sending someone an original piece of intentional collage art from The Sacred Tremor Project.  Click on blue link for more info!

INTENTION/art

We are all searching for ways to call upon stronger powers within ourselves to manifest our intentions for creativity, abundance, and change.   

The Sacred Tremor Project is a way for you to clarify a specific intention you would like to bring into your or someone’s else’s life.   

When you make a donation to The Sacred Tremor Project, an original piece of collage art will be created especially for you based on your personal intention or prayer.

Asking me to create this personal art piece for you will demonstrate your concrete commitment to realizing your intention.

Here’s how it works:

  

*Create your intention. 

You may already have an idea of some intention you would like to create in your life.   

If you need, here are some examples to help you identify your intention:

    I want to make more money

    I want to achieve life/work balance

    I want to have deeper intimacy in my relationships

In creating your intention, it’s best to be as specific as possible.  Write a sentence or short paragraph describing your intention, and title it with a single word.  That word will be the title of your piece of art.

*Make a donation using Paypal

Your donation will sustain me while I do my volunteer work here at Easton Mountain for the summer.  You can also have one of these original art pieces made for a friend, family member or loved one and have it mailed directly to them.  CLICK HERE to make a donation.

*Anticipate the arrival of your original piece of art.

Each piece of art is 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 and will arrive within 2 weeks.

BJORK/biophilia

Bjork's newest release!

BIOPHILIA

a short review by Douglas Allen

There are many theories and legends describing how the world came to be as written in Cosmogony,a song off of Biophilia, but what is certain is that we are what we know.  If what we know is limited, we can easily become entangled in misalignment, or we can come to a place of wonder and awe and rest in whirls, which is what Biophilia is all about.  However, thrashing in the muck is not to be avoided for she sings in Moon, "as if the healthiest pastime is being in life threatening circumstances."

Nature wastes nothing, and is constantly shifting from the tiniest of movements in the Atlantic ridge to eruptions that undo stagnation (Mutual Core). Bjork invites us to connect and compare the cycles in nature to those of our own bodies.

HUMBLE/effort

Song of the Builders

Mary Oliver

On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God -

a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope

it will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.

EFFORTLESS/effort

"The brain learns and performs best when we use the least possible effort to accomplish a given task." -Dennis Lewis

I've been experimenting lately with this idea of effortless effort that was inspired by a passage from The Tao of Natural Breathing by Dennis Lewis.  He says that "when we try hard 'to do' something, when we use unnecesary force to accomplish our goals, our whole body generally ends up becoming tense."

Since reading this I've been noticing how much effort I use in the world.  I was surprised to see how I use so much unnecssary effort to do the simplest of tasks.  The first thing I noticed was that I grab the refridgerator door in a death grip before jerking it open. Then I started to see how I do this with lots of things.  How I sometimes walk with a heavy foot, how I yank the toilet paper from the roll, how I turn the knob to go into my room.  It goes on and on.  My response in noticing how much unnecessary energy and effort I am using is that I've begun to touch the world around me with a softer, more conscious touch.

Try it.  The next time you pick something up, unwrap a gift, walk down the stairs, pick up your fork or turn the page of a book notice how much energy you are using and how much actual energy is needed.  Notice the shift in your body when you choose to soften the way you interact with your physical environment.  For example, I just noticed that as I'm typing this newsletter I've been banging the keys like there's no tomorrow.  As I type this sentence using a softer touch on the keys I notice that my breath has actually changed and I feel less hurried.

Dennis Lewis also talks about applying this consciousness to your spiritual practice as well.

OUTSIDE/soul

BLIND/drawings 1

My boyfriend Doug has re-introduced me to blind contour drawings.  Look at the subject you want to draw.  Without looking at the page you take a pen, pencil, paintbrush or whatever and start drawing.  When you are finished then you look at what you've created.  This contour drawing was of a an older man sitting hunched over reading the paper.

BJORK/moon

THE/toss

Doug and I watched James Broughton's short film The Bed last night.  We were inspired and made this little spontaneous movie as a response.  James Broughton was a poet and filmmaker.  He was largely responsible for the Radical Faerie movement in San Francisco.


Here's a poem by James Broughton:


What matters

matters

but it doesn’t

Some of the time

everything

matters

Much of the time

nothing

matters

In the long run

both everything

and nothing

matter a lot

LEMON/tree