Altered Space

Takes The Cake

2010-05-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Our magnificent peony plant is blooming!

Peonies date to at least 1,000 B.C. These long-lived plants, some of which are known to survive for as long as 100 years, are prized for their sturdy foliage, lush blooms and sweet scent. Early American settlers brought peony plants across the ocean and planted them on American soil to remind them of the homes they had left behind.

The blossoms are opening and I am in peony heaven. They are so laden with petals they droop downwards and need support. I have never seen such a beautiful flower. I said that when I first saw a dahlia bloom the size of a football, then a fuschia with its deep purple and neon pink hanging blossoms, and then a bleeding heart. But the peony takes the cake. To look into the heart and face of this flower is to look into the face of the Divine here on earth. It is a flower that carries strong healing properties. To meditate looking into the face of a peony is said to realign the chakras and heal at the deepest soul level.

Peony as Medicine

The ancient Chinese discovered that the peony's bark, roots, seeds and flowers served as medicine. Mu Dan Pi, a remedy made from the bark of the tree peony, was believed to cool the blood and provide antiseptic properties. Chi Shao Yao, made from the roots of the herbaceous peony, was believed to cool the blood and provide pain relief. When the peony was brought to Europe in the 1200s, it was used to ease childbirth, ward off evil spirits and cure gallstones. Although peonies have been used continually in traditional Eastern medicine, they have not been used in Western medicine since medieval times. The buds and leaves of the peony are used in China to make a delicate white tea which many believe to have medicinal qualities.

The peony is China's national flower.

Together with the plum blossom, the peony is a national floral symbol of the country of China. The Chinese name for peony means "beautiful" and in Chinese culture the flowers represent riches, prosperity and honor. In Western culture, the peony serves as the symbol for the 12th wedding anniversary, and in the language of flowers, represents good fortune and a happy marriage. In Victorian times, it might also have represented bashfulness, since mischievous nymphs were said to hide in its magnificent petals.

I want to have a yard full of peonies, bleeding hearts, fuchsias, camellias, roses, lilacs, dahlias, jasmine, wisteria, wild flowers, gardenias, and honeysuckle. I want to live immersed in the healing power of flowers. Don't you?

Art Imitating Life

2010-05-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

I took my favorite picture of Guadalupe off the wall and carried it all around, trying to get a good shot in the early morning light. Millions of people make pilgrimages every year to this very same image which hangs in the Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City. In the year 1541, Juan Diego was visited by Our Lady of Guadalupe and she emblazoned her sacred image on his tilma. Scholars and scientists have studied the cloth and the paint pigment and they cannot identify from what it is made. It is still a mystery. I couldn't find an angle where I wasn't wrapped in the folds of her cloak. I guess it is just art imitating life.

Here is what she told Juan Diego when she appeared to him on that December morning in 1541.

"I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection. Because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; to listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows. And to accomplish what my clemency pretends, go to the palace of the bishop of Mexico, and you will say to him that I manifest my great desire, that here on this plain a temple be built to me."

Words of Our Lady to Juan Diego

Reflection

2010-05-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday is my day for reflection. How have I lived my life during the past week. Have I been awake, loving, compassionate? Did I practice Do unto others as you would have them do unto you? It's hard to admit how many times I have found myself asleep at the wheel, I've felt angry, I've turned away when compassion was called for. One particular area where I have so much work to do is with the beggars of Eugene. On almost every corner here, there is a beggar. They all have tattered cardboard signs with sad stories written on them. Homeless vet, hungry, hopeless, etc. One sign said "Obama wants change, I'll settle for a buck." When you approach them at stoplights, they look right into your eyes and wait for money. This makes me feel uncomfortable and guilty. A woman once told me she never gives them money, begging is their job and they do for a living. I don't know what to think. Sometimes I give them money, usually I don't. Mother Teresa said Jesus is in the beggar. Am I turning away from Jesus when I don't give them money? I wrestle with this. It's always a struggle. Yesterday I was walking down the street and a rather well dressed man sitting on a bench stopped me and said "miss, may I talk to you for a minute?" I stopped and he said "I am homeless and hungry and I wonder if you have some spare change so I could get something to eat?" I dug in my purse and found forty six cents. I gave it to him. That was all I had. He said thank you and I walked away. Today I am reflecting on how to tell which beggar is Jesus in disguise, testing me; and which beggar is career begging. Is there a difference?

