Art, Meaning, Green Living & Health

COVID-19: Soul Lessons for Us All

4/4/2020 1:03:09 PM

Lately our world has turned upside down as fears of COVID-19 and its fallout constrict the collective breath of humanity.

Many authorities have responded with unprecedented orders of shutdowns and quarantines, prompting others to imagine even worse scenarios of widespread social and economic collapse of even greater consequence as well as erosion of civil liberties. 

It is a hard time, not the best of springs. But the silver lining in this cloud surely includes some major soul lessons for us all, including compassion, gratitude and humility.

Compassion and Gratitude: it’s Hard for Everyone

First, it invites us to appreciate that this is a big challenge for nearly everyone. For a small percent, it means actual pain and death from the disease. For the vast majority, it means myriad fears and hardships: of loved ones dying, of losing a job, a business, social group, or even food and shelter as savings disappear. As we try to comprehend the scale of all the lost dreams, the lost social supports, the lost security,  the lost hope it is clear that all people deserve gentle  compassion as this unfolds, including ourselves.

In addition to compassion,  we can feel great gratitude towards the countless front line health care workers who serve in the face of personal risk, the farmers, grocers , delivery workers and others who continue to serve us faithfully. And let us also feel both compassion and gratitude towards our political leaders as they struggle to make crucial decisions in which they could err by either doing too little or too much. Who would want such a responsibility? What if you get it wrong?

The Humility of Accepting That We Do Not Know

Both compassion and gratitude are expressions of love. And  so is humility, the integrity of knowing when we do not know, and of refraining from asserting that we have a corner on the truth as we enter the maelstrom of both mainstream and dissident views flying back and forth on social media, without which we are apt to sink into disrespect and incivility. We are all called to this kind of humility as we watch how we each respond to this crisis through the filters of  our conditioned beliefs, experiences, position and training. 

Conditioned thinking is just a fact of being human. Some are conditioned to conform, making sacrifices and following all the guidelines without question or complaint. Others incline towards dissent and project into this crisis a power grab by hidden elites, be it the Illuminati, Big Pharma or the Anti-Christ. Or they spread the meme that this not viral, but rather the start of 5G  taking down humanity, secure in believing they alone know what's going on. Yet others, even MD's, assert that this is not caused by a virus at all.

Meanwhile others seek to apply reason and evidence, which is not as clear as some assert, criticizing any minority medical scientists who dare to suggest that the authorities are overreacting with dangerous and Draconian measures to a wave of illness not far from the normal peaks of influenza. 

The common thread is that we all want to know what is going on, what caused it and what it means for our future. And we all come to our conclusions: even as I wrote this a message popped into my Facebook feed from someone I don’t really know, a self-described spiritual teacher: “Something fishy is going on here.”

OK, maybe, but maybe not. Right now at least, can we really know for sure?  We can make some educated guesses,  but there is really very little we can know with 100% certainty about this almost unprecedented development. So we can but do our best to understand, not overreact, and allow others the same.

Looking deeper spiritually speaking, this shows us how intolerant our minds are of not knowing, especially about things that seem dangerous. We can observe how much we want to find answers and then to believe what we believe,  justified or not.  It reveals how much fearful stories constrict the mind, whether stories about an avalanche of death and disease, about a police state or about economic and social collapse. You name it. The stories of fear are countless and they lead to isolation, blame and attack.

Is there a gentler and more intelligent way? What if we took this moment as an opportunity to set aside fear and acknowledge the supreme truth that it is OK not to know. We each see but a tiny fragment of reality and we are all reaping a lesson in the personal and collective humility of “NOT knowing.”

So why is this? Why do we rarely question our own beliefs?

Perhaps it is that we hold onto an unexamined assumption that we CAN know the answers, that they are there somehow, and that knowing them will save us. This creates a false sense of security and superiority as the mind takes pride in knowing, in believing that our own particular beliefs are superior to those of others. 

But if we are honest and humble, we soon learn that one of the few things that we can actually know for sure is how much we do not know. We can believe that we know, but that does not make it so. And ignorance of this truth is behind most of the disharmony and dysfunction in our social and political world.

Not Knowing: Better Than It Sounds

Though we may find ourselves again and again reverting to thinking we can find all the answers to life's challenges, not knowing is better than it sounds. Not knowing opens up space for new ideas and new responses not constricted by fear, panic or groupthink. It opens up space for guidance from a deeper intelligence behind all life. And it removes so many mental barriers between people and cultures.

Not knowing opens up space to be still and at peace, to pause in the face of fear, take a deep breath and invoke the goodness with each of us and life. Then, and only then, can we can meet this global challenge with the compassion, gratitude, humility and love that we need to climb this and every mountain.

Creating Conscious Communities

1/28/2020 5:26:48 PM

Want to have more friends? Especially friends who share positive values for a better world? Want to explore online participatory calendars, spontaneous events and even living closer together with people whose values and qualities you most treasure? Read on.

Recently, I set up a participatory calendar on Meetup.Com called "Conscious Living Sedona." This is a model for strengthening conscious communities which readers in other regions and states  may want to consider as well. In our case, we are reaching out to an already-developed network of maybe 150 or more Sedona and Verde Valley residents  who have been attending local and regional vegan potlucks. As interest in both veganism and community grows, our 3 major potlucks are getting crowded. And so we ask how can we seed new potlucks? We also wonder how can we develop inclusive ways to invite both new and old friends in our network to spontaneous or regular get-togethers?  And might some of us even want to take it further by living near each other  for daily contact and support?  

To address all these needs,  we are offering members access to a shared  PARTICIPATORY CALENDAR. What this means is that all approved members of Conscious Living Sedona (who share our values) can  post invitations and requests to each other, whether one time or repeating. For example," Anyone for a hike tomorrow?" Or "New Potluck Forming in VOC," or "Let's Garden Together,"  or maybe you would like to offer a weekly yoga class. You name it.  
Want to give it a try? First, read our shared values and decide if they resonate with you. Note that having a value does not mean you are expected to abide by it perfectly (we are human):

OUR SHARED VALUES

• Engaging in a community of loving, friendly people who value living lightly, sustainably, respectfully and kindly on the Earth and with each other. 

• Eating healthy whole food plant-based  because we see it as the most impactful way to to foster healthy lives, a healthy planet and healthy, compassionate  relationships with other sentient beings. 

• Living simply, with full respect for the natural world. In addition to eating healthy vegan, as much as we can we seek to reduce wasteful consumption, packaging, fossil fuels, toxics and plastics. As much as possible, we recycle, support clean,renewable energy, eat organic and vegan, and walk,  bike, carpool or use other earth-friendly transport.

• Being in service to the wider community and planet.  Many of us work to put on the annual Sedona Veg Fest or do educational work online or in person. Most of us have worked in service professions or projects seeking the betterment of others.

• Relating in harmonious, egalitarian, participatory, cooperative and creative ways.

• Practicing some type of open, non-dogmatic spirituality, such as meditation, self-reflection and personal growth in which we come to see ourselves as facets of a much larger awakening of humanity. 

Finally, to join this group, you also need to live in the Sedona/Verde Valley area, at least part time!). :-)

Are you a local and good to go? Then  ask to join Conscious Living Sedona., and let's meet up!  For starters...

HOW TO MEET US:

GOOD "In-Person"  GATEWAYS to meet members of this larger network currently include the:

•  Quarterly Healthy World Sedona's Sunday Suppers  (sign up for newsletter at healthyworldsedona.org, also for info on the annual Sedona Veg Fest). These usually feature a speaker with 50-60 attending at a home on Red Rock Loop.

