Ceremonial Gourd Rattles as Spiritual Tools

Ceremonial Gourd Rattles as Spiritual Tools

Every religion and spirituality has a set of Spiritual Tools that facilitate a deeper connection with ones faith and beliefs. Some are specific and unique to the philosophy, and others are common among many. Altars, Flowers, Incense, Music, Songs, Chants, Drums, Candles, Statuary, Rattles.....all are tools that can be kept in the Spiritual Toolbox.

One that is  very important to us, and that we create many of, is the Ceremonial Gourd Rattle. These Ceremony Rattles have many uses and their diversity can lend to many cultures and faiths. The Rattle can be used in Prayer as a calling, an asking, and in gratefulness. It can be used in spiritual and energetic Cleansing, to remove negativity. They are often used to space clear homes in the making of Sacred Space, especially after an argument or illness in the house. The Ceremony Rattle is common to have at Gatherings of the Spirit, to assist in a Collective Consciousness, and even Drum Circles to celebrate and rejoice in our humanity on this Earth in song and dance. Those who explore Shamanic Journeying can use the Rattle as they enter and depart the other world or state of consciousness. And simply, they can assist us in Meditation, as a focus, as the slow rhythmic shake reminds one of the heartbeat. 

Painted Gourd Ceremonial Rattles from Conscious Art Studios

Creation Process of a Ceremonial Gourd Rattle

Our creation process is done on an intuitive level, and when we create we only do so when we ourselves feel balanced and peaceful. We use Gourds when we craft the rattles, and enjoy working with this Earth element and feel that it lends to the character of the piece. It brings a naturalness and integrity to the purpose of its creation. 

The Gourd are carefully chosen, cut, and cleaned. Focused attention is paid to the addition to the noisemakers that are placed inside the gourd. Sometimes the intention is to create a rich, full, and deep sound. Other times it is to create a light and delicate sound. We use a variety in the combination, including  dried beans and seeds, gemstone chips, and metal beads. Once the perfect assortment is found, the gourd is sealed and we attach a wooden handle. Handles are wrapped with leathers and suede and then adorned with extra embellishments such as cord wrapping, feathers, wooden pony beads, tin cones, or additional gemstones. We add leather loops at the very end of the handle to serve as a wrist wrap for when you are shaking them (optional to use), or to attached the rattle to your belt loop or waistband of regalia while at large gatherings or ceremonies. 

We paint our Ceremonial Rattles with leather acrylics, usually with animal totems or other spiritual symbols.  Many times this gives people a more  personal attachment to the piece and allows them to resonate with it more fully. We offer custom paintings on our Rattles.

Blessing Trees Ceremonial Gourd Rattle

 SOLD

Black Bear Totem Ceremonial Gourd Rattle Staff

SOLD

Peacock Goddess Ceremonial Gourd Rattle

SOLD

Sea Turtle Totem Ceremonial Gourd Rattle

SOLD

Moon Goddess Ceremonial Gourd Rattle

Moon Goddess Gourd Ceremony Rattle on Etsy

Dragonfly Totem Women's Winter Ceremonial Gourd Rattle

SOLD

The Peacock Warrior Woman

How She Came to Be

The Peacock Warrior Woman has evolved after many years of nurturing her awareness during her daily meditations sitting underneath the Tree of Life. A family of peafowl were always present when she would visit. During her meditations she would gaze into the eyes of the peacocks feathers while she accessed her higher self. Over time after her prolonged connections with the peafowl, she began absorbing the wisdom of the peacock totem, or their  "medicine" we would say. Grandfather Peacock remains her closest companion to this day as they fill their visits with conversations of Philosophy and Meaning of Life.

  In her enlightened state she carries a balance between masculine and feminine qualities. This  allows her the gifts  of discernment and decisiveness  from the feminine side, while the extraordinary plumage from the masculine side brings an increased connection with her intuition and vision. 

