Open to Unknown Blessings

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.  

~ Native American Saying~

Happy Thanks Giving!

Mandalas and more

I have been truly remiss in posting here.  My life has been filled to the brim, with new work, creative endeavors and more and more SoulCollage® experiences.  So where to begin, with Mandala's of course.  A week ago,Patricia Waters and I facilitated a Gratitude Mandala Day, at the  Journey Center in Santa Rosa. It was a  sweet, small group,  and we all moved very deeply into the healing aspects of creating Mandala's.  None of us completed our mandalas, but everyone got  quite a bit done and loved every minute of it.   So to continue with  my usual love of   sharing  this process  I am posting the photos that I took of that day here.

 Scale of light practice drawings...

 Small mandalas

 Here is Elizabeth with her absolutely magical mandala that she started at our 

Fall Mandala Day and recently finished.

 Here is a close up of her stunning mandala.

Stay This Moment

 Heart Energy Abounds as we focus on gratitude.

 As the day drew near to an end, almost everyone started to add 

the life energy of color to their mandala's.

 Patricia flew in from the big island the night before our workshop, and swam with a turtle  so this experience was reflected   in her wonderful healing mandala.

 This final one is my mandala, which is obviously just in its beginning stages.  

I will post this again as it progresses.  

Focusing our intentions, and awareness on what we are grateful for, while being present in the 

moment for whatever came up, was a very powerful experience.  

I am really blessed to be doing and sharing this work with others.  I am truly grateful for more life.

The Grammar of Gratitude

To learn the grammar of gratitude, 

we must practice saying thank you for both happy and challenging experiences,

  for people, animals, things, memories, dreams and art.

Count your blessings, praise and give thanks 

for the simple things,

 the everyday, the easily forgotten as well as the 

big and the impressive.

Utter blessings and express appreciation to

 everything and everyone that you encounter. 

 By paying attention and blessing 

we are blessed.

This is the practice of Gratitude that makes 

each moment 

and experience sacred 

and transformative.

Happy Day of Thanksgiving.

This wonderful encaustic piece is available as a matted print at my etsy shop now.

Gratitude Bowl-Grammar of Gratitude

Mandala Progression

I love to draw with prismacolor pencils...and whenever I begin a new mandala I am lost for days whenever I have a spare moment...in between work...and details of  a life fully lived.  Here is the Mandala I began at the last Mandala workshop.  This is a gratitude mandala, in honor of the abundance and blessings in my life

I focused on the image of the house because it symbolizes my life and all that is filled with meaning and joy.   This is as far as I have gotten...but I plan on cleaning up the inside of the house and enriching the colors encircling it.  I love to slow down and move into the soothing esthetic trance that creating mandalas with prismacolor pencils brings forth.  MOre to come.. on this piece I am sure. 

I Dreamed of Gratitude - Altered Book-Counting Blessings

Counting Blessings...an ongoing altered book process.  

I am so grateful for so many things........

       "If the Only prayer you said in your whole life was "thank you"  that would suffice."

                                                                         Meister Ekhart

About three weeks ago I dreamed about creating a Gratitude Book and the cover appearing in my dream.   It was called " Counting Blessings"

And so I have been slowly working in it over time...

  I have decided to post what I have done so far...

I am working on placing as much attention as possible 

in my life on what I am grateful for.  

I am grateful for so many things....

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial in acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow".                                            Melody Beattie