• 4^th Friday Conscious Living Potluck at a home in  West Sedona ( on Conscious Living Sedona., holds 22, potluck followed by films and discussions)

• 3^rd Sunday Food & Friends Potluck Lunch in West Sedona (posted on  If you like them, ask to join Conscious Living Sedona. for 12 committed to regular support and dialogue). Possible hikes before or after.

• 2^nd Friday Verde Valley Vegan Meetup (social focus, at a home in Verde Santa Fe, Cornville, AZ.). Sign up here.

HOW TO ADD YOUR OWN INVITATIONS & EVENTS: 

Now, get ready for some spontenous jaunts or to start your own dream group of friends from this network. At Meetups.com/ConsciousLivingSedona,  go to EVENTS and ADD NEW EVENT. You can limit the size and everyone can see who is coming.  

• Just remember, if you sign up, cancel if you change your mind, so others are free to attend. (Note: Let me know as the Organizer, if you have a problem with this.)

START YOUR OWN AFFILIATED VEGAN POTLUCK GROUP?

As our numbers grow and in the interest of less driving, we encourage members of this regional group to start and post additional potlucks in new areas such as Clarkdale/Jerome, Camp Verde and the Village of Oak Creek. The closer to you, the better.  For further tips on how to host a potluck, see my blog, "How to Host A Potluck." Here are two approaches you might take:

1. Consistent members, affinity groups of 12-18  who also meet for weekly hikes, meditation or discussions. After initially getting set up, you would likely want to keep your invitations private, by email or phone or agreement at meetings. You might start this with existing friends and friends of friends.

2. Round Robin Groups.  Here the focus is on getting to know new people and places by rotating locations and guest lists. In other words, set it up to purposefully encourage different mixes of people each time. 

 TAKING IT FURTHER: LIVING NEAR EACH OTHER?

Taking it further, we also encourage like-minded people in this network (or any other) who want to enjoy and support each other with greater ease and spontaneity to move closer to each other, ideally in walking distance.  Research has shown that the number one predictor of longevity and well being is the degree of social connectedness a person has. And there is no better way to connect readily with people than those in our immediate daily vicinity.

Whether we call them intentional communities, neighborhood villages, coops, clusters or cohousing,  such communities have been serve their purpose best when they:

-       Are held together by love, generosity, commitment and flexibility, not dogma or a strong leader.

-       Have at least 8 but no more than 50 adults

-       Are designed to foster spontaneous daily encounters (windows face pathways, people don't drive into garages and disappear)

-       Are run by consensus  drawing on effective models of communication, often getting outside advice to kickstart this.

-       Have a clear, workable and affordable ways to ­deal with shared costs and for members to join and to leave in a financial sense.

Several physical models for living closer to each other include (in order of difficulty):

1. Form social networks of people who live within a couple of miles, as suggested above.

2. Individuals gradually acquire adjacent or nearby houses with shared backyards, frequent potlucks and other activities, sharing of tools, rides, etc. This model may work best for those who really love their present house and location, and who have developed it with sustainable features. This could also work in a new subdivision where adjacent lots are available (such as Crossroads at Mingus in Clarkdale).
3. A group pools resources, forms a partnership and purchases, redevelops and shares an existing property such as large homes with guest quarters, former retreats, fourplexes, condos or small hotels. Such places could be especially desirable for aging seniors, working families with children, singles or those without the means to buy a solo house.
4. A group gathers and defines their vision and then engages help in planning, finding and purchasing a site and building a Co-Housing Community. (2-5 years?, best with a planning group of 10 or so).There are at least 150 such communities in the US and they typically involve 20-30 households living in private units (either attached or free standing) that share a large  common house for frequent meals and gatherings, with parking near the entrance, with people-friendly interior play/ social/garden areas along walkways leading to homes..  For more information see youtube videos on this topic or read: “Creating Cohousing” by McCamant and Durrett, professionals who have guided over 50 groups to successfully creating such communities. A quick search can also lead you to homes for sale in existing cohousing communities throughout the US.

Several of us in this network  started meeting in January 2020 to explore Cohousing. We could just let it go, or we may just turn into an affinity group,or  we may manifest any of the above scenarios. Please contact me if you are interested. For now, we are limiting the group to a more intimate size of 10 or 12 and are sorting ourselves out as we develop our vision.  So far, we are agreed on vegan shared meals, conscious living values and staying in this area at least initially, especially focussing on meeting in West Sedona.

What Is Creativity?

10/27/2017 11:52:41 AM

(a talk I gave at my 60 year retrospective at the Sedona Arts Center, Oct. 27, 2017) Here is a video based on this same material.

Life is a creative journey. Every day, each moment, each act, each though is an opportunity for creative expression. And, like actors in a vast cosmic play, together we all co-create this infinitely complex thing we call human life on Earth. 

I once read that in every species there are two currents: the conservatives, who maintain what has been working so far, and the innovators, the creative explorers who try new things and who become the cutting edge of evolution. And though these forces often clash, we need both and it is a dance between them. Both have a place.

I would add to this observation, however. It’s not us versus them. I think we each have both of these forces within us: the ability to keep on keeping on, to plug away with the known, and also, the spark of the creative that drives us to try new things.

Keeping things going in the standard way has obvious benefits and limits. As for innovation, trying new things often seems to have no higher purpose other than play, perhaps play itself being how we best learn. And sometimes our most treasured innovations and ventures may not succeed as we hoped. Sometimes they create problems, as creative chemistry and industry have done.

But sometimes they can and do change the world. When Steve Jobs hired the people at Apple who created the many devices that have interconnected the greater mind of humanity, wisely, he chose those who also excelled in humanities and arts over the technocrats.

My ancestor John Adams, a founding president and a farmer, also spoke of this, pointing to the natural order of stability and security first, then innovation and play. He said that he studied politics and war and government, so that his children could study science and math and navigation and business, so that their children could explore painting and poetry and ceramics and architecture.  And that is exactly what happened. I am one of the lucky descendants who got to explore the creative arts, which I did. Though we have always lived to some extenet under the shadows of the nuclear age and a time of environmental threat,  most of us here are the lucky children who have been able to live creative lives in a time of abundance, liberty and opportunity.

For me, that has meant a lot of exploration of the visual arts, as well as writing. As you can see from the small fraction of my work on display here, I explored a diversity of media. I used crayons and acrylics, oils and pastels and whatever I could find.  I glued spaghetti and eucalyptus buttons, sand, plaster, jewels and beans alongside pencil and paint. I explored portraits of Native Americans that seemed to draw out unhealed issues from other lives.  I printed up little books and inspired sayings and sold them at craft fairs.All along, I create abstracts that  remind me of the formless and infinitely creative space behind all form.

As Adams invited, I have also been at least a wannabe architect and city planner. In 1994 I designed our passive solar home in Eugene, where we lived and made a living for twenty years. To decorate our homes I tried my hand at stained glass, floral wreaths, hand painted clocks and ceramics, homemade futons and sofas, and more than I can remember. It was lovely and comforting to nest in. Home is my refuge. It is safety, comfort and that stable conservative thread that keeps life going.

As I said, I also wrote, and have done a lot of critical thinking and research about many matters. Creativity is widely curious and I think you will find this trait in many artists. With my husband Richard, a veterinarian, I co-authored a best selling Rodale book with innovative recipes that led the way to feeding home prepared diets for companion animals. As of March 2017, it is now in its 4^th edition, to which I made major contributions and also illustrated.

At times I blamed this book, along with the overcast skies of Oregon, for taking over the artist in me, drawing out my left brain and opening up many business and teaching opportunities we worked on together for many years. But it has also given us both a powerful chance to impact a lot of people with messages about healthy food, about sustainability, ecology, right relationship and holistic thinking.

And that leads to another thread woven throughout this life story, not unlike the one that called to Adams. Ever since college years at Berkeley I have longed to change the world for the better. I think that has called many or most of us as well. HOW to do that has always been the biggest challenge.

