Paul Bunyan and Babe, his blue ox

Shiva and his steed, Nandi the bull

Is that Paul Bunyan on my roof, pulling down entire trees that have begun growing up there?  No, it’s a mild mannered kirtan bass player in his alter ego role as Mr. Muscles (and he’s got ’em)!  He spent the morning pulling up the 6 foot tall Brazilian Pepper Tree and 4 foot tall Lantana bush that had begun growing atop the aluminum metal roof of the back porch.  The mats of roots and leaf mulch was so thick that I didn’t have to plant them.  They came down as if in thickly woven welcome mats. I dragged them to the newly bare spot that the tree cutters left open to the view of my neighbor’s home, so now we’re once again hidden 🙂  It’s not every pal who will climb up on the roof in the hot Florida sun and sweep away 4-5 years worth of jungle with a smile on his face and a chant on his lips.  Om Gam Ganapataye Namah.  Which brings me to: Did you ever notice that you never see Paul Bunyan and Babe at the same time you see Shiva and Nandi?  Thoughts that make you go hmmmm…

The spirit oak cut back

Here’s my giant spirit oak after the power company contractors cut it away from the power line — The Universe sends me tree cutters.  I’ve got a great open space now and sunshine for my turk’s cap and arbicola along the privacy fence beneath it to grow. It’s the only spot in the back of the property that has sunshine and it’s got lots now. There’s also a perfect cut branch for me to mount a platform for a tree house. It’ll look right down into the grouchy neighbor’s enclosed pool area and living room. Better than tv!   Continue reading →

The spirit oak cut back

Today Asplundh is cutting trees underneath the power lines for Florida Power and Light Co. My giant oak in the back hasn’t been cut for several years, so they need to bring in the machine to do it. My property is very overgrown and wooded but the property next to it has a clearing they can come in through.  My mulberry tree branches on the north side are all gone, as well as a few choice loquat branches from the largest tree out back. They actually made some good choices of where to make the cuts, and today is a good day for pruning according to the moon. They are now assessing the giant pines to the west. I asked if they managed to cut any of the smaller bamboo to the east, don’t put them in the chipper but leave for me to pick up so I can use them.  They left me a bunch!  I figured this was about a $400 job they saved me from.  Thank You Syncronicity of the Universe!  Bonus: I just noticed that the tree cutters left me a clear view of the north sky out the back sliders. It’s pretty cool being able to sit and see the sky from inside the house, I’ve never been able to do that before.

RELATED:  The universe gifts me with a brand new garden space I never had before!
The new garden area gets a blessing

We’re loving the cooler weather in Florida! 72 degree nights mean sitting out at the firepit and camping in my own woods.  I love having woods on three sides of me. I can feel completely isolated away from civilization yet the neighborhood is right on the other side of a few lots of oaks and pines. It becomes enchanted here at nightfall, so I enjoy the outdoors when the air turns cool.  I began cutting the trails through the woods last night and spent time watching the woodland creatures that I share the property with.  Their nightly parade up and down the trails is a never ending source of entertainment and contemplation.   Sometimes they get a whiff of the corn and potatoes roasting in the firepit and stop to see if they’ll get a handout.  I do not feed them, there are plenty of woods here for them to forage in and their fatness is evidence.  Continue reading →

It used to miff Sherrae when someone asked what her heritage was so they could figure out why she is the color she is and has the features she has. “We’re American” was never sufficient. Sometimes she’d say she was adopted and ask them to guess.  “Look at my eyes, ” she’d say, “and the shape of my nose, my cheekbones.  Look at my hair, my body.   What does the cover tell you about the book?”

My experience is that we’re all a mix.  I may not be able to tell by their features if a friend is Polynesian or Peruvian or African or English or Scottish.  I might guess if someone doesn’t “look like me” then perhaps they have a different cultural background and learning about different cultures is fascinating for me.  What they are really curious about is “why do you look so different than I do?”

What Happened When A Biracial Woman Was Photoshopped In 18 Different Countries

I’ve never been particularly drawn to Pele,  the Hawaiian goddess of fire and the volcano. I’ve never studied the mythology and I’ve only recently looked her up, after it came to me to paint a version of her.  I’ve been working on a series of paintings depicting archetypal women as a form of shamanic soul retrieval.    It came to me during meditation that I wanted someone who would sit in the coals of the fire and burn up the dross.  As gold is heated to burn away impurities so its essential character can be revealed, just so the intent of my soul retrieval project was to do the same with me.  I saw someone sitting in the coals of a fire, with fire all around her, laughing.  The image of molten lava came to me and a volcano appeared behind her.  The name Pele came to me, so I began adding her to the series and researching to learn about her.  I’ve learned that Pele’s fires and lava are what builds and rebuilds the island she sits on.  Through volcanic activity, it is always being renewed.  Just so, this creat-ive force comes into our lives to cleanse, transform and rebuild.   Continue reading →

