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Art Class Existence Most Popular Southern York

commUNITY Flower of Life: B1

Last weekend I had the pleasure of facilitating a commUNITY event at Firefly Hollow Wellness Center. We created banner for Project B1 to show our commUNITY and send a message of peace, love, and celebration to all.

I drew the flower of life on a 3 ft x 6 ft banner, and each person who attended decorated spheres in the flower of life until it was complete.

This visually shows how we are all interconnected! The message was surrounded in love and light through mindfulness and uplifting discussion with one another. We built relationships, and connected on many levels.

[:project b1] is a living breathing art event designed to foster positive changes in the U.S.

The media all around us says we are divided. Not just as a Nation, but also as a Family, as a humanity, as a society. Lets show them we are interconnected.

The concept is simple. We need to start the healing process. We need to come together with complete tolerance and love for one another. We need to lift each other up, so that we can all live in peace, celebrating each others differences. Messages of love and unity will literally surround those who need it.

The physical part of this project is as follows: approximately 250, 3’x6’ (fitted twin) sheets will be marked with positive messages (both writing and drawing). These panels will be connected and banners will be held by volunteers and surround the White House (Pennsylvania Ave, 17th St. NW, Constitution Ave, 15th St. NW) on February 1, 2017 from 12pm to 3pm.
firefly
Notes:
[:project b1] is a collaboration with artists, writers, musicians etc..
The “b1” in the project title stands for “Be One” with each other.
The multi colored sheets signify the diversity among the art community.
Tying the sheets/banners together symbolizes our unity.
“Surrounding” the White House will symbolize our unity.
February 1 is National Freedom Day.
This project could expand to other cities and other countries.

If you are interested in creating a banner… please do so, and contact Project B1 on Facebook.

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Existence Most Popular

The Middle Way

With all that’s happening in this world, I know many may feel as though they are suffering, and yet others feel a sense of centeredness that they may have never felt before.

You might ask how that can be? If we are all living in the same world… how can some of us feel as though we might not be able to make it, while others seem so bright and cheery.

I feel like the answer is within, as with all things.  Personally, I am not sad, nor suffering… I have no fear of what the future brings because I know that no matter what, I am that I am… and all is as it shall be.

I am that I am…

I am what I think… I am what I focus on… I am what I put my energy into. Life IS what I make of it. MY perception shapes my experiences.

So how does this relate to the middle way… well if you think about all the options of ways to respond or even sometimes react to situations… we always have choices. This or that, left or right, up or down… most times we even have more than just two options to choose from.

Imagine a ball in your hand, with rays shooting out from the center in 360 degrees. Each ray is a different perspective to the experience. Now imagine you area of and know each perspective… you can then grasp how each perspective is just as valid as the others because each ray is necessary in making up the whole of the ball.

energy_ball

Seeing it this way helps in realizing that… every ray is interconnected, no matter how different they might be, they are all apart of the ball.

Now what!?

Well…once I realized this, I was able to see myself clearer… I was able to get that the middle way is in this realization. The way of self awareness, self knowledge. Standing in my center, because that’s the only perspective that I will ever know with 100% of my being.

This ties directly into the Ojibwe teachings that all roads shine light and lead to better awareness of each person’s own journey.

This moment in history aligns with many native prophecies, where The New People, and the young generations will start asking questions, start seeing, and start listening to all of their relations and realizing we are all connected.

That’s what I feel is vital about going back to our elders and learning the traditional ways… those roads are roads that will lift us up and out of this suffering, and back to our center… our inter-connectedness with all of existence.

Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (All Are Related)

We are one part of the whole, but our part is most vital…. Being who we are to the best of our ability. Knowing thyself allows others to know themselves more clearly…its a ripple effect.

But it all begins with the middle way, the drop into the unknown… letting go of fear and knowing I am that I am….and that is exactly what I should be. I couldn’t be anything other than myself.

I am reminded of a quote from one of my favorite movies, I Heart Huckabees…. “how am I not myself?

Migwetch & Gizaagin <3
Raine dawn