CASIMIRA

CASIMIRA
HERstory through ART
With words and images, I am telling my story.

Through art, I am remembering HERstory...

I've been blogging daily since 2007.

Follow me on HERE and HERE for daily posts...

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Updated Daily: January 2007 - February 2020

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Saturday, January 31

with gratitude


“I am your moon and your moonlight too,
I am your flower garden and your water too,
I have come all this way, eager for you,
Without shoes or shawl,
I want you to laugh,
To kill all your worries,
To love you,
To nourish you.” - RUMI


I am letting go of worries.

With sincere gratitude, I am silencing the words of others' judgements.

I am being true to my heart and to my evolution on this planet...




Friday, January 30

high-energy

- mixed media from a series -

"Expand your reality to the point where you pursue what you love doing and excel at it. Involve yourself in high-energy levels of trust, optimism, appreciation, reverence, joy, and love when you engage in every activity in your life." - Dr. Wayne Dyer

high-energy levels of

T R U S T

O P T I M I S M

A P P R E C I A T I O N

R E V E R E N C E

J O Y

L O V E

no time for anything less...


Thursday, January 29

tea and kisses


"Those kisses you sent, I found them wandering around the house. They were acting a little lost, not knowing exactly where I was.

I was busy upstairs. But now we are all having tea and talking about you, and wishing you were here.

And they imparted all you intended. They did well.

One more thing: I have see you at your best and at your worst; still you are always welcome near me."

- my beloved RUMI

mixed media on paper




Wednesday, January 28

la sed - the thirst

there is a story...
each piece has been telling a story since I began in 1998
...sterling silver sculpture, circa 2007...HERstory
"Tu beso fue en mis labios
de un dulzor refrescante.
SensaciĂłn de agua viva y moras negras
me dio tu boca amante.

Cansada me acosté sobre los pastos
con tu brazo tendido, por apoyo.
Y me cayĂł tu beso entre los labios,
como un fruto maduro de la selva
o un lavado guijarro del arroyo.

Tengo sed otra vez, amado mĂ­o.
Dame tu beso fresco tal como una
piedrezuela del rĂ­o."
 
LA SED by JUANA de IBARBOUROU

what do you thirst for?


Tuesday, January 27

dissolving into ecstasy


"How long can the moth flirt near the mouth of the flame before their lips touch and the moth's soul becomes like a sun.

And does the moth then die?
No.
In serving God one is transformed into Him.

What lovers would return to us, what lovers would not unite beyond belief and annihilate their separation forever if they had the power to do so?

The power our Lord has. How long do you think you can just flirt with Him before you dissolve in ecstasy?

Existence spins on His potter's wheel; all is being shaped into the Divine.

What lovers would not want to die embraced?"
- Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)

2013 mixed media on paper


Monday, January 26

how it felt to be alive


"She left her heart little. She left her heart childish. And for her, every little moment felt like butterflies. She did not want to believe there was an end to love. So she drowned in the seconds beneath the moment where magic and stillness collide. And every time she looked into his eyes, she was reminded of how if felt to be alive." - R.M. Drake


Sunday, January 25

queen

- mixed media on paper -

"Be it known that we, the greatest, are misthought."

- Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (approximately 69 – 30 BC)



Saturday, January 24

perpetual expectancy


"...I don't know how to tell you what I feel. I live in perpetual expectancy. You come and the time slips away in a dream. It is only when you go that I realize completely your presence. And then it is too late. You numb me...I don't know what to expect of you, but it is something in the way of a miracle. I am going to demand everything of you - even the impossible, because you encourage it. You are really strong. I even like your deceit, your treachery. It seems aristocratic to me." 
- Henry Miller 

snapshot: feather, stones and crystals on my meditation altar





Friday, January 23

sacred poetry of flesh


"And your very flesh shall be a great poem." - Walt Whitman

our earthly temples...
sacred poetry of flesh...

self-portrait


Thursday, January 22

el otro mundo


witnessing

his final breaths


the most sacred

intimate 

and honest honor 


love 

healing 

raw and intense 

beauty


One month ago, my beloved father-in-law transitioned on to "El Otro Mundo." 

My wise 6-year-old has helped me regard death as moving on to "The Other World."





Wednesday, January 21

breathing stars


"Sometimes you look up and there just seems to be so many more stars than ever before. More. They burn brighter and they shine longer and they never vanish into your periphery when you turn your head. It's as if they come out for us and to remind us that their light took so long to come to us, that if we never had the patience to wait, we never would have seem them here, tonight, like this.

That as much as it hurts, sometimes it's all you can do, wait, endure and keep shining, knowing that eventually, your light will reach where it is supposed to reach and shine for who it is supposed to shine for.

