INSPIRED ALONG THE WAY

Rhythm and Healing

2010-11-27T00:09:00.000-08:00

"Rhythm comes from a place deep inside all of us, a place no physical trauma can reach. It moves us in a positive direction mentally, physically, and spiritually." Eddie Tuduri said reflecting on the moment.

2010-11-26T09:24:00.001-08:00

Please Watch

2010-11-26T08:50:00.001-08:00

Admirable

2010-11-26T08:37:00.001-08:00

Restore the Sanity

2010-11-02T11:50:00.001-07:00

"If we amplify everything, we hear nothing"

I love you

2010-10-04T17:41:00.001-07:00

Wake up...Scale Down

2010-10-04T17:35:00.001-07:00

The Whale

2010-09-16T21:33:00.001-07:00

This has been around before. I think the story is two years old from The San Francisco Chronicle. Its a beautiful story.
Enjoy.

A female humpback whale had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines.

She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat.

She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the Faralon Islands (outside the Golden Gate ) and radioed for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her -- a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer. They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them, and pushed gently, thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same. May you, and all those you love, be so fortunate... To be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you. And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude. I pass this on to you, my friend, in the same spirit.

(((((Hugs)))))))

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably....Never regret anything that made you smile

2010-09-06T00:04:00.001-07:00

John Donne

Meditation XVII:

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Passionate Muse of Mine...such woman

2010-08-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

Isabel Allende one passionate lady who continues to surprise me with her courage to say it the way she sees it...I hope you enjoy her latest conversation about women of passion.

Click here to listen to Isabel Allende
Big Think Videos

Please donate to Chile
Mrs Allende's report from Chile

There is no safety in the world, as anyone who is not a spoiled idiot knows. Relax. You are not in control. Bad things happen. Good things happen. We can lose everything material in an instant but we can always start again from scratch. Human resilience is astounding. Fear is useless; an open heart works much better. Breathe, love, give, rejoice, share, know your neighbor, and don't waste time in pettiness. Sorry, I sound like a preacher, but this is the lesson I am learning this week in my devastated and beloved country. ~Isabel Allende

Salon interviewed Isabel , good read if you want to know more about her.

(Isabel owns a couple of my spirit dolls, she was gracious to accept them as a gift)

Maya Deren

2010-08-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

I love her passion and creativity..."The time quality of a woman...with the strengh to wait..."

The logics of love, are diferent from the logics of none love... ~ Maya Deren

2010-08-21T21:10:00.001-07:00

Wings from my friend Luna...she is such an inspiration to me.

"Wings are a universal icon as old as man's ability to notice them and incorporate them into myth, dreams, music, art and search for meaning.

So many images of wings come to mind for me this morning, soft pristine white swan's wings, leathery black and brown bat's wing, delicate powdery butterfly wings, glimmering dragonfly wings, glistening raven's wings, invisible impossible hummingbird wings, cold steel airplane wings, iridescent fairy wings, wide spread eagle's wings, stony gargoyle wings, the list is really endless as even in their universality they evoke something different for each of us.

The action of wings...spreading, soaring, lifting, beating, enfolding, escaping, protecting, rescuing, pursuing. Wings can appear silent, barely moving or with loud and frenzied flapping. The many sounds of wings...whoosh...thump. ..flap...hum.....buzz...whir...

Wings evoke a gamut of emotion: awe, fright, envy, relief, wistful, strong, free, triumph, safe, alive, restful, inspired, encouraged, hopeful.

The depiction of winged objects has changed over time. From Mercury's winged feet, Icarus's melting wax wings, to the six winged seraphim of the 1400s to current trends in paper arts in which pop art seems to put wings, and pointy dunce-like hats or wings and crowns, on vintage images of children and instant ancestors cut from old cabinet cards. Houses, clocks and hour glasses are given wings, common animals like cat and dog are given wings, and the image of heart with wings seems to endure the test of time, perhaps because the image conveys the belief that we can rise above all else, even lost love, so long as we have or have known love in our life. It may be the bridge between the divine and humankind, between mortal and immortal.

There are wings because we have need of them."

~Reprinted with her permission from Luna at her LJournal. ~
Painting on the belly cast made by me for my daughter...Liam's mom

From Walt Whitman to Anne Rice

2010-08-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

Re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,
and dismiss whatever insults your own soul...

