A newsletter could not be more inappropriate than my last one on the subject of "joy". The day I released it into the world, Russia's unspeakable aggression against Ukraine began. Today I sit here writing this text while in Ukraine cities are being wiped out, people are losing their lives, their homes, their loved ones. All over the world there are ways to donate to the people of Ukraine, to the millions of refugees. Please do it if it is financially possible for you.
Taking in the fullness of the world
Spreading out the eyes within me, taking in and accepting all the fullness of the world. I do not let myself be limited or restricted. Spreading out the eyes, that also brings insight, inner view, looking inward. What occupies me, what animates me, what do I think and feel? I look inward to carry a clear view outward.
Letting myself be touched
I let the world come to me, I let myself be touched. I dare to look into the breadth and depth of things. The word insight contains the wide-open eyes that grant us new insights. The scales fall from our eyes. Suddenly everything becomes clear as crystal, what before was still cloudy and blurred.
In-sight
Everything that the eyes take in can become a deep, inner impression that stays with us for a long time. We carry inner images with us, sometimes for a whole lifetime, beautiful and bad, a whole library. It takes courage to go through life with eyes wide open. Life is a venture, so are seeing and recognizing.
Loving look
I try to gently spread my eyes and keep the loving in my gaze, to be open and not immediately stick a label on it. Things are not positive or negative, they just are. It is not easy to detach from the evaluations, to simply perceive things and not categorize them. Which I'm just wondering if the brain can even allow that to happen. On the way from the visual center to the higher centers, things are classified and named.
In the studio
One theme in Helen Hiebert's annual program, "the paper year," was embroidery on paper. I fell in love with the geometric figures.
A few unimportant questions
What else would you like to experience?
What trips do you want to take?
What do you want to see?
How big is your point of view?
Which is the most beautiful picture in your inner picture gallery?
Which dream image do you remember?
If you want, you can send me the answers by e-mail.