birds, birds, birds and Free Columbia

i woke up the other morning and started thinking about birds! 

 what had my attention is this really wonderful crowd funding effort that is going on to finance the next year of Free Columbia, http://www.freecolumbia.org, an amazing school that is not only teaching rad stuff (essentials like making art, studying anthroposophy and engaging in the social sphere) but doing it in a new way..

 well they started this series of art assignments to go along with their crowd funding drive, showing off amazing birds from all over the place in so many version of beautiful!  

  but somehow i missed the beginning of this drive and always felt behind and a little lost  .. do i have to make a bird to raise money? Actually you can donate without making a bird ( https://dana.io/free-columbia)  plus there is the life long struggle of doing what i am told!  so needless to say i kept noticing that i wasn’t playing along, despite my deep support and appreciation for this program.  i sat there thinking about my own failings, while sitting and papermaching! 

oh coincidentally i was papermaching birds!

.. lots of birds!

and i look up and let my gaze travel around the circumference of my little room..  from where i was sitting i could see six pieces where ‘bird’  is the central image!   and lots of fake little birds all over the place...

then i looked down at my newest tattoo (https://www.facebook.com/rachel.j.miller.1/videos/vb.592126190/10152465856896191/?type=3&theater)... a second bird 

and i realized that yes, i am a little obsessed with birds ! as i am with freedom, love and transformation.

 

wether you make some birds to highlight their cause (the drive has about 3 more days left)! 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreeColumbiaGame/

some inspiration for making birds

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2015/2015-audubon-photography-awards-top-100

or want to support their future

https://dana.io/free-columbia

do something, this is the kind of program we need to build the future we dream about!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Columbia/185219208208766?pnref=story

be creative and love lots!

arriving

a collage that became three christmas cards and traveled in different directions

my cells relax, settling down like snow falling gently to the earth.

and as my body stills, warmth returns .

my bones feel here and slowly, 

like crystals grow, 

my body returns to relationship.

sadness has stepped back

 and my eyes search the sky for inspiration. 

christmas cards i painted for the mcpherson family

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us 

are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

henry david thoreau

 from sacramento to järna

painting from the christian community in CA to yip in Sweden

from the american river to the baltic sea

from misty carmical  to snowy järna

i think i'll stay here a while ..

a photo for kiara <3

and now, with lots of love to y'all,

a little shout out,
before i go,
to what lives in your heart
 this fine valentine's day

  a little painting that still underway.. 

a tractor, a poem, a bag and some love

The small man

Builds cages for everyone 

He

Knows.

While the sage,

Who has to duck his head

When the moon is low,

Keeps dropping keys all night long

For the

Beautiful

Rowdy

Prisoners.

                                                                              --Hafiz

photo taken by the lovely kiara nagel in visalia, california a couple days ago 

the bag..

this bag has a bunch of stories. some about friends with hearts aflame and some about politics, food and community. and then some that reveal a funny thing.  

when i was in berlin i was overwhelmed by the cool in some ways and underwhelmed in others.  but one of the hipster trends that i saw perplexed me.  these cotton, often white, often thin, simple bags with a cool print or hip saying.  it didn’t make sense, if you need to walk in the rain it would get drench through or if you need to hop a fence the top is open and you too easily can loose everything.  it didn’t understand the choice.   i scoffed even as i mourned lose of the pretty (dysfunctional) bags.. cause they were pretty, oh so pretty.   as i noticed the white cotton bag on my shoulder today, the one i had been so enjoying, i realized again, i am who i rejected.  yes, not such a big deal in terms of a bag, but the pattern holds true when i judge what people choose or something they’ve said or how they said it or, well the list could go on.  often i will catch myself doing that very thing or hearing an echo in what i heard from the other. i am the other. you are me. i must continue to love the other better kinder deeper more.

before i go let me tell you just a little bit more about the bag.  you see it was a gift from robin and under tallarna.  perfect in timing, celebrating and simply right on, thank you. 

 and i love you all!

from the punk rock and soil yoga camp at under tallarna in järna, sweden 2014