It is never easy, but it is always worth it."
- Tyler Knott Gregson

one month ago
the longest night of the year
winter solstice

we sat and waited for the inevitable 

as his body continued to fade
the stars began to shine brighter

I accepted the cigarette 
outside 
under a frigid, bone-chilling rain

haunting trees
stood naked
honest witnesses

the stars twinkled
the stars danced
an invisible, knowing new moon smiled

my slow breath
my slow inhale 
my slow exhale

his fast breath
his impatient inhale and exhale

one month ago
the longest night
with the most majestic stars




Tuesday, January 20

new moon lovers


new beginnings

I am in the midst of a purifying fire

new moon

new year

won't you kiss me my dear?

yes, you...

the life-giving sun aligned with the moon goddess...lovers...

excerpt from my journal entry 


Monday, January 19

when I was hungry and it was your world

- 2013 watercolor from A Thousand Kisses Deep series -

"...She takes just like a woman, yes she does...
She makes love just like a woman, yes she does...
And she aches just like a woman...
But she breaks just like a little girl...

When we meet again,
introduced as friends,
please don't let on that you knew me when,
I was hungry and it was your world...
Ah, you fake just like a woman, yes you do...
You make love just like a woman, yes you do...
Then you ache just like a woman...
But you break just like a little girl..."
- Bob Dylan

...watercolor meditations... 



Sunday, January 18

el toro y la vaca


chili peppers or chile peppers

men or boys

dessert or diet 

satisfaction 

death 

marriage or taxes 

divorce

orgasm - don't fake it

silence

betrayal

The English Patient

a squirting straw

medium rare

fish or beef

Out of Africa

romance

seduction 

temptation

life

human nature

the church

the law

el toro y la vaca

sex is natural

the truth

flamenco - olĂ© 

love or lust or both 

lover

partner

friendship

soul mate 

laughter and more laughter

a page from my journal entry





Saturday, January 17

eleven again


I accessed and celebrated my inner tween with my amazing 11-year-old niece tonight...


We danced, played dress up, laughed and more...


snapshots: details from a series of fun Saturday-Night-Selfies

"I stay up too late.
Got nothing in my brain.
That's what people say...

Go on too many dates,
But I can't make them stay.
At least that's what people say...

But I keep cruising,
Can't stop, won't stop moving.
It's like I've got this music,
In my mind, saying it's gonna be alright 

Cause the players gonna play...
And the haters gonna hate...
Baby, I'm just gonna SHAKE...
Heartbreakers gonna break...
And the fakers gonna fake...
Baby, I'm just gonna SHAKE...
Shake it off...

I never miss a beat.
I'm lightning up my feet.
And that's what they don't see.
I'm dancing on my own.
I make the moves as I go.
And that's what they don't know..."
- Taylor Swift





Friday, January 16

the truth my sweetheart



"Nothing can shatter this love. For even if you took another into your arms, the truth is, my sweetheart, you would still be kissing me." - HAFIZ




Thursday, January 15

water





"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water." - Loren Eiseley

snapshots of my son at the aquarium today...inspiration for a new series I have been working on...





Wednesday, January 14

con oro de luna


Pase la noche entera,
pintando en oro.

Te pensé,
y te pinte.

Te soñé,
y te pinte.

Te bese.

Te invente.

Te olvide.

Te ame.

Pero jamás te conté,
que te pinte,

- con alma desnuda

- con oro de luna

- con pluma perdida

Pase la noche entera,
pintando en oro.

- CASIMIRA 

something I wrote a year ago and just found within the pages of a book...




Tuesday, January 13

wild wolf medicine


la loba dentro de mi...


"Women and wolves are relational by nature, inquiring, possessed of great endurance and strength. They are deeply intuitive, intensely concerned with their young, their mate and their pack..."
- Dr. C.P. Estes

snapshots of my meditation altar



Monday, January 12

a story of three lazy brothers

- a corner of my home -

A man on his deathbed left instructions for dividing up his goods among his three sons. He had devoted his entire spirit to those sons. They stood like cypress trees around him, quiet and strong.

He told the town judge, "Whichever of my sons is the laziest, give him all the inheritance."

Then he died, and the judge turned to the three, "Each of you must give some account of your laziness, so I can understand just how you are lazy."

Mystics are experts in laziness. They rely on it, because they continuously see God working all around them. The harvest keeps coming in, yet they never even did the plowing!

"Come on. Say something about the ways you are lazy."

Every spoken word is covering for the inner self. A little curtain-flick no wider than a slice of roast meat can reveal hundreds of exploding suns. Even if what is being said is trivial and wrong, the listener hears the source. One breeze comes from across a garden. Another from across the ash-heap. Think how different the voices of the fox and the lion, and what they tell you!

Hearing someone is lifting the lid off the cooking pot. You learn what's for supper. Though some people can know just by the smell, a sweet stew from a sour soup cooked with vinegar.

A man taps a clay pot before he buys it to know by the sound if it has a crack.

The eldest of the three brothers told the judge, "I can know a man by his voice, and if he won't speak, I wait three days, and then I know him intuitively."

The second brother, "I know him when he speaks, and if he won't talk, I strike up a conversation."

"But what if he knows that trick?" asked the judge.

