Wise Women's Circle

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of the Wise Women's Circle at Enrico's in L'Orignal, Ontario. We are a group of women, led by our loving Joni Elborn, who get together regularly to share our interests, find inspiration and support each other.

This time, I offered to lead our group with a creative art workshop. We started with "The Song of the Vowels". This is a healing ritual originating in ancient Egypt. Eight energy centers in the upper body are stimulated by singing a vowel; each center has it's own corresponding sound.

After this pleasant and refreshing meditation, we sat down to paint. Using Lascaux Resonance paints on an 11" x 14" sheet of 90 lb. art paper, I invited the 15 participants to spontaneously choose colors and make marks on the paper. After 1o minutes, the artwork was passed to the person on the left, who spent another 10 minutes adding their own creativity, inspired by what they saw. Then the paper was passed on again after 10 minutes. Finally, of course, the paper came back to the original artist, who could then add or delete any part to make it their own again.




It was a lot of fun and here are some samples of finished paintings. Mine is the one with the orange sun in the top middle!

It`s a Boy!!

A foal was born at Reto`s workplace two weeks ago. here you see him just 8 hours old.The mother, Smartie, is doing well. The little guy was wobbly on his long toothpick legs for a few days but is now growing in leaps and bounds. He has been given the barn name Moon because he has the same coloring as his blonde father.

Just look at how Moon has grown within a few days! He hasn`t been outside yet because the ground is still too slippery. The filly I wrote about on February 25th has been named Toots. You can see how she has grown in ten days. She went out for a few minutes on a sunny day and went wild....jumping and kicking and circling around. When she came inside with her mother, she was panting and trembling. The big wide world made an overwhelming impression on her.

February ATC

The Artist Trading Card group met again today in Dunvegan, Ontario and we had a great turnout. It was a sunny and extremely cold afternoon as we began our trading punctually at 2:15. I made a dive for Brenda Kennedy's multicolor woven yarn (card#1), Evelyn Fortier's felt pen and tinted paper collage (#2), Chuck Stake's "Nakusp Tartan #0617" (#3), Dot Pisarro's "Dollars and Sense" (#4), Bernard Gauthier's digital art (#5), Susan Jephcott's "Hidden Hearts II (#6), Ronna Mogelon's "Your the Cat's Meow" (#7), Barb Glen's thread-and-textile-on-decorative-paper collage (#8) and finally Perry Bedbrook's "potato head" portrait (#9). Perry is 91 years young!




My cards showed a miniature "birth chart" of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius in Greenwich England at 7:25 a.m.( see my post of February 22nd ). Above the chart is a stylized rising sun, colored in with Sakura Gelly Roll pens. Some visitors may remember the 1968 musical "Hair" that included a song called "Aquarius". The intuitive text was:

When the Moon is in the 7th House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then, peace will guide the planets
and Love will steer the stars.

Harmony and understanding,
sympathy and trust abounding.
No more falsehoods or derisions,
golden living dreams of visions,
magic crystal revelation
and the mind's true liberation.
Aquarius! Aquarius!

This sounds like a tall order placed 40 years ago. What can we do to manifest this vision now?

New Born

Guess who just arrived at the farm where my husband Reto works? This little filly, born a bit prematurely, to the mare named Peanut. Mother and daughter doing well. A few hours after the birth, the whole stable full of horses started whinnying...and then the baby chimed in! What a welcome! Going in to see her Saturday. This photos shows the baby one day old with her mom.

Just Fine

Hard to believe I was able to refrain from blogging for 4 whole weeks. Nothing's wrong.....I'm just enjoying my life and it's daily little wonders. One was my birthday just after the official beginning of the AGE of AQUARIUS. My gift was 6 planets in the 5th house! Oh yes, this is "Astro Speak" and means that this year I have a lot of energy available for fun, creative expression, growth and expansion and tons of LOVE. I also had a wonderful warm and sunny day in Ottawa enjoying the ice sculptures of Winterlude and an afternoon at the National Gallery. And friends over for dinner.

Also I've been busy getting my posters ready to announce the Level One courses that will be given here in two months. The first week of April for Anglophones and the third week of April for Francophones. The teacher will be Antoine Tinawi, an exuberant, bilingual official Art of living instructor. If you are interested in participating, please email me.

Today, I spent the morning at the Wise Women's Circle in L'Orignal, Ontario. We are a group of about 15 women who meet once a month to share subjects of common interest. Today's theme was "What do we want to change?" and we welcomed two newcomers to the area. Our next meeting will be in March and I will be hosting a "Paint-In": we will experience a non-verbal communication with paints on one big piece of paper!

The ART of living

"Blue Rocks" 2008
Diptych, 48" x 18"
Acrylic on Canvas


One of my hobbies is astrology. Whenever humanity reaches a new level of awareness, astronomers discover a "new" planet. The planet was always there, of course, but astronomers are suddenly able to become aware of it through improved technology or understanding. For example, the planet Uranus, which represents radical and surprising breaks from tradition, was "discovered" around the time of the French Revolution, when, for the first time in history, people freed themselves from being ruled by kings. Pluto, the planet representing transformational power, was "discovered" around the time that Einstein presented the formula E=MC2 and the splitting of the atom.

Now I have discovered something that has been around for 25 years, practically in my back yard, while I was looking for it all over the world. I am referring to the Art of Living Foundation that has a center just northeast of Montreal. I already mentioned Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in a previous post. In his book "Wisdom for the New Millenium" I read about the courses that teach Sudarshan Kriya, a method that uses the natural healing power of breath to "enhance the blossoming of one's full potential". Lucky me! A course was being given in January that I could participate in without taking time off work. At first I was a bit concerned that I would find it difficult to manage my full workday and the evening courses......but I got more and more energy as each day passed! By the end of the 6-day course I was blissfully enjoying every minute of my life! Today, 10 days after finishing the course and continuing my daily practice, I know I am on the right track: some health issues have simply disappeared, I sleep very well and I am so much more present in my life.

Now I would like to find 20 people in my area to take the course. My teacher Antoine will come here on the last week in April and I know of a very nice, sunny, spacious spot in a natural setting with a huge parking lot. I have already signed myself up for the advanced course taking place over Easter at the ashram in the mountains. Yes, living as an art form: making life a creative, harmonious, meaningful experience by using our talents and expressing our unique, divine Being. Life is beautiful!!!

January's Orchids

Imagine walking from an icy-cold and windy snowstorm environment...right into a tropical forest. Then, as you inhale the steamy air and encounter lush blossoms and ferns one-on-one, you catch a view of snowdrifts piling up outside the thick windowpanes. It is not a wonderful dream. You are at the Botanical Garden in Montreal. My afternoon visit had the effect of a mini-vacation to an exotic island without the time and expense of travel. Here are some of the rare and delicate orchids I met.


On my way out, I scanned the Botanical Gardens boutique and could not resist taking home this magnificent Euphorbia pulcherrima "Cinammon Star" (common name: poinsettia). It is 4 feet (about 1.2 meters) in diameter and graces my dining room table. I found out that the rosy-peach "flowers" are actually leaves! The true flowers are the tiny yellow baubles in the very middle of the colored leaves.