Distortion

As a woman there's no getting away from society's distorted obsession with the perfect body, the perfect face, the ideal weight, the 'look'. My daughter is on the precipice of adolescence and is trying to figure out how to 'be' in the world, perfect just as she is in this moment.

So many barricades ahead of her including her own friends, boys (& men), the media machine and Lady Gaga!

My daughter is thoughtful and curious and already has a strong sense of self and belief in who she is. But when she comes home from school asking me if she's ugly it breaks my heart.

For now I will be the mirror that reflects her beauty. The beauty I can see both inside and out until she can see it for herself without distortion, without the veil of self-hatred and ridicule. As I watch her in front of her bedroom mirror she looks at her profile from this side and that, frowning. Finally she grins at her reflection and at me watching her. Head cocked to one side she winks at herself and says ' hey there gorgeous'.

distortion

distort: to pull or twist out of shape.
to perceive your circumstances through distortion can make the mundane magical.


di

teacup in a storm

the word of the week, if you want a word, is STORM. this picture above these words is called TEACUPS IN A STORM. The picture is the result of a meditation on motherhood, why we weather the storm of life in isolated pockets, not quite able to help others, to busy bailing out our own teacup. An expansion of the idea of A STORM IN A TEACUP, which is a idiom meaning someone is exaggerating a problem, or making a small thing out to be much bigger than reality. I found myself thinking if families were in teacups in a storm on the sea, then the teacup would seem small and insignificant, but so fragile. By bringing the storm outside of the teacup we see that all the different families are weathering the same storm, would this storm be easier to weather in a larger vessel containing everyone? or have we rejected the idea of community (in the tribal sense) in favour of small family groups living separately?

It is true, for me, that much art and creative writing is born from sorrow, fear, oppression and the darker emotions, why is it that in happiness we forget to write in our diary, or make art or stories.
As a mother, in my teacup, I find that I am the captian. If i forget the directions, or fail to meet the mark, I have to bail out the teacup. I see other captians in their teacups doing the same; all we can do is nod, smile and keep bailing.
In TEACUPS IN A STORM you see some crowded teacups, some solo, to represent the various numbers that make up a family unit. I have left them faceless because the anonymity of isolation and the pretense that we are coping. Some of the teacup families are happy despite the storm, others are very unhappy.
It is created from sorrow, but the process of meditating the idea then expressing the idea as a picture has made the sorrow of motherhood less and the acceptance easier. We must embrace our circumstances and make the best we can with what we have, resentment is a wasted emotion: LET IT FLOW, AND LET IT GO.[way of the peaceful warrior, teachings for living in the Here and Now].

EnOugh is EnOugh

I've had ENOUGH children. 3 daughters to care for, we have ENOUGH money- we don't need much. Sometimes I say "I've had ENOUGH"- but i know, i would gladly cope with more.
the MORE children I have the MORE active I become. I do much MORE now than when I was only responsible for me- I used to say "there's not ENOUGH time", but now I make the time.
Resourceful and organised, we can have ENOUGH.

With many voices we say "WE"VE HAD ENOUGH" - but we are not heard, or rather ignored... whether we rally for home birth, old growth forest or climate change...

Have you heard of FREEGANISM? when there is EXCESS produced that you can eat from dumpsters, a society with MORE then ENOUGH, has given birth to a movement, a lifestyle, and a solution. Dumpster Diving and Squatting unused buildings, occupying spaces that are forgotten, and discarded.

Mother Earth has ENOUGH, yet we rape her resources to fill the wallets of a few. These FEW will never have ENOUGH in their wallet, for they are soulless destroyers, without conscience.

well i say: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, do you really need that Air-Con? what are you consuming? and does it really matter? I hear of the fad about 365 consumer-free challenge: but mostly it is a joke at best- "OH" they say, "i'll buy no new clothes for a year!" but I'll still drive my 4WD, and have the pay-tv and the Air-Con and the gormet organic food imported from italy... get real. Are you so consumerist that the challenge reduces your consumption to a point still higher than the average hippy or low-income family?
THINK about it.

ENOUGH said!

In the beginning...

In the Beginning, before blogs, before computers, before civilisation, the first artist made the first creative mark. my guess was that artist was Lilith. [read "Daughter of Night: A tale of three worlds" by Lydia Obukhova].

Since Lilith, the original mother, many daughters have inherited the innate desire to create. To bring forth beauty, expression, ideas and to perpetuate them into the future through our daughters.

Our deep creative wisdom is often flawed, hidden or forgotten- since a society developed with masculine ideals and the sacred feminine beaten back into depths, darkness.

For many the journey into motherhood brings these memories to the fore, inspiring women to create. This is why BIRTH is so sacred, this is why the midwives were hunted.
Birth, the sacred feminine, the glorious journey of transformation, has been slowly stolen from the women and is largely forgotten. But for the dwindling Number of women who do have a natural birth these forgotten pathways open- though they may not understand the transformation, these woman are changed.

You may think you are not artistic, or creative, but awaken the deep memory of Lilith and forget the prescribed notions of "art", and discover your Gifts.