Thursday, January 15, 2009

Below Zero and the Furnace is Roaring


Isn't this a great pic? It is from my Facebook friends. A shot of sunset at the North Pole. The smaller glowing circle is the moon. That was just to get you in the mood.
I am so grateful for a warm home and lots of sweaters and snuggly blankets. The temperature has dipped below zero today -- even lower forecasted for tomorrow. But it's all good. After all, I am living in Maine and it is January.

I sent both Annie and Noah to school this morning with hats and gloves. This afternoon when they came home there was no evidence of gloves or hats on those warm bodies. I remember walking to high school in my mini-skirt (no pants allowed back then) and white canvas sneakers - no socks or stockings. By the time I got to school my knees were bright red from the cold. I suppose my feet were numb; I don't recall feeling them at all. Ahh, the vanities of youth!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Happy New Year

Joyous New Year to all of us. I have been busy with my online winter course - History of Religion. Just finished a 15-page paper about the relevancy of religion to a functioning human society. My thesis was that by combining the best of religion with the best of science we can come up with a religion (either new or evolved traditional) that will serve the needs of humanity. And we had been start working on this soon, given our current trajectory and the mess that we have gotten ourselves into. I have to believe that out of this temporary chaos will come a new order. I would like to be on the leading edge of bringing that new order into manifestation. I don't know what it will look like or how we will get there. But I do not think that we have a choice about getting there. This is in the hands of the Divine who will not let all of creation go down the tubes!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Fall 2008

Well, this was a long, wet summer. Aside from the rain, we bought a swimming pool (and played in that every sunny day there was), went to the beach whether it was sunny or cloudy, and I got three As in my summer classes (Stats, Bio, and Language & Literacy). I've got a new laptop that I am playing on now. Installed Word 2007 that I need to learn before I jump into my new classes - Intro to Lit, Portfolios, Critical Inquiry, US Democracy, and Judiasm/Islam/Christianity. That's a bit of a heavy schedule with lots of reading and writing, but all the classes are Tuesday night and Wednesday day so I have the rest of the week to read and write -- and sew. I'm in the middle of sewing some jackets for fall - very cool patchwork stuff that is coming out great.