It is also not consistent with the reality of the soul to admit that there is anything
in the known universe more divine than men and women.

The master knows that he is unspeakably great and that all are unspeakably great.
There will soon be no more priests...

They may wait awhile, perhaps a generation or two,
dropping off by degrees.

A superior breed shall take their place.
A new order shall arise and they shall be the priests of man,
and every man shall be his own priest.

Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

This redwood forest was titled The Warrior's Grove
today I dedicate it to honor Anne Rice.
May your walk into the wilderness
be always illuminated with De-Light

The Road Not Taken

2010-08-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost (1874–1963).

Ane Rice into the wilderness?

2010-08-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

(The Grail and Maria Magdalena, by Griselda)

I've been reading Carlos Castaneda's Journey to Ixtlan and this passage got me thinking.
He says:

'The secret of great hunters is to be available and unavailable at the precise turn of the road," said Don Juan. "You must learn to become deliberately available and unavailable. As your life goes now, you are unwittingly available at all times. At one time in my life, I, like you, made myself available over and over again until there was nothing of me left for anything except perhaps crying. And that I did, just like yourself. But one day I had had enough, and I changed."

I had to smile, because so many people judge Anne Rice for leaving the church...would it bother them less if she had simply said, I am making myself unavailable to organized religion?

Castaneda goes on:

"I told him his point was bypassing me. I truly could not understand what he meant by being available. He used the Spanish idioms "ponerse al alcance" and "ponerse en el medio del camino," to put oneself within reach, and to put oneself in the middle of a trafficked way. "You must take yourself away," don Juan explained. "You must retrieve yourself from the middle of a trafficked way. The art of a hunter is to become inaccessible. That means you touch the world around you sparingly. You don't use and squeeze people until they have shriveled to nothing, especially the people you love."

I remember Anne mentioning somewhere “those who go off into the wilderness to pray”...I say, those who pray go also to hunt for answers and their own truth and from that I see at this moment, Anne Rice has decided to be unavailable to organized religion going out into her own wilderness, she is not "going back to the shadows" or "has become the prodigal daughter" (such nonsense) This is a woman with conviction who happens to be marching to the sound of her own heart...following the road less traveled.

"To be unavailable means that you deliberately avoid exhausting yourself and others" ...It doesn't mean that you cannot deal with people either. A hunter uses his world sparingly and with tenderness, regardless of whether the world might be things, or plants, or animals, or people, or power. A hunter deals intimately with his world and yet he is inaccessible to that same world."

"He is inaccessible because he's not squeezing his world out of shape. He taps it lightly, stays for as long as he needs to, and then swiftly moves away, leaving hardly a mark."

Journey to Ixtlan, Carlos Castaneda

Anne Rice, her journey into A Path with Heart

2010-08-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

"I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of ...Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen." ~ Anne Rice

Anne Rice, author of Interview with the Vampire and many other amazing books is one of my muses. Through the years, I have read her books and watched her as she moved through many personal difficulties with grace, always giving of herself, allowing her readers to feel they are part of her experience.

From where I stand, I see woman of integrity, a true warrior spirit. Anne is a champion for those in need of a voice, because of her fame, people listen, because of her integrity her voice has touched many hearts and I believe, because of her commitment to truth, there will be many who will follow her into that new road she has taken away from organized religion into the realm of true spirituality.

So much has been written about her decision to leave The Catholic Church and Christianity, so many controversial discussions... I am sure you can spend hours reading about it, but if you want to go to the heart of it, simply go to her Face Book page. I only want to say in here, congratulations Anne for following your Spirit and for choosing *A Path with Heart, stay strong, be gentle with yourself and know that you have touched many lives with your wonderful talent and imagination.

May the road ahead of you give you shaded areas where to rest, may you find a life spring from where to drink and above all...I wish for you serenity and much love.
In that road you have chosen... into the wilderness there is also much singing and dancing ahead for you, I can almost hear the music from here, this is a time of celebration Anne, God speed to you, be In Spirit's De-Light!

* " Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary...
Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you."
~~ A path with Heart by Carlos Castaneda

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.  In effect, the people who change our lives the most begin to  sing to us while we are still in darkness. If we listen to  their song, we will see the dawning of a new part of ourselves."