Though I started as an art major, fine art seemed incapable of changing the world to really meet the social and environmental challenges of our day.  Thinking it held the answers, I entered a PhD program in social psychology in 1971: change society, change the world. But soon this was clearly too stalwart and limited to silly predictable experiments you’d have to “prove” with abstruse statistics.

And so, like many of our generation,  I explored social change through personal transformation and spirituality. For a while, during our 20 years in Oregon I was a licensed counselor, but that too, soon seemed too narrow and too self absorbed, leading more into the ego than beyond it.

I wasn’t sure what to do next. Meanwhile,  I kept busy and helped secure our retirement years renovating real estate.

Yet inside I still longed to serve the higher good, to do what most needs doing at this point in history, AND at the same time, to follow my natural inclination and gifts to express beauty.

It is often hard to see how the threads of your life weave together when you are in the midst of it. All I knew was that about 2006 I really wanted to come to Sedona and paint and become part of the wonderful art community that is here, whose heart is the Sedona Arts Center, which will now receive 25% of sales in this show.

So we moved here. I studied at SAC and I taught at SAC. I’ve won a number of fine awards and have been in the Plein Air Festival seven times. Drawing on my experience creating events and workshops with Richard for veterinarians, I’ve created group shows with poetry readings, have had my own gallery for a while.

Mostly, I painted landscapes, thinking I would spend the rest of my life perfecting that gift as much as I could.  I did focus, more than I ever have, and I feel good about the many beautiful landscape paintings and pastels that resulted.  

At the same time, I soon began to integrate my interests and wrote a lot of heart felt poetry to accompany many of my paintings. I am very pleased with how these two, as well as spirituality, came together in my 2013 book, “Spirit of the Earth.” The threads of the tapestry began to join, and I hope you will take a look at it. Many people have found it inspiring, including me. It comes through me more than from me.

So, as in the 1980s in California, I again began a serious study of painting landscapes, and soon, to grow them. In the tradition of countless ancestors, I have always kept a garden, and here on the rocky dry soils of Sedona with an abundance of hungry wildlife, necessity has been the mother of invention, as it has always been in all species. This time the Muse of Creativity led to designing and building a variety of screenhouses and container gardens to grow and defend lovely greens, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic and more.

About 2012 I began offer green living, garden tours and presentations to interested people, including on YouTube. In 2014 it morphed into a monthly potluck group. This time the creative act was less about stuff and more about relationships. It became a community of people sharing an interest in creating a better world, together. Many of you, as you know, are here.

We often watch films and in October 2014 many of us saw the life changing film,“Cowspiracy.” Overnight, after learning the profound truth that a simple, healthy change of diet was truly probably the most important thing any of us can do to change the world for the better, most of us made the switch to a whole food plant based diet.

Now, each day we eat this way we each save about 1100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sf of rain forest and one innocent animal’s precious life. And that matters, because, unless more of us make this change, and soon, in ten years we could lose the Amazon to grazing and to growing livestock feed. Animals agriculture is the #1 human contributor to greenhouse gases and in the coming decades we will lose much of our fresh water supplies to its inefficiencies. If we continue eating seafood as we are, by 2050 we could fish out the entire ocean. This is not a good legacy to leave our grandchildren, nor all the life forms of this blue green jewel of a planet spinning in space.

And so now, much of my life is now dedicated to spreading the word about making this shift, through blogs, working with others, offering presentations, and creating significant changes to the 2017 edition of our Rodale book, after learning that dogs in particular, can not only adapt to but live longer and healthier on a plant based diet as well. And their dietary footprint on the earth is quite significant, especially due to the trend to feed them lots and lots of fresh raw meat. I also hope you will take a look at this latest edition, which I got to illustrate (the originals are for sale here) or at least take one of the free postcards available here. It includes a recipe that has helped one dog live to age 26, and others to advanced years as well. Also, please take a copy of my plant based diet suggestions for humans. They are simple, healthy and tasty.

So that’s my story, for now.

What can we learn about creativity from from this particular life of diverse wanderings and focused production, as well as musings upon your own?

First, we need to understand who we are. We are all highly creative beings whose every thought impacts the world. It is our very nature, because we are inseparable from the creative Source of all life, the great orchestrator of it all, which often orchestrates in ways we cannot presently understand from our little corner of the world.  I think in our afterlife “life review” it will all be clear.

Second, I think we each come in with a mission. Changing the world is important to many of us, and so are many other things that we come here to learn. How to love, how to forgive, how to be patient, how to trust, how to create.

Third, every act we perform is a creative one. We don’t always seem be able to create or have choice over much of what happens in life, but we always get to choose how we react to it and what we make of it. Therein lies our happiness, and our power to transform life.

Fourth, let us honor both sides of us: the creative innovator and the tried and true conservative that keeps the food growing and the houses built and the bills paid.

Finally, let us trust the course of events and to be patient. It can be confusing to tie together diverse interests that seem to call in different directions or to find out which doors will open and which will close, and why.

To do that I have found it best to trust my heart and to respond to the doors that open and walk away from those that close. Without questioning my impulses, I have usually just followed them with confidence. 

Proceeding in this way, with I know now that I have made a difference in this world, not necessarily in a way that I could ever have predicted, but I know that I have contributed to a chain of events that is helping to awaken this world.  And where that leads next in terms of creative projects, I have no idea, but I will trust where my heart and life leads me.

Despite all the bad news in the world, I have also come to believe that a very positive future awaits humanity and our planet. In the still of the night, just before dawn, sometimes I awaken and I know that the best is yet to come. Many others report this sense as well, including some who have had deep experiences with the Light in Near Death Experiences. There will be hard times, for sure, but I believe we will get through it. It is the grand power of nature, of life itself, that is expressing through each of us in zillions of ways that no single one of us can truly comprehend.

Life is creative and innovative and so are we. Let us trust that.

Thank you so much for coming and for the creative acts that each of you do to make a better and more beautiful world.

Solving for Pattern: What Our World Really Needs

3/16/2017 7:03:28 PM

(shared with permission  from the March 2017 newsletter of Healthy World Sedona)

In Wendell Berry’s book of essays, The Gift of Good Land (North Point Press, 1981), the essay “Solving for Pattern” is one I have returned to multiple times in the past 35 years. While the book is about agriculture, it is equally about culture in general. Berry says industrial farming solutions to food production “destroy, first, the health of the soil and, finally, the health of human communities,” and that he “could just as easily be talking about sanitation systems that pollute, school systems that graduate illiterate students, medical cures that cause disease .... This is the kind of surprise that is characteristic of our time: the cure proves incurable....” He goes on to say “it is only when it is understood that our agricultural dilemma is characteristic not of our agriculture but of our time that we can begin to understand why these surprises happen, and to work out standards of judgment that may prevent them.”

Berry describes three kinds of solutions to problems:

1. The solution that causes a ramifying series of new problems, in which the new problems can’t be solved by the expertise that produced the initial solution. He uses the example of cattle feed lots that produce a factory-like order and efficiency, but this mechanical order immediately produces biological disorder in damaging the health of the animals, the surrounding land and watershed, adjoining ecosystems, and the economic and physical health of human communities.
2. The solution which immediately worsens the problem it was intended to solve – as when the problem of soil compaction is “solved” by a bigger tractor, which further compacts the soil, which makes a need for a still bigger tractor. We see similar results with drug treatments that create side effects requiring additional drugs to counteract these effects, each drug adding still more side effects, ultimately destroying the health of the person seeking a cure.

These two kinds of solutions are obviously bad, serving “one good at the expense of another” and leaving the original problem unsolved.