That's all for now folks. Ariel

Friday, June 13, 2008

Open Letter from Shaumbra

Letter to Awakening Humans
TOBIAS: “And so it is, dear friends, we have heard your call. We have heard your prayers, we have felt your pain, and we know your confusion. That is why we bring this message to you. It has found its way to you on the wind. It’s found its way to you through your processes – you might call the Internet – through a friend who has given this to you, or perhaps strictly what appears to be at random, but we have heard your call and your prayer. We have come to answer.
I am Tobias of the Crimson Council, an angelic order that’s here to work with teachers of consciousness both on Earth and in the other realms. I join together today with the angelic beings who come from a place of love and compassion to support you and to love you.
We also bring together this message from a group of human angels. They are in human form on Earth right now, but they are indeed angels. They have been exploring consciousness and Spirit and God for eons of time. They are physically embodied on Earth right now. They could be your next door neighbors, your family members or friends, perhaps people you don’t even know. But they are on Earth right now serving as a new type of teacher and a guide. They have been exploring the realms of new consciousness and New Energy and the whole concept of ‘I Am,’ which means Spirit, God, integrated with self on Earth right now.
We gather together the energies of the angels, of Spirit and of this group on Earth called Shaumbra, to bring this message to you in answer to your call.
You’re going through an awakening process right now and that is why you have received this letter. The awakening process could be one that’s challenging, it can be deceiving, and it can be beautiful all at the same time.
You know you’re going through a spiritual awakening process when you begin to question things that you’ve never questioned before, things like authority and structure; when you begin to question why you’re here on Earth, what is the meaning of life, what is it that you should be doing right now.
You know you’re going through an awakening process when the way you solved problems in the past doesn’t seem to work anymore. You know you’re going through this entire awakening process when you know that there’s more out there but you can’t seem to put your finger on it. You know there’s a greater way, but you don’t know what that is. You know you’re ready to go into a whole new level of living and understanding, but you don’t know how to get there.
You know you’re going through an awakening process when you feel yourself withdrawing into you, when you feel yourself starting to not want so much external activity, when you don’t need the stimulation or the drama that you’ve had in the past.
You know that you’re going into the awakening process when, in your quiet moments, perhaps late at night, you call out to God not knowing if there even is a God, at least in the old way. You call out for the higher being or the higher power somewhere out there. And you give a message totally from your heart, from the truest part of your being – “Dear Spirit, dear God, I’m ready.” From the truth of your being when you say, “Dear Spirit, dear Eternal One, I am willing to do anything but I don’t know what it is I should do.”
You know you’re going through an awakening process where all of the old beliefs don’t seem to be so true anymore, and the things that you held so near and dear to you now seem like memories of the past, the ways of the past. You know you’re going through an awakening process when the things that used to be the dreams and the goals, the desires of the human self no longer truly matter, but you don’t know what matters anymore.
If you’re listening to this or reading this or have been touched by it in some way, we’re here to tell you that you are not alone. There are angelic beings on our side who are with you right now – not some time in the future, not some time in the past that you don’t remember so well – but right now. And with a simple breath, your simple breath, it opens the doorway for us to be close to you, to love you, to remind you of your angelic origins, to let you know that we have the greatest compassion and love for you. You are not alone.
With the simple breath in this very moment, it also allows in the love and the compassion of tens and thousands and thousands of humans on Earth right now who have gone through or are currently going through a very similar process – the awakening of Spirit. They know what it’s like to lose those things that were near and dear to you. They know what it’s like for their belief systems to be challenged at every level. They know what it’s like for the things that came from the material world that were important at one time that start dissolving away. They know what it’s like to lose a relationship, or at least the illusion of losing it, so that they, and now you, can begin to have the relationship with yourself. With the simple breath you can open up and allow yourself to not be alone anymore.
We know it’s been difficult and challenging, and we know so much of what you’ve gone through is very emotional and at times can be very dramatic. We know you’ve been trying to figure it out in your mind. You’ve been using systems and structures and methods, and you still haven’t found the answers. You’ve tried to analyze it, and it’s something that can’t be analyzed. It can only be felt and experienced.
You’ve gone, many of you, and got counseling – professional or just with friends – and you know in your heart that the methods and the words that they tell you are not truly fulfilling that deep inner yearning to know yourself and to know the Spirit in yourself.
We know that there are times when you just want to disappear. You just want to fade away. It’s not even about dying, it’s just about going out of existence. The challenges, the transformation, the changes can be overwhelming to the human, to the mind, to that aspect of you that has a type of blinder on, that doesn’t see who you really are. It can be overwhelming and cause such duress that you choose just to go out of existence.
But the angels that are with you right now and the human angels that are standing along side of you understand your journey. They have some messages for you today, first and foremost, that you are not alone. Secondly, that the process you’re going through is actually quite natural. It may appear to be confusing and you may feel that you are lost, but what you are doing is very natural. You are allowing the old human façade and the illusion of who you thought you were to fade away. And as it fades away, what you begin to know in the deepest, most loving level, is yourself as God also; yourself as Spirit; yourself as divine, no longer limited by the old human identity but now understanding that you are eternal, that you are grand and that you can choose your own reality, even how you live on Earth right now.
Those of us who gather around you share with you that all of the answers are within. They’re not to be found with some gurus. They’re not to be found with some angelic being, but the answers are within you. Living in this state of duality as you have been doing, living with the concept of light and dark, good and bad, masculine and feminine, you’ve also bought into a belief system that says the answers are somewhere else. But indeed they are within you. They come from the most true and the most precious place within, and they can be discovered in the quiet moment, in the moment of breath, in the moment of acceptance of yourself.
