Love and/or Marriage

I am so happy to share this invitation to you all blog readers!

I am involved with a great project called the Cubby Missalette, and we are looking for submissions for our next issue. The theme is Love and/or Marriage. 

Here is the invitation. Please stretch your creative wings and submit!

Dearest Cubby Lovers,

We hope this finds you head over heels in somersaults of ecstasy at the beginning of this promising New Year. Love is in the air, and oh, what a breath of freshness it is! As Bill Fisher said recently, "The zeitgeist has never felt this good, ever."

For one thing, we can not help being madly in love with our new first couple, whose palpable love for one another is truly awww-inspiring to behold. Not only are Mr. and Mrs. Obama lovers in every sense of the word, but their partnership as they start this new journey of leadership has the potential to bring about a seismic ideological shift in America that could smash the past decade's paradigm of fear, hate and misunderstanding and bring in a new era of rationalism, empathy and love.

But as the loveliest rose comes equipped with sharp thorns that prick us, so do our love affairs sometimes wound us and make our hearts bleed. Our new leadership is a dream come true and yet, in our own beloved home state of California, the same democratic process has brought about a malicious ban on marriage between loving couples of the same gender.

Love and/or Marriage:
a Cubby Missalette

Neil Young said, "only love can  break your heart."
And The Beatles professed, "love is all you need,"

Love is a promise. We are drawn to it over and over again  - driven wild by its potential, satisfied by its fruition and disappointed by its frustrations.

We feel that now is the perfect time to explore the subject of love, as well as its companion, marriage, and to explore the myriad forces, both personal and political, that come to bear upon them.

We are pleased to announce our intention to publish a brand new Cubby Missalette, where we can explore the heart's greatest emotion and society's most hallowed institution, including all the exotic terrain in between.

SO WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
We invite you to submit your lovingly wrought expressions on the subject of Love and/or Marriage.
This could be your thoughts, your feelings, your poetry, your prose, your drawings, your collages, your comics – anything that can fit into a 2-dimensional form!

And for those who are new to the Cubby, you can see past Missalette experiences here:http://cubby.net/missalette/index.html
Jol & Tristy are also overjoyed to answer any questions you may have or give further guidance in what we are looking for, for this exciting new issue!

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FRIDAY, FEB. 20, 2009
(Honoring Cubby Saint Kurt Cobain's birthday!)

PUBLICATION DAY: FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2009
Please note this is a FAST turnaround – just three weeks to create and submit. But what better subject to rally around and create something new? What better time to birth a new vision into the world?

We so much hope you will join us on this latest endeavor! Please contact either Jol at endofreligion@gmail.com or Tristy at tristy20@gmail.com to let us know that you are on board this crazy love train!

In gratitude,
Your Missalette  co-editors for this issue,
Trismegista Taylor and Jo(e)l Perez

Dream Resolutions

Anne Hill of Blog o' Gnosis does this great thing every year, where she goes over the dreams she had over the past year and makes new resolutions for the new year.

Here is how Anne describes it:

Dream resolutions...have nothing to do with the
calculus of daily life — they are solely concerned with having the best
dreams possible. Anything you like that happened in a dream, make a
resolution to do it again. Anything that didn’t turn out quite right,
you can do differently next time.

I love this idea! You can read hers here.

So of course, I had to see what mine are!

1. Even when I dive into the water and forget to take a breath, I can breathe underwater and my wings will not get soggy.
   


2. The hooded teens throwing bowling balls at my head might have a gift for me.
   


3. Love is a verb. It is a doing word.
   


4. I am not responsible for healing the broken birds in the world, just healing my own brokenness.
   


5. Let the unknown take shape.
   


6. The true hunting is over - no herds to follow.
   


7. It is O.K. to sleep on the floating mattress in the swamp, as long as my husband is by my side.
   


8. Make love to the lion and set her free.
   


9. Let the magic women lay their hands on my face and open my soul.
   


10. Shine in 2009!

What are your dream resolutions this year?

Hambox Advent!

Miss Hambox, herself!

I am very proud to say that I was invited to participate in the most fantastic Hambox Advent 2008! Every year Lady Hambox gives us 31 days of Holiday Inspiration. There truly is no way to describe it. You must see it for yourself.

Be sure to click on all the days (so far) and check back every day for a new treat. The day I contributed to is December 11th, by the way!

Stop Shopping

Oh my Lordy, it's Holiday Time again. I am here to remind you that in this particularly difficult economic time, it is not only O.K. but joyfully wonderful to make your own gifts this year. In fact, why not start a new trend of making gifts for all the future holidays that will come upon us?

To inspire you, watch the latest video from Rev. Billy & The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir. They have some wonderful ideas, including some gifts that the "non-creative" can give (although I believe everyone can make something!).