Rabindranth Tagore

SPEAK YOUR TRUTH

2010-07-28T01:06:00.000-07:00

For every woman we have named, there are a hundred who speak; for every hundred who speak, there are a thousand who know;

For every thousand who know, there are ten thousand who do not yet know because their truth lies still deeper than all the ones who speak and can be named.

And every one of us is needed now.To do whatever we can do: to be named, to speak, to know, to not know.

And everyone, the one who can be named, who can speak, who knows, and who does not yet know, is within each of us.

These powerfully moving words, written in The Feminine Face of God by Sherry Ruth Anderson

Imagine

2010-02-07T00:12:00.001-08:00

UNENDING LOVE

2010-01-11T01:38:00.001-08:00

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times...
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time.
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers,
Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting,
the distressful tears of farewell,
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man's days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours -
And the songs of every poet past and forever.

~Rabindranath Tagore

From Selected Poems, Translated by William Radice

2009-09-14T00:00:00.001-07:00

Conciousness

2009-07-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

Consciousness preceeds thought with great clarity of awareness...

George Steiner...what a man.

2009-06-28T01:37:00.001-07:00

The ordinary man casts a shadow in a way we do not quite understand. The man of genius casts light.

George Steiner

"The fantastically wasteful prodigality of human tongues, the Babel enigman, points to a vital multiplication of mortal liberties. Each language speaks the world in its own ways. Each edifies worlds and counter-worlds in its own mode. The polyglot is a freer man."

“Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.”

“The most important tribute any human being can pay to a poem or a piece of prose he or she really loves is to learn it by heart. Not by brain, by heart; the expression is vital.”

“It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”

George Steiner

Congratulations President Obama!

2009-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

CONGRATULATIONS MR. PRESIDENT...and congratulations to anyone who dares to dream of peace, integrity and the end of hunger, any kind of hunger!

Unidos in one song

2008-12-07T09:53:00.001-08:00

The Invitation

2008-11-29T21:03:00.000-08:00

CHARTER FOR COMPASSION

2008-11-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

Compassion as empathy not pity.

Compassion as concrete action.

Compassion as a lens for scripture.

Compassion’s role as a spiritual tool and its relation to be

Compassion as fundamental to all faiths.

Compassion as an urgent global need.

Compassion as concern for everybody.

Compassion and the Golden Rule.

we need compassion to survive

snagged from bayarts

Our deepest fear...

2008-11-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Pinch Me ...a message from Michael Moore

2008-11-05T23:00:00.000-08:00

Friends,

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.

There was another important "first" last night. Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war. I hope President-elect Obama remembers that as he considers expanding the war in Afghanistan. The faith we now have will be lost if he forgets the main issue on which he beat his fellow Dems in the primaries and then a great war hero in the general election: The people of America are tired of war. Sick and tired. And their voice was loud and clear yesterday.

It's been an inexcusable 44 years since a Democrat running for president has received even just 51% of the vote. That's because most Americans haven't really liked the Democrats. They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support. Well, here's their chance. It has been handed to them, via the voting public, in the form of a man who is not a party hack, not a set-for-life Beltway bureaucrat. Will he now become one of them, or will he force them to be more like him? We pray for the latter.

But today we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago.

What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country's greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet. I know, pinch me.

We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths.

When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, "gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?" Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We've entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.

An African American has been elected President of the United States! Anything is possible! We can wrestle our economy out of the hands of the reckless rich and return it to the people. Anything is possible! Every citizen can be guaranteed health care. Anything is possible! We can stop melting the polar ice caps. Anything is possible! Those who have committed war crimes will be brought to justice. Anything is possible.

We really don't have much time. There is big work to do. But this is the week for all of us to revel in this great moment. Be humble about it. Do not treat the Republicans in your life the way they have treated you the past eight years. Show them the grace and goodness that Barack Obama exuded throughout the campaign. Though called every name in the book, he refused to lower himself to the gutter and sling the mud back. Can we follow his example? I know, it will be hard.

I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and resources to make this victory happen. It's been a long road, and huge damage has been done to this great country, not to mention to many of you who have lost your jobs, gone bankrupt from medical bills, or suffered through a loved one being shipped off to Iraq. We will now work to repair this damage, and it won't be easy.

But what a way to start! Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

We did it !!

2008-11-04T21:55:00.000-08:00

SI SE PUEDE...UNIDOS...SI SE PUEDE!!

Let in the light...SI SE PUEDE!

