I've been wanting to write something about this past year, something that summarizes or encapsulates as succinctly as possible my personal journey through the year, but the words elude me. So I was thinking of a creative writing workshop I took with Jeff Davis, Journey from the Center to the Page, meaning the journey from deep within our center to words expressed on a page. There were several sessions spread out over several days, including the Yoga of Writing with Wonder. We did asanas, we meditated sitting, laying down, and walking. We stared at rocks, and other objects of nature, and pondered them. We wrote down five words that we felt were underused in our culture. Then from the five words, we were to chose one, marking out the other four. That one remaining word was to be the topic of our creative writing project, right then and there, spontaneously. I came up with the word rainbow because it conjures up so many images and thoughts and concepts for me as well as colors and experiences going back to early childhood. Before putting pen to paper, we were encouraged to walk outdoors, look around at the world from a different perspective, notice things we might not normally notice. Heightened senses, awareness. After wandering up and down the alley I returned and began to write of my experience interwoven with all the possible associations I could come up related to the word "rainbow":
"My pen ran out of ink, emptying it's last drop of blackness onto the page. The gray sky is dull and damp and evokes the need for shelter. The studio envelopes me. The rain fell and left Mother Earth wet with puddles, drips, and droplets. Falling, arcing over roofs, darkening the bark of trees, splattering, spilling downward and held in the bowels of earth. A dankness, the roar of clashing clouds, colliding and throwing down bolts of lightening, striking, hitting, tumultuous. As the storm subsides, the majesty of sun again shines forth his smile kissing Mother Earth and sending radiant rays upon all,. The magic begins in the near distance, beyond touch, just there, an arc of brilliant color, ground to ground, bowed up in the middle, a half sun, a semi-circle dancing with color, the prism of light broken into curving lines that are alive, transitory, a sight to behold. Never ending dreams brought always by the light, the element of water, color, the stuff of dreams, dreams that can be elusive, beyond grasp, always over there, beyond approach, but right there in front of you to behold. The bow of a ship afloat the waters of life, rivulets, bend your dreams into the rainbow of life, prostrate yourself before this miracle of nature, this perfection that is found only in the now, gone in the blink of an eye. The semi-circle of life, the richness that seems to be over there, just beyond reach, is really here, right now, the arc of rich color, of mystery, glimpsed in moments that quickly pass but with power to transform, just as light transforms the element of water vapor. Bend down, fall over, bow to the blessed, brilliant rainbow. The end of the rainbow is yet another beginning, a place anew, to find refuge and shelter. You are home, here, in this light of life, the stuff of dreams, this color of being. Dream your dreams and always follow your rainbows.
So for the new year I want to continue following my rainbow dreams, seeing past the illusions and false stories, seeking and finding the magic and the color, feeling the pain and sorrow, realizing and accepting impermanence, crying and laughing, loving and not pushing away the darkness when it comes, reaching skyward with an open heart towards that which at times seems so unattainable. I want to be a seeker, and know that whether I find something brilliant or nothing at all, what's really important is the journey itself.
May our hopes and dreams take us onward into the New Year, marching as spiritual warriors, steadfast and resolute in our hearts' quest for Truths.
(Photo downloaded from the internet)