1. 3.   It is when “health is set down as the aim” that the third kind of solution becomes evident – a solution that causes a ramifying series of solutions, and takes into account the larger pattern or patterns within which the problem exists. In other words, the solution takes a systemic view of the world. This is the move away from reductionism that T. Colin Campbell describes in his book Whole.

As Berry says, “A bad solution is bad, then, because it acts destructively upon the larger patterns in which it is contained ... most likely, because it is formed in ignorance or disregard of them. A bad solution solves for a single purpose or goal, such as increased production. And it is typical of such solutions that they achieve stupendous increases in production at exorbitant biological and social costs.

A good solution is good because it is in harmony with those larger patterns ... the way a healthy organ acts within the body.”

When I think about the benefits of plant-based nutrition, what I see is a “good solution,” in harmony with larger patterns. It is a solution that promotes health and prevents disease. It is a solution that preserves rainforests, allows oceans to recover from animal agriculture pollutants, and fish to recover from human harvesting. It is a solution that saves animals from cruel and inhumane lives and deaths, and saves the land from the impact of industrial livestock production. It is a solution that doesn’t just stop the increase in human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, but significantly reduces those emissions. And with 18% of our GDP going to healthcare spending, it is a solution that heals our economy and frees up resources for infrastructure, education and other development.

To be sure, societal change to plant-based nutrition will cause other problems, particularly for the individuals and industries that make their livings from the production of animal products, or for those whose business is to attempt to mitigate the negative effects of these products (e.g. the pharmaceutical and sickness care industries). But these are the problems of transition, as we move away from unhealthy practices. These are problems like that of the obese person who must buy new clothes when he or she achieves a healthy weight. They are still problems that must be addressed, and they will cause difficulty, but they are ones we should welcome. As we trade harmful and unsustainable practices for those in harmony with nature (both our own nature and that of the larger world), we find solutions that build on each other, reinforcing the pattern of systemic health – in our bodies, our communities, and the natural world.

Beverly Ann Bow, co-founder, Healthy World Sedona,

Sponsor of Sedona VegFest

Saving Garden Earth

3/15/2017 10:01:46 AM

Do you love gardens? I sure do and I spend a lot of my unscheduled time puttering out with the plants.

You can't do that and not eventually see that our Earth itself is a vast garden of millions of beautiful species and gorgeous designs in the form of mountains, hills, valleys and rivers. And these days we most need to tend our garden planet. We can no longer ignore the serious threats facing her soils, her waters, and her natural places, indeed her very ability to produce the essential food that we and our children must have.

No doubt we need to reduce our numbers and our consumerism, and we can certainly tend our own organic gardens, support farmer's markets and organic growers and environmental organizations. But I now believe that the greatest good we each of us and all of us can do for our lovely world is not only simple, but healthy, tasty and the most loving: to take animal products off our plates. That’s because it takes 10-20 times more resources to get the same nutrients indirectly from animals instead of directly from plants.

However, if, instead, we continue eating so much meat, dairy, fish and eggs, experts warn us this is what will happen unless we wake up soon:

• We will soon reach a dangerous tipping point of climate change, a huge threat to our food supply and social order, due to droughts, mega storms, floods, unstable weather and wars and conflict from resulting migration pressures. As much as 51% of greenhouse gases are due to livestock, due to the potency of methane. That’s more than all transportation combined. 
• We may lose the Amazon by 2025. 91% of clearance is for crops and grazing for livestock.
• By 2048 we could empty the oceans of fish.Trawlers destroy whole ecosystems every day, yet, despite reform, fish are so depleted now that many hold that there is no such thing as sustainable fishing. Most of the catch is by kill, much tossed out. Half is fed to livestock and farmed fish. Runoff from countless factory farms and fields that supply them causes huge ocean dead zones. What will this mean?  Seas are major carbon sinks and oxygen generators.
• With this habitat destruction, we will destroy half of all species by 2050. On our watch, we now wipe out 137 species a day, the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.
• This threatens our future also. By 2050, 2/3 of us will be short of water. A third of global aquifers are already depleting, including those under California and the Great Plains. Most fresh water is squandered not on lawns but on animal agriculture; it takes 100 times more to produce animal vs. plant protein. Just one burger can consume 600 gallons of water.
• By 2100 our agricultural soils may be largely gone, due to erosion, industrial farming practices, drought and high demand. Yet, vegan diets use 15-20x less land than omni diets.
• We are also wasting precious fossil fuels, the basis for our society: agriculture, transportation, communications, heating, cooling, medicines, sewage treatment, goods and plastics. A vegan diet saves enough fuel to drive 45.6 miles a day, buying precious time to develop renewables.

The good news is we that can each make a huge difference and together we can shift everything. “Cowspiracy: the Sustainabilty Solution” (Netflix) shows how we don’t have to change government policy so much as the way we eat. Right now, every day, each of us can save this much simply by eating a healthy, tasty plant based diet:

• 1100 gallons of water
• 30 square feet of rainforest
• 45 pounds of grain (that could be fed to hungry humans)
• 20 pounds of CO2 equivalents
• enough fossil fuel to drive some 45.8 miles
• and one animal’s life (plus untold numbers of wildlife)

Based on that, just two people eating plant-based for 10 years saves:  8 million gallons of fresh water, 5 acres of rain forest (about 15 suburban lots),164 tons of grains to feed hungry humans (a billion are currently malnourished or starving), 73 tons of CO2 equivalents, enough fuel to drive around the earth 14 times, and 7300 animals’ lives. Analyses may vary, but clearly our diets have a huge impact on our garden planet and its disappearing water, soil and species. Altogether, humanity already uses the resources of 1.5 Earths. Estimates are that, if everyone lived like Americans, it would take 3 Earths. Paleo diets for all could take up to ten Earths. Clearly, “low-carb” fad diets and our culturally conditioned choices endanger our children’s future, and very possibly their survival.

Much of my life I have worried about the fate of our planet. I've tried to do as much as I can to help out, but all else pales in comparison to the simple act of changing our diets. To me this is such empowering and actionable information.  

Incalculable: Living By Our Values of Compassion 

We can do this. The plant-based movement is growing fast. If we make this shift and inspire at least one other person a year to do the same, America would be a vegan nation in less than a decade. Better yet, if all humanity goes plant based (sooner, rather than the inevitable later), we could feed 12-15 billion humans on current farmlands (or, better yet, return much land to nature). We would all live longer and in greater health and harmony. That’s the world I choose, and if you agree, I believe it is within our reach. The choice is ours, the time is now.

The Sustainability Imperative: Why Our Diets Matter

7/21/2015 12:32:37 PM

My main art form this last year has been so full of learning about the huge environmental impact of the way we eat upon our one and only planet. This 10 minute video is drawn on months of research, and a bit of technical learning about A-V. I hope you find it as inspiring to watch as it was to produce. Please share! Feel free share and to embed on other sites. We need to get the word out!

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Painting More Freely: A Workshop at Goleta Beach with Marcia Burtt

11/16/2013 9:13:10 AM

 Travel, change and learning are freeing for the soul. And freedom was indeed the theme of a recent trip to Santa Barbara to paint under the tutelage of my friend and artistic mentor Marcia Burtt, an acrylic landscape painter who is a master at capturing the Zen-like essence of a place.

A dozen or more of us met for three wonderful days at Goleta Beach with the theme of "Painting More Freely."  Even if oil or collage was their usual medium, nearly all the artists there used acrylics as suggested. Its quick-to-dry chemistry offers the artist an excellent means of exploration and change, perfect for those who prefer to feel, rather than plan, their way into a painting. Acrylic paints allow easy revisions without muddying one layer of paint atop the other, enabling the artist to achieve the perfect gesture after dozens of tries. You can even paint over a passage with white and lay down a fresh transparent color similar to watercolor. (For these reasons Marcia eschews slow-drying acrylics offered in recent years.)

