One Word...or Two
One Image...or Two

February 2017

If you are any bit like me, you may have lots of physical notebooks lying around, filled with inspired-filled scribbles…and when flipping through to reread later, those recorded thoughts can feel a million miles away! Of course, the notebooks are really beds of seeds, and each seed needs water, sunlight, and nourishment. So every inspired thought, when written down, is asking to be taken further, explored, and then shared in an extended written or spoken form. It's a similar process with inspired sketches/drawings; they call to be heard, to be taken to completion, and sometimes the artist does not hear.
I’m intrigued by the human capacity to forget what we deeply know. It is a capacity that strikes awe and wonder in my heart. On this, the Gita eloquently records Krishna’s conversation with Arjuna at Kuruksetra, and these words in particular resonate: “I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me comes remembrance, knowledge, and forgetfulness…” Forgetfulness can be divine, serving to remind the seeker/practitioner of her own marginal nature and natural dependence on some form of intervention. 
And yet, on any path, remembrance is vital and life-giving; we love to remember/rediscover the grace of deeper intentionality, often arrived at after years of searching. Remembrance floods our blocked pathways with vitality and aliveness and with the same power of momentarily being outdoors in a thunderstorm with no outer protection.
One friendly practice is this simple activity: tape one (or two) inspired word/s in physical studio space; first write the resonant word on a post-it and place somewhere in the studio at eye level. Images can work in a similar way. It is important the word or image is important to you. For example, I wrote "deep solitude" and "momentum" on my recent post-its. They are words that reach into me in a specific and nourishing way.
​This practice serves as an invitation; one word, one image, can call out gently without being overwhelming, serving as a portal to awaken a previous vitality. And our close friend, Vitality, always dances near as we move through life's unexpected turns often cloaked at first as thorn-like obstacles. 

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All images and text © Nicola Barsaleau. All rights reserved.