A Sign

2010-05-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

Four summers ago, my son Luke and I took a road trip to Oregon. Eugene, specifically. We had spent a year researching the internet to find a locale that suited all of our needs, both individually and collectively. We wanted a place to call home that offered music, arts, progressive minds, social consciousness, water, sustainability, an abundance of organic produce and flowers, bicycle paths, universities, moderate climate, rain, and green. A place where ocean, desert, snow, and fertile valley are all within an hour's drive from each other. A land of lakes and rivers. A land of abundance. One of our days there, we drove to Cottage Grove, where our yurt was built, and decided to look at land there. We pulled into the parking lot of an obscure real estate company and parked the car. There, across the street, on the side of old dilapidated building, facing a parking lot, sixteen feet high, was this image of Guadalupe. Before I could do anything, I had to get across the street and stand before this magnificent mural. She was glorious. I went around the front of the building to see for myself who would have this image on the side of their building, in their parking lot. Was I surprised! It was the grungiest, seediest, alcohol-and-tobacco store I have ever seen in my life. That's all they sold. Maybe they had some of those little neon orange crackers with peanut butter in the middle, I'm not sure. I went to the counter and asked the clerk about Guadalupe. There was a man in town, he told me, that just painted murals of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Out of all of the wonderful things we saw that trip, this was the sign for me that Oregon was our home.

Mother Teresa

2010-05-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have loved Mother Teresa for as long as I can remember. I am not Catholic, I am not a member of any organized religion, but I think I can spot a saint when I see one. I have always been held spellbound by those who come to earth and radiate divinity. I love the way it makes me feel when I walk across their path. I love the fragrance, the beauty, the rarefied atmosphere surrounding their physical forms. Last summer I reconnected in cyberspace with a beautiful soul I had know in high school. After a few messages sent back and forth I mentioned my love for Mother Teresa. Not long after, this beautiful oil painting came in the mail. A treasure, for sure. Pure gold. DeDe loved this painting yet she sent it to me. Thank you DeDe.
DeDe has been an artist for as long as I can remember. We first met when we were teenagers taking an art class together in high school. Her work then, and her work now, radiates a sweet divinity. Its purity reaches out and touches the heart and soul.

Here is her website, take a look:
www.dedeshamelsartandframesetc.atomicshops.com
Click on DeDe's originals and see the sweetness for yourself.

I found this poem written by Mother Teresa and I saw it fitting to pass along.

DO IT ANYWAY
People are often unreasonable,
illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
Mother Teresa
1910-1997

Tree Heart

2010-05-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

This morning I startled awake. A part of myself, somewhat uncertain of my particular role in the order of the universe, wondered in a trembling way, for what purpose am I here? Oh no, not this uncertainty again, I say to myself. Once again I am faced with the question that has followed me for most of my adult life. I have two perspectives going on inside of me. One is my earthbound self. This is somewhat familiar. I'm a family member, a community member, a citizen of the planet Earth. Still, having played this role for quite a few years, I find myself secretly wondering........what really am I supposed to be doing here and am I doing it? The perspective from my other vantage point is a bit more perplexing. I stand on the outer rim of our galaxy and gaze at the bigger picture. It's really huge, what lays before me, and even with the strongest binoculars, I am unable to see my spot on the map. My tiny planet. My country, my town, my home. Not even a speck. Where do the two perspectives intersect? Where is the bridge between heaven and earth? Everything that seems so huge and overwhelming on earth seems so small and insignificant while standing out here in space. I pondered this for a while then got out of bed, opened my curtains, and saw this right outside my window. I take this as a sign, an answer, until next time I find myself trembling with uncertainty. There is a tree in my front yard with a perfect heart in the trunk where one tree split into two. There, standing on the outer rim of the heart, is a little statue of Mother Mary. I put Her there weeks ago not realizing then I was leaving myself an answer to a question not yet asked. Love and compassion is the work, the bridge between heaven and earth, regardless of which role we play. Doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief. It's not what we do, our job, or our career, it's what is in the heart. Her presence atop the tree heart makes this so clear. Wishing you a heart filled with love and compassion on this day and every day.