What She Gives to the World

 The Peacock Warrior Woman is now a Guide, a Guide for those who are on their spiritual journey of reclaiming their inner spirit. The search to find the pieces of ourselves that we have lost or given away over the years is her primary focus, for she herself knows  the feeling of waking up and feeling as if something is missing. She "gifts" one of her feathers to those who are seeking, to help them connect with their own higher selves during meditation, to heighten their skills of awareness, and to access their intuition in a strong and consistent manner. 

The original Contemporary Folk painting of "The Peacock Warrior Woman" was created by Jeanne Fry. It is listed for sale in our Etsy shop where you can also see more photos and learn about the dimensions.

SOLD

Emotional Healing with the Sea Turtle Totem and Reiki Symbols

My most recent painting is titled "Emotional Healing", and focuses on the Sea Turtle Totem and incorporation of Reiki Symbols. I was inspired to create a painting that would be soothing and be symbolic for the healing of our thoughts...feelings...and emotions. The Sea Turtle and the Water itself, both are symbolic of the Feminine, Motherhood, and the Nurturing that is involved with our personal growth and evolving as we age. They represent the ability to find balance in one's emotions, thereby being able to make solid choices that make both the heart and mind content. That balance also helps us to "ride the current", or ups and downs in life's journey.

"Emotional Healing" with the Sea Turtle Totem and Reiki Symbols by Jeanne Fry

As a Traditional Usui Reiki Master/Teacher, I decided to incorporate a few of the Reiki Healing Symbols into the painting, to amplify the healing effects. The Cho Ku Rei symbol is a power symbol, and was painted to boost the balancing aspects. The Sei He Ki is a specific symbol that is used for emotional and relationship healing. And I used a Contemporary Master Symbol, for Soul Healing and to represent the Light of the Awakened Heart. 

This is a powerful healing piece of artwork, that I envisioned could be used as a meditation tool, or to display in a massage therapist's or healer's office. The soothing calming color work and the symbolism is engaging and brings one to focus.

The Original Painting has sold. Art Prints of it are available in my Fine Art America online shop. They will ship directly to you.
Emotional Healing with the Sea Turtle Art Print

Finding the Heartbeat in Art

This has been a hard year in weather for us. We have had what seems like continuous battering rains and flooding most of our Spring and Summer. In the process we have lost our gardens and many opportunities to go to art shows. But, what I miss the most is my ability to spend as much time out in nature as I normally would. 

I am a mountain girl. Spending time in the woods and near our lakes and waterfalls comforts my heart like nothing else. This is where I find my balance and my inspiration. 

Without my frequent excursions into nature, I have found myself taking my easel to my porch in order to find my peace.

Last weekend we were invited to a Drum Retreat, with John being asked to provide Native Flute music and Udu drum to the morning meditation. It was a beautiful way to begin our morning, with the sun floating in through the stained glass window.

While originally thinking that we would only stay through the meditation, we found that we stayed most of the day. We sat in on some of the drum workshops and performances and had lunch with our friend Glen (a djembe maker) and his wife Nicole. http://www.dogstardrums.com/

We had the wonderful opportunity to see Alisa Caldwell teach West African dance, who left us feeling re-energized.

 http://www.tedxgreenville.com/conference/tedx_2013/alisa/

Coming home in the afternoon for a brief respite, I contemplated whether to return to the retreat for the evening drum circle. My body was beyond exhausted and in pain, but the urge to paint near the lakeside while the others drummed won out on the decision. 

I was curious if being among so many people in such an active event would be too much of a distraction for me to paint. Only one way to find out I thought, as I scurried through the house to gather my paints, easel, and something....something...to paint on. I found a large sheet of wood and we were off to the drum circle.

I found a little spot on the edge of the circle to set up the easel. There as lots of chatter amongst the drummers while I set up my palette. Soon they were drumming, and even sooner I was painting. I no longer heard their voices nor noticed them moving around. I was at once in tune with the heartbeat of the drum and found my brush moving rhythmically moving to the sound.

I painted what I heard. I painted what I felt. I painted the music.

It took two days for my body to recover from what I have made it endure that day, but the benefit that my spirit received was well worth the expenditure.

"Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together"  Anais Nin

http://www.consciousartstudios.com/

Reclaim Your Inner Peace CD Guided Meditations with Native Flute

Our Reclaim Your Inner Peace Guided Meditation CD is a project that was dear to our hearts in it's creation. Jeanne and John Fry collaborated together for this CD, with Jeanne writing and leading the meditations vocally on the CD, and John writing and performing the Native Flute music. Those two components together gave birth to beautiful meditation work, bringing peace and relaxation woven with the gorgeous flute music.

Reclaim Your Inner Peace Guided Meditation with Native Flute CD

There were certain components that were important to Jeanne in the creation of the CD. As a Traditional Usui Reiki Master and Meditation Leader, Jeanne wanted to begin this peaceful work with a "Letting Go" meditation to begin, a shedding of the days worries and stresses. Once this was completed, she wanted to guide through a Chakra balancing of the seven main chakras (Root Chakra, Sacral Chakra, Solar Plexus Chakra, Heart Chakra, Throat Chakra, Third Eye (Brow) Chakra, and Crown Chakra). Chakras (Sanskrit name for wheel) are spinning wheels of energy (prana or life force) within the body.

Once through the seven chakra meditations, she included a meditation on Connecting with the Divine and then concluded the CD with a meditation on Gratefulness. 

Jeanne Fry, Traditional Usui Reiki Master, Meditation Leader, Visual Artist

John wrote and performed warm and soothing Native Flute music for each meditation, with each piece instinctively resonating with it's purpose. (When balancing the chakra system, each chakra corresponds with a certain key in music, and so John chose to play the flute in each of those respective keys, making them even more effective and healing to the chakra system)

John J. Fry, Reiki Practitioner, Meditation Leader, Native Flutist, Artist

 Each meditation on the CD is on it's own track so that you can maneuver through  it easily. If one day you only desire to do the Letting Go meditation for example, you can just key up that track. If you work through the entire CD, which is a bit over an hour, each meditation is separated by the sound of a tinghsa. The artwork on the cover of the CD is a reproduction of one of Jeanne's paintings of the Owl Butterfly.

Reclaim Your Inner Peace Guided Meditations with the Native Flute by Jeanne and John Fry

You can read more about the CD and collect it from our Artfire Shop here

Reclaim Your Inner Peace Guided Meditation CD for Sale on Artfire

Seasons of an Artist and Wisdom in a Pumpkin Patch

 

The inspirations that can  influence an artist's work are varied and diverse, but the change of the seasons is usually a common thread between them. Whether their themes are on nature or not, the environment  can lend a hand in their work by color choice or symbolic perspective.

Pumpkins and Gourds posing at the Pumpkin Farm

 

My art does is fact focus on nature, the symbolism of the seasons, animal totem meanings, and how all of these things lend to our emotional and spiritual growth as humans. The arrival of Fall is my most loved season and has been since I was a child. The chill in the air, the comfort of a sweater, the embrace of Mother Nature as she splashes the landscape with fiery passionate colors, and the knowing of how important the need to be grateful for soon a quiet, barren, and introspective time will be creeping over the mountain. Fall wraps around my heart reminding me of tradition and family and a closeness of the spirit.

Brilliant Orange of Nature's Bounty

 

This past weekend we took the day to venture about through Apple Country here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where apple and pumpkin farms and roadside stands are frequent while traveling down the winding roads. A stop at the Cabbage Shack, where yes you guessed it, they sell cabbage. Not the usual run of the mill cabbage that you see in the grocery, but "mountain cabbage" which are large and a rich green with brilliantly full leaves.

At the Cabbage Shack

Mountain Cabbage

Choosing one of them is like choosing one diamond from a mine..they all look wonderful. And while getting a cabbage at The Cabbage Shack may seem like a very mundane chore...to me it is getting a gift from the Earth, a gift that was made specifically for the good of my body. You can feel the nutrients through those leaves and at that moment I am present and in tune with listening to my body, it's needs, and our connection with the Earth. The nurturing of my body is almost a meditation for me.

