Meet “The Abbess,” a new mixed-media creation that emerged over the last two days of intensive infusions as I contemplated LOVE in its many forms (365 Days of LOVE).
Monday began with my customary practice of fractal meditation, where I use a black Sharpie on white paper and draw fractals to relax my mind.
Having been in the hospital over the holidays, knowing that I need a central line sooner than later (but the doctors are weary after sepsis this summer), the first IV start before fluids felt a bit dicey.
Thankfully, the sticks don’t bother me anymore. I’m concerned about the implications of no venous access, and I was stuck more than 30 times recently.
Time to “thread the needle!”
My nurse and I relaxed our energies to ensure our nervous systems were quiet and nonthreatening (you’d be surprised how quickly my jumpy veins dive and disappear). The result - she not only got a line in, but it was a good one!
With the IV placed, my job was to do my best to maintain access, including overnight.
Contemplative art allows my mind to rest as my hands push the pen across the page, and my eyes observe with delight.
You might have noticed that this process is the inverse—rather than drawing from mind to hand, I practice the art of creating from my hands to my brain. How? By following the primal nudges I feel in my hands and letting go.
Back to The Abbess…
What started as a line became a feather on a stick resembling a dream catcher or a shamanic talisman.
Then I turned the paper vertically, and she appeared.
Still, she was incomplete, until I placed her over my painting called “Surrender to Fluidity.” She’s symbolically walking through the waters of transformation, courageously carrying what I imagine to be all of humanity in this very tumultuous time.
She humbly lives her life in service of LOVE - otherwise called GOD, Mystery, Spirit, Universe, Divine, Ground of Being - at a time when men debate the very role of women in the church.
She persists because humanity is struggling; women and children are suffering.
Ineffable Harmony
In the space beyond human comprehension where LOVE / God pours forth kenosis, there exists a reconciliation for every problem.
It is with the deepest of faith that the Abbess surrenders entirely to God, and listens for the tiny nudges to show her the way.
“Feathers on the breath of God,” Hildegard of Bingham
Prints Available - DM for info.
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