Dear sisters and brothers, I shall start by sharing a few words by one of our departed sisters, Ann Frank. She said that no ones ever become poor by prayer!
Well yes, I have to admit that I for one have not become poor by prayer. On the other hand I have not become materially wealthy by art. I will though without any exaggeration yet with a little exasperation, say that my art may well have saved my life over these last three years or so (as may well have done the prayer!). Being able to work out both trials and tribulations. Love and anger. Loss and gain. Pleasure and pain. What is it about the duality of this material world that on one hand vex us to distraction/destruction and then on the other hand lift us up with struggle and drive to create!
Now lets just look at some photos of my latest art.
Some days my brothers and sisters you must be content with seeing -and being the first to see after me- my painting and do not expect lots of writing. Cannot the photo above convey at least a thousand and one words!
I will add a saying here which I came up with by altering a well known saying. `Cameras dont shoot people. People shoot people and so best to shoot each other with cameras, not guns!`
My love to you and all beings. Please pass this on and know my brothers and sisters that you are loved.
Peter.
Lets my brothers and sisters get straight into looking at the art, which after me, you are the first to see.
You may have seen this painting before, but not in this window which shows you its size!
Actually I cannot conceive of any way other than the few minutes it was up in my window,
you just happened fortuitously to be around unbeknownst to me to see this! Most unlikely.
My boys now have water guns and I dont and so I am going to drive them home now!
Bye for now and please know that you are loved by God who is in me and holds all together in love.
Your bro Peter.
Saturday and smiling and joyful to be able to post this to you, before 6.40am here in the UK.
Good day my brothers and sisters.
Blessings love and peace to you and all beings. I think my life is at the point where I have got over passed regrets. This means if now I do no longer look at my own thoughts, words and actions as in actual fact my own, then I, you and we are one and have a responsibility to love all!
Albert Einstein was asked toward the end of his life if he had any
regrets. He answered: "I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in
my life." This is a significant confession, coming as it does from one
of the greatest geniuses of the 20th century, a man who moved beyond the
modern science of Newton and ushered in a postmodern science and
consciousness.
St. John of the Cross said, "Launch out into the deep."
This launching into the depths -- into the deep ocean of the unconscious
and of the Great Self, which is connected to all things and to the
Creator -- often gets stymied by Western religious dogma, guilt trips
and institutional churchiness. The mystic gets starved. Patriarchal
culture by itself is unable to tap into the deep feminine aspects of
Divine Wisdom and Compassion and the heart. But the mystics, male and
female, do not present a one-sided reality, as Patriarchy does. The
yin/yang, female/male dialectic is alive and well in the mystical
tradition. God as Mother is honored along with God as Father. Through
this, mystics seek wisdom, not mere knowledge.
If where you or I stand is at a point where
from every direction we point towards is
infinite space then are we not, each and
everyone of us, at the centre of our own
universe.
Peter Kimble said as have not many!
Fr. Bede Griffiths was an English Benedictine monk who spent 50 years
in India living and building up an ashram that was Christian and, in
many respects, Hindu. He wrote a number of books on the coming together
of Eastern and Western mysticism. He writes:
"Perhaps this is the deepest impression left by life in
India, the sense of the sacred as something pervading the whole order