Singing in my choir last summer, I focused on mastering the tricky syncopated rhythms in our new song. Ah-ha, I thought, I got it. At the same moment, the choir director said “No, no, no! You didn’t get it.” She explained, one more time, how it should be done. I concentrated, trying to understand. My […]
Feeling Right While Being Wrong Read More »
“I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” Jerome K. Jerome I assume Mr. Jerome’s comment is tongue in cheek because I giggle, imagining him staring at a computer screen while he daydreams about his date later that night. As an artist, my job is to see the
For a year, I looked carefully at teeth, those on my friend’s and family’s faces and my own. To protect my dental roots and painful exposed nerves due to normal receding gums, for a person my age, my kindly dentist suggested covering my front teeth with a filling material. He would, of course, match the
I grew up in a household where impulse and drama ruled the day. My parents hollered and swore with abandon and I rarely understood the reasons behind the hullaballoo. Mom had a BA in art and she venerated artists as the most superior humans on earth. By the time I got to college, I believed
Cherry trees taught me enormous life lessons. When I was eight years old, Mom gave me the job of selling cherries from our fifteen trees to earn money for all my personal expenses: Girl Scout activities and camp, school supplies and field trips, dance classes, private music instruction, comic books or candy from the mom-and-pop
In the painting, Spirit Tree, I pay homage to the invisible forces around us. In the foreground, three smaller trees blow in the breeze, green, full of life. They might be the offspring of the huge tree-shape above. Like a parent, the enormous gray tree looms over them. The larger tree’s absence of color implies
I grew up in Seattle, across the street from a lake. Because I spent most of my childhood swimming in that large basin of water, it became my second home. When I dove in, I went so deep I touched the bottom and felt the crawdads playing. Fish swam nearby. Lily pads grew around me.
Lake Meditation Blue-Green Read More »
When I’m at the ocean, I stare at a long roll of water. It’s already built up to a swell, reached the apex of its rounded height, and now begins to break as it moves onto the shore. Often the beach is curved, so when I gaze at its entire length, the waves seem to
I don’t have to meditate to increase awareness; if I set my intention to do so, it can happen no matter what is going on. Traditionally, meditation is seen as the best way to enhance reflection on thinking patterns. When still, one naturally notices thoughts drifting through the mind and can observe them, rather than
In the drawing Music Meditation by artist Kaethe Kauffman, musical notes surround the meditating figure. She sits in repose, her hair in a casual ponytail. What is the importance of melodies to this meditator? In temples across the globe, one of the traditional offerings to buddha consciousness is music which can suffuse the performers and