This was my third workshop with Marcia Burtt and I always learn a lot from just watching her paint. It's not only from seeing how she conveys so much with so few gestures (painted even more thinly than I remembered or than photos convey). It's also what she has to say about painting in a meditative state that leaves little room for separation between the painter and the painted. 

At first it seems otherwise, for this longtime plein air master has much to say about the mechanics preceding painting, insisting that  "setup is everything." She shows, for example, her discovery of using a plastic fishing tackle box to lay out and also preserve the acrylics. She urges the use of of easels that adjust to vertical, of large brushes, of large canvases and of large absorbent rags. She shows us why we need to keep the paintbox on the shadow side of our bodies so it doesn't dry too fast, why we need a large sprayer to keep it from skinning over, how tall side tables save your back, why we must keep the water, brushes and palettes clean and refreshed. She explains how New Traditions AC 14 linen panels do wonders for your work. And so on.

Why this attention to setup and materials, more than most any teacher I've studied with? The aim, she explains, is to free the painter from even the slightest hesitation, awkwardness or delay in reaching for the paint. After the setup is mastered, we are free to become the very process itself. 

From there, much as I would like to explain it, I cannot describe step-by-step what Marcia Burtt does that gives her style such a freshness. There really is no formula for spontaneity. It's like a poppy opening on a spring day. It just happens.

It is easier to say what she doesn't do and perhaps this will be helpful or liberating for some readers. Unlike many artists, she does not use thumbnails, cameras or even view finders. She doesn't consciously design or even sketch out the composition. She does not consider the complementary color. She cannot say exactly how she achieved a certain color mix when asked. She does not aim to paint from thin to thick or dark to light, nor seek to accentuate a defined center of interest with texture, value or detail. (One might generalize that most of her dark and light passages are thinly painted, whereas midtones are more opaque.)

The mind keeps seeking the how-to, the principle, the known. So at times while watching her paint, I thought I observed several techniques commonly taught by artists. A few times I would offer that idea for clarification. But to these comments, she would simply turn and say, in all sincerity, " I don't know about that. I try to think as little as possible when I paint." 

So, what does she do? Surely something can be said or described about that.

In her own words, Marcia starts an outdoor painting by first looking for what she most loves in the scene. (In another workshop she said, "Painting is an act of loving."). From there, she passionately feels her way into the composition, adjusting as she goes, just generally aiming for simplifying and abstracting the masses. 

"Whale into it," she advises as she scrubs broad strokes of color onto a large pre-used canvas, one of many less successful paintings she is happy to paint over.

"Swept Clean," 12 x 24 Acrylic, Susan Pitcairn

While overlooking the beloved lagoon she has visited and painted for decades, she urges us to feel as if the brush is "out there," actually in the landscape. "Keep your eye on the scene, not on your canvas. Let your hand follow the form in one long gesture," she demonstrates. 

She also suggests we make every stroke meaningful, depicting what we see. She urges us to limit our use of white, using yellow or orange (or painting thinly over the white canvas) to lighten values. She notes also that with acrylics both lights and darks dry toward the midtones. 

But really I think the essence of the Marcia Burtt  "method"  is to venture beyond the assumptions, formulas and thoughts that often cloud our artistic instincts. This is particularly true for those of us who have studied a number of styles and media with several teachers.

And thus she teaches freedom. She teaches freedom not to know, freedom to experiment, freedom to use large canvases, freedom to test a color mix right on the edge of the developing piece and even the freedom to play off an earlier painting as her ground, incorporating it beautifully into the new piece. I loved that especially.

Most of all, Marcia teaches the process of learning to free oneself from thought and to merge with the very essence of nature.

The author at Peppertree Retreat, Ojai, California

When Galleries Close: And What Is Ever Here

8/5/2012 9:57:49 AM

With little or no notice in the past month (July 2012), two flagship Sedona galleries that have inspired and served artists and art lovers for over 35 years each have closed their doors and emptied their walls almost overnight: El Prado and Windrush. Many, many people will miss the beauty, inspiration and sense of community that they served.

Another major gallery is moving to a lower rent area, others who hang on are often depending on artists to share rent and staffing, are artist-owned or are cutting deals to make sales. In the midst of it all, hope springs eternal and a few new galleries have opened in the last year or two. But make no mistake: the art gallery business is a tough one, and most especially in this economy.

Last night I sat under the still light of the desert moon remembering these beautiful galleries and all that they meant to those who love art, imagining all the stories their now-empty walls could tell. Smiles and sales, openings and conversations, friendships and inspiration, and all the delight of taking home a beautiful, original work of art to grace one's home. All gone now, and it's tenderly sad.

It is tempting to use this platform to gently nudge readers to consider stretching a bit to keep galleries in business, to "make the sale." After all, if we want any local business to continue, whether it's a gallery, a hardware store, or a bookstore, we need to make purchases there. And yet, I fully understand why people often don't buy even with they love a piece of art: too little money or too much stuff. 

But deeper than all this, there is a lesson to be learned in loss and change, which is, after all, something that is continuously happening in every moment, in every day,  in every life. As Eckhart Tolle teaches, there is something sacred in the dissolution of any form. At the moment of death, there can be a great spiritual opening, as I witnessed in my father's final days as he sat up in bed, awe-struck and reaching towards some unseen glory. More and more, I see that this opening is available to us in every moment, in every experience.

Outwardly, it is another matter. All life is constant change, the arising of a form and then its passing. It may be a breath, a note of music or a day or a gallery, but all things come to an end, pause, and then something else arises to take its place, for Life loves to express itself bountifully and beautifully in countless ways, as do artists.

But in that pause between forms, in the letting go of a form with which we are connected, in the ever-present isness/awareness behind all of it, there is a deeper beauty that has much to reveal. It's a place we can truly hang our hat and call home. It IS Home. 

AND, it is so hard to put into words. Its truth and its beauty are beyond words and beyond our minds, beyond all form.

Can we put a wall around love? Can we measure joy? Can we build peace? All of these are but the rainbow colors of a wordless vital essence that is within each of us, here, now, a soft and beautiful feeling, a subtle awareness that is not of this world, that is not of thought, but that permeates this very moment and every moment. It is our very essence.

Can you feel it?

  ________  • _________ 

Recommended contemporary teachers of great insight whose books and videos that I have been finding really useful in these regards:

• Eckhart Tolle, one of the greatest spiritual teachers of our time. I often listen to his talks while painting. Free teachings online.

• Frank Kinslow, especially his recent book, "Eufeeling: the Art of Creating Inner Peace and Outer Prosperity"

• Gina Lake, a Sedona writer who has authored over a dozen wonderful books, all excellent. Free audio-videos.

• Leonard Jacobsen, whose presence teachings have deeply transformed many people. Free audio/videos on his site.

Technology That Harms, Technology That Heals

4/30/2012 10:12:12 AM

"Thinking has become a disease. Disease happens when things get out of balance.

For example, there's nothing wrong with cells dividing and multiplying in the body, but when this process continues in disregard of the total organism, cells proliferate and we have disease." 

_ Eckhart Tolle, "The Power of Now"

Reading this wise passage this delightful spring morning out on our patio, I saw a perfect analogy to our current communications technology.

The Internet and cellular communications technologies have the same potential and destructiveness as thought, on which they are based, and which they spread.  They can bring us beautiful spiritual teachings such as the above (and save trees)  or they can help us keep in touch with people all over the world. Likewise, cell phones and surfing the net connect us with each other, often in positive ways. 