And remember, now is the time to start those projects, so they are ready for the holidays!

Smallest Knitter in the World

tiny knitting by Althea Crome

In February 2009, the first hand-made, stop-motion, 3D film will hit our movie theaters. It is Coraline, based on Neil Gaiman's novella of the same name. None other than the amazing Tim Burton is making it, so you know it will be creepy and beautiful.


I read the novella Coraline and it actually creeped me out and made me really angry at the same time. Those black, button eyes...ugh. But regardless of how I felt about the story, I am most definitely going to see this amazing movie.

I want to direct you to the site to watch an incredible little clip showcasing some of the world's tiniest knitting (that's what I'm claiming in my complete ignorance, anyway). Some of her needles are as small as a strand of human hair!!! Can you imagine?

Of course the styling and advertising for this film is super crafty and mysterious so you have to do something special in order to see the clip. Never fear my dear readers, for I am in the know (thanks Drawn!) and I can tell you what to do:

Go here.

Click your cursor into the first box and type in the word "sweaterxxs".

Enjoy the tiniest and craftiest knitting you have ever seen.

Then, if you want to see more, here are some other "magic" words:

buttoneyes

stopmotion

moustachio

puppetlove

armpithair

Thank God for the crafty geniuses of the world. They keep me alive, I swear!

Curmudgeon: An Unlikely Army Chaplain

I just read a wonderful blog by an "unlikely Army Chaplain." He is a Jesuit Priest and has a great style of writing. He's got a great sense of humor and speaks with a great honesty and humility. Three things I think are essential to posses when working as a spiritual companion! He's currently writing about his two favorite prayers, "Help Me," and "Thank You." Check it out.

Reading this blog helps me feel a little bit better about the soldiers who are still stuck in this war. I hope there are other chaplains like this man, serving and companioning over there.

Who Does She Think She Is?

Just heard about a new film called Who Does She Think She Is? Created by Pamela Tanner Boll, the film tells the story of five artists who are also women and mothers, and how they try to honor their creative process as much as taking care of their families. All artist mothers are up against enormous pressure in our culture and society. There is a paradigm in our society that if you are making art and taking time to honor your own creativity, then someone else is losing something. Women are trained to give of themselves first, and then think of their own needs when everyone else is taken care of.

I haven't seen the film yet, but I have read reviews of it and watched the extra-long trailer and it has already brought tears to my eyes. I'm especially struck by the quote: "I feel like I'm lost in the woods and I'm all alone, with no companions, and I hear wolves." That is often how I feel as an artist, and I'm not even a mother! I am in AWE of women who manage to take care of their families and get into the studio. It's really incredible. I rarely allow myself the time to create as it is - how will I do it as a mother?

I think this movie is a must-see for all creative people, female and male alike!

Daily Rituals

I just read about Brenda Hutchinson's project Daily Bell 2008. In this year-long project, she honors the sunrise and sunset - every day! - by ringing a bell or many bells. Her blog has wonderful videos of all the different places and ways she has rung her bells, including in the quiet of the Marin Headlands, the wild acoustics of a San Francisco parking garage, recruiting strangers in the local Starbucks, and with a big gaggle of kids and puppies across the street.


She also has a youtube channel where you can see a daily video of her bell ringing.

The various combinations of bells ringing is so beautiful. It reminds me of the wedding of my special friends Chris and Sylvia, where Sylvia and all the women in her bridal party came skipping and dancing down the aisle ringing little bells. It was so quiet and beautiful and yet also raucous and celebratory at the same time!

I also realized that I don't own a single bell!

I have been thinking a lot this week about daily practices and rituals that help me feel closer to God. I decided that chanting (I originally wrote "changing"!) with the sunrise was something I'd like to do - as chanting Hindu prayers and mantras has always been a powerful experience for me. I do find that even with that commitment and intention, I do not end up doing it every day.

So I am in awe of Brenda honoring this commitment she has made to the sun and its movements with such a beautiful and simple act.

What is a simple, spiritual act of honoring that you can do every day?

The Mantra Trailer

The Mantra Trailer is a beautiful and powerful project by artist and quilter Sherri Lynn Wood. She is embodying Walter Brueggemann's concept of prophetic ministry In his book The Prophetic Imagination:  

The task of the prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.

Created out of a 1972 bread box trailer, the Mantra Trailer traveled the United States, inviting random people to record their most private mantras. The side of the trailer provided a rotating billboard of the mantras collected.

I highly recommend watching the Mantra 360 "trailer" to get an idea of the project. It is an aural experience, more than a visual...

From the website:

Over 500 mantras were recorded, thousands of fliers were handed out,
and countless conversations arose  between people on the street about
mantras, prayer, meditation, presence, propaganda, slogans, politics,
travel, religion, art and more.
 
