Tag Archives: life

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The Blessing of Those Who Died


Once again, we have tragedy due to violence. I feel so much love for those who are the victims. 

So I want to bless them today and for eternity. I am not dealing with anything but love and blessing here.

” Heal their Spirits, Lord, from all the wounds that their hearts have suffered through this lifetime.of limitation.”

 

“Death is the night after which the day begins.

It is death which dies, not life.

The life everlasting is hidden in the heart of death.”

                                                —Hazrat Inayat Khan

I can’t imagine how the families and friends feel at this moment, but I know that The One picked these souls up with love to take them home. I celebrate their lives and the joy, happiness and love which they shared with others during their short lives. May the goodness and love of their lives be an inspiration to the entire country. May the bright energy of their lives continue to teach others about love.

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Now Where Did I Put That Artist


Oil Pastel by Barbara Mattio 2011

Here we are and where I live, it is the middle of the night. I worked on a painting earlier. At some point during my session I reached the zone. I believe it is an interesting place. It is where creativity and spirituality meet and become one.

“Paradise is at your own center
unless you find it there
there is no way to enter.
—-Anglus Silesius

The Buddha says, “We do not learn by experience, but by our capacity for experience.” The creative person has a capacity for experience. It is our ability to not just look at something, but to really see it. Is what we see exactly what we will paint, draw or sculpt? No probably not. There is a place within ourselves where the artist meets with the Divine. This is the place where the created and the creator blend. The blending of the two conditions is the place where we do not move our hands anymore to compose a song, write a novel, arrange flowers in a vase or paint what your soul experiences.

Due to economic restraints schools are reducing their art and music classes. Reading and math and science are totally necessary. What they don’t teach our children is not just to look but to really see..

Not seeing is becoming rampant is our culture.There are some who that when humans do not “really see” what they look at, Then they lose the ability to look at other humans and care about their sufferings or sorrows. They lose the ability for compassion.

When I draw a flower, it is not the little “I” or the ego which is expressing itself, it is the flower that is being able to express itself.When the creativity inside meets with The One, then we are really one with the Universe. We are part of the Creative Process which unfolds continually in Nature.No matter what your medium is, you become part of the cosmic consciousness. The eyes really see and the hand moves and we are in a state of grace. Here we stop looking at and begin firsthand seeing. At this moment, you find the artist you are looking for.

Angelus Silesius wrote the first Western haiku.
“The rose is without why
it blossoms because it blossoms.”

So exactly what am I attempting to say? I am saying that for creative/artistic people there is a point when their medium becomes meditation. It is actually meditation in motion. The hand and eye work in tandem. Quiet and solitude are not the place where art and meditation meet. So if you haven’t seen the artist within for awhile,simply start living the “artist within.” Peace will descend and your work will pour out of your hands. M.C. Escher did a plate of his hands and it is my favorite. The amazing energy which flows from his drawing makes you know you are standing in the presence of Divinity.

Just be yourself, the unique and creative person that was created out of star dust and allow the creativity to flow out of your soul and into your work.

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Baby Steps for Peace


Photo by Barbara Mattio

So here we are. We realize that peace must begin within ourselves. Okay, now what? It is easier to be forgiving from a distance. It is easier to just look away and not see missed opportunities.

There are ways for us to begin. It starts with little things. Giving respect to those who deserve it. Picking up a fallen object for an elderly person. You can not scream at the kids when you have just had the worst day in your career. You can take cake to a new neighbor and say welcome.
You can be flexible with your friends and really care what is happening in their lives. When you can get through the day without a moment when you think, wow I shouldn’t have done that. You have begun to add peace to your journey. The person at the bank that made a mistake and you chose not to be short or mean to them will carry that kindness forward. They will hold the door for a young mother with a baby in arms and a toddler next to her. She will get home late from her errands with 2 crying children. She will sing them lullabies as they fall asleep.
The next day the toddler goes to a play date and is very kind to the other children. And so on and so on.

It is easy to say it begins with me, but assume that others should be the ones to start practicing peace. It is each of us, the 7 billion + people who need to throw the first stone into the ocean of hatred and violence.
Violence grows the same way as peace does. A neighbor fights with another neighbor. They are very angry and others take sides. This escalates the anger and fear enters as others begin to look at each other in distrust. Governments don’t keep promises. Politics become more important than agreements. Nations argue and then war becomes a topic of discussion.

