IMPERFECT Lady

Being Thankful You Can

It is Thanksgiving, and many of us may be giving up our traditional Thanksgivings, in hopes of lessening the spread of Covid.

As I thought of so many feeling disheartened by the lack of normality, it came to me that there are many whose Thanksgivings will never be the same - again.

We are being asked to pause.

We are not being asked to NEVER.

 

If we can remember, that for many of us, our loved ones are still here, and there is a potential of another gathering.  We can take a pause and do something non-traditional this year.  We can breathe in that we are being responsible. We are doing this - so to spare another - a Never.

 

Also, there are many of us out here who have had non-traditional holidays, due to estrangement.

We have selectively chosen to redefine what holidays mean.

 

So, on this 2020 Thanksgiving, I hope that we can feel love.

Even if it is from afar.

Love with the potential of many future gatherings.

I feel hope, that when we all gather again, we will feel deep gratitude at the simple things. 

This is a moment in time.

A page in a chapter.

 

Take the time to feel even the simple joys that are present today.

 

It is easy to fall into what we can't do, and fail to see what we can do.

Do something today that makes your heart sing.

Being thankful you can.

Seeing these rocks light up last night - was the perfect start to Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Church

Some time ago, I began saying "My Church" when I was out on Sunday mornings in the woods.  

It was something that I truly felt; but had not really tried to explain or even think deeply about.  I just loved the time I spent, either alone or with other women, doing something we all love, outside in nature. And, if it was on Sunday Morning; it became "My Church".

It wasn't until I sat with the vast difference between nature and religion, that I felt the expansive inclusive acceptance of nature; the opposite of so many religions.

As you step into nature, nothing is required. There are no rules or sins.

 

You are fully accepted, just as you are.

 

I left religion 16 years ago.  

And, about that time found the calming nature of nature.

 

My world and life was so upside down and backwards, my heart and soul were crushed, and it felt that my home was too small to handle all the emotions that filled my body.  And, when I stepped outside in the morning, the sun would greet me, the wind and trees and ground felt solid, trustworthy and steady.

It gave me all of itself and there was nothing I had to do in order to receive it.

Nature does nothing and is everything. 

A child doesn't need to be taught about nature.

They are natural participants with it.

At one.

 

Often religion works with the mind, to bend it away from its natural leanings.

 

For instance, the body.

When you sit and think about how some religions try to rule the body, by making up rules.

No make-up, no hair dyes, no birth control etc.

 

I was just talking to a friend about my nude ladies and how I don't see them as sexual in anyway; but women who are at ease in their skin. Who are empowered and free.  Who love themselves with all their flaws and celebrate who they are and how far they have come. The struggles and the pain, to land in peace and acceptance.

 

I see my ladies and nature as one.  

Just excited to be who and what they are.

A tree of a certain type is that.

A body of a certain type is that.

Only man, and often religion create a rule that limits that or tries to oppress it.

Willing its will against the nature of things.

What I know to be true, is that nature is a loving open space that gives.

Acceptance and oodles of space to just be.

It asks nothing of you.

 

Imagine the largeness of it.

I have said my definition of love is freedom.

And, that is also my definition of my religion.

Freedom to be who you were born to be.

Freedom to express yourself with the body you have.

Freedom to feel love of your own self.

To love not only your body, but to love the nature of who you are.

To love the accumulation of who you have been, to where you now are.

 

I almost feel that religion is the opposite of nature.

It is so unaccepting - contained - and limited.

 

The difference between the two, leaves me breathless.

 

All I know, is that my life; my heart and body and soul feel complete when I am in nature.

 

My old religion had me believing in my wretchedness.  My sinful, blah blah blah.

I 'needed' to be saved, needed to do this and then that. And, couldn't do this or that. Ya da ya da....

 

Nature is.

There.

And you enter.

Amen.

 My Church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disturb the comfortable.

"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." Cesar A. Cruz.

 

What is the role of artists in a land that is fueled by division?

What can we as individuals do to balance the imbalance?

 

When things seem the most insane, what is the sane thing to do?

How can we knit together a human moral and value system that includes all?

My intentions are to support those who are trying to evolve humanity.

Or, even more themselves.

 

Each of us have one life and live in close proximity with our own truths.

I celebrate those who have adventured into new territories from that which they were raised.

Explored different pathways and byways.

Sought and created friends from different walks of life.

All of this will create a beautiful tapestry of difference; where it will be harder to see the other as 'evil'.

 

What seems like "evil" is often another way of life.

Another's journey, that we know nothing about.

We can't know where they have walked, and the choices that were available.

 

Let us all be reminded we are more alike than we are different and help each other out of their complacency of systems that were designed to exclude huge segments of humanity.

As an artist, I will strive to disturb the comfortable.

 

 

 

 

 

Before It Is Okay

"Freedom is being okay, before things are okay."

 

Freedom is when you are okay - before this or that happens.

Being okay with this present moment, and knowing you can be okay if things go differently than you would like them to.

 

Being okay, is about you.

It isn't about what the world outside is or is not doing.

 

There truly is very little we control - it all comes down to self.

 

Perhaps it is best to decide today, how you will respond to the election IF it doesn't go according to your vote. Decide how you will feel; but mostly how you will act. What will you change in your life?

 

The whole country seems to be in an heighten state of anxiety; both from the Covid Virus and the Election that has filled our worlds in the past many months.  And, social media feeds are fueling both - and we can chose to engage or not engage or even perhaps how to engage in things that pop up on our feeds.

 

If you haven't watched "Social Dilemma" you may want to check it out.  It is on Netflix.  Some of us fear the political party opposite of who we voted for. We may want to look deeper into what is driving the dialogues and how much of our days are spent on social media and what are our gains OR more what we lose.

 

Being cognizant on what you are putting out into the world - means being aware of your own thoughts, beliefs and what they mean to the world at large. What it means to your future and those around you.

Does everyone in your circle think alike?  Do they all believe like you do?  How do they bring in good energy and block toxic behaviors?

 

I am guilty of writing about things that confound me and trying to raise critical thinking; especially towards cults and strict religions and dysfunctional families.

I wonder what is a better use of my time?

 

What makes you think differently?

How can we entertain new thoughts and evolve humanity in directions that will cause more harmony, and less division?

I don't think we need to be passive or to live in a non-reality. But, each of us make up the landscapes we live in. Each of us are participating in creating the world we will leave behind.

Our individual legacies will be what echoes after we are gone.

Do we want to leave outrage and disgust OR hope of changing the world; by changing our world and growing a more open mind.

In my experience, the more my mind has opened; so has my heart.

I have a broader sense of humanity and the myriad of differences that are being expressed.

I am less certain that I and my limited beliefs and knowing, have any answers for others.

I leave others to know what is best for them.

Which reminds me of Byron Katie's words -

"I don't know what is best for me or you or the world. I don't try and impose my will on your or on anyone else. I don't want to change you or improve you or convert you or help you or heal you. I just welcome things as they come and go.That's true love. The best way of leading people is to let them find their own way."

 

As we all continue to find our own ways. Let us try and be kinder to what we don't know or understand or believe.

Let us be okay; before it is okay.