But they can also become an addiction, keeping us from being fully present with those who are actually around us, with the beauty of the day, and with our own souls. When communication technologies get out of control and in disregard for the well-being of the total organism that is Planet Earth, they, too, become a cancer, flooding us and all of nature with dangerous microwave technologies that break the blood-brain barrier, damage DNA, depress all the neurotransmitters, upset sleep and cardiac rhythms, cause infertility and much more. And it's spiraling out of control, as one professor said it,  "the greatest biological experiment ever conducted on humanity."

The communications microwave technology that enables all this can even be (and is) used as a stealth weapon, purposefully directed at our so-called enemies or potentially at activists and dissidents (see this moving interview with Barrie Trower, a concerned physicist trained in microwave warfare). In the same way, our we can and do direct negative thoughts at others that can function as a form of "negative prayer," as Larry Dossey MD describes.

Or, pulsed electromagnetic radiation at the same frequencies as those of the Earth (known as the Schumann frequencies) , the therapy known as PEMS, can also be used to heal bones and much more. Just going barefoot and connecting with the Earth brings us these same frequencies.  And at the level of mind and thought, spiritual healers and directed prayers have been found scientifically to make a difference, sometimes miraculously, for the better.

The words we think, say and email can harm, or they can heal. Thoughts can confuse, depress and distract us, or they can help us accomplish many useful tasks and create beautiful and useful things. The same goes for its technologies.

It's up to us how to use this double-edged sword of Mind and its incredible technological creations.

Microwave technologies, used carefully and sparingly, can bring us access to a wise book on our E reader or a great YouTube video via our (hopefully) wireless-disabled, ethernet-enabled computer. Yet, as well known health writer Ann Gittleman explains, they can zap us and those who are most vulnerable around us (babies, electrosensitives, elderly, etc.) with stress-creating frequencies that upset the normal electromagnetic functions of every cell in our bodies.

It's my hope that if you have found your way to this article, that you will follow up on the above links, educate yourself and make some changes.

I have also created a two page chart you can print out and share with others, which summarizes what I've learned from several months of study on this topic this year.

With love,

Susan

PS-  Please share your comments and experiences.

A Message from Beyond

4/18/2012 2:16:22 PM

Making Peace with the Rain: "Hilarious Squall"

2/26/2012 6:49:26 PM

After twenty years of slogging through the rainy Northwest, I was quite happy to return to the sunny Southwest in 2006. Not only did I grow up in Arizona, but Sedona has been a great place to revive the art career that somehow washed away when we moved north in 1985 from California so that we could afford a decent home.

Do you detect a small note of resistance in this? Well, you are perceptive.

It's not that the Northwest is not full of beauty. Summers are great: all three days of it, as we used to say. And it's not that one can't be happy under just about any circumstances with the right attitude. Indeed, I loved much of my life in Oregon. It was a great place to garden, a wonderful place for biking and camping, and it has a progressive culture. Not to mention those delightful Farmer's Markets and summer's outdoor festivals. And housing is definitely more affordable than in beautiful coastal California where you can mortgage your soul for something your dog might decline.

But for all this ... You Pay.

You Pay with month after month of mostly cloudy weather. You learn to cope, mostly by adopting the lifestyle of native Oregonians, who can't wait for the winter months when they can finally put away the mower and  the weeding tools and simply curl up by the fireplace with a good book.

OK, enough grousing. This is all background for The Day I Came to Peace With Rain, October 26, 2011.

Here it was, nearing the end of the 2011 Sedona Plein Air Festival. Most of us festival artists had packed up and headed to Jerome early that morning at the invitation of the local Chamber of Commerce. And it's a great place to paint, with stunning vistas. Driving up the hill, I saw the writing in the sky: dark, dark clouds pouring over Mingus Mountain, ready to pounce on the tiny berg of Jerome, still bathed in glorious morning sun.

Quickly, I pulled off to the side of the road, hurled my pastel plein air gear in place and whipped out a 30 minute rendering of the scene before me.  I was about 95% done, thankfully, when at first a few small splats of rain hit the piece, creating small dark blotches in the sky of my landscape. No worries. Took about 10 seconds to get it under cover, and another 60 seconds (well, maybe a little more, but this is how Plein Air Festivals are, you understand) to dive into the car and head on up the hill to the town.

Arriving at the festival tent to check in, I found a handful of artists, staff and volunteers huddling around the coffee and doughnuts, stepping away from the edge of the shelter as a "hard rain began to fall". At least Arizona rains don't fool around for two to three months like those in Oregon. They know when to rain and when not to rain. And this was rain time, most definitely.

It was a cheery crowd, though. It's really good to see the rain in a desert land, after all, and the good people who put on the Sedona Plein Air Festival are a lot of fun. After a while it let up enough to set up a small shelter under my van's hood, overlooking the old Jerome High School and the distant vistas below. It's a good thing I use different artmedia, because pastels are no match for a rainy day. Nor are acrylics. OILS, on the other hand, definitely do not mix with water.  This is the day of my life that I really, really learned that simple axiom.

And so I painted two different vistas in the shelter of the van, as a few intrepid festival visitors stopped by in the occasional sun showers between torrents. One was such a favorite that my  husband claimed it for his office, "Here On This Mountain":

It was darn fun, actually. Here it was, 2 or 3 pm and I'd already gotten three pretty decent paintings for the day. I was on a roll.

AND, the festival was almost over and I still  a 24x24 stamped panel waiting THE Frame of the Century I'd had custom-made for the event by Mountain View Frames in Cottonwood, a carved copper beauty. So I packed up, buzzed down the mountain back to Sedona, saw an incredible sun spotlight against the dark sky again, this time against the lovely red rocks on the west side of town by Zaki Gordon Film Institute and, well, the old town dump. 

This time I jumped out of the car even faster, forgetting my hat and jacket. Dashing off to the prominence about 40 feet from the car where the view was ideal, I whipped my trusty Soltek easel into position, plopped the panel in place, and, using the largest brush I had, blocked in  the scene in about half an hour.  Whew. 

What a beautiful squall it was, as I brushed it in, coming over the red rocks... Coming... which way? Oh...

Soon the squall was no longer There, but Here, a pouring, drenching sheet of rain that left a half inch of water in my Soltek trays and turned me into the approximation of a drowned rat...

But I was nailing it, I thought. No matter the rain! Soon the sun was out again and the brush flew over the panel, leaving my hands hanging on for dear life. And then the rain would come again, ha, ha, ha! What a tease it was!

And so I continued painting another 20 minutes or more, laughing almost hysterically, the tension of twenty years of resentment about the reality and necessity and life-giving beauty of rain washing away into the damp red earth.  

Finally, it was time to stop. The painting was done enough, certainly fresh, and the day was coming to a close. But the laughter and the smiles continued all the way home and then some. It was a great laugh. 

And that is why I named this piece, "Hilarious Squall."

Later,  after the festival was over and it had not sold, despite the aura of joy beaming from its every pore, I confess I did spend a half an hour or so of considered time in the studio doing what artists do: adjusting the brightness here, the shadow there, the hue and detail at this place and that. Not too much I hope.

After all, I wouldn't want to paint over the lesson contained in this piece: to welcome whatever it is that life brings us!

:)

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"Hilarious Squall", still in the frame of the century, is available for purchase. To inquire, phone 928.203.1095.

New book: "Oneness: Art and the Spiritual Journey"

10/21/2011 12:19:11 AM

Why do we create art? I believe, from my own experience and observations of other artists, that art is an expression of the spiritual core of life. Ultimately, life is one vast, mysterious, interconnected whole. Just like a hologram, each of us is a microcosm of that wholeness, and something within us just simply wants to "have its way with us" and express the truth of that interconnectedness, especially through the arts.

Recently I organized a group art show, "Oneness: Art and the Spiritual Journey" at the Sedona Arts Center. I invited seven artists to submit artwork and statements or poetry  around that idea. Our opening is, fittingly, 11-11-11 at 11 am. (Is that enough "ones," you think?).