The Promise

2010-05-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

I have lived in the desert my entire life. My recent move to the Pacific Northwest has brought many surprises. One of them is Spring. What I am accustomed to by this calendar date is shorts, tee shirts, and getting the evaporative cooler ready for the searing, unbearable, hot days just around the corner. Maybe already here. Where I live now, the high temps have been mostly in the fifties. Our pellet stove runs constantly and as I write it's going at full blast. Three blankets on the bed and thermal underwear are my constant companions. I won't lie, there has been one handful of days where it warmed up a little and the promise of spring was dangled like a carrot before me. However chilly it may feel to a desert implant, all living flowering beings are out dressed in their finest glory. There is a magnificence in flowers unparalleled by anything else on the planet. Flowers whisper secret messages to your soul when you aren't even aware. Eugene is all about flowers right now, flowers everywhere. Flower heaven. This sweet globe of a bud is a peony. It lives right outside my window. I have never seen a peony in bloom (what a sheltered life) but to me, this bud holds the promise. If the bud is this beautiful, what does the blossom hold? I can hardly wait. Maybe the blossom is waiting for Spring. I know I am.

2010-05-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

Truth is One:
I have often said that if Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, and other true
emissaries of God came together, they would not quarrel, but would
drink from the same one cup of God-communion.

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 - 1952)

Our Lady

2010-05-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

Our Lady of Guadalupe. She's too big to fit in the windowsill so she stands alone, next to the window. She helps me in my home business. After each bag I make, I give it to Her and ask if She will please bless it before I send it out. She does.
Many years ago I was given a fifty dollar gift certificate to Wally World but it lived in my wallet, tucked away for a rainy day. I just couldn't imagine a need for fifty bucks worth of stuff from the big box store. I figured it had probably expired. What gift certificate is still good after five years?
Then it happened. I was walking through the garden center and there She was. Actually, it was an army of Guadalupes. Four pallets full. Sale price of $49.99. I knew in an instant how to use that old gift certificate so I picked out the most beautiful one (they were all exactly the same), put Her in my buggy, and off we went. I purposely cruised through the whole store just curious of the reactions we would get. I felt like I was part of a religious procession in Mexico, the one where you carry your statue through the streets. Many people stopped me, appreciating Her beauty, wondering where they could get one too. No problem I said, there's a hundred more waiting in the garden center, and one has your name on it.
Now, whatever shall I do with that gift card worth one cent?

Supermarket Saints

2010-05-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen Franco Zeffierelli's 1972 film classic Brother Sun, Sister Moon, I suggest you do. It is the most beautiful film to date about St. Francis of Assisi. The Donovan soundtrack is heart melting. I found this St. Francis prayer card at the grocery store, sitting on a little twirly rack amongst many of His fellow saints. There He was, right next to the enchilada sauce I was searching for to make tamales with that night. I thought He would be happier in my kitchen window than He would be at the grocery store in the Mexican food isle. He looked lonely there, so I brought Him home. Below is the prayer on the back of His card. I once read that if you hang this prayer on your wall, transformations will start occurring in your life. I think I'll try that out.

The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis

"O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is discord, harmony.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sorrow, joy.

Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life."

2010-05-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

A brahmin once asked The Blessed One:
"Are you a God?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"Are you a saint?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"Are you a magician?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"What are you then?"
"I am awake."