2008-11-02T20:32:00.001-08:00

I woke up from an interesting dream...I saw a gardener, walking up and down my street carrying a trash can full of leaves and other yard stuff, he would dump it in front of the lawn and then offer the owners to clean it up for a fee. I did not pay much attention to what the others did, but when he got to my house, I opened the door when he had already dumped his mess at my front door. I felt brave and asked him with firm voice to pick up his mess and to walk away...he did all kinds of things to stay around, pretending he had just hurt himself, I had the phone with me and started to dial 911, he said stop...I will leave now...deep inside I started to think to myself...better close the door, I have spent too much time on him.

The way I see it, it is going to take great courage and determination to pull out of conventional way of thinking, it is like we are swimming (or drowning) in a swamp of TV bad news, if it is not one thing is another, and we are hooked...! we are allowing them to trash our homes, our inner gardens, digging up our worst fears and the way we were programed as children does not work for what we need to do in this moment...nobody is coming to our rescue, we need to say NO...and close the door to all this nonsense.

I believe we would benefit from pulling the plug on any kind of negativity, allowing some fresh air to come in our homes, to wake up to the realization that we can help ourselves and take responsibility for what we say, what we see and what we hear. I feel like taking a double shower of wellness and perhaps a bit of happiness, it has been a long month of fearful thinking.

Just imagine how the world would be if all TV's news stop broadcasting information with bad news...are we so enchanted by the media and addicted to the point of no return?

What about our kids?
This is all they hear now days...that we have ruined their future and world where they will live in is already doomed

It might take for each one of us to start new and support people who give us a sense of commitment and empowerment for causes that truly make our world a garden of abundance and prosperity, a place where we can create, with compassion and peace for everyone.

Let in the light !

Unidos !!

Obama: The Man Who Will Change The World

2008-10-23T23:11:00.000-07:00

by Deepak Chopra

Wanting to change the world is different from having to. The latter is what's expected of Barack Obama if he's elected. The huge crowds he keeps attracting aren't looking simply for a new leader, or even a reformer to undo the bad things wrought by the Republicans. They are looking for transformation. This isn't pure fantasy. Sometimes history forces change right before your eyes, and when that happens the road forks. You can tinker with the world as it is or you can remake the world as it should be.

Obama hasn't given clear signals yet about which road he might take, because the ritual and theater of election campaigns force a candidate to spend a lot of time telling people what they want to hear. The last president who drastically remade the country was FDR, and yet nothing of the sort was expected when he ran in 1932. Roosevelt could have turned into a better Herbert Hoover, rescuing failed banks, restoring trust in government, bringing people back to a sense of hope and safety.

Those are all good things, and Obama is poised to repeat them seventy years later. But if he does nothing more, the world won't change. While he attacked the basic problem of the Great Depression, FDR laid down the template of the modern social welfare state. His actions didn't immediately create prosperity -- far from it -- but they expanded opportunities for millions of people, stripped the old elites of their absolute power, and gave Americans their first economic safety net in Social Security.

I would hate to see Obama turn into a better Herbert Hoover. He could, and should, lay down a template for the next fifty years. It's no secret that we need to repair our image abroad, deal with Islamic extremism in a better way, open up global markets, repair our infrastructure, shift away from fossil fuels, and attack global warming with clear, vigorous policies. For many people, accomplishing those things would be a page-tuner after eight years of reactionary neoconservatism. But they wouldn't change the world.

What would change the world is the following:

Get America off a war footing. We've been armed for imminent war since 1945.
Develop an economy that makes a profit on peace. At present, we are dependent on arms and arms dealing.
Get the rest of the world not to fear us.
Take the side of the world's dispossessed people, who only now are seeing the possibility of a decent life in India, China, southeast Asia, and much of Russia.
Bring humanity and humane conditions to all of Africa.
Stop dividing the world along ideological lines and religious factions. We need to be a secular leader friendly to all sides.
Speed up nuclear disarmament until all weapons stockpiles are gone in this generation.

I hope Obama is thinking along these lines, because if he isn't, the best he can hope for is a prosperous interval, like the Clinton years, while the underlying militarism and religious fractures fester. Two presidents -- Lincoln and FDR -- heeded history's call with the utmost foresight, never compromising their vision. The difference here is that we aren't facing civil war or economic ruin. America has an opportunity to change the world through free choice, by looking at what would be best rather than what has always worked.