And soon I am drawn further down the road to the pumpkins and the gourds, for what would Fall be without them? Today everyone is out getting pumpkins. Many tourists have come to our little spot in the mountains for this experience, and the choices are many. I of course have recipes running through my mind, because I couldn't imagine just cutting one up, but need to have a use...so my plan is to roast pumpkin seeds, make a pumpkin seed brittle, and to make a Sausage Pumpkin and Sage Casserole.

Choosing my pumpkins

And as you can see, we both have different likes

And of course, this one needed to find it's home with us

Now you may be thinking I have totally veered off topic here...what does this have to do with the seasons of an artist? Well...everything. Because it is about the art of living, the art of being, and the art of connecting with natural elements. When we have mastered this, we have unlimited inspirations in creating  and it allows us to sit at the canvas with our authentic selves. Our ability to make our mundane chores become a grateful meditation, and our appreciation for life in all forms, brings a wider scoped perspective to our artwork.

And while my art always revolves around nature and empowerment, it does change during this season...bringing a different color palette and a different view of ourselves as humans during this season. A deeper richness comes forth, and because I personally resonate with this time of year...my work will come from a deeper place within me. Since Autumn arrived it has reflected this different tone...

Artwork by Jeanne Fry

Happy Fall everyone and I hope you resonate with the magic of the season.
Namaste



If you are interested in seeing more of my current artwork you can find it in my Artfire Studio here

Original Painting Greeting Cards on Artfire

Original Paintings on Artfire

Earth Day on a Spiritual Level

Earth Day became a recognized day quite some time ago. It becomes more and more popular each year as our global family becomes increasingly aware of it's importance and the things that we can do to give back to the land.  I stay in tune with it every day...trying to stay aware of my footprints on the Earth and how all of our choices have an effect on something else. But it's more than that for me, for it feeds my soul.

Respecting the land that we live on has become a part of my spirituality. Honoring the cycles of life, death and rebirth, and the seasons, correlates with all aspects of the spirit. My personal growth can run parallel to that of my surroundings. I find more solace in nature than in a self help book. When days run into each other and monotony sets in, things can feel stagnant. As soon as you step outside and are aware, you can feel  how immense the universe is, how there is truly an abundance in life to draw from, and manifesting seems so much more possible. Somehow all of those little things that we stress on, that snowball and become big things that we stress on...are more easily put in perspective when you allow your feet to feel the Earth again.

I am always impressed with the mood changes Earth has...she can shift from serene  and calming, to intense and passionate, to angry and tantrums....so much like us humans who walk upon her. And you realize...it will change. It always does. Nothing stays the same.

Maybe those large entities that take her for granted, who dump and pillage her resources out of greed, somehow lost touch with her long ago. I think they forgot how to see, feel and touch life. My hope is that one day they can remember...how it feels to have a bird in the hand, to nurture something as it grows, to feel the breeze on your face, or to be in awe of it's immense beauty and strength.

I hope that everyone has a meaningful Earth Day, and maybe you can share with someone else it's importance, and one by one we can change our responsibility level.

Nature, our Earth, is reflected in all of my art work, because of it's simple importance in my life. My hope has always been that when it is shared with others.....it raises their awareness as well.

 

Answers.. Art... and the Garden

Knowledge is Power.

We tell ourselves so often when we are stumbling for an answer to Why.."if I only knew the root of the problem..things would be better". I could fix it. I could change it. We can tell ourselves that so often, that we begin to believe that once we have the knowledge of "what it is", things will immediately be different. But nobody told us that is not entirely all there is to it.

Yes, things will be different, but once you have the knowledge..it is up to YOU how it will change. The knowledge is the stepping stone.

For four years I had been searching for an answer. Why am I in so much pain? Why don't I feel well? What is wrong with me? Doctor after doctor, test after test, and endless days of discouragement led me to endless searching for the answer, as if the answer would be the solution. All the while not knowing that once I had the answer....it was only a step. And that step is your choice in how you will make it change. In which direction, what path will you take, toward your solution?