The show  contains some outstanding artwork, including pieces by the celebrated Southwest contemporary landscape artist Joella Jean Mahoney, rich painterly figures in the landscape by Vince Fazio, elegant glimpses of people in everyday life by Libby Caldwell and much more.

Finally, we published it through Blurb — and it turned out beautifully. Take a look!

Oneness by Susan Pitcairn With Contributions from Joella Jean Mahoney, Vince Fazio, Libby Caldwell, Peggy Doig, Mary Lois Brown, Suzy Allan and Kim Lewis | Make Your Own Book

Like it?   You can easily order here. Available in softcover, as well as hardcover and special paper upgrades. 

This would be a wonderful gift either for an artist, or someone who values spirituality, or both.

Let me know what you think!

From Winter to Spring: Finding Inspiration and Finding Oneself

5/8/2011 10:06:49 PM

Professional artists or not, we all love to be deeply creative. Where does that come from, anyway? And why does it come and go?

Whether it's the artistry of paint, or perhaps music, clay, dance, words, cooking, gardening, crafts or architecture, most of us have urges to express beauty in our lives. 

From a lifetime of creative expressions of various sorts, I've found that the drive to create comes and goes in cycles, which usually seem to be out of my bidding. At times I lie awake at night as beautiful visions and inspirations download full-blown into my mind as though from some cosmic studio. More often, I'm in more of an artistic holding pattern, producing decent but predictable work. And at other times, the drive to create is just not there and, honestly,  I'd rather putter about the yard, take a nap or go on a walk. Or even organize the closest: no kidding.

This is all OK. No problem. Read on.

A long time ago I attended a seminar for professional artists in which the presenter suggested that an artist needs to find balance in their life to succeed. He suggested we spend about 1/3 of our working time finding inspiration, about 1/3 actually creating art, and about 1/3 getting it out into the world (marketing, business and shows). 

Looking back some decades later I have to agree with his formula, give or take a few percent for the heck of it.

So let's get down to it.

Losing the MoJo

Lately I've felt less inspired than at times. And for good reason. It's easy to overlook such a slippery and ethereal thing,  as compared to the tangible rewards of creating and showing your art. Well, looking back, I see that the last 12 months even the creating part has lessened as I've spent a disproportionate amount of time with the least artsy part of that triad:  marketing, business and shows.  

Specifically,

-I opened my own gallery (staffing it 3-4 days a week, hosting monthly receptions and new shows, showing other artists as well)

-was the featured artist in a solo and a group show elsewhere

-participated in a 3-4 local art association shows,

-painted in the weeklong Sedona Plein Air Festival

-taught two month-long weekly classes and a 2-day residential workshop

Not to mention "having a life," with weeks of family visits and travels, and in the prior year having cared for and lost both parents and then conducting their funerals and closing their two homes. Oh, and one of my gallery artists was murdered last summer by his crazy roommate.

"It's all good," as the bumper sticker says (well, not all of it really) but I found that in the course of all this,  I was simply not able to spend as much time painting as I wanted to or thought I should. And even when I was painting, the dictates of some of the venues and their timing limited the size, location, subject matter or the pace I might have otherwise chosen.

At the same time, some vague inner discontent was nagging at me to slow down and re-examine the whole ball of wax.

My body chimed in on that, manifesting some aches and pains and a reduced energy level that have forced me to do a bit less for the time being.

The Scaryness of Self-Inquiry and Change

With or without other challenges (like losing a job, health or relationship),  times of self-examination or transition can be scary. For all we know, a deep self-inquiry might even lead us to completely abandon something that has been successful without any assurance of something better coming to take its place.

In my case, I quietly wondered at times whether I should even continue a "career as an artist," despite deciding earlier that it's what I wanted to do the rest of my life and despite a fair amount of success at it. I just didn't feel that motivated anymore. Just after I was really making something of my art, had I peaked? Was  I already heading for life as a "has been"?  Well, there's something to be said for early retirement.....  :-)

Not wanting to burn my bridges down to the last railing, I continued painting, teaching and going through the dance. Meanwhile I waited for life to guide me.  I've explored some of it with artist friends, with my husband and, best of all, more recently I have actually asked (almost begged) for inner guidance.

Oh yes, that's it....! Inner guidance, the source of all inspiration, artistic and otherwise!

 That's what got out of balance in the rush of all those outer activities. How quickly we can lose touch with it.

Inner guidance is something we can definitely ask for and make space for (if we remember). That would be wise. Otherwise, we may take the other route of just find ourselves slowing down and letting life have its way with us, so to speak. So lately I've been taking more time to just putter about home and garden and to sleep and do nothing in particular. When I'm more motivated to do so, I have taken some time to listen to or read favorite spiritual teachings. Eckhart Tolle is my favorite such guide, though there are more and more nowadays with similar messages that are amazingly universal, wise and helpful both for people of faith and of no-faith.

Much of the process of getting re-inspired also involves watching and learning from those less-than-inspired, even depressed, feelings. Rather than thinking of oneself as being in a state of decline, it's helpful to simply accept it as a natural cycle of "Dark Then Bloom," as motivational speaker and author  Dr. Mylene Dressler describes these periods of going within, which she considers to be a necessary part of true creativity.

For me this has all been fruitful and exactly as it should be. After a long cold winter, spring flowers are blooming, both outwardly and inwardly. Today, at least, I feel as though I've awakened from a temporary dream in which I (once again) got too caught up in the fascinating forms of this life. This time the dream was about the rewards and also the limitations and challenges of "being an artist", among other recent life adventures and dramas.

Part of the dream is that I'm my body and it's undeniably aging (61) and oh-no, I'm in decline....!

Well, folks, this surely signals that the best part of life is yet to come, if we butwelcome it: 

Dis-Identification

There are lots of things we can talk about, but few are more worth discussing than Dis-Identifying with mind, body, ego, self-images, etc. Especially if  you've ever experienced anything other than pure delight and vitality your whole life. (Could that be?)

What learning to dis-identify is teaching me, at least at this shining moment (feel free to remind me later!),  is the truth of these things:

1.  I am not an artist. In fact, I'm not even this mind-body thing called "Susan."  (Wait, don't tell everybody she's stopped being an artist. Or that she's flipped out. No, no! Read on! Please!)

2. I am simply Spirit, temporarily caught up in playing the fascinating roles of artist, wife, American and, er, human....  (Can you relate? I mean, look at it closely. What else could we be?)

2. Mistakenly and totally identifying as or with any role, self-image, person, place, thing or belief (thus, any form, whether positive or negative) is normal, yes. But it's a sure path to suffering, or at least losing your mojo.  The simple reason is that, sooner or later, all form comes and goes, be it people, places, beliefs, self images, sunny spring days, health, cultures...even planets. Yes, all these are fun when they go well, but all are subject to change and loss and all have their opposites (seeming enemies, poverty, sickness, evil, loss, failure, etc.)  Aspiring to "be" other than what we already are (inherently happy Spirit, temporarily expressing as this person)  is the main thing that actually takes us away from true happiness.

4. Spirit is One. As the changeless awareness-consciousness (words fail here) we each are, at our inmost core,  we are all One. This formless intelligence (aka God, Spirit, Source, Life) operates in all life forms with brilliant interconnectedness and incomprehensible orchestration, way, way, way beyond the puny capacity of mere thought to comprehend. And in some crazy way it's connecting us all. Have you ever had a profound sense of being One with somebody, such as in an intimate relationship? My husband and I had an amazing  mutual "Vulcan mind meld" the day we met.  I'm also reminded of a friend who said "my wife and I are one person" (not realizing then that the deeper truth is that we all are one in that same way).

