"Holy Ground"

acrylic on paper, framed, image is 23"x30"

"Make of yourself a light" - Buddha

I have always considered the swamp to be a special place. I love the water, such an incredible mixture of black, green, blue, gold. I love the tall trees with their cypress knees clustering around them looking for all the world like monks at their feet. When I enter one I always feel that I have crossed a border into the shadow lands where the mind's intricate 'knowiness' has no jurisdiction. The swamp is a world unto itself: secret, brooding, unknowable.

When we try to listen to the God in us, we create an opportunity to experience the profound, to witness grace. Allowing ourselves to become intimate with natural places makes space within us for those mysterious encounters to happen. I believe those moments have the possibility of changing us forever. When we cross back over into our everyday lives we are different. When I was younger, I longed for the clarity of direction found in a Damascus Road experience. I wanted my life laid out for me on 3x5 cards so I could follow along. Or, as Woody Allen remarked: "I wish God would give me a clear sign, like making a large deposit in a Swiss bank account in my name." Years later and much further down the road of life's experiences, I have come to believe that it is the journey that is so priceless. If life were given to us on those 3x5 cards, there would be no point in the living of it. All the experiences, all the decisions we worry over, the choices we make, what I love to call the really juicy, tasty bits--all of it--is a life. It is all a Damascus Road; moment after moment; some more vivid than others, but all inexorably pulling us into our deep self.

Although, I must admit, I wouldn't mind the Swiss bank account too.