Wisdom, work in progress
Once again, I just had to start coloring- before it’s completely drawn out. I think it gives me a better insight into what colors I’ll be using, and that in turn helps me complete the picture. Besides, I get really bored doing one thing for very long. I begin to feel bad for the lovely markers just sitting there…
Originally, I had wanted to do a drawing of Yahweh’s wife – wanting to highlight the Woman that is so obviously missing from the old testament God, Yahweh. Someone wrote that it might have been easier for us if he had been able to talk things over with her, the original Momma, before he went all angry and threw the book at us. Kidding aside, I realize that God is not Male or Female, nor even essentially human, as we often make ‘him’ out to be. For me, even the word ‘God’ has such strong connotations, deeply entrenched over centuries, that it’s difficult to use the word in a meaningful way.
I picture a world where Wisdom is returning to each one of us, individually. Wisdom as a ‘feminine’ counterbalance to our rational ‘masculine’ knowing. Our eyes are being opened to a new perception and experience of our world. We are one by one beginning to listen and hear the precious murmurings of our own hearts, to trust deeply our own experiences. Wisdom calls for us to take our knowledge, and filter it through our hearts. To become Soul-full.
I believe this is what it means to be truly human – to experience our lives as opportunities to awaken to the calling of our Soul – our connection with ‘God’. To the calling of that part of us that has not forgotten who we are, or where we come from. The part of us that is dignified, powerful, and full of wonder. Deepak Chopra says that ‘the soul does not have its own agenda, but will help us achieve whatever potential we discover in ourselves.’ The Soul may not have an agenda- but it comes from a place where all the prodigal children sit together and break bread. The Soul comes from a place of unity. As this unity breaks forth into our lives, we hear our own voice, unified from the countless voices that speak in our heads. We become empathetic and compassionate as we begin to sense that all lives are one life, that we all share the same breath. ‘Out beyond right and wrong, there is a field. I will meet you there’ says Rumi. A world beyond our shortsightedness.
We have known about this wisdom for a very long time. We have had great prophets and teachers tell us until they are blue in the face. We don’t listen. We have done our best to shut her out of the world. It’s easier to have knowledge. Knowledge keeps us in our heads. Thinking. Wisdom calls us to action. To care. To love others as ourselves. To not judge.
Wisdom is for the courageous. Those of us willing to step out into the great wide open as pioneers of the open heart – seeing a world of unity beyond appearances. Our Soul calls us to adventure- asking us to shed our hardened and ancient skin; casting off our outdated, limiting beliefs. It’s not easy and it’s not always fun. There will be nights when you have to put your food up in trees for fear of bears and other monsters. There will be days when the view is so breathtaking you can only sit and weep at the beauty and terror.
On those precious days when I am awake enough to remember to let my Soul’s wisdom lead, it’s easy to believe that exactly the experiences, people and events that I need are the ones that show up. I’m excited to get up in the morning to see what the day will bring. There are often frankly magical occurrences. When I remember to experience my life as adventure, I love my life. I feel alive, participating in the creation of my day and free to be spontaneous, giving, childlike in my delight and lightness.
I try to capture all that and more into a drawing- stepping out into a world of wonder and mystery- where things that have been long forgotten call to us for new and fresh meanings. The field beyond right and wrong- where we can meet, as we are, without agendas or posturing, stripped of everything non-essential. A place where we are loved, where just showing up is enough, where each of us gets a standing ovation of pure love – for who we are, as we are. no questions asked. This place, of course, is within each one of us. Our Soul is yearning for that awareness to filter into our consciousness, so that our lives become richer, deeper, and beautiful as we transform our knowledge to wisdom. Blessing ourselves and our world. It’s time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for…
detail from ‘Wisdom”
Mary, detail from ‘Wisdom”
Guardian, detail from ‘Wisdom”
and the wonder at our incredible dignity as human beings, male and female.
janet balboa 