Above The Door News © Sara Post 2006

You may recognize these words as the title of this painting by Frida Kahlo.  In it we see Frida’s legs and feet as she looks down upon them in her bath.  Her feet are reflected on the surface of the water, telling us that the elements we see in the water are also reflections.  There we see Frida’s life—her history both temporal and psychic.  Among the symbols are her parents, a Mexican volcano giving birth to a New York skyscraper, women alone and in relationship, a dead bird, Mexican squash and Frida’s beautiful Mexican dress. The water contains and carries them all--a metaphor for creation in the larger flow of existence.

A few weeks ago in the midst of this wet rainy season, I received an email from Seena Frost, northern California therapist, artist and inventor of SoulCollage, calling attention to the 4th World Water Forum, “Local Actions For A Global Challenge”, taking place in Mexico City March 16-22.  As I write this newsletter, the conference will be drawing to a close, but its issues are ones that should continue to resonate with each of us as individuals and in our local and larger communities as we consider how to manage this most precious resource.

Seena sees water not only as a global issue but also as a women’s issue.  She organized and presented an exhibit of SoulCollage cards on the subject of water, The WaterBearer.  With the help of Sue Volpi Gelber, Davis homeopathic practitioner and SoulCollage facilitator, the show came to the Davis Art Center last August, where some of you may have seen it.  For the next few months I will be printing some of Seena’s observations about water illustrated with SoulCollage cards from the exhibit. In this first installment, Seena introduces The WaterBearer and shares a water ritual that you may want to use for your own water awareness.

The 3rd International Women and Water Conference was held from February 25–28, 2005 in India.  Vandana Shiva, an environmentalist and author of the book, Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit, was a participant.  She says, “Water is a women’s issue.  All over the world women are making decisions about water.”   Interesting… water as a women’s issue!  The WaterBearer is emerging.  And women are taking the lead under her influence in many ways and many places.  The exhibit of SoulCollage® collages <The WaterBearer> is one. 

A friend gave me a little blue ceramic bowl and instructions for a daily water ritual, and I have been doing one each day for several years as a constant reminder to “conserve water.”  This is how it goes:  Early every morning I mindfully fill my blue bowl with water at the bathroom tap; then, I carry it into the room where I do my meditation. It remains there on a table for the day. At night, just before bed, I give thanks and pour the water into a plant. Then I place the empty bowl on my sink, ready for the morning.

I added this to those instructions:  All the while I am filling my blue bowl and carrying it from one room to another, I repeat these lines by Rainer Maria Rilke:

Let no one say that I don’t love life, the eternal Presence:
I pulsate in her; she bears me; she gives me the spaciousness
of this day, the primeval workday for me to make use of,
and over my existence flings , in her magnanimity,
nights that have never been.

Her strong hand is above me, and if she should hold me under,
submerged in fate, I would have to learn how breathe down there.
Even her most lightly entrusted mission fills me with songs of her;
although I suspect that all she really wants is for me to be vibrant
as she is. 

(Fragment of an Elegy, Appendix to Duino Elegies, translated by Stephen Mitchell)

Try learning this by heart and saying it aloud. Say it in praise of the WaterBearer.

Water and The Second Chakra 
Noelle Remmington, Seattle area creativity coach, artist and SoulCollage facilitator, created this particularly memorable card and haiku for The WaterBearer exhibit. Women carry water and walk in it, living and breathing in the creative element. Noelle comments:

To me, what resonates about the Water Bearer archetype and water in general is that water is the element of the 2nd chakra – the place where our dreams, life purpose, desires, unconscious creativity, etc. dwell. Without water, there is nothing to nourish the seeds of our creativity. We need water for new life.

In March SoulStudio we gathered for chakra meditation.  Did you find an animal in your second chakra?  How does it speak to the flow of your creativity?

More of Noelle’s work may be seen on her website, www.lifedoula.com

Art and Water:  www.stumbleupon.com/demo.php?tag=arts This link comes from www.stumbleupon.com a website devoted to the discovery of interesting things on the internet. (Registered “stumblers”  share sites that they have found while surfing the net.)  When you click on the entry arrow, you’ll find yourself presented with five white circles and the word “choose”. Clicking on the second circle from the left takes you to a canal in Venice where you can listen to sounds and by moving your curser, experience the site over a period of 24 hours.

Politics of Water: www.worldwatercouncil.org -This site contains information about global water issues, conferences, connections.

T.S. Post exhibit: Association of Clay and Glass Artists at the Davis Art Center Exhibit:
ACGA (Association of Clay and Glass Artists) will mount two shows in Davis during the California Conference For the Advancement of Ceramic Art: a survey show of member’s work at the Pence Gallery and a small group show of four artists at the Davis Art Center.  Sara and Tom will exhibit wall pieces at the Davis Art Center.  The show opening is Friday, April 28, 6-9pm.  Please come if you are in the area!

Keep in mind that the river must flow and that we are going to follow it.  We must be aware of every little stream that joins it.  We must be aware of all the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that arise in us—of birth, duration and disappearance…Do you see? Now the resistance begins to disappear.  The river of perceptions is still flowing, but no longer in darkness.  It is now flowing in the sunlight of awareness…At the moment of awareness we feel we are in control, even though the river is still there, still flowing.

--Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart

April 2006 Newsletter