His Spirit

Featured image: Inukshuk - Kasba Lake

God’s Spirit guides me.

I asked myself, “Does God’s Spirit guide me?” In time, I found my answer. The best way I can describe it—and I am a visual speaker, so I’ll describe it with an image—is this: it’s like the light God gave to me on Goeth Island, when I was standing on what felt like the middle of nowhere on Kasba Lake.

Facts about the rock on this island:

• Mineral-rich rock: Goeth Island is formed of granite shot through with seams of stark white quartz. This is the source of the island’s unique appearance.

• Glacial history: The landscape surrounding Kasba Lake, including the islands, was heavily shaped by glaciers during the last ice age, approximately 11,000 years ago. Glacial action scoured and exposed the underlying bedrock, leaving behind a dramatic and rugged landscape.

• Subarctic environment: Located just below the tree line in Canada’s subarctic, the northern end of Kasba Lake features barren islands and rock outcrops, contrasting with the wooded southern end.

When I was fishing, I asked to be dropped off alone for a bit, and when I wanted to be picked up I would stand tall on one of those rocks and wave my arms. I couldn’t be missed in my bright pink sweater (I wasn’t missed).

Anyway, I wander the island every year we go to Kasba. This year, I tried to touch as many rocks as I could. Then I just stood still, closed my eyes, turned my head to the sky, and felt the presence of as many things as I could. I began to feel a bright yellow-white radiant light rising from the earth—from my feet to the tips of my hands, to the sky. It was a glorious light.

I felt His Spirit in this light—through the earth and through all things. For me, this was feeling His Spirit in me, and I want to feel it in me as much as I can, though I don’t always. But when I share it with others, it frequently appears.

So I may be selfish right now, because when I think of all the excellent spirits I am touching, why wouldn’t I want to do that? The same thing happens with my work, my art—it’s glorious. Just glorious.

If You Have a God

 

Featured image: Red Flowers - Gifts From God

If you have a God, what is your God like? Easy question? It wasn’t for me. God means so many different things to different folks—just ask them.

Do you believe there is a “right” God and a “wrong” God? A “right” God or a “left” God?

Do you believe God is subjective, as some people think art is—that God can be anything and everything you want Him to be? As most of you know, I believe art needs an objective foundation. So I believe God requires both an objective and a subjective foundation, much like art. I’ve written about this many times, exploring how God can exist yet cannot exist without abstraction.

So, if you have a God—it’s certainly easier not to have one—what is your God like? Who do you believe He is?

Is He a She?

Is your God human?

Is your God a spirit?

Trust and Love

 

Featured image: Flowing River

Have you ever considered your moods, views, and insights as fleeting? Or do you think of them as engraved in blood, set in stone, never to change? I used to think of mine as carved in stone. But now—well—the way I think of history and time is changing. I think they are more transitory.

When we sense movement and change, what are we sensing? We sense ourselves changing, I believe—I certainly do. For me, when I feel anxiety, I know I am uncomfortable. Something is different, and my spirit tells me something just isn’t right. The sense of grace in me says something isn’t working.

My sense of grace is like a river flowing through me; it is like the wind caressing me. And when I don’t feel that, something is missing, something is changing. This feeling, for many years, has enabled me to live with a sense of spontaneity. Mind you, I need a foundation—I always have those rules engraved in my mind or heart—but I sincerely believe I am meant to move on, to create, and to live in the transitional, constantly changing movement. To live with this child within, to feel burdened by this child, and to teach this child to search, create, and move beyond what is—to explore and discover.

Lately, when I am burdened, I search. I explore. I look for the flowing river—the rippling sound of water moving across the cooling rocks. I take a deep breath, lie on my back, float with the river, and say yes—yes—to the rhythm until I can once again begin to trust and love myself. Until I can again begin to trust and love my internal guide and spirit—and go for it.

It is not easy, this path. Trust and love are so important.

Foundations

 

Featured image: The Pull of Gravity

The only way to move forward in the process of living and change is to build a very strong foundation.

Glass Slippers

 

Featured image: Earth Sings

Are you looking for your glass slippers?

You don’t have to look very far—

for they are within.

Ask Yourself

 

Featured image: How Do I Get There

Ask yourself,
What is there?

Then ask yourself, as you begin your day and pick up your tool of choice in your workspace or studio:
What could there be?

Magical Work

Featured image: Rainbows in My Studio

The magical work of the soul begins with you—not someone else, not someone else’s soul. It begins with your soul. And your soul resides within you, not someone else.

For me, I can only do that magical work through my art, and when I don’t, it shows—in my work and in me.

My studio is where this magical work happens. My art is where this magical work happens.