Which reminds me of the mother who tells her child, "When you're walking through the graveyard at night and you see a boogeyman, run AT it, and it will go away." 
"But what," replies the child, "if the boogeyman's mother has told it to do the same thing? Boogeymen have mothers too."

The second brother had no answer.

The judge then asked the youngest brother, "What if a man cannot be made to say anything? How do you learn its hidden nature?"

"I sit in front of him in silence, and set up a ladder made of patience, and if in his presence a language from beyond joy and beyond grief begins to pour from MY chest, I know that his soul is as deep and bright as the star Canopus rising over Yemen. And so when I start speaking a powerful right arm of words sweeping down, I know him from what I say, and how I say it, because there's a window open between us, mixing the night air of our beings."

The youngest was, obviously the laziest.
He won.

- RUMI translated by Coleman Barks

a story that found me this morning during my meditation and prayers



Sunday, January 11

my beloved sister

- detail from a mixed media on paper -

Once upon a time, a beautiful and brilliant little girl with wise wide eyes and an ancient soul captured my heart...my sister, my goddaughter and my beloved friend, happy birthday...




Saturday, January 10

with words unspoken, a silent devotion

- mixed media from a series -

"light reflects from your shadow,
it is more than I thought could exist,
you move through the room,
like breathing was easy,
if someone believed me,

they would be,
as in love with you as I am,
they would be,
as in love with you as I am,
they would be,
as in love with you as I am,
they would be,
in love, love, love...

and everyday,
I'm learning about you,
the things that no one else sees,
and the end comes too soon,
like dreaming of angels,

and leaving without them,

and with words unspoken,
a silent devotion,
I know you know what I mean,
and the end is unknown,
but I think I'm ready,
as long as you're with me,

being
as in love with you as I am
as in love, love, love..." 

- Romy Madley Croft

Friday, January 9

wrapped in moonlight


"He returned to her and his lips awakened every atom in her body. His love exhausted her stars, she could not help it! She stumbled and lost her balance, wrapped herself in his moonlight and forever she seasoned his love." 
- R.M.Drake


Thursday, January 8

gnawing hunger


A corner of my home...a mountain of books, endless pearls, healing crystals, a stone carving found at a flea market decades ago...and the prototype of one of my first books in print...

My home is my studio. 

My home is my temple.

"From as far back as I can remember, I was obsessed by a gnawing hunger for rituals of spirit." - G. Roth

a gnawing hunger...

what do you hunger for?





Wednesday, January 7

relentless rhythms and sweet source of power deep inside


"She calls to the wildman -
dancing naked by the shores -
of the ocean that she is,

He who speaks with tigers,
whose muscles move with
slow liquid grace.

He who no longer fears 
his darkness, or
the stillness of the earth, or
the sometimes suffocating pull
of her relentless rhythms,
gravities and tides,

He who has made his peace
with Kali and the void,
he who no longer needs
to run or hide
from the sweet source of power 
calling him from deep
inside."
- J. Levy

image - a corner of my desk inspiring ideas for new pieces...


Tuesday, January 6

advice


"Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

gentle, delicate snowflakes of advice versus a violent hailstorm of judgement and projections...?

snapshot from today's snowfall - a new year, a blank canvas...

feeling liberated, cleansed, grateful and inspired all at once...






Monday, January 5

open and receptive

- 2013 watercolor meditation on paper -

"For a dervish every day feels like Friday, the beginning of a holiday, a fresh setting out that will not have an end. 

Dressed in the soul's handsomeness, you're a whole month of Fridays, sweet outside, sweet in.

Your mind and your deep being walk together as friends walk along inside their friendship.

Debris does not stay in one place on a fast-running creek.

Let grudges wash out into the sea.

Your soul's eye watches a spring-green branch moving, while these other eyes love the old stories."

- RUMI


...so my fellow dervishes-at-heart, let us welcome and celebrate this blessed MONDAY with all of the joy, excitement and gratitude of a holiday, staying OPEN and RECEPTIVE...


Sunday, January 4

full moon miracles


"Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. Within the space of your true holiness, the sacred love within your heart, miracles are in infinite supply...Miracles occur naturally when you remember who you are, for who you really are is love itself."
- Marianne Williamson

miracles on this first full moon of the year...


Saturday, January 3

passion


"With passion pray. With passion work. With passion make love. With passion eat and drink and dance and play. Why look like a dead fish in this ocean of God?" - my beloved RUMI


Friday, January 2

magic


"I think your applause died out, hands red, tired, and stained with the hue of once excited blood. I think you thought I was magic. Did my curtain lift when I forgot to take my bow? I think you thought you saw mirrors hiding in the fog and light. Backstage and alone I will slide off the cape, set down the hat, and bow to the empty seat I thought you were filling. I think you thought I was magic."
- T. Knott Gregson

and I thought you were brave 

and I thought you were true to your soul

I am tired of being at your beck and call

I am tired of seeing you controlled like a lifeless, helpless puppet on a string

fair-weather friend...

from my journals 




Thursday, January 1

messages from the universe for 2015











clear instructions from the divine...

om shanthi...