We share with you that there is no goal, there is no purpose, there is not some God in a far off heaven that is putting you through some maze or some obstacle course. But the reality is everything in your life is about your creation, your discovering of beauty, your discovering about the depths of reality. Everything that you are experiencing right now in your life is by your choice. There are no outside powers or beings who are making you do it. There is nobody dictating the destiny of your life. You’ll discover that it all by your choice.
Perhaps at some very deep or distant part of yourself that wanted to have the experience of going through life as you have known it up to now, but understand it is you creating it. And when you understand that and when you take ownership for yourself, you will actually begin to understand the beauty of your journey. You’ll understand that you are not lost at all. You were just so deeply immersed in an experience, so filled with the richness even if the richness was painful at times, but it brought new depth and meaning to your soul.
So on this day in this moment, in the awakening to your true self, it is a time to say goodbye to your old human self. You’ve been trying to hang onto it and repair it and resurrect it, and now it is time to say goodbye to that human identity, to the limited beliefs, to the old paths of karma, of the old progression of lifetimes that kept you on the old merry-go-round. It is time to say goodbye to that.
Part of you may feel sad about it. It is a death of consciousness, not a death of the physical body, but a death of consciousness. But as you say goodbye to the old self, you also release energies that were stuck or wounded, energies that don’t serve you anymore and haven’t served you for many, many lifetimes.
As you say goodbye to your old human self, you discover a new freedom. It is like taking off a costume or a suit of armor that is no longer needed. When you release the old human aspect, when you say goodbye, you are now creating a space within you to allow in the grander self, the divine self, your angelic self, who’s been patiently waiting off in the wings, waiting for you to finish playing this wonderful game or experience, waiting for you to make a choice to invite the true you, the divine you into this reality now.
When you say goodbye to your human self, it brings up issues of fear, of death and of losing control. But dear friends, those are all illusions. When you let go of who you thought you were, you now make room to be everything that you truly are. There is that feeling that you are in right now that if you let go, you will fall into some perpetual dark abyss never to come back, never to be found, perhaps even just roaming throughout the dimensions and the universes lost. But this group of angels that’s with you right now, the group of humans that is with you, have all gone through the experience and they all understand when you let go of who you thought you were, when you trust yourself on the most intimate, on the most beautiful level, you will now discover who you really are.
This is your choice, of course. It is up to you. But you have called out to us, you have prayed to us, you have asked for the answers and that’s why we have showed up today.
In the awakening to your true self, you also say goodbye to the Earth as you have known it. Many call Earth “Gaia,” the land, the water, the skies. Gaia is an actual spirit that has attended to Earth, has been nurturing Earth, all of her elements, all of her animals and all of her forests, ever since the beginning of time on Earth. In the awakening to yourself and the releasing or the saying goodbye to Gaia, you understand that it is not another spirit’s responsibility to take care of this planet. It is your responsibility to be a part of it.
The spirit of Gaia is slowly, slowly leaving so that you, all other humans can take responsibility for the water that you drink, for the land that you walk upon, for the sky that you see with your eyes, for all of the plant life and the animal life. What a blessed and beautiful experience it is to thank Gaia for all she has done, to bid her farewell and to now accept the responsibility of this planet for yourself.
In the awakening that you are going through, it is also time to say goodbye to human consciousness as you have known it. You will never be the same again. Recently, Earth moved into a new era and a new realm. We call it the new consciousness or the New Energy. In this new consciousness all things change. The Earth, human consciousness and humans are evolving right now. The change that you see outside of you could appear to be chaotic. It could appear that things are unraveling, everything falling apart. It could appear that there are shortages of critical goods. It could appear that things are on constant edge.
It is time to let that go as well, because humanity is going through an incredible transformation process. They’re going through important changes, and what appears to be a lack of fuel and oil is actually more about new developments in technology, new energy sources. Instead of using old fossil fuel, the discovery of new fuel. What appears to be shortages of food is really about taking a look at how to take care of the biology in a new way, how to feed it in a new way, how to grow crops in a new, efficient and natural way.
Changes in governments, changes in politics are all part of the process. It is easy to go into fear and worry about what’s going to happen to the world right now, but this group of angels and this group of humans, they know it’s just evolution. They know that the change can appear to be chaotic, but the natural law of evolution and expansion are at work right now, and you’re participating in it.
It’s about saying goodbye to the world as you have known it, even in terms of finance, prosperity and wealth. For oh so many years on Earth, the wealth, the power, the money was focused in just a few places and held by just a few people or consolidated in a few countries. And in the new consciousness that imbalance no longer works. So the wealth, even the balance of what you would call power, are redistributed. It doesn’t mean anyone gets any less, it just means those who were behind now catch up.
The world’s not falling apart, the world is evolving. The world is redistributing. The world is becoming more balanced and equitable.
In the awakening process things can appear to be dark. Things can even appear to be evil. Things can appear to be very confusing, but we are here to tell you that it is just evolution. The world will go on. The New Energy will come in. The new understandings of science and math, the understandings in technology and education, are all coming about right now.
The awakening process can be lonely, because it is about rediscovering who you are without having others tell you, without having other’s belief systems shape and create your life. We know you’ve been going through a very dark and lonely and sometimes very sad part of your life, feeling so lost and confused, like no one’s listening. But these angelic beings and human beings want to let you know we have heard. We do know who you are. We do know what you have been going through. And we want you to know that you are never alone.
Your process of awakening will continue to unfold and as it does you will see the beauty in it. You will see how you as a divine being have actually planned it for yourself. You will see that the fear goes away. The illusions of duality go away to be replaced by the knowingness of the oneness.
We bring you this message today from the angels, from the humans, and from all who are going through the awakening process that you are not alone.
And so it is.”

