Haiku Ellipses...Invitation...Response...

SEASONS new birth in springtime grow and produce in summer fall brings freedom...death! the leaves and colors represent transitions from birth to death in the leaf and circle imagery below...the analogy for humans is: we are born, we grow, we flourish (including, usually, producing offspring), and then we fade from one kind of active life to harvesting our wisdom and passing it on to the next generation, hopefully before we die... there are many possible scenarios after death including reincarnation, heaven, merging with universal consciousness and so forth, but all of us here and now have this one life to live, grow, produce, pass on our wisdom, and hopefully, with dignity, transition to whatever awaits us.   the practice for "seasons" will depend on what season of life one is "in," although there are no clear age markers as transitions...for those in childhood and teenage years, finding our identity and purpose is paramount...adult years can be filled with meaning...

GOLDEN TREE golden tree of life rooted in flowing water yielding purple fruit i've drawn this type of tree since i was a little boy, and in my middle years i added a flowing stream near its roots to my drawing, and then in my later years, i've added fruit to the tree drawings... sometimes it takes a lifetime for a tree or plant to bear fruit...i tend two varieties of hardy kiwi vines, and neither has ever flowered in the last decade...i've transplanted the male and female variety to a new location 3 years ago, and the self-pollinating variety i transplanted four years ago--both show good vine growth but neither has flowered...perhaps they have not reached maturity, or maybe they are missing some vital nutrient that the "flowing water" would provide...hopefully, in time, they will bear fruit...in the meantime, i cultivate patience with myself and with my inner and outer gardens. we all are have gifts/talents/skills that often take time to bear fruit in our lives......

PUREST WHITE LIGHT circling colors leading into a vortex  of purest white light From the purest white light, refracted, all the colors of the rainbow emerge, and these are only the colors in the visible spectrum that we as humans can see--other beings, like insects, bees for instance, can see "landing patterns" on flowers, like the morning glory, that remain invisible to us as humans. Metaphorically, as a practice, we might consider different circumstances in life (e.g., a relationship, job, education, book, song, poetry, place in nature, etc) as the "white light" that opens to multi-colored life lessons.  Take one of your favorite songs, and test out this hypothesis right now...does not a moments reflection yield evidence many life lessons that this one favorite song has opened for you, particularly if you've lived with this song for many years? Similarly, our relationships with other people, nature, and the divine can open us to multi-colored truths.

PINK , RED , AND BLACK       pink, red, and black shapes different but something the same 3 cute bikinis at first landing state park in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the Chesapeake Bay, there are many kinds of people in the summer time clothed in many colors and kinds of attire...here i note the color differences between pink, red, and black, and the corresponding different shapes...the outer geometric shapes appear different, but on closer inspection, there are similarities within the shapes, e.g., the asterisk star representing the naval chakra, the downward pointed isosceles triangle representing the root chakra... practice: look for beauty in the human form, and beauty in colors and shapes of clothing that adorn the form...can we see below the forms to the inner beauty in all of them?

GALAXIES ON FIRE circles of colors pulsating, undulating galaxies on fire i love the interweaving of colored, spirally, circular shapes that remind me of clusters of galaxies that pulsate, undulate, and dance with the energy of fire... consider dancing with the fire of the different galaxy clusters (parts of your life...a simple beginning is to consider the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of your life--for a deeper meditation of these aspects see Stephan A. Schwartz's book The 8 laws of change --word power meditation). alternatively, one might think of the colored circles as different energy centers akin to chakras (see Joyce Hawkes book Cell level healing for meditation on colored chakras). 

IMMORTAL DIAMOND Starting with a cross adding more crosses and dots immortal diamond Immortal diamond is comprised of many crosses...Richard Rhor's book The Immortal Diamond  discusses the mystery of the cross, the paschal mystery, the life, death, and resurrection of Christ as a pattern for all life...that all of us live, die many mini deaths before our final mortal death, and have many resurrections before we die...this pattern is the way of nature, plants living, dying, and resurrecting from seeds to grow more plants...one characteristic of this mysterious pattern is the immortal diamond, an eternal and unbreakable pattern. For practice, let us examine our lives for where there is life, death, and resurrection...let us take comfort in the thought that we are patterned after the immortal diamond.

ALL THE TIME 5 senses dancing with each other to create being, thoughts, feelings All this is happening, all the time....every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of every decade of every life...are we aware of any of it? how do we make any sense of it ALL? The 5 senses give rise to our thought forms and feelings, to our sense of self, enabling us to listen to each other and to all of life (the song of life--self, others, nature, and God/Goddess--the Divine), to rising consciousness...my son Danny, when i showed him the picture below, said it reminded him of a CELL--yes, the cell of life...see book C ell level healing: The bridge from soul  to cell by Joyce Whiteley Hawkes for more on this. Practice: To stop in the middle of our day (and/or at the beginning and/or end), and meditatively conduct a sensory sweep of our beingness, systematically directing our attention to each of the senses--both inside and outside of us...what...

GOLDEN BALL OF LIGHT AND LOVE Oh healing loving gold sphere of light energy fill us with your love The golden ball of light is an image in many  meditations...i add the phrase "healing, loving" and visualize the golden ball of light in my abdominal area, radiating healing and love throughout my body, and beyond to all creation. As a practice for morning prayer/mediation, after connecting with the healing, loving golden ball of light and energy in my abdomen, i imagine different people inside of this golden ball, sending them healing, loving light and energy...i also include all of mother nature...from the fungi in the soil, to insects (e.g., dragonfly), reptiles (e.g., sky blue lizard), amphibians (e.g., frogs), and animals (e.g., dogs) as well as plants, flowers, trees, birds and the elemental mountains, hills, canyons, valleys, waterfalls, rainfall, rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, puddles, waterways, bays, oceans, sky, sun, moon, stars, planets, galaxies, and all of creati...

ALMOND from almond center all creation emerges divine feminine in sacred geometry, one begins with the monad, a single circle...adding a second overlapping circle makes for the dyad, and in the intersection of the dyads lies the almond at the center...in the space of the almond there is a smaller almond shape, a portal, the birthing place of all creation...the divine feminine. what two circles (areas or things) of your life can you bring together in a mutual interaction/dialogue to create something new that neither circle alone could create?  what newness can you birth into the universe as an act of divine feminine?    

TREE PEOPLE the human being  locked within the bark of tree grounded and stretching bare plywood makes up the inside of the double doors to our outside shed...observing closely outlines of robed figures, dark brown heads, flowing robes, outstretched arms touching each other at the fingertips, all surrounded by layered rings...these are tree people living inside the wooden panels of the doors...similarly in the image below, there is a tree person stretching, yearning, reaching for the sky while simultaneously planted/grounded in Mother earth. being grounded in the earth and simultaneously stretching for the sky is a dynamic tension  within us, the urge for rootedness, for home and family, and also the urge to grow, to reach beyond to something greater... i like to imagine i am tree , grounded, standing barefoot on the earth while facing the rising sunrise, letting my arms and hands, like branches, reach toward the sun in a symbolic gesture: oh great sun, fill us with your lov...