We each have a “vocation to solitude” ‘Let yourself belong to silence, let silence soak into your bones, nourish you, be the air you breathe. A commitment to silence is at the heart of nurturing a contemplative practice and creative life. In silence you will discover the Great Artist from whom you emerged; you will sense the pulse of creative energy through your being so that you slowly grow to recognize that creating is your birth- right, and that you join your work with this ultimate work. But the call is nourished by the silence. We continue to return to this open space to remember who we are.
The activation of the feminine principle has recovered for us the lost image of soul and is reconnecting us to our instincts and liberating our creative imagination. It is effecting a profound alchemy beneath the surface of the culture. Women and men are both participating in a process of transformation which is bringing into being a new cultural focus, one whose emphasis is no longer on power and control but on a greater awareness of the INTERWEAVING OF ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE.
Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny–he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally–you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The whole intends to do something through you.
Just before noon, I looked out of the south window of the entry to our house. The sun shone brilliantly golden-orange between blue-gray stripes of cloud; I was thrilled with the beauty of it. As I watched the yard outside the window, ever-brightening golden light revealed the details of glistening ice shapes draping over withered plant stalks. This growing intensity of light also revealed the swirling shapes impressed into the siding of the house. There was a continuous brightening of the scene (as the clouds parted), awakening me to previously unnoticed intricacies. I experienced a continuous, unbroken refinement of the details in the landscape in the field of my vision. This is (along with other things) what the “drawing as meditation” process does for me. It increasingly reveals the beautiful details around me that I otherwise would not notice. This requires unflagging attention. This unflagging attention comes about as a result of my longing to become one with that which I behold.
Ultimately, we cannot understand what lies outside of us. For true understanding, it is necessary to become one with the object of perception.
The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of Life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here is the place to have the experience.
As with all my work, whether it’s a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I’m trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone.
This morning I found myself looking at the stainless steel, multi-looped whisk that stands up in a ceramic pot with other cooking utensils next to the stove. I thought, “Someone conceived of this and made it happen. If they can do it, I can do it, too.” I can bring forth what I have to share that will be of use to others.
