Petite-Scroll

Bamboo, a grass, lives under almost any condition and is found on all continents,
remaining green even in winter. Bamboo limits it’s height when it meets an obstacle,
retreating and drawing it’s growth inside, thickening it’s base. Bamboo is designated as a ‘female’ plant and representing the ‘yin’,  the flexibility, strength, growth and resiliency of  female energy, inherent in both women and men.

In studying the nature of bamboo Coulson-Keegan finds direction for both her vision of art and life contained in the conundrum of this Zen parable:

A monk once asked Ts'ui-wei about the meaning of life.
Ts'ui-wei led him into a grove of bamboo.
The monk did not understand.
At last Ts'ui-wei said,
"Here is a tall bamboo; there is a short one!". 

Petite Scroll
Praiie Dog

Petite Scroll (Prairie Dog)

Through the amazing human web of life, two of my childhood neighbors and schoolmates, who now reside in a Carmelite Monastery, which is supported by the design and production of greeting cards (www.carmelofreno.com), Sisters Ann and Susan, introduced me to the lovely message Sister Marie Celeste had created:

"When I see it raining in your heart
although I don't have an umbrella,
let me walk in the rain with you"

I knew this was my namaste prayer!

Namaste, is not only a salutation but is also a mudra or gesture, a bow with hands pressed together, which traditionally means 'I honor the Spirit, the Devine, in you which is also in me.'

The little prairie dogs, gregarious members of the squirrel world, live in our American grasslands, and do, in my humble opinion, this lovely, amazing thing.... they stand quietly facing East as the sun rises and West as the sun sets, paws pressed together, perhaps meditating on the connection between all of life, and blessing this connection with a 'namaste' mudra. Isn't it wonderful that they are out there witnessing this twice daily show?!

Terry Tempest Williams, in her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World discusses the part prairie dogs, who are on the Threatened list, play in the organic 'mosaic' of our world, where they trim, airiate and enrich the grass and soil, providing much needed paths for rainwater to descend into our water tables, and notes that many other species depend on them for their existance, espically the Endangered black-footed ferret; in a way maybe us, too! It takes my breath away when I consider how amazing it is that each of us are, together, experiencing life on our fragile lovely living planet, each of us a part of the 'mosaic', each and every one of us effecting the planet, much as a rock tossed in a lake sends out ripples far and wide. Now that's something to stand and watch a sunrise, or sunset, and contemplate!

Sound of wind
Blowing through the universe.

Breath trembling through me
Through you
Through ten thousand things.

OM ………. Life!

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

This design, using the ancient symbol OM, celebrates all life, which is dependent on the gift from the cosmos of air or breath. Air chooses no one, but vibrates through all fauna and flora and folks. We are all one as we breathe!

OM, the primordial sound (or cosmic hum) of the universe, is a Sanskrit expression of solemn affirmation, an auspicious salutation, "hail!", also representing everything. Each particle of existence is impregnated with energy and consciousness.

In September, 2003, astronomers at NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory found what can be described as sound waves emanating from a supermassive black hole. The black hole can be seen in the Perseus cluster of galaxies located 250 million light years from Earth. Andrew Fabian of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, England, analyzed the waves and announced, "We have detected their sound…." The sound he found (which is really the waves passing through gas near the black hole) translate to the note B flat, but it is 'humming' at a frequency a million billion times lower than you can hear. Indeed the OM is 'blowing through the universe'.

The lotus, considered a sacred lily, was a part of the art of the Egyptian and Buddhist philosophy. Traditionally the lotus represents the sacred center of the universe,
the core of our souls, the descent of the Infinite into the human heart and it is another symbol for the OM concept.

With roots in the pond soil (the waking state, the present), the stem moving through the water (the dream state, the past), in beauty the plant floats and blossoms on the surface (unconscious mind, the future).

In this design I drew the lotus within a circle of bamboo representing consciousness of the universe. (An ancient hermetic statement, “Reality is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is no-where.”) Cosmic consciousness realizes itself through the individual consciousness.

A lotus in full bloom represents living in the moment, yet I put seeds of the ‘past’ and ‘future’ on either side, for all moments are connected to where we have been and where we are going. Bamboo, a grass, lives under almost any condition and is found
on all continents, remaining green even in winter. Bamboo limits its height when it meets an obstacle, retreating and drawing its growth inside, thickening its base.
Bamboo is designated a ‘female’ plant and represents ‘yin’, the flexibility, strength, growth and resiliency of female energy inherent in both women and men.

“We have to live in harmony and peace…this is not a dream,
this is a necessity.”   The Dalai Lama

Happy as a Bird

As a small child I came upon the Pennsylvanian Dutch saying
'Happy as a Bird in the Morning'
and realized that listening to birds singing
made me happy!

 The Nobel Prize winning Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote:
Faith is the bird that feels the light, and sings,
while the dawn is still dark.
It inspired a vision in my mind of looking down from space, at just the distance where one can see this round earth, partly in darkness, and watching the sunlight moving ever forward to the 'west', and hearing this joyful sound, at the edge of the darkness, greeting the promise of warmth and light.

This design was inspired by some graffiti
I read at the 2006 Oregon Country Fair.

“Love is all - baby”

I laughed and said to myself.....so true! Then I thought
it might just give someone else a chuckle - and it will spread the word.

We are born in the light of love
and die in the light of love
and, if we are lucky, connect throughout our lives
to this energy of love that keeps this sweet little planet breathing.

Mama Polar Bear pours out her love to her little cubs,
just as the Dalai Lama pours his love out to us:

“For as long as space endures,
and for as long as living beings remain,
until then may I, too, abide to dispel the misery of the world.”

This original design was created and is hand printed on silk by
Cathleen Coulson-Keegan for your quiet, meditative spaces.