Dear Brutus...

2008-10-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves,that we are underlings.

- W.Shakespeare

For you... leaving a hot cup of coffee next to your computer.

2008-10-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

RAISE THE DEAD

2008-10-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

by Colin Devlin

You will be enchanted!

DO NOT VOTE!

2008-10-04T22:31:00.001-07:00

Deepak Chopra on Obama and Palin

2008-10-01T01:35:00.000-07:00

(I "borrowed" this from my friend Cynjon's blog)

Obama and the Palin Effect
Deepak Chopra - September 04, 2008

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses . In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other."

For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time.

She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum.

The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

Historia de un Letrero

2008-09-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

Inspiring Artist

2008-09-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight I met Maia Waye and her amazing visionary art...
a reflection of her beautiful soul!
Click on her image and make sure to visit her Etsy Store.

Frida Kahlo at SFMOMA

2008-07-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

My daughter and I went to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art...what an incredible display of jewels, the paintings are so beautiful, such detail...and there was a large collection of photos taken during her lifetime.

I was enchanted savoring one after the other falling deeper into that spell of timeless beauty and the realization that Frida will live forever as long as we remember her work.

I am thankful for the opportunity to view such complete body of her work, specially because I was with my baby girl :) I think when I am gone, she will always remember that we had this time together, now I just have to wait for Judy Chicago to have The Dinner Party on an other exhibit, that would be amazing to share with Veronica.

Amazing Grace

2008-03-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

My friend Stacey posted this article in her LiveJournal, I had to bring it here and share it with you. I am amazed and deeply touched by this woman, and thankful to Stacey.

Click here to watch Jill Bolte Taylor.

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...

"How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career."

Jill Bolte Taylor

Becoming an artist

2008-02-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

I "became an artist" because I was not able to make it in school or to sustain any kind of career out there in the "real world". I was hopeless as a student and becoming a secretary would be out of the question...(thank goodness for that) so, perhaps painting and selling my art would show me the way to become "someone"

What a horrible feeling that was, fortunately for me, my mother was already making "a living" at being a painter and she became my first art teacher, a very tough one at that, she made sure I did not fail to show up every day early in the morning in her studio, ready to paint...one large painting a day or else, she said!

For all that, I am thankful, as hard as it was at times, this discipline gave me a place from where to start and the opportunity to meet some wonderful art/life teachers later on. It is interesting to see how much energy we place on kids becoming "someone" when they are not even sure who they are in the moment. I am fortunate for the seeds of creativity planted in my soul, because I have grown to love my art and the passion for discovering news ways to express is enough to make me cry...Thanks mom.
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PS
That girl...is me at 18, in an oil painting done by my brother Arturo Tello from a photo taken about the time when I started to show my art work at The Jardin del Arte in Mexico City.

Mexico lindo y querido...

2007-12-21T00:40:00.000-08:00

I found an amazing collection of photos in a Spanish site, I have never seen something like this in one page.
You don't need to read Spanish to enjoy, this is Mexico City and some of the towns near by.
I lived there for 10 years during my teens.

My Home/Studio

2007-12-20T10:29:00.001-08:00

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love. ~Rumi

This is my home/studio, my nest and delight.

Back to my Secret Garden

2007-12-20T09:17:00.000-08:00

GPP Street Team Crusade No. 15 for December, Where in the world?

The house was built in Tulancingo Hidalgo, a small town in Mexico, by my great grandparents in the middle of the 1800, they came to Mexico from Italy (I am not quite sure from what town) and started a soap factory in the back of the house which was modest compared to the house where my father grew up, but it had many rooms and wonderful places to hide. :) My mother told me the story of how our own home came to be part of my grandparents house. When she was 15 years old, half of her house was destroyed by fire (along with her piano) and when she got married, my grandfather gave her the area of the house that was burned down to start her house, so all the front of the property became our home and where their store used to be years later, it became my father's veterinary pharmacy, the storage rooms became my mother's workshop.

This house has many dimensions in my mind, because the garden represents to me the bridge from my home to the older area... I can see myself "changing worlds" you could set your watch by the actions of my grandmother, she was methodical and very set in "the old ways"...my mother was modern, a busy lady, always discovering and learning something new, and teaching her helpers to keep up with the business of her workshop, she managed the house, 4 kids, and the pharmacy too... that was my mother's world, of my dad we did not see much he traveled quite a bit.

