Most evenings, I walk by the river. My favourite place to be is a grove of Casuarinas. Two weeks ago, a storm ripped through the grove, mortally injuring one of the trees. The leader was ripped from the trunk and crashed through nearby trees. While not hurting the others much, its’ branches were precariously out of balance on a split trunk, and were soon removed. The grove is very quiet today.
I wondered why I was so moved; why this matters when so many awful things are happening in the world. Well… we can only do what we can with what we have, and from where we’re at. Worrying distractions over which we have no control keep us in a cortisol-flooded state; anxious, foggy brained and on edge, unable to learn or make well-considered decisions. My intention today is to calm and nourish so you can remember what matters.
Remember trees you have loved?
Trees have long been a source of solace for me. In my teens, I’d sketch the red river gums, finding faces and gnarled hands among the knots and roots. They taught me to see more deeply than the surface of things.
With my twenties came the ancients of the Tasmanian wilderness, via Peter Dombrovskis’ beautiful photographs. Pinned to my bedroom wall his photos played a huge role in raising awareness of the astonishing beauty of the Tasmanian/Lutruwita forests, supporting the Franklin River saving activism of Dr Bob Brown.
Many trees later, Casuarinas came to the fore around the time my father was dying (2014). After his passing, I made a large painting The Sound of Casuarinas, reminded of his plantings of those gentle trees on the banks of the Murrumbidgee and the soothing shhhhhhhh-sound they made as the breeze passes through.
The following year I was entranced by the ancient Olives right near San Damiano Church at Assisi where St Francis received a holy vision and instruction. The feature photo shows Br Wolfgang Novak with one of those ancient tree-beings.
Back in 2017, on the way back from Tassajara Zen Mountain Centre, we (Kaz, Suzanna and I) stopped at Carmel-by-Sea and Monterey, home of the Monterey pine, or pinus radiata. They thrive in forested thousands here in the Snowy Valley. Introduced into Australia during the 1850’s Gold Rush, I came across an enormous Monterey Pine at Hill End while artist in residence there ten years ago. A town renowned for its’ huge migrant population seeking gold, I’d not realised the majestic tree hailed from California until visiting the Monterey area.
While there, I remembered Wayne Dyer’s ‘The Shift’ had been filmed there. Compelled to watch the film again a few days ago, not surprisingly, after ten plus years, I saw it quite differently. A recurrent motif, the windswept Monterey pines suggest we too have been through much ‘weather.’ Their steadfastness brings a contemplative power to the film.
One of the main characters is a woman who yearns to paint again. A busy mother of two young boys and wife of a man who seems to be mostly on ‘planet sport.’ The viewer witnesses her exhaustion, frustration, wonder, fear, courage, blissful creative expression and exhilarated return to her Self. Her courage wins as she follows ‘the call’ – her soul’s need to be expressed in this way.
She says this:
‘When I paint, I go somewhere. I feel connected. I feel bliss… I miss it so much…’
Asking her husband if she might stay another week there on vacation, she says ‘I need to reorient myself. I need to find my way back, and I need solitude to do it.’
This is spiritual work. Finding one’s way back through painting – that’s what I did, four times because of getting caught up in imposed systems and others’ opinions. Nevertheless, after years of wandering and wondering, training and practising, I know my methods and system are richly developed, well-tested, proven and refined. I’m glad for my divergent path as it’s qualified me to be a companion for the way back.
Like that young mother in the film, when Rose was little, I picked up my brushes thinking it was decadent and knowing it was entirely necessary. Despite changing track to do what I loved, recurrent illness presented challenging life circumstances. Or vice versa. Both, really. While there are often many contributing factors to ill health, I see retrospectively, it was not so much what I was doing, rather, how.
In short, striving is not the way to good health and happiness. As Dyer says – stop striving and start arriving. You’re enough.
Wayne Dyer reminds us that everything required for us to live into a more purposeful life is there right from the beginning. We’re not what we have, what we do or what others think. The call, he believes, is an invitation to find out who you are and why you’re here: do not ignore the calling. You have just as much right to follow it as anyone else.
In ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’ Rebecca Solnit writes:
‘The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation. Love, wisdom, grace, inspiration – how do you go about finding these things that are in some ways about extending the boundaries of the self into unknown territory, about becoming someone else?’
The way is not by logic. The way, I suspect, is poetic. What seemingly little things have you dismissed as insignificant, and yet in the quiet moments they return like a fragrant flower? What were the conditions?
In the current climate, we need poets to speak to and affirm the human spirit; that part of us that seeks to be expressed and evolve through creative process. Poets transcend the mean, disparaging and dismissive remarks of ‘woo woo’ and ‘the world doesn’t need any more artists.’
Really?
The world needs more peace. More love. More gentleness. More awareness. More symphonies. More dance. More plays and poems. More colour. More interrupting of divisive old patterns. More people to bring forth their gifts by whatever means they feel/hear/know ‘the call.’
More people are listening.
Quoting Lao Tzu, Dyer notes what was important in the first half of life is not so later in life, and without awareness of this, we end up living a lie. Our culture has no guidance system for how to recognise this or make the transition into the second half of life – the meaning phase – but we do. Discontent and intuition. But going fast, there’s no time for listening.
That’s the opportunity in any kind of crisis. I might have slapped someone who told me such a thing whilst in the middle of awfulness. Disruptive, distressing and totally inconvenient, a crisis enforces stopping. Re-evaluation and revision of values can unfold once the dust settles and thought is possible.
Dyer cites a study, which assessed the values of people before and after ‘the shift.’ Generally, during the first half of life men’s primary value was wealth-making, and after the shift, spirituality. Women’s main value prior to mid-life was family, and after, their own personal growth, seeking fulfilment and spirituality.
These are the kind of people I’ve worked with since 2012. Men and women who did my Tree of Life contemplative art project will remember the ‘Make your Sacred Art’ course held in Daylesford, Brucedale (Wagga Wagga) and Canberra. Every person created something entirely different and full of tree-ness! I find myself in the midst of exquisite beauty, witnessing people being true; the energy of their creative innocence so light and good and contented. The air seems to sparkle!
***
The closing date for booking The Painter’s Pilgrimage Retreat – Feb 7 – is drawing near. The content and order of things are being upgraded so as to create a more seamless, immersive, uplifting and hands-on/low tech offering; the kind that cannot be experienced online. With such a small group, educational and mentoring support is adapted for each person for where they’re at.
A once in a lifetime opportunity coming and going soon, if you feel ‘the call,’ and are uncertain about whether it’s right for you, call me or book a time to talk. There are 2 places left.
River’s flow, the eucalypts, casuarinas and birdsong, at Nimbo Fork, we’ll reconnect with nature, as Dyer recommends – return to nature to find your nature.
May your way be wonderful, beautiful and fulfilling,
Suzanne
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