August/September 2006

Tall Tales, Sara Post, 2005

Above The Door News © Sara Post 2006


 

 

         Have you ever seen                do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
                  Anything                                     a word billowing enough
                 in your life                                         for the pleasure
              more wonderful
         
          than the way the sun,                                  that fills you
              every evening                                          as the sun
             relaxed and easy                                       reaches out
        floats toward the horizon                              as it warms you

      and into the clouds or the hills,                      as you stand there,
             or the rumpled sea,                                 empty-handed—
                  and is gone—                                    or have you, too
         and how it slides again                            turned from this world--

            out of the blackness,                                or have you too
                 every morning,                                       gone crazy
      on the other side of the world,                              for power
                 like a red flower                                      for things?

   streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
     say, on a morning in early summer,
       at its perfect imperial distance—                                           --Mary Oliver
     and have you ever felt for anything
                 such wild love—

The Sun
Late summer dog days are a perfect time to put your feet up, close your eyes, and float away into dreams.  By allowing yourself to dream you’ll be accessing the part of your brain that engages emotions and imagination.  In a recent Wall Street Journal article Jeffrey Zaslow describes this process: “Brain-imaging research suggests that the pre-frontal cortex—the part of the brain engaged in rational thinking—basically goes offline when we sleep”.  When we dream it is difficult to remember details since the part of the brain dealing with logic and, more importantly, memory, is “switched off”.

While deep sleep dreaming frees our imagination and intuition to explore hidden territory, we can also have waking dream experiences that engage the same non-linear parts of the brain while allowing some input from the logic/memory functions.  Day dreaming, of course, is one form of waking dream and creating expressive art work is another.  In making SoulCollage cards, you let images “choose you”; then, you let those images direct the way you put them together.  As you do this, you let your imagination and your emotions take you to new places; you let yourself dream.  In What Is Dreaming? we read, “Artists and poets have long…celebrated the differences between conscious states (and dreams).”  It is through art work (SoulCollage and other expressive arts) that we give our dreams form. When we write from cards (logic, memory) we open the door to understanding our artistic “waking dreams”.

Sweet dreams to you all…sleeping and waking.

Dream Stairway  Sara Post  2004
Dreaming
While all of these classes are offered over several meetings, it may be possible to schedule single dates on a space-available basis. If you can come for some (but not all) of these classes, please let me know. If there is space or a cancellation, you’ll be very welcome!

New SoulCircle Group forming:

SoulCircle is a group of 4-6 participants who meet regularly, once a month, for card reading and writing.  SoulCircle creates the ground for deepening insights and for adding to your understanding of your cards and those of others.  What’s more…it’s fun!  Writing includes short prose works, poems and myths. Meeting times, dates are set by the group.  There is space for one new group to form this fall. Contact Sara for details.

Save the date:  

Thursday, December 21, 6:30pm: Winter Solstice SoulGathering  Look for details in the coming October/November AboveTheDoor News.

Opening in October:

The Upper Sanctuary at Davis Community Church: Art, Creative Writing, and Crafts in Community or in Silent Retreat

The Upper Sanctuary is a new project housed in the second floor sanctuary wing of Davis Community Church in Davis, California.  It offers opportunities to be in spiritual space through art making (including SoulCollage—monthly groups and drop in), writing and crafts. These activities are available in community or as a part of a bi-weekly silent retreat, In Silent Space. There is no charge for participation.  Free will donations for materials are gratefully accepted. Travelers/Seekers on all spiritual paths are welcome.  For more information contact Sara
(530)758-3613 or email  uppersanctuary@dccpres.org

A Thought for Labor Day (work/right livelihood)

Suzie Wolfer, Portland, Oregon psychotherapist, artist and SoulCollage facilitator made this card describing her life’s mission.  Thinking of work as a mission encourages us to make the leap from “job” to “right livelihood”—a Buddhist term describing the occupation that allows us to best utilize our gifts and fulfill our dreams. In observance of Labor Day this year (in addition to camping, picnicking, and other fun) let’s take a moment to consider our mission in life. If you have time, perhaps you’ll want to make a mission or work card.  Does your mission dovetail with your work?  If not, what changes are asking to be made?

I am the One who moves through life’s adventures alive with possibility, enjoying the ride wherever it takes me.  Like the ever-changing fractile patterns that show order in apparent chaos, I embrace change and growth.  I see life as a spiritual adventure, supporting me to climb the ladder of awareness.  I use amusement, awareness and connection to stay in balance.  I serve God joyfully, to help birth aliveness in others and myself.  I am willing to play!
Mission  Suzie Wolfer
Earth
Note to Self: Save The Planet
Have you seen Al Gore’s movie/lecture “An Inconvenient Truth”?  If not, find a theatre showing it and go now.  We all have choices around global warming.  This movie delineates the problem and shows concrete ways in which each of us can become part of the solution.

There and Gone: Portraits of Wild Birds

Jim Dunn presents avian images from South Texas and California, SMUD Gallery  6301 S Street, Sacramento, CA until September 7

Jim is a wildlife photographer and husband of SoulCollager Pam Ryan. Jim’s meticulous photographs of birds let the viewer see them in magnificent detail and sometimes startling real life color. Images from this show may also be seen on Jim’s website, www.avian-images.com

Summer Reading

Peggy Froehlich, whose grandmother grew up on a Great Plains farm, recommends   Dakota:
A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris, a beautiful reflection on the power of the land to challenge and inspire.  

Last Words

The high plains, the beginning of the desert West often act as a crucible for those who inhabit them. Like Jacob’s angel, the region
requires that you wrestle with it before it bestows a blessing. This can mean driving through a snow storm on icy roads, wondering whether you’ll have to pull over and spend the night in your car, only
to emerge under tag ends of clouds into a clear sky blazing with stars. Suddenly you know what you’re seeing: the earth has turned to face the center of the galaxy and many more stars are visible than the ones we usually see on our wing of the spiral.

Or a vivid double rainbow marches to the east, following the wild summer storm that nearly blew you off the road.  The storm sky is gunmetal gray, but to the west the sky is peach, streaked with crimson. The land and sky of the West often fill what Thoreau termed “our need to witness our limits transgressed”.  Nature, in Dakota, can indeed be an experience of the holy.

                           --Kathleen Norris, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, “The Beautiful Places”

Coming This Fall…Two In-Depth SoulCollage classes and Mask Making

** September-October: Exploring SoulCollage

** October:  Ceramic Masks

And... October, November, December: The Art Of Travel: A SoulCollage Adventure

Far and Away  Sara Post  2004
For information about all these classes and for registration, take a look at the Schedule page.