courage

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." - Andre Gide

snapshot of my son at sunset...

salt water

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."

- Isak Dinesen

empty open and choiceless

"The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh 

snapshot of my son this afternoon, just before sunset

transcend ego

"That which offends you only weakens you. Being offended creates the same destructive energy that offended you in the first place - so transcend your ego and stay in peace." - Dr. Wayne Dyer

poetry, pearls and rose petals between pages

"...que el placer que juntos inventamos sea otro signo de la libertad."

-Julio Cortázar

"...let the pleasure we invent together be one more sign of freedom."

-Julio Cortázar translated by Stephen Kessler

...a morning with Julio and his poetry, my pearls and rose petals between pages...

surrendering

"The soul, in its longing to grow, will push us towards crisis points, bringing about a situation that will force us to leave behind the old toys and the worn-out ways of operating. Our soul brings us these crises to remind us that we don't have to remain stuck in the land of the hunters and the hunted. We are called to draw ourselves up to our full height and confidence, even when terrified at the prospect of the unknown." - Alberto Villoldo

surrendering to the soul's journey...

trusting the mystery of the divine...

healing light

"The wound is the place where the light enters you." - RUMI 

burning

soothing

purifying 

sacred

healing light

under pressure

- roses reminding me to stay open -

"Pressure pushing down on me, 

pressing down on you...

Under pressure that burns a building down, 

splits a family in two, puts people on streets...

It's the terror of knowing what this world is about,

Watching some good friends screaming - Let Me Out!...

...These are the days  -  it never rains but it pours...

Turned away from it all like a blind man,

Sat on a fence but it dont' work.

Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn

why, why, why?

Love.

Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking,

Can't we give ourselves one more chance?

Why can't we give love that one more chance?

Why can't we give love, give love, give love, give love, give love...

'Cause love's such an old-fahioned word -

and love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night

and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves

this is our last dance

this is ourselves

under pressure

under pressure

pressure..." 

- Queen and David Bowie serenade me this morning while Ernest Hemingway reminds me that courage is grace under pressure.

throbbing raw vulnerability

"When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize that this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go either way. We can shut down and feel resentful or we can touch in on that throbbing quality." - Pema Chodron

...on the verge of something...breath by breath...moment to moment...touching into the throbbing raw vulnerability...and surrendering...

summer in love

decide to spend this summer in love...

write letters to the moon...

flirt with the sun...

and please remember to kiss under the summer rains...

summer solstice blessings

on the eve of summer solstice

- detail from mixed media on canvas -

"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun and I say it's all right.  

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter.  

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here...

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces.  

Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here.  

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun and I say it's all right. 

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting.

Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear.

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun and I say it's all right..."

- The Beatles

how will you celebrate and manifest light?

shall we sing?  shall we dance?  

shall we wake up with the sunrise and give thanks for another day?

snake reiki

"Reiki was founded by Mikao Usui in the early 1920's...Reiki is a spiritual practice that facilitates a subtle vibrational connection promoting balance and well-being at all levels of the human experience: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual." 

- Diane Armstrong, Reiki Master

My son and I have a favorite morning ritual of reading in bed. One of our book selections today was, "A Pet Named Sneaker" by Joan Heilbroner with illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre. When we turned to the page pictured above, my 5-year-old son exclaimed:

"MAMA, it looks like the kids are doing Reiki on the snake!" 

Just for today, do not worry.

Just for today, do not anger.

Honor your parents, teachers and elders.

Earn your living honestly.

Show gratitude to every living thing.

- Reiki Precepts from Mikao Usui translated by Mrs. Tanaka

remember

"You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather." - Pema Chodron

el fuego es tu reino

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

"Te amé sin que yo lo supiera, y busqué tu memoria. En las casas vacías entré con linterna a robar tu retrato. Pero yo ya sabía cómo eras. De pronto mientras ibas conmigo te toqué y se detuvo mi vida: 
frente a mis ojos estabas, reinándome, y reinas. 
Como hoguera en los bosques el fuego es tu reino."
 - Pablo Neruda



"I loved you without knowing I did; I searched to remember you. I broke into houses to steal your likeness, though I already knew what you were like. And, suddenly, when you were there with me I touched you, and my life stopped:
you stood before me, you took dominion like a queen: like a wildfire in the forest, and the flame is your dominion."
- Pablo Neruda translated by Stephen Tapscott

truly at ease within

"...Many people use alcohol, drugs, sex, food, work, television, or even shopping as anesthetics in an unconscious attempt to remove the basic unease. When this happens, an activity that might be very enjoyable if used in moderation becomes imbued with a compulsive or addictive quality, and all that is ever achieved through it is extremely short-lived symptom relief.

...The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life's challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious. You can use a challenge to awaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into deeper sleep. The dream of ordinary unconsciousness then turns into a nightmare.

If you cannot be present even in normal circumstances, such as when you are sitting alone in a room, walking in the woods, or listening to someone, then you certainly won't be able to stay conscious when something 'goes wrong' or you are faced with difficult people or situations, with loss or the threat of loss. You will be taken over by a reaction, which ultimately is always some form of fear, and pulled into unconsciousness. Those challenges are your tests. Only the way in which you deal with them will show you and others where you are at - as far as your state of consciousness is concerned, not how long you can sit with your eyes closed or what visions you see.

So it is essential to bring more consciousness into your life in ordinary situations when everything is going relatively smoothly. In this way, you grow in presence power. It generates an energy field in you and around you of a high vibrational frequency. No unconsciousness, no negativity, no discord or violence can enter that field and survive, just as darkness cannot survive in the presence of light.

When you learn to be the witness of your thoughts and emotions, which is an essential part of being present, you may be surprised when you become aware of the background 'static' of ordinary unconsciousness and realize how rarely, if ever, you are truly at ease within yourself. On the level of your thinking, you will find a great deal of resistance in the form of judgement, discontent, and mental projection away from the NOW. On the emotional level, there will be an undercurrent of unease, tension, boredom, or nervousness. Both are aspects of the mind in its habitual resistance mode."

- Eckhart Tolle

father's day

a recent snapshot of my father and my son...

"Close your eyes, have no fear, the monster is gone, he is on the run and your Daddy is here...

Before you go to sleep, say a little prayer, every day in every way, it's getting better and better...

Before you cross the street, take my hand. Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy..."

- John Lennon

boys become men who become fathers...

on this Father's Day, let us take a moment and acknowledge the beautiful boy within every father...

what is your soul whispering?

last night's full moon brought clarity and wisdom combined with surrendering grace...

how often do we insist on fooling ourselves, refusing to face reality?

how do we allow others to manipulate us "like puppets on a string"? (from a favorite Bob Marley song)

when and why do we become the clever puppeteers?

there is another way, my soul whispers...there is another way, there is always another way...

luxury poverty vulgarity

"Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity." - Coco Chanel

luxury, poverty and vulgarity have to do with one's state-of-mind...

detail from mixed media on paper in a private collection

sacred mindful wildness

I have a hard time visiting zoos. Wild animals are meant to live and die in freedom. I wonder how often these beautiful creatures are sedated...

What aspects of my primal wildness have been held captive? By society, family, fears, commitments, schedules, rules, conditioning...?

How do I anesthetize myself? I meditate. I devour self-help books. I memorize consciousness talks. I pray. I stand on my head. I stretch. I breathe.

My sacred wildness finds a release through my artwork, through my dancing, through my journaling...and the creative process becomes a meditation, a prayer, a celebration of freedom...

Sacred Mindful Wildness...

ecstasy

I am still digesting these ideas...

"Excitement seems to be equivalent to ecstasy; it is not. Excitement is a state of tension, it feels good because the old is disappearing and the new is coming in. A new breeze, a new experience - it is good to welcome it with an excited heart...

Excitement is only a welcome, but the welcome is not the whole story. The coolness has to come, and coolness is far deeper, far more valuable than any excitement can be. So jumping up and down has to stop. Sit silently, be calm and cool. Ecstasy is coolness, it is not excitement. 

If you accept coolness, then only will the deeper experience of coolness give you the experience of ecstasy. It will be full of life, but not childish. It will be full of joy, but with deep contentment. The joy will not be against sadness, the joy will be beyond sadness.

...Try to understand it very clearly: excitement is just an escape from misery. It gives only a pseudo experience of joy. Because you are no more miserable you think you are joyous - not to be miserable is equivalent to being joyous. Joy is a positive phenomenon. Not to be miserable is just a forgetfulness. The misery is waiting back home for you: whenever you come back it will be there. 

When excitement disappears, one starts thinking 'Now what is the point of this love?' In the West love dies with excitement, and that is a calamity. In fact love had never been born. It was just love of excitement, it was not real love. It was just an effort to move away from oneself. It was a search for sensation. You rightly use the word 'fun' - it was fun but it was not intimacy. When excitement disappears and you start feeling loving, love can grow; now the feverish days are over. This is the true beginning." - OSHO

Is it possible that we become attached - even addicted - to excitement? 

seeing red well-read

a red dress...

red lips waiting to be kissed bare...

red Rothko...well-read...

a little red corvette...baby, you're much too fast...

red rose petals...

without apology

"This is your time. Your time to say what you have kept silent. Your time to ask your big questions without apology. Your time to shine like a blazing comet, whether they like it or not. Your time to believe what your heart tells you: that this world could be very different. Your time to live by your rhythms, and teach them to the world. Your time to nurture your village back to health. Your time to show the world what it has been missing. Your time to show the world the other side of itself." - T.S.Mohr

soul play

They had known each other for decades, yet had never truly met.

On a rainy day - by chance, destiny, fate or karma - he caught a glimse of her heart reflecting similar longings, delayed joys and sparks of contagious laughter.

She invited him to dream under moonlight and play in her world for a while...

excerpt from a short story

me la como

"The demon that you can swallow gives you it's power, and the greater life's pain, the greater life's reply." - Joseph Campbell 

snapshot of the fearless lion-headed Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet 

still making love in my secret life

- mixed media from a series -

"I saw you this morning.
You were moving so fast.
Can’t seem to loosen my grip -
on the past.

And I miss you so much.
There’s no one in sight.

And we’re still making love
In My Secret Life.

I smile when I’m angry.
I cheat and I lie.

I do what I have to do to get by.

But I know what is wrong,
And I know what is right.

And I’d die for the truth
In My Secret Life...

...I bite my lip.

I buy what I’m told:

from the latest hit,

to the wisdom of old.

But I’m always alone.

And my heart is like ice.

And it’s crowded and cold.

In My Secret Life." - Leonard Cohen

do you have a secret life?
an imaginary, secret life?
I believe we all do, whether we realize it or not...

mythical lover

"My love for you has driven me insane. I wander aimlessly the ruins of my life, my old self a stranger to me. Because of your love, I have broken with my past. My longing for you keeps me in this moment. My passion gives me courage. I look for you in my innermost being. I used to read the myths of love. Now I have become the mythical lover." - RUMI

antique bronze Venus wears one of my latest pieces...created for the mythical lover within each of us...

mañana de mariposas hambrientas

"I feel myself dying in you, overtaken by expanding spaces, which feed on me like hungry butterflies. 

I close my eyes and I'm laid out in your memory, barely alive, with my mouth wide open and the river of oblivion rising. 

And you, patiently, with needle-nosed pliers, pull out my teeth, my eyelashes, you strip the clover from my voice, the shade from my desire, you open up windows of space in my name and blue holes in my chest through which the summers rush out in mourning.

Transparent, sharpened, interwoven with air I float in a drowse, and still I say your name and wake you, anguished. 

But you force yourself to forget me, and I'm barely a bubble reflecting you, which you'll burst with the blink of an eye." 

- Julio Cortázar translated by Stephen Kessler 

"Me siento morir en ti, atravesado de espacios que crecen, que me comen igual que mariposas hambrientas.

Cierro los ojos y estoy tendido en tu memoria, apenas vivo, con los abiertos labios donde remonta el río del olvido.

Y tu, con delicadas pinzas de paciencia me arrancas los dientes, las pestañas, me desnudas el trébol de la voz, la sombra del deseo, vas abriendo en mi nombre ventanas al espacio y agujeros azules en mi pecho por donde los veranos huyen lamentándose.

Transparente, aguzado, entretejido de aire floto en la duermevela, y todavía digo tu nombre y te despierto acongojada.

Pero te esfuerzas y me olvidas, yo soy apenas la burbuja que te refleja, que destruirás con sólo un parpadeo."

- Julio Cortázar 

bring your heart near me

- a page from my journals -

"I know the way you can get when you have not had a drink of Love;  your face hardens, your sweet muscles cramp.

Children become concerned about a strange look that appears in your eyes which even begins to worry your own mirror and nose.

Cats sense your sadness and call in an important conference in a tall tree.  They decide which secret code to chant to help your mind and soul.

Even angels fear that brand of madness that arrays itself against the world and throws sharp stones and spears into the innocent and into one's self.

Oh I know that way you can get if you have not been drinking Love:

 - You might rip apart every sentence your friends and teachers say, looking for hidden clauses.

 - You might weigh every word on a scale like a dead fish.

 - You might pull out a ruler to measure from every angle in your darkness the beautiful dimensions of a heart you once trusted.

I know the way you can get if you have not had a drink from Love's hands.

That is why all the Great Ones speak of the vital need to keep remembering God, so you will come to know and see Him as being so giving and wanting, just wanting to help.

That is why Hafiz says,

"Bring your cup near me, for a I am a Sweet Old Vagabond with an infinite leaking barrel of Light and Laughter and Truth that the Beloved has tied to my back.  Dear One, indeed, please bring your heart near me.  For all I care about is quenching your thirst for freedom!  All a sane man can ever care about is giving LOVE!"

- my beloved beloved HAFIZ

yo soy la tierra de tus raíces - a ver que dices tu

- one of my talismans -

el talismán de tu piel me ha dicho -
que soy la reina de tus caprichos,
yo soy el as de los corazones,
que se pasean en tus tentaciones,
el talismán de tu piel me cuenta
que en tu montura caerán las riendas

cuando una noche de amor desesperados
caigamos juntos y enredados
la alfombra y el alrededor, acabaran
desordenados
cuando una noche de amor que yo no dudo
la eternidad venga seguro
tu y yo, el desnudo y el corazón...seremos uno

yo soy la tierra de tus raíces: el talismán de tu piel lo dice,
yo soy la tierra de tus raíces: lo dice el corazón y el fuego de tu piel,
yo soy la tierra de tus raíces: el talismán de tu piel lo dice,
yo soy la tierra de tus raíces: a ver que dices tu

el talismán de tu piel me chiva
que ando descalza de esquina a esquina,
por cada calle que hay en tus sueños,
que soy el mar de todos tus puertos,
el talismán de tu piel me cuenta
que tu destino caerá a mi puerta 

- song lyrics - © ROSANA ARBELO

vibrations

"You finally understand the message you communicate with another human being has nothing to do with what you say. It has nothing to do with the look on the musculature of your face. It's much deeper than that - MUCH DEEPER!

It's the vibrations that emanate from you!"  - Ram Dass

2013 mixed media on canvas...from a series exploring painting as meditation