We each need to make peace in our own lives. At times, it takes walking away. Sometimes it takes loving someone more than we love ourselves. We need to remember that we are not alone in our desire to live in a peaceful world. The Divinity that dwells within us wants that also. We make our own decisions and we must accept responsibility for the lack of peace in our own lives. We must hold elected officials to govern in a peaceful manner without ego and without a quest for power.

I encourage everyone to walk the path of peace as well as to talk it. It isn’t enough to just say we need World Peace. We have to live it in our lives each day. Others will respond to the peace within. For the times you lose your own peace, it is okay. Just start again with a fresh slate. Just don’t give up because The One has never given up on us.

Photo by Barbara Mattio

Photo by Barbara Mattio

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I Will Walk Easy


We are at a place in time when we can no longer view ourselves as separate from our planet. Each of us has inner spiritual work to do, but we must accept that we are totally part of the living Mother Earth. Healing ourselves and working to resolve the ecology of our planet is the same work. Healing involves making ourselves and our planet whole again. If we can destroy Gaia with our actions, then we can also heal her and ourselves in the process. We are fields of energy integrated with our world. We can reestablish the balance on our planet and allow for her to heal herself.  The balance will allow us to heal also.

“I have come to terms with the future.

From this day onward I will walk

easy on the earth. Plant trees.

Kill no living things.

Live in harmony with all creatures.

I will restore the earth where I am.

Use no more of its resources than I need.

And listen, listen to what it is telling me.”

—M.J. Slim Hooey

” My help is in the mountains

Where I take myself to heal

the earthly wounds

That people give to me.”

  —-Nancy woods

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Summer Escapades


Photograph by Barbara Mattio

The best part of summer is the ability to just be. To be in the present moment. The past is gone. For better or worse, you never can get it back and you must let it go. This is not always easy for people to do. Letting go can be frightening. Often we don’t want to let the good memories fade, or sometimes, the pain of some times in our life doesn’t heal. It takes effort on our part to let go and trust that it will be all right. You don’t lose the memories and they actually become more golden with the passing of the years. The pain will diminish and your heart will heal. Divinity is always with us and we never walk alone. Divinity is within our souls so what we experience, it experiences.

The future is an enticing siren. It sings its song to us and we want to know what is coming. We want answers about love, finances, travel or a job perhaps. The siren sings and we ache to know what is coming. The future is like Tinkerbell. She flits here and there but when you reach out for her she is gone between your fingers. The future or the fairy disappears because as soon as you come close to grasping it, the future turns into the present.

The present moment of time is where we exist in the now. The beauty you are experiencing at this exact second is the present. The fragrance you catch on the wind, the dragonfly that glides across your field of vision. Each moment is a priceless gift for us to use and enjoy. Some choose to spend some of these precious moments in hatred or violence. Some choose to use them to add beauty, acceptance and inclusiveness to the world.

If each of us took the moments we are given in a twenty-four hour period and used them to make someone smile, to laugh with a child, to reach out a hand, or to acknowledge the amazing blessings each moment brings with it, we could begin to have the energy to change the world. So, I am trying this summer to fill my present with escapades of joy and happiness. So pass it on and by autumn we will be able to harvest bushels of goodness in our lives.

Photography by Barbara Mattio

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The Joy That Isn’t Shared


All photography by Barbara Mattio

I woke this morning and went out on my front porch and was greeted by the fragrance and beauty of my garden. I ate breakfast sitting on the porch with the sun caressing my body filling me with vitamin D. A small plane flew overhead and I remembered flying over my house my self one time. A dragonfly lazily visited the blooms and my heart filled with joy and gratitude for my life. I also
thought about the people all over the world going about their lives, some filled with joy, some with injustice and oppression. Joy needs to be shared because it fills the soul with hope. Hope is a very real gift to a human soul.

Welcome Morning

“There is joy
in all;
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning.
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that hears my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry “hello there, Anne”
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window.
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.
The joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,
dies young.

—Anne Sexton

All photography by Barbara Mattio

All photography by Barbara Mattio

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My version of Mellow Yellow Monday


I have decided to participate in Mellow Yellow Mondays. Mondays are always punishing, at least from my perspective. Yellow should be the official color of summer. There are other good summer colors but yellow just lifts the spirits, fills me with joy and makes me want to dance. The summer months allow us to stretch, move, lift our faces to the sun, and inhale. I love the fragrance of the trees, grass, and flowers. I love the sound of waves hitting the beach and the laughing of children. The wind through the trees catching the pendulums of wind chimes fills me with delight. Summer makes us more aware of our senses and of the elements. Fire, water, air and earth

“From mountain primrose, from rose and thorn,
from nettle blossoms that bloom in the shade,
from gores and thistle, I am made,
from lady’s mantle I was born.