More than a few people were moved deeply if for nor other reason than
having encountered an unexpected quiet space in the middle of a
crowded street in the middle of a hectic day. It seems we are a people
looking for signs.

Read the Tour Blog.

It is projects like these that make me feel so good about the world. I am so glad that there are artists who have the vision and energy to create such amazing experiences for people to participate in!

12 Principles of Creation Spirituality

12 Principles of Creation Spirituality

Many people ask me what my faith tradition is and I always answer that I am an ordained Interfaith Minister and that my spiritual practice is creativity. This can be a bit confusing, as I don't attend church regularly and I don't subscribe completely to any established faith tradition. I am deeply in awe of all the faith traditions in the world and they all speak to me on some level, and yet they all do NOT speak to me on another level.

But, when pushed, the closest thing to an established faith tradition that I can subscribe to is Matthew Fox's Creation Spirituality.  I won't go into the history of the how and the why of the creation of Creation Spirituality in this little blog post. What I will share with you are the 12 Principles of this movement. Explore these ideas in your own life and see if they resonate!

1. The Universe and all within it is fundamentally a blessing.
   Our relationship with the Universe fills us with awe.
   
   
2. In Creation, God is both immanent and transcendent. This is "panentheism" which is not theism (God is "out there") and not atheism (no God anywhere).
   We experience that the Divine is in all things and all things are in the Divine.
   
3. God is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much God in Mystery as the God in History, as much beyond all words and images as in all forms and beings.We are liberated from the need to cling to God in one form or one literal name.
4. In our lives, it is through the work of spiritual practice that we find our deep and true selves.
   Through the arts of meditation and silence, we cultivate a clarity of mind and move beyond fear into compassion and community.
   
5. Our inner work can be understood as a four-fold journey involving:
   
   • awe, delight, amazement (Via Positiva)
   • uncertainty, darkness, suffering, letting go (Via Negativa)
   • birthing, creativity, passion (Via Creativa)
   • justice, healing celebration (Via Transformativa)
   We weave through these paths like a spiral danced, not a ladder climbed.
   
6. Every one of us is a mystic.
   We can enter the mystical as much through beauty (Via Positiva) as through contemplation and suffering (Via Negativa). We are born full of wonder and can recover it at any age.
   
7. Every one of us is an artist.
   Whatever the expression of our creativity, it is our prayer and praise (Via Creativa).
   
8. Every one of us is a prophet.
   Our prophetic work is to interfere with all forms of injustice and that which interrupts authentic life (Via Transformativa).
   
9. Diversity is the nature of the Universe.
   We rejoice in and courageously honor the rich diversity within the Cosmos and what is expressed among individuals and across multiple cultures, religions, and ancestral traditions.
   
10. The basic work of God is compassion and we, who are all Original Blessings and sons and daughters of the Divine, are called to compassion.
    We acknowledge our shared interdependence. We rejoice at one another's joys and grieve at one another's sorrows and labor to heal the causes of those sorrows.
    
11. There are many wells of faith and knowledge drawing from one underground river of Divine wisdom. The practice of honoring, learning and celebrating the wisdom collected from these wells in Deep Ecumenism.
    We respect and embrace wisdom and oneness that arises from the diverse wells of all the sacred traditions of the world.
    
12. Ecological justice is essential for the sustainability of  life on Earth.Ecology is the local expression of cosmology and so we commit to live in the light of this value - to pass on the beauty and health of creation to future generations.
    

Born Dropped Out

Via Boing Boing - I just discovered a really interesting project. It's Caleb J. Clark's Interactive Telecommunications Program Masters Thesis. He asked the same 20 questions of children of hippies, who seem to have been born in the late 60's to the late 70's. He also answers the questions himself.





I've been listening on and off to the various self-interviews. You can watch them in any order and each piece is short and easily digestible.

Being the daughter of what many have called hippies (although they called themselves beatniks), I am always fascinated when I get to connect with someone else who grew up with that intense freedom, the way I did. Now I must say, I had an incredibly stable childhood, compared to the majority of "children of hippies" you may meet in the world. My parents were in many ways, the "parental" ones to all of their "more free" (i.e. crazier) friends. My parents owned a house, they kept food on the table and they aren't and never have been addicted to any kind of drug. So you could say, I got the best parts of being a child of hippies.

It is really interesting to listen to the interviews in this documentary project. At times, they feel almost a little too informational and choppy. I think that experience may be related to the format of going through a long list of questions and answering them by yourself with a home video camera. I would love to see a documentary where "kids of hippies" are in the same room together and talking about everything. That would feel a bit more creative and alive, which I think is the gift of growing up the way we all did. But I still find it really fascinating to listen to all of these stories and memories and I am grateful Caleb has shared them with the world.