These past few months as I had felt even worse, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. My inspiration to create Art became more and more difficult, my pain dictating my every move, and fatigue controlling my days. Then Tuesday morning an unexpected phone call came, and in ONE minute the stepping stone appeared in front of me. "You have Lupus". Stunned I hung up the phone and became quiet. I needed to process this, and realized things weren't immediately better now that I had an answer. The stepping stone was in front of me, but I was not ready to take a step. I gave myself permission to sit with it, think, and BE.

 I needed to eliminate the noise that surrounds us in the world, no TV, no phone calls, no drama....just to get to that simple state of breath. So, I spent that day and all the next outside, the one place that can make you feel better just by it's existence. The one place so easy to find perspective and balance.

I decided to listen to Me.

I felt compelled to to have my hands in the Earth, the simplicity called to me...work in the garden. Flowers needed to be planted. I needed to surround myself with color, reds and blues and purples. I needed to feel the soil in my hands.

The afternoon was spent planting. Loosening the soil and digging the holes was immediately hurting me, the pain was aggressive...but I needed to do it. My husband saw the difficulty and began doing the strenuous parts for me so that I was left with the simple pleasures of placing the flowers and plants in the earth and filling them in. Finished, we spent the rest of the day on the porch..quiet, peaceful and meditative.

The next day we spent our day driving in the mountains and then again back sitting near the garden, until I then found a sense of peace with where I was at...a sense of peace that there was a stepping stone in front of me. I had come to the state of Now. The past did not exist and the future did not exist..only the present. And I took a step forward on to the stepping stone. I made the choice to fully immerse in my healing, to listen to my intuition and my body and act accordingly and move forward. I have no expectations that it will be easy, but will strive for the best quality of life, to be easy with myself and put my needs to the forefront. I will continue with my Art on a relaxed level, because it is like breath to me, it is part of my essence.

 Breathe in. Breathe Out. Follow the Stepping Stones.

Why am I an Artist? How Art Makes Us Feel

Why am I an Artist? Well, that could be a pretty complex question, but simply..because of how it makes me feel. Not only how it affects me, but how I see it affects others as well.

I have always believed that Art was Healing. The colors, the subject matter, the shapes, the composition, what it says, and what it doesn't say all lend to the effect on us. As a child at the age of four I received by first piece of Art, a painting of "Faith, Hope, and Charity", the three women...or were they angels..muses? Doesn't matter. I was given this painting in the pediatric ward at the hospital after my surgery, and I still have it to this day. The symbolism is what is important to me, and I realize that the symbolism is what I carry with me to this day, in my own Art and in my own Life.

Cleansing ~ Purity by Jeanne Fry

Much research has been done on the effects of Art in our lives, showing that art has an effect on our  nervous system and brain neurotransmitters. It can help to change our perception and attitude and that color and shape have a therapeutic influence.

Friedrich Schelling, a German philosopher, felt that geometrical forms could influence our emotions (ie. a curved line symbolizing flexibility, a wavy line symbolizing life, and a elliptic horizontal line symbolizing tenderness).

Music has been a large part of my life since the age of four as well, when I began piano studies. Today it's healing force is still strong in my daily life. Dr. Rubinstein, a Russian psychologist, noticed that "minor" chords helped in relaxing muscles, while "major" chords excited them. Instrumental music activates the right cerebral hemisphere of the brain. Today I work on music endeavours with my husband, mostly instrumental music of Native Flute and Piano, but also Guided Imagery Meditations laid over the the Native Flute music. We personally believe that the body has the ability to heal itself when it is in a relaxed state, therefore our focus is to bring that into our music.

I am a strong supporter of the Arts in all modalities, not only for it's pure beauty and intelligence, but for it's physiological effects our mind and body, the freedom it affords the artist, and it's function to use our voice with not only our vocal chords but with our heart and hands.

I began creating a series of painting that I find "Healing', who's intention is to integrate the mind and body as a whole. Three of the paintings are complete, with more in the process.