Early morning in the Pacific Northwest. I have just risen from my nightly slumber. But, am I awake? I will walk through my day, taking care of what needs attention. Doing what needs to be done. But, will I be awake? Is it really that easy, or should I say, that hard?
One time, years ago, I was gifted with an experience that lasted a few short days and gave me a taste of walking through the world awake. After a month of sheer exhaustion, I laid my head on the floor and cried. When I was cried out, I found myself in a state of grace where everything outside of myself looked as it always did but inside of myself, everything was different. Every atom that vibrated was vibrating to the frequency of love. I saw clearly that the whole of creation, the whole of material existence was made from love. Everything. Wherever my gaze landed, that object had a surface appearance of solid matter yet I could see underneath its surface and it was made from love. Love appeared to be the glue that holds creation together. My heart was filled and flowing with love. I wish I could live in that awakened state every single moment. I usually forget that and walk around asleep in the cosmic dream. When I do remember, like today, I wonder if the memory is enough to be "awake" or is it just a memory? How do you stay awake?

Teacher's Day

2010-05-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

For those who inspired, uplifted, challenged. For those who planted the seeds, tended the gardens, patiently watched the growth. For those who gave of their time, their service, their humanity. For those who helped, who nurtured, who guided. For those who knew how to teach their students to fish rather than be the big pitcher that filled the little pitchers. For those that were born with the "teacher" stamp on their destiny card. And especially for the one that understood the importance of turning in a handmade alter of Our Lady of Guadalupe instead of a book report for a class project..................thank you. Thank you to teachers everywhere.

Cathedral

2010-05-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

"And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

This is the image I see looking out my window. This is my backyard. To me, these trees are a siren song unlike any other. The sweet call of nature. I am so blessed to be able to drink the nectar of nature in daily. And I do. There is a peace and a healing here. Atop this magnificent hill called Hendrick's Hill, is a rhododendron garden in full bloom. The pathways through the gardens are lined with blooming magnolia trees and flowers of such fragrance it makes me cry. The odor of Divinity. It is a magical place, a piece of heaven in the midst of a busy city. The place I call home. I hope you have a little piece of heaven in the place you call home. A magical place where you are reminded that there is no time and that everything is eternal.

Recycled Religion

2010-05-02T18:09:00.001-07:00

I love thrift shopping. Why would I go to the mall where everything looks the same and comes from China when I can visit my local thrift shops and find unique and valuable treasures, no two alike, that make me and my wallet smile. I have an insatiable need to rescue icons of every size, shape, and religion. I am thrilled when I find a statue of Buddha or Mary. A picture of Quan Yin or Jesus. A key ring of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A carved wooden statue of Krishna. I bring them all home. I frequently wonder how they ended up in recycling, abandoned to the shelves of Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, Sara's Treasures. I am not complaining, mind you, I just don't understand how someone could no longer want them. I want them. I found this picture of Jesus and His Sacred Heart for 49 cents. I love the way the glare from my window leaps from His heart like flames. I love how He glows. I love the way He sits in my window and reminds me that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I love my recycled saints.

Peace Cranes

2010-05-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

An ancient Japanese breasticle promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person's wish come true.

Look at this window. It is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light. Being full of light it becomes an influence by which others are secretly transformed. Chuang Tzu 4

This is my dear friend Lou. She is not exactly on any of my windowsills but her life is an alter, a constant offering to the Divine. I wanted to bring her here for you to see. Long ago she was a floral artist when she heard the story of a little girl in Hiroshima who tried to heal herself by folding a thousand cranes. Lou was so moved by this story that she just started folding cranes. Into every origami crane she folded she said prayers for world peace and healing of the planet and all mankind. Eventually her folded cranes turned into exquisitely beautiful works of art as you can see above. Each piece is an alter, each piece carries prayers and radiates blessings wherever it goes. Lou is truly an inspiration and a blessing for all who cross her path. Thank you Lou, for offering up your life to heal and inspire others. Thank you Lou, for keeping a heart full of light.

The Beginning

2010-04-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! I took this early morning photo of my windowsill alter attempting to capture the sunlight landing on, and radiating off of Golden Buddha. Later, standing in my kitchen looking at the picture of St. Francis I have above my sink, I was struck by the inspiration to create a blog as a way to post pictures of my home alters. In a world such as ours, filled with beauty and despair, I offer peaceful corners and windowsills from my life. A moment of reflection. An uplifting image. I hope you enjoy and take refuge here.