I live a very different and interesting life and I always wonder how much is me - deep soul Tristy - and how much is the way I was raised. Are children of hippies more free? Do we have more interesting work lives? Or do many rebel and become conservative? This documentary does not make that clear, and that is just fine. It raises questions which all good art should do. Check it out.

Art Journal Vlogs

A video I made of my most recent art journal.

You know those moments where you "discover" something and you feel like such a genius and want to share it with everyone you know - only to find that the majority of the world already knew about it?

I had one of those moments last night. Did you know that the Internet is full of crafty video blogs (or vlogs) that show you how to do things? Yeah...of course you did. Well in my strange, narrow-minded vision of the universe, I thought the online video world was only good for watching music videos, old 70's television, and cute animals doing even cuter things. But there is this whole crafty world out there too! And of course, why wouldn't there be? My crafty discovery today is the world of Art Journaling Vlogs. 

One of my favorite things to do is craft in my journal. It's easy and fun, with no heavy expectations because I decide who sees it (if anyone). I LOVE looking at other people's journals because they are so real and truthful in a culture that rewards us for looking "pretty and put together" when in reality, life is messy and strange and beautiful.
Here are my two favorite Art Journaling Vlogs:

Samantha Kira
Follow along with Samantha's prolific video series as she gessos, paints, stencils and shares her process. Her videos are nicely edited and use great music. I was so inspired by her work that I checked out her blog, which is also fantastic. And I could spend hours in her flickr page. Both her journal pages and her blog are very intimate and share some powerful words and stories, as well as beautiful art.

Suzi Blu
Suzi Blu is great. Her Vlogs are part technique, part performance art and all inspiration. Watching Suzi's videos was such a great reminder to PLAY. She is all about being FREE and I can really, really dig that. She wears costumes, she rolls around on the floor and she makes really beautiful journal pages. Again, very well-edited and great use of music. And she doesn't just share her journal-making, she makes all sorts of things. She is all about giving permission to make and create. Every one of her videos makes me grin so wide and immediately want to dress up in my silliest dress and make things.

So there you go my fellow makers. Enjoy!

Sacred Life Project

"Kali-Ma" full-size body cast, 2005

Today I was catching up on a blog I enjoy: Lori Lynh's The Dream Life: Making it Up as I Go Along. I noticed some postings entitled Sacred Life that really struck me.  The posts were so sweet and beautiful.  Through reading more, I discovered that the idea birthed from Carla Blazek's Zena Musings blog.  I'll let her describe it:

 Beginning: August 18, every day for at least a month I'm going to post a photo from my daily life capturing something that connects me to Spirit. It might be my altar, a candle I'm burning, my dogs, the garden, a friend, a book I'm reading, nature, something I did, someplace I went, something important to me, or, who knows, maybe just my morning bowl of Cheerios! The idea is to creatively connect with the holiness of my everyday life, plus I also need a gentle little kick in the butt to turn OFF the game of Hearts and other shadow comforts and start writing again.

My Sacred Life isn't really a challenge -- that sounds too strenuous -- it's really more of a softening ... into a moment, a treasured possession, a companion -- people, parts and places of your everyday life that you cherish. Whatever is sacred to you.

Now, the dates for this project have already passed, but time is circular, right? There's no reason for me not to give this inspiring project a try.

It's funny because when I imagine doing this, I feel daunted at the task.  "One more thing to do and keep track of," grumble, grumble... But the idea really resonates with my soul and I think it would be interesting to at least give it a try. I also realized [very sadly] that there are whole days that go by when I do not think about spirit and the effect it has on me and my life and the world.

So, without further ado, here is my first day of my Sacred Life project:

Letting my Kali sculpture decay in the trees.

What happens to sacred art when it has finished its life and served its purpose? This is a question I often ask, as I co-create with Spirit as a spiritual and artistic practice.  After awhile, the art gets old, or it just starts to fall apart.  I don't want to throw it away - not just because I like to conserve and recycle as much as possible - but because these creations are sacred and very meaningful to me.

One of the most powerful pieces I have made to date is a full-body cast of myself as the Hindu Goddess Kali-Ma.  Creating this piece was so powerful and I created it with two powerful, magical friends: Kristena West & Mary McCulloch. 

After several moves and getting banged up and hung too many times, this piece was looking pretty battered and torn.  But what to do with it? 

My husband and I live on 4 acres in Petaluma, CA.  We are surrounded by beautiful trees and incredible wildlife. Looking out the window one day, I realized that putting all my "body parts" in the limbs of the tree outside and watching them decay would be a very powerful "end" to this piece. 

I stacked up all the parts, including the large torso, and there they live.  Every day I look out the window and watch them decay just a little bit more. I think it is the perfect end for a Kali figure - she was created in the passion of creation, and she is now being destroyed by the natural cycles of the seasons.

So this is my spiritual moment today.