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.

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This is a picture of my friend Silvija's magnificent real Christmas tree. She has done this every year I have known her (since Grade 9). Inspiring!

Here is another inspiring text I discovered. It takes such a load off my mind (which I realize is the Small Mind). It is so easy to be happy and relax when the Big Mind is taking care of everything.


This is a quote from the book “God Loves Fun”
by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

“Turn back and you will see that the whole life is like a dream. Isn’t it?
See the past. Is it not like a dream?
Till today, till this moment?
You came here, you settled; the day before, you had started from somewhere.
Before that you did something, something else on New Year...you enjoyed your
Christmas presents. The Year before, and the year before, you cried and yelled
and much before you shuttled back and forth from school for years- bored,
waiting for the weekend. Isn’t it? That is all gone. Is it not like a dream?

And what is going to happen? A few more days, what can happen?
At the most, you will laugh and jump, or you will cry and sit. So what!
Anyway, it is all going to pass, however you spend your time. Why bother so much?
In order to smile and laugh, you are bothering so much. Your effort to smile and laugh
is making you cry and weep. There is nothing you need to do.
Just smile and laugh. Life has no purpose, no mission. It is a game, it is a play.
Life has no message. Life itself is an expression of joy.
There is nothing you have to do.
Everything is being done by the Big Mind.”

ATCs

My Artist Trading Cards for this month were inspired by the challenge set by Ronna in the ATCQuarterly. She asked for a card inspired by the theme of "Dollars and Sense". I have an old wallet with currency from the countries I have visited and decided to sacrifice the paper money for this project. Does it make sense to cut up money? If you are an ATC artist, yes!

I mixed pieces of bills from Hungary and Bali with Canada Tire money, newsprint from a local oriental daily paper and bits of gold paper to represent the real thing. When all the pieces were layered onto my ATC-sized cardstock with Mod Podge and then completely dried, I punched in some holes. Then the collage was glued onto another card of copper cardboard, so that the copper peeked through and looked like "cents" (pennies). It was a great way to spend this wintery afternoon.

I look forward to the trade this Saturday in Dunvegan, as always, but this month is special. We will stay on after the trade for a party, sharing some finger food and bubbly. This is a great tradition and we get inspiration from opening up our collections for review.

Soltice

It is early in a deliciously stormy day: sleeping in, waking to the sound of the wind snapping the flags above the town hall across the road, listening to seasonal music from around the world on the CBC (with my budgies chiming in), the scent of Reto's freshly baked "Hazelnuss Stengeli" wafting upstairs and now connecting to my family/friends/visitors through the net.....all heavenly!

This day begins two glorious weeks off from karma-yoga type work. Time to spend in my art studio, reading The Gazette in front of the fireplace, skating on the Rideau canal in Ottawa, and just Being at home. Thirty two years ago I was expecting my daughter's birth "any minute"...she arrived on the 23rd. Happy birthday, now in India, dear Simone!

I offer you this photo I made yesterday in minus 26 degrees. It expresses to me the essence of this shortest day of the year: pure and simple, deepest inner life. Like the New Moon, we have reached the Nadir of Nature's cycle, the darkest time with the most potential.

Winter

As of next Monday, all car owners in Quebec are required by law to have four winter tires installed on their cars. It seems that many drivers were stalling with the decision to make this big investment. Four new tires can slide you back about $700.-!

A recent snowstorm was a joyful event for our local snowmobile owners, snowman builders and photographers. Maybe it was not so wonderful for all those driving (or stuck in slush) with their summer tires. Freezing rain was the icing on our cake: I went out to take some pictures of Nature's poetry to share with you.