"Healing" an Original Painting by Jeanne Fry

"Introspection" an Original Painting by Jeanne Fry

"Cleansing ~ Purity" an Original Painting by Jeanne Fry

I created these paintings to be at an affordable price to those that find the symbolism important in their lives.

To see my available paintings, please visit my Artfire Studio

Our music offerings are collected by many massage therapists and yoga practitioners for their relaxing attributes.

Guided Meditation and Native Flute CD by John and Jeanne Fry

Instrumental Native Flute CD by John Fry "Tribal Journey"

Our Music available in our Artfire Studio

Perseverance ~ We're all in this Together

I have been reflecting this past week on the economic slump our country (and world community) has been in these past two to three years. A lot of focus and debate has been had by the experts on why it has happened and how to improve it, but not as much attention has been paid to the effects it has had on us mentally, emotionally, or spiritually.

I have watched people close to me over this period of time go through a series of changes to their spirit, that sometimes I don't even think we are always aware of consciously. I have seen some of the most amazing artists step away from their art, feeling a loss of inspiration and drive. I have watched friends with a strong and secure base have it yanked out from underneath them leaving them in shock. I have watched teachers put under extreme stress of keeping their jobs while at the same time trying to be an inspiration to their students. People losing their homes, that place where you go at the end of the day to rejuvenate and heal the soul. The loss of jobs, homes, careers, financial security, and faith has been widespread and harsh.

So, what now? I can't even pretend to know, except that we take it one day at a time, one moment to the next. That we reach down to the deepest core within us and know that this to will change, maybe not in the way we think, but it will.

This is the time to truly connect with our own intuitive sense, to connect with your passion, because I feel like it can guide us through this leg of the journey. Along the way, take the hand of your friend, and assist them. We need one another, now more than ever. We're all in this together.

Perseverance : Mare and Maiden ~ For Strength and Free Spirit

I look to Nature to help with a grounding balance when the world seems overwhelming. It can change your perception of things in a moment, quieting the mind so that you can re-focus. I look to the animal totems as reminders of attributes that can be helpful. And I Create in order to release, inspire, and share. Find those things that can help you find the balance you need, urging you to take the next step.

It is usually the simplest of things that can help us take that deep breath in and out and center.

Some of the easiest joys for me personally to experience that help me STAY me...

Walking Meditation

Visiting Gardens

Music

Painting

Potluck Dinners with Friends

Laughing

Writing

The Smell of Lavender

Movie Marathons

Connecting with Animal Totems

Helping those Around me

My hope when the economic tide turns for the better...that we find a renewed sense of ourselves and a closer human connection to one another.

Namaste

**My original painting of Perseverance is available in my Artfire Studio here Perseverance Original Painting

http://www.consciousartstudios.com/

 

Finding Zen in the Diner ~ by Jeanne Fry

Finding Zen in the Diner

Who would have expected to stumble upon a spiritual moment in this busy lunchtime diner? On the quest to find a renovated mill, now turned Art Gallery, frustration was building as we drove in circles thinking surely the next turn would be the one that brought us to our destination. After an hour of this endless spiral pattern we decided to stop at a little diner in the downtown that was packed for the Friday lunch hour.

Almost all of the tables were filled and we were led immediately to a tiny two-seater booth in the back near the kitchen. Our waitress quickly came to greet us in a warm southern fashion and was soon off to get our iced teas and put in our order.

Now that we were waiting for our drinks and trying yet again to decipher the directions that were given to us for the old mill, I started absorbing in the activity that surrounded me. There were frosted white Plexiglas dividers between the booths adorned with small Santa Claus cling-ons that were so faded that I’m sure that they were saved year after year. Pictures of old muscle cars in plastic frames hung on the walls, and some kind of trophies lined the back counter.

Our waitress returned with the tea, smiling and laughing, and preceded to tell us that she has just received the best Christmas present she had ever gotten from a customer…a fur coat. She was so excited and proud as she told us it was a $200 coat and that all of the other waitresses wanted it for themselves. She pointed it out for us to see, lying over the back counter. From where I sat, it didn’t look like an extremely expensive coat, but it certainly made her day, and that’s all that mattered. She left us to our tea and raced off to another customer.