In my memory I treasure the enchantment of playing in back rooms with my brother ...we built shelters and caves under the soap factory's stairs, I also enjoyed playing alone in my secret garden under the trees, or sitting next to my grandmother learning how to knit, listening to the radio after the chores were done, I was her little helper :) and she was tough too, she demanded perfection! I still think of her when I sweep the patio, in fact, sweeping is like a moving meditation for me.

I remember making a bed every morning... a huge task for a 6 year old or standing on a chair "cooking" with her and the day I learned how to kill a chicken..."so I would be a good wife" for goodness sakes! She did not have a gas range until much later, never had a need for a TV but adored the movies and we often went to Mexico city to the Palace of Fine Arts to concerts or the opera. We listened to the "novelas" the popular dramas/soaps with their melodious voices that let our imagination fly while she quietly moved her hands in the marvelous embroidery she had always going on.

That secret garden of my youth is very vivid in my mind, with the aromas of orange blossoms and the magic of the grapefruit tree. She had a jacaranda tree that turned bright purple, buganvilias in many colors and the largest collection of geraniums, rosemary and her precious Laurel tree from India (which leaves she used for cooking but she warned me not to get it confused with the Oleander...if I had I would not be typing this... shudders*)

Ohh ...I can go on and on, please forgive me if I just move on to the part where I came back to my home in ruins.

Last time I visited my hometown, I decided to go up to the house and knock on the door, an older lady who took forever to respond asked me with fearful eyes if I was in the right place. When I told her who I was she started to cry and said, no, you don't want to come in, the place is nothing like you remember, it is ruined...she was taking care of the place until it got sold. She also said, she had worked for my mother in her workshop and her daughter and I used to play together as kids. I followed her to the back of the house (the part that was my home was now an office) and my heart took it all in, making sure to set aside this reality as something that could destroyed the memories of my childhood. The trees were gone, no more flowers, but the floor was there and my eyes took it all in, old tiles for the grandparents side and red and white mosaics on the newer area, only cement where the garden have been. I had to smile, the place look so small, so naked!

She let me in the dinning room which was her living area, no more antiques full of grandmothers dishes and great grandparents china...I sat there making small conversation, (she would not let me back into the other rooms, she said it was not possible, she felt I would be shocked) She kept this room and the kitchen warm and clean, we had coffee and I tried to relax taking it all in...my eyes followed the patterns in the floor, I remember when my grandmother hired a man to place it...it was a quilt of marvelous colors and textures...she had purchased all the leftovers from some factory in town and proceeded to make remodel the tile floor, she did the same with a fan shape wall separator that divided the dinning room from the kitchen, with stain glass, the only modern touches to her ancient place. I felt my heart swelling with gratitude for this lady who had allowed me into my place of dreams, even tho it was in ruins, because on my way out, she guided me to the workshop area and pushing the door open said, there is a table full of stuff, may be you can find something to take with you.

I did...there was an old framed print of St Anthony holding baby Jesus, in very good condition, so full of dust it was hard to see and someone missed it, or was it waiting for me? This is the very same print my grandmother used to have above her bed, and because I slept with her most of the time, I remember looking at it while I said my prayers. It hangs in my bedroom, next to a drum from my women's gathering.

Thanks for reading and for your patience. I hope the following days are full of joy and peace for you.

Where in the world...

2007-12-11T17:07:00.001-08:00

GPP Street Team Crusade No. 15 for December, Where in the world? was easy because I had already done a blog somewhere else on the theme. Thanks again Michelle, for your vision...you have a way to weave our blogs with a sense of community... I love drifting through blogs meeting such creative people. You make my day much brighter.

I was born in Tulancingo Hidalgo, I lived there for 11 years. We moved to Mexico City and lived there for another 10 years, then we left the country in search of what my mother called "a better education" for her kids and have lived in California ever since then.