Nine flowers give me nine powers
and nine more herbs are what formed me.
I am called Bloudewedd.
Earth and magic are in my blood.”
—Welsh song to the flower goddess

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The Garden of Life


needlework by Barbara Mattio

Needlework by Barbara Mattio

 

I was just out in my garden. It is very warm and I was doing some deadheading, turning pots to the sun. I filled my lungs with the fragrance of the flowers and my eyes with their beautiful color. I could feel the energy emanating from the trees and was filled with contentment. The gardens of our lives are like this. They need attention and some work. We need to keep our lives fertilized and trimmed. We need to stop in the presence of the Divine and communicate as a child of the Universe. Negativity needs to be removed from our lives and we need to remember that thoughts have energy and try very hard not to add to the hatred and violence in the world. We need to laugh and enjoy the relationship we have with the Divine. So visit your garden or park and spend some time with God.

Trees

I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest against the
earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
and lifts her leafy areas to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear a nest
of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
who lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
but only God can make a tree.
—Joyce Kilmer

 

Photography by Barbara Mattio

Photography by Barbara Mattio

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Still-Life


Acyrii

Monotone acrylic still-life painting #2

Painting by Barbara Mattio

So the human race is on a journey. We walk along learning lessons, facing challenges, enjoying experiences, falling in love, and falling out of love. We work in our professions and we live very fast busy lives. We vacation and play racquetball. We visit the mountains and the beach. We attend theatre, opera, baseball games, and book clubs.

 

Each event in our lives moves us along the path of our lives. It isn’t a smooth path. Not at all like the people movers we use at airport terminals. There are hills and valleys. Change is always happening and sometimes we can control the changes. For instance, we come to a fork in the road, and must choose which way to go. We are always choosing our path because even no choice is a choice. We look at the fork and try to peer down the path as far as you can see. Which one? Which one is the one for me. Which one is the one I need or want. Could they both be wrong? One path looks as if  it has been used more frequently. Is this something we should consider? A very good question. The lesser path often holds the answer to our deepest needs.

 

If we stop and still life, it will continue to flow around us. People will detour around us and they will be busy living. The journey is the flow of  life. If we opt out and stand still, are we really living? Are we embracing life or hiding from the rich vibrant experience of our lives. It can be a scary world and a violent world. The option is to stand still in our lives and miss out on the beauty of this gift we have been given from the Universe. Life is a beautiful gift but it can be really harsh. It can break our hearts as well as giving us such joy and contentment. There are times when standing still appears to be all we can do, but pluck up the courage and embrace this amazing gift and live it. Live it with gusto and know that we never walk alone. We carry Divinity within us during our entire journey and that is the ribbon on the gift. So, as we sort out the events and emotions we experience along the road of our journey, live, walk. Just don’t be still in life.

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So part of your journey includes your creativity


 

Being a creative person is very different than being a scientist or an accountant. Life has many challenges for everyone. Living life is not easy. It is really difficult.

For those of us who are creative, we have to also deal with our obsession to create beauty and truth in whatever way we are drawn to. It is never easy to find balance in life and it is an essential goal for all of us as we walk the path.  This can be even more difficult for a creative person to accomplish and takes concentration away from the flow of artistic beauty within, but there is no more choice for the creative person than for anyone else.

Criticism can be devastating to the very life flow of creativity and yet is very necessary.  Creative people have the additional  job of trying to accept both criticism and praise and balance it with the flow of our creativity.

In addition, there is the challenge of creating meaning in the life of the artist. Whatever your medium, you are creating beauty in the world and meaning in your life. Beauty cannot be created by ugliness, only by more beauty.  One thing we seldom do as creative people, is to see ourselves as part of the beauty we have added to the world.

Creative people must accomplish all these extra tasks, in addition to what others must do to create successful lives for themselves

Balance and meaning are the foundation for the basis of  life.  Foundations are essential for all human beings and all must form a firm solid one. Beauty, spirituality, work you love, passion and love are all part of this foundation.

I have been looking at my foundation today and looking for cracks. Now it is up to me to seal and repair those cracks. It is all very necessary and never easy, but the foundation must be made solid for me to create more beauty.