I started to scan the room, taking in the hustle and bustle of the lunchtime crowd. This diner was a melting pot for the city: business men in suits, middle-aged women taking a break from holiday shopping, eclectic looking twenty-somethings that were surely rising artists, construction workers, and old couples who made this stop a routine in their lives. Conversations were loud and excited and ranged from local politics to busy traffic, business to creative arts, and the economy to shopping lists. Back in the kitchen you heard the hurried clatter of dishes and laughter about stories from the night before, and that one waitress that endlessly went on about the fact that they were out of cornbread and it was only 11:30.

The activity was overwhelming, causing me to just silently sit and ponder over this diner that was probably filled with a hundred people. But instead of feeling lost in a sea of faces, it felt like a really large family get-together. My gaze kept wandering over to a man sitting at the counter, dressed in a uniform that looked like the ones that auto parts dealers wear. He was sitting alone, well, as alone as you could be here in this restaurant, and had just been served his food. His head was bowed, hands in lap, and he was praying before his meal. Slowly he prepared to eat. He seasoned his food with the small set of salt and pepper shakers ever so gingerly and rearranged his food on his plate making sure that each thing was exactly where he wanted it. He slowly cut pieces of his food and slid them into piles on his plate and laid his silverware out with the utmost care. He was seemingly unaware of the intense action that surrounded him, as if he was in his own world entirely. Watching the graceful slowness of his movements reminded me of watching a Japanese Tea Ceremony, peaceful and serene. Each bite that he took was purposeful and he chewed slowly and methodically, laying his fork down between each bite.

This man was perfectly content and purely living in the moment. He didn’t feel the need to read the newspaper while he ate or chat with the neighboring customer; instead he gave his food his focused attention.

He was Zen in the middle of chaos, and while most others were unaware of his very existence, I was aware, and thought to myself “Namaste. Whatever your appearance, I see and greet the soul in you”.

Diner culture has always intrigued me. More times than not, I choose to seek out these local spots to eat at, shunning away the fast food joints or high priced chains. There’s something special about these historic eateries.


Many have asked what my attraction is to ‘Diner Culture’, and I guess after consideration I would have to say that is makes me feel like I am close to home. I treasure the sense of diversity that can be found here, diversity much different than in other public places. In the diner you can find a conglomeration of cultures without pretense, so natural, defenses down and full of the integrity of humanness. Intrigued by watching how we as human beings interact with one another, studying character, and how we all intermingle and find a peace with others and ourselves is one of my passions.

(c) Copyright Jeanne Fry 2008

http://www.consciousartstudios.com/

The Shaman Tree ~ Painting and Poetry by Jeanne Fry

The Shaman Tree…ominous and wise…stands stately in the ground

Rooted in the soils of balance…touching the heavens of the Divine.

Within its aging body, by synchronized design,

It is a seat for Earth’s children.

An embrace, comforting and warm,

A place of peace.

Heavy heart and anxiousness lead me to the Tree

In search of clarity …of confirmation.

My approach is with reverence,

Each step becoming slower,

Each movement with full consciousness.

The gentle breeze dances about me, welcoming me back home.

Respectfully I kneel.

 

At this moment

The only thing in existence is my connection -

My connection with the Shaman Tree,

A representative of the Earth… the Universal Mother and

My connection with the Divine…of Faith everlasting

I express my concerns,

My hopes and my fears,

Endearingly resting my hand on the bough

Allowing myself to FEEL the emotions

I’ve held onto so tightly And release.

I am reminded of the simplicity in the circle of life…the simplicity of everything that IS.

As I pull my hand away, resting it within the other

I see the gift, different each time

A luxurious petal…Smooth green leaf…A smidgen of bark…

To add to my Mask.

A Mask Of Understanding and Growth

A new perspective to view the world with

 

With complete gratitude I step away-Refreshed to re-enter the busy world

With a higher understanding, yet more to share

New additions to the mask I wear…Not to hide behind the veil…But to reveal

The journey of life.

http://www.consciousartstudios.com/