For A Sister :: Jeanie
A few months ago, after I went through the Prayer Painting process, I felt a curiosity deepen.
I wanted to continue to explore how this intuitive painting process feels and unfolds
while holding intentions for another as I paint.
No sooner had I written this in my little book of ideas
than I received an invitation for an exchange of painting energy from a sister-in-paint, Jeanie Anthony.
I have come far enough to know not to ignore these rather obvious deliveries of manifestation. (Yes)
This was not a completely comfortable agreement for me, however.
Offering my true art for exchange has never been entirely comfortable for me.
This is something that is healing in me, though,
as I give it light and compassion
and declare it valid by saying (Yes) when the Universe presents to me
an opportunity to jump in and participate in this beautiful cycle of exchange.
What I am learning
is that whether the exchange be for time, money, love,
recognition, connection, stuff... it doesn't matter.
When it is a considered, equal exchange
that suits the needs and desires of both spirits,
the result is more than the exchange itself...
the result is an expansion of self with creative Source (and thus one another).
Even as I type that
I am still sitting in a vibration of awe at this truth that I feel in my very cells.
You see, I believe deeply that just the right connections come our way
at just the right times
- in the people we meet, the opportunities that present, the books that come our way,
even in what catches our attention in nature
or here on the internet.
They surface to our attention so that we can choose (No, thanks) or allow (Yes, please).
Either way there is something there for us,
all of it both sacred and perfectly ordinary.
As I held Jeanie's intention and painted, it became suddenly clear to me
- by the response in my body
(heightened focus, tingling, lightness and arousal of my senses and psyche) -
that this intention she wrote to me, for herself,
was just as much for me as it was for her.
Now, she didn't necessarily know that.
Neither did I.
Until I showed up to do the work, to allow the exchange,
to open my spirit to this process.
Jeanie is not only a Fearless painting sister,
but also a kindred spirit on many levels,
and blessed with the voice of an earth angel.
She has CDs for purchase, so in addition to holding her requested intention while I painted,
I listened to her CD so that I could feel her presence on an additional level of my senses
as I opened up to what the painting had to say for her.
This video is a short clip of the stages of the painting,
backed by an original song of Jeanie's that I just kept coming back to while I painted.
Like many of her songs, I could just feel it coming forth
from the heartcenter of soul that all women share with the Great Mystery of Life.
I haven't been able to stop looking at this painting for the last few weeks now.
Our time together is nearly up, though.
Each time I see her, she whispers of the Mystery to me,
and reminds me how FULL I feel when I paint intuitively for a sister.
She teaches me that my own discomforts
can be indicators of places awaiting my own song and expansion,
places that hold loosely the showers of love, like clouds,
where it is held and released and held and released
into the cycles and nourishment of spirit.
She teaches me that when rooted in my own sacred process,
rising up to meet the exchange of energy and love
becomes both effortless and bountiful.
I am so deeply grateful and blessed.
While this painting is ready to fly on soon,
to where she rightfully belongs in her home of inspiration with Jeanie,
this process, this Mystery that I feel so deeply
belongs here with me,
rooted and ready
to choose
to allow
the gift of receiving.
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