This principle of One Being (non-local consciousness might be a better name for it) explains telepathy and a whole lot more. It's not easy to grasp, it seems, while "trapped" in these bodies or identifying as our personalities. But reports of NDEs (near death experiences) commonly include this realization. Thus the God we may pray to is really that Kingdom of Heaven everywhere and within all,   beyond seemingly separate minds and bodies. And it guides events wisely if our minds follow rather than try to lead.

5. Spirit loves to express beauty and drama, and in the end to know itself, to get lost and then to journey "home."  And this seems to be the deeper reason why we are called to be  creative, whether  in painting, film, dance, music, architecture, gardening or even just in the  infinite set of artistic dramas we all engage in that endlessly offer us lovely opportunities to express patience, compassion, forgiveness, courage, generosity and so on. Why not?  The themes of all these artistic expressions point again and again to journeys, struggle and resolution, wholeness, love, harmony, peace, happy endings and so on.

(For my observation about how the principle of Oneness evidences itself again and again, consciously or unconcsiously, in all forms of art, read my article, Awaken to Beauty.)

The problem? None, really. We are free to carry on in all these things. Spirit loves the contrast and play of worldly dramas and worldly beauty, it seems.

But ....there's a built-in self-destruct to all that. When inspiration fails us, when health slips away, when winter comes or a mate dies, when a job or fortune is lost, when the reputation is stained, when innocence is lost, when we feel forgotten or lonely, when the attendants come to get you....Then, and preferably long before, it is time to remember who and what one really is:

loving Spirit, shining and expressing beauty and drama everywhere and nowhere.

And then it is increasingly likely that soon that particular aspect of the One in that expresses in All will find its way Home.

Getting Stuck on a Particular Path

Often the journey Home takes the form of a particular path at first. We are drawn to special forms-- teachers, practices or religions that call us to God, to Home.  Or it could be the idea of the perfect soul mate. All these engender the most powerful pulls as well as the most heart-rending disappointments when fail to see the universal beyond the particular, like when the religion is found to be faulty and divisive, or the perfect soulmate files for divorce.

Yet,  should any of our most precious and sacred forms fail us, that is actually  a blessing, a huge invitation to awaken.

Awakening is not something that can be forced. People have glimpses of it, deep experiences of it and sometimes enduring mastery of living in that manner. Self-inquiry seems important, and sometimes it helps just to be in association with others who are awakening. Once, when I was at a spiritual retreat, I woke in the middle of the night with a deep sense of there being just this great energy that seemed to be from something vast and timeless and ancient. At first, there was not even the usual sense of being a person, let alone being Susan. It was very strange, yet very familiar. Gradually I woke up as claimed the usual identity as Susan. But in a way, that was falling asleep again... to that amazing mystery.

Nevertheless, it appears and beckons again and again in my life, and probably in yours too

And each time it is like a calling card to remind me of  who I really am, which is the same in essence as who you really are.

And there is the sense that we are all destined to know this, perhaps again and again.

Not to worry: it's just a movie.

The Life that we all are is both universal and endless, its spirit surely interconnected everywhere within every form. The experience of living as an individual, trapped in a body-ego-role, can feel quite the opposite. But, in truth, how can it be otherwise?  How could all of THIS amazing and vast universe operate in any other way but as a deeply-interconnected matrix of Life, being all of us? It simply wouldn't work. It would be hopelessly chaotic and random.

Thought: The Perfect Set of Blinders

So what blinds us to knowing this? Living as humans necessarily means living with the world of thought, which has over time completely taken us over. Our ordinary mental conditioning affixes labels and images on everyone and everything. Though this is part of playing our human roles, and it is also exactly what blinds us from directly sensing the Oneness we all are.

Once you begin to glimpse this, the most remarkable aspect of the whole process is actually, how completely and how easily we are fooled, by ourselves really, living most of the time under the false assumption that we are somehow apart from the wholeness and embrace of all Life, from God, from love. 

These things we know, or once knew. Don't you think?

Yet, somehow, here we are, living as apparent individuals in a world built of dualities and contrasts (male-female, animate-inaminate, electron-positron, light-dark, in-out, up-down, my religion-their religions, my family-everyone else, left-right, allies-enemies, good-bad, rich-poor, gain-loss). And here we are, despite ourselves,  continuously staking an identity as some small piece of the game. For example, artist...

How could this lead to anything but limitation? How could this ever encompass All That Is?

How could this mis-identifying ever understand truth?

How could any part of life be apart from Life?

I mean, really!

Yes, folks, I'd say it's definitely time to disidentify. And, even though later on you may finding me speaking otherwise, right now I am clear that I am not:

-an artist (or any other profession)

-a success

-a failure

-good

-bad

-healthy

-unhealthy

-rich

-poor

-my thoughts

-my possessions

-my creations

-my beliefs or non-beliefs

-my political party 

-my religion

-my country

-my ancestry

-this country

-my gender

-my species.

Nor are you. So there.

Nope. Sorry, I just don't want to confine us anymore.

So, what ARE we, really? I don't know. Seems like we are Life being none of this and all of this, expressing as each of us.

But if you like, we can keep this a secret..... just between us. OK?

:-)

----------- 

PS- By the way, I'm now feeling re-inspired and ready to dream up my (Life's) next artistic project:

"Oneness: The Art of the Universal " A three-week celebration of paintings, poetry, music and spirit, opening Friday 11.11.11 at 11.11.

An experiential exhibit of deeply-inspired art and writings by gifted artists sharing their sense of life's interconnectedness and wholeness. Also: a full-color show book, with DVD slide shows, prints and calendars for holiday gifting. 

The opening reception from 4 to 7 pm on November 11 features the artists reading poetry and sharing insights about art and spirit.

We will also host a reception during Sedona's First Friday Artwalk Dec. 2 from 5-8 pm.

Featuring: Susan Pitcairn, Vince Fazio, Libby Caldwell, Richard Drayton, Lyn Jeckyl, Polly Cullen, Mary Lois Brown & Peg Doig

Sedona Arts Center Special Exhibition Gallery.  Nov. 11 to Dec 6, 2011. Open most days 11-5.

Beyond Competition and Judgement: A Spiritual Vision for Art

4/13/2011 11:42:04 PM

Recognizing and Transcending Gender Biases in Art

6/7/2010 8:52:09 PM

I sign my paintings "S. Pitcairn." I developed this habit long ago upon the advice of a well-meaning art teacher warning of bias against women artists. Forty-five years later I have to say....

Taking Time to See: "Love's Heart Revealed"

4/29/2010 11:53:10 AM

Spring is in full bloom, after a long wet winter. Recently I set out to find some flowers to paint in celebration.

"Beyond Words" - An experiment

4/11/2010 3:24:38 AM

"Beyond Words" (24x24) is an experiment in a more abstract style, different than my usual landscapes and figures.

Really, it is an homage to the beauty of silence, the truth of the inner kingdom of heaven, of stillness,  that can be felt within.

The Stillness of Night: Homage to the Infinite

4/11/2010 3:14:02 AM

Awake in a still night, so peaceful. Somehow this seems more real than daily life. My, we get busy in daytime. Pause and take a breath...

Inspiration from a Sedona Trail

2/25/2010 9:13:10 PM

This pastel and this poem came to me today in a delightful experience on the wilderness trails near my home.

"To Receive the Glory" — A Poem

1/12/2010 4:38:23 PM

To receive the Glory,

"Orange and Blue": Embracing Opposites

1/2/2010 8:29:31 PM

How to Finish a Painting

11/15/2009 6:45:18 PM

Recently I was attending a homeopathic conference for veterinarians as the wife of one of the lecturers when something perked my attention, a wonderful quote so relevant to art: