The Natural Life— Now at West End Gallery
How does part of the world leave the world?
How can wetness leave water?
Don’t try to put out a fire by throwing on
more fire. Don’t wash a wound with blood.
No matter how fast you run, your shadow
more than keeps up. Sometimes it’s in front.
Only full, overhead sun diminishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you.
What hurts you blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.
I can explain this, but it would break the glass cover
on your heart, and there is no fixing that.
You must have shadow and light source both.
Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.
When from that tree, feathers and wings
sprout on your soul, be quieter than a dove.
Don’t open your mouth for even a cooooo.
–Rumi, Tree of Awe (13th century)
Your boundaries are your quest…
That line stopped me in my tracks.
What are those boundaries?
Are they the same for each of us?
Can we ever reach them and, if so, will we even know?
Should we know?
So many questions.
Maybe this one of those instances where our questions don’t serve a purpose and don’t require an answer.
Perhaps they simply make us realize that they are keeping us from being still and listening to the light and dark as we lay under the Tree of Awe.
Maybe.
It’s not for me to know.
That’s all.
And enough this morning.
Here’s Iron and Wine with his song Tree by the River performed at the Kennedy Center in 2019. Remember when the Kennedy Center was a place of joy and music?
The painting at the top, The Natural Life, is now at the West End Gallery as part of my 25th annual solo exhibit there, The Jubilee Dance. The show hangs until November 12.
There is also my annual Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery taking place next Saturday, November 7, beginning at 11 AM. If you plan on attending, the gallery is advising that you arrive early in order to insure you get a seat, as it is limited. Doors open at 10:30 AM. I am in the process of choosing which painting will be given away at the end of Talk in a Free Drawing. I will reveal my choice sometime in the next few days. Plus, as always, there is always a little more as folks who have attended before will attest. Hope you can make it.
The Gallery Talk and the Drawing are free and open to all.
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