A friend of mine is visiting my hometown and I had asked her to take photos of my grandparents house, she wrote back saying, the house is now a tall building!
I went looking online and I realized that indeed, the house is there, crowned with this monster of a building...I thought my uncle had purchased the house next door but now I realized he did just that and extended his clinic to my grandparents house which was in a corner lot, ..I am glad to see part of it still visible but sad somehow...because in my mind this is a white building with natural red brick and each room opening to the outside with slender windows and its French doors. (No wonder Frida Kahlo house reminds me of my grandparents, they were very much the same in their day)

Now, grandma's living room...is the local office of Century 21! (it is only fair, I work with them now days) Their pharmacy is now where my grandparents bedroom suite used to be..the house was very large because they had 10 children and many others in their staff, their place took the better part of 1/4 of a block. I don't see what they did with the other side, only the corner is visible in these photos.
The main entrance and all the windows are there, what tells me they are using the rooms for offices and the patio and rest of the house was turned into a building The old High School looks the same! The church of Los Angeles ...with their small park, called Jardin de La Floresta, and the historical Cathedral and the pride of Tulancingo, the Colonial Hotel which used to be the home of my friend Queta's grandparents.

I have this photo on my computer all the time, it makes me smile Tulancingo at night

This is the Tulancingo of my grandparents and I still remember many of those buildings

My Studio

2007-11-23T22:26:00.000-08:00

My Brother and his passion for nature

2007-11-14T01:19:00.001-08:00

Twenty years ago, Santa Barbara’s Oak Group painters began just such an exploration of nature, with the idea that the results might help preserve the environment itself. Among the Oak Group’s founders was Arturo Tello, one of three artists whose work is currently featured at the Easton Gallery. Tello has recently been collaborating on a book of illustrated haiku. Perhaps for that reason, many of his paintings, split between trees and sullen scapes, bear abstract titles. A view of dark mountains is called “Passion”; a stand of eucalyptus gets the title “Permanence.” At times, the themes seem arbitrary. “Legacy,” tall trees standing near a cliff, looks pretty impermanent until you read the title. Other works, like “Bliss” — a burst of blooming bougainvillea — and “Afterglow,” obviously mirror the idea.

Dragonflies Passion Dance

2007-05-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

I just finished a series of paintings for a client, she purchased two in the group, the one of the top on the right and the bottom one on the left with 3 dragonflies, the other two are available, if you are interested feel free to email me at gristello@gmail.com

Two more paintings

2007-03-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

Two more paintings from the Tahoe Series are finished
now I just have to let them dry and they will be delivered to the gallery...yeah!

New Redwood Paintings

2007-03-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone, I hope you are enjoying the begining of Springtime.
Here are my new paintings.

VISIONARY LANDSCAPES

2006-08-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

My latest painting...

2006-04-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

I did it, I did it!!
I finally finished one of my Redwood paintings, it took me forever and have to confess that in between I did some polymer faces and menial chores just to avoid finishing this painting (one of 3) but now I am well on my way and ready to finish the other two.

I love painting with oils, nothing can compare to doing this type of work. I feel very proud of myself.

Original Paintings Art Gallery

2006-04-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Swan

By the Sea

These paintings are available, email me for more information gristello@email.com
All paintings and other works of art on these pages are my own originals.
- All rights reserved - © 1989 & 2006 Griselda.

COTTAGES AND GARDENS
Privately Owned

All paintings and other works of art on these pages are my own originals.
- All rights reserved - © 1989 & 2006 Griselda.

VISIONARY LANDSCAPES

2006-04-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

Some say visionary art transcends the physical world and portrays a wider vision of mystical or spiritual awareness. For me fantasy or visionary art is a way to retreat into spaces of imaginary beauty.

All paintings and other works of art on these pages are my own originals.
- All rights reserved - © 1989 & 2006 Griselda.

Costal California Redwood Forest

2006-04-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Vintage Paintings in private collections

The Coastal Redwood of California is the world's tallest tree and one of the oldest. These majestic trees, stand alone as sentinels in time, they need our protection!
"In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught."
- Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet
Please visit this site, Save the Redwoods League
I am currently working on a series of Redwood scenes which I will be posting here as soon as they are ready.

All paintings and other works of art are my own originals.
- All rights reserved - © 1989 & 2006 Griselda.

Please, visit my eBay Store.

The Making of Art Dolls

Gallery of Spirit Art Dolls

Gallery of my paintings

If you would like more information, please e-mail
me at gristello@gmail.com

I am a proud member of Worldwide Women Artists, an international collective of women artists
showing and selling our work through the worldwide web. To see more great original art, visit our website

Worldwide Women Artists

Also, you can see our work on eBay