Watching painting tutorials this week, I notice they often have music in the background.  It’s interesting to note the different types of music.  some classical, some rock, some heavy metal.  One said, “Painting without music is like trying to work in total darkness. Music is the light that switches me on in my work.” I can see how that that can be so, but I much prefer to work in the soft, subtle nuanced world which is silence.
Silence for me is not empty, it is full of Presence.  By Presence I don’t mean a rambling chain-of-consciousness babblespeak of hurried thoughts about daily doings.  I mean simply thoughts of observing what is in front of me, and letting myself be carried away by the beauty of that. I spend so much time each day thinking thoughts that I have to think for work, that I look forward to having thought time to think my own thoughts, to contemplate my own life. After I’ve done enough of that, I like simply steeping in the silence and observing what Inner Guidance reveals to me.

As I paint in the silence, thoughts and images come to me to help me create each piece.  One reason I paint is to allow the different facets of me to reveal themselves to me.  They do this by impressing upon my mind the imagery of elements and totem animals. In the researching, Googling and contemplation of the meaning of the words and images that come to mind, I discover the metaphor relative to me and learn a lot about myself.
For instance, I’m doing a painting of Pele, the Hawaiian Fire and Volcano Goddess and she’s sitting in a lava flow.  Never having felt compelled to paint lava before, I didn’t know much about it.  Researching lava taught me a lot about facets of my own personality. Where lava flows, there is complete destruction, yet it forms the foundation for new life, indeed it forms the very ground the islands exist on.  The message is that renewal is constant.

Listen to music while painting? My choice is time alone in my own beautiful world with my own thoughts, with my own beloved Self.

Andrea’s Art Gallery here
Painting is a daily meditation for me
Painting as a method of altering consciousness
Doing a series of paintings as a form of shamanic soul retrieval

I’ve never been particularly drawn to Pele, of the Hawaiian-goddess-of-the-volcano-and-fire fame. I’ve never studied the mythology and I’ve only just now looked her up, after it came to me to paint a version of her . I’ve been working on a series of paintings depicting archetypal women as a form of shamanic soul retrieval.    It came to me during meditation yesterday that I wanted someone who would sit in the coals of the fire and burn up the dross.  As gold is heated to burn away impurities so its essential character can be revealed, just so the intent of my soul retrieval project was to do the same with me.  I saw someone sitting in the coals of a fire, with fire all around her, laughing.  The image of molten lava came to me and a volcano appeared behind her.  The name Pele came to me, so I began adding her to the series.  I’ve learned that Pele’s fires and lava are what builds and rebuilds the island she sits on.  Through volcanic activity, it is always being renewed.  Just so, this creat-ive force comes into our lives to cleanse, transform and rebuild.    I’m still working on this one, she’s now sitting in a lava flow.  Who knew lava would be so hard to paint 🙂 Continue reading →

I had an interesting dream last night.  I’ve had a head cold this weekend and been pretty fuzzy from Benadryl and sleeping a lot.  I turned on the tv just as the movie Shutter Island came on. I am not sure how much I slept through or might have heard unconsciously as it was on, as I was also scrolling through Facebook and half the time the sound was muted.  If some of my dream scenes are from the movie, I’m unaware of it. I turned it off 10 minutes before the ending.  In the dream, I am walking in a large building, like a huge old manor house.  I’m aware that it’s the middle of the night and “after hours.”  I’m walking through the service hallways, and every so often I encounter a service person walking past on their nightly duties.  It begins to be apparent to me that every one I see has a physical deformity, and some are quite grotesque. I think, “how cool they have employed so many that may be unable to get employed otherwise.”    Continue reading →

… Holding the vision…

Part of my spiritual practice is being a vision keeper. My experience is if even one person can contemplate a scene and have faith in a successful outcome, that can entrain the consciousness of everyone who was aware of it. Last month, I wasn’t the only one –> Holding the vision.  A Facebook friend commented: “I have a few I’d like to forget… That’s the brain’s biggest flaw. It never forgets. Might not remember it, but the mind can not forget. I wish it could.” I understand what he’s saying.  The mind’s biggest benefit is that you can recall something painful and then train yourself into a better feeling thought. In this practice, you do it over and over and eventually the thought is not gone but the pain of it leaves you.  About half of my session work is helping people re-frame past events in order to see the lesson in it and discover their new and improved place in the world AFTER that painful event.  It’s been said that when just 1% of the population meditates upon peace and lovingkindness, the effect spreads to the other 99% – and it works even if they don’t believe it.