Friday, March 21, 2008

Claiming My Space

OK, so it's been a month or so since I posted - but I've been working on my new expanded studio! I'm just about finished painting the walls a sunny yellow with white trim. I've got two new shelf units for storing all my supplies. I'm going to Lowe's tomorrow to get some cork squares to put on the big open wall to use for setting up ideas. I'm so psyched!

And, I met with Robyn Holman this afternoon. Robyn is the art director at the Atrium Gallery as USM (University Southern Maine) in Lewiston. I'm now on the "Call for Submission" list. Do I claim my space as an ARTIST yet?

I got my copy of Alison Stanfield's I'd Rather Be in the Studio. If you haven't read it yet, it is worth the price to help you get yourself going as an art professional - vs. the "starving artist".

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Thinking Through Art

I am taking a course called Thinking Through Art at the University of Southern Maine. We have several assignments which call for us to "arrange something." I challenged myself to arrange pieces of fabric, limiting those pieces to one geometric shape (e.g., circles, squares, etc.). As I played around with various shapes in my sketchbook, I was intrigued by a group of rectangles that looked like tree trunks. I pulled out a number of “trunk-colored” fabrics and cut them into rectangles. I chose a grey/white fabric for the background, thinking of the snowy woods around me.
From there, I began moving the rectangles around the background, auditioning the various brown, tan, gray, and black fabrics. At one point in the process, the grey/white background was completely covered; I liked that look. The blacks took me deeper into the woods than the snowy fabric did. So, I cut a new background out of a black print. This worked much better.
But something was missing. There was no focal point – just a bunch of tree trunks. Then, I remembered an image that I had seen several days before. Late afternoon sun was hitting a grouping of trees. That was my next inspiration. Back to my fabric stash to find sunlight-hitting- trees fabric. The red with gold highlights was the perfect choice. I cut several rectangles of red/gold and placed them randomly on the background with the other rectangles.
The next step was one that is very important in my art process. I leave my work out on my studio table where I can see it for several days. I simply live with the raw materials, in draft form. I am not trying to ‘make it work’ during this time. I have to get out of my logical thought patterns which tell me that tree trunks must grow in such and such a particular way and that they surely are not red! I let the material speak to me, telling me how it would like to be.
Over those days, I moved the rectangles around quite a bit – first here, then there, taking some away, adding others, straightening, tilting, turning upside down – until they finally settled into place. As always, the trick is to know when it is done. For me this is much more a gut feel than an intellectual knowing. The piece simply feels right.
The final step was the technical crafting of sewing each piece into place, attaching a binding, batting, and backing. (If this assignment was other than “arrangement,” I would have added paint to the piece to darken some areas and bring out other areas.)
As I was sewing the piece, I reflected upon a title for the piece: 5:00 PM January. This brings additional meaning to my work in terms of my life. 5:00 PM is the sunset time, and I am moving into the later years of my life (I’ll be 59 this month). However, January is a time of new beginnings, and I have committed to living more fully, making more art, playing more, loving more. While the trees and the woods are mostly darkened, there is a brightness, a golden light, reflected right in front of me; and I am willing to step into that light, undaunted.
This begs the question: did the artist intend these meanings? Truly, the meaning came out of the artwork, rather than the artwork being created to express a certain meaning. This is generally my process. Even when I start with an intention, the nuances of the finished piece come out of the working with the materials. For me, this distinguishes my art from simply crafting a piece.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Shi Shi Lion



Shi Shi Lion


The shi shi lion both guards and welcomes us. Welcomes us home, and in this case, welcomes us to the New Year. This is the cover of an accordian book I made for January. Some of the text inside includes quotes from Picasso:


Everything you can imagine is REAL!


Every Act of Creation is first an Act of Destruction.


And I remind myself - Dare to create


Now, a quote from Clarissa Pinkola Estes' Women Who Run with the Wolves (If you haven't read this in a while, it is worthwhile). She speaks of the "Wild Woman" inside each of us who nurtures and grows us into beings that are more like her: life givers.


Creativity emanates from something that rises, rolls, surges, and spills into us rather than from something that just stands there hoping that we might, however circuitously, find our way to it. We can never lose our creativity. It is always there, filling us or else colliding with whatever obstacles are placed in its path.


Don't you just love that?

RISES - ROLLS- SURGES - SPILLS

GOD BLESS US ALL!



And special blessings to All My Artist Friends on the Green Pepper Press Street Team. Please stop by their sites to see some wonderful examples of creativity rising and rolling and flowing up and down the street.


My Shi Shi Lion was brought to you courtesy of Crusade 16 that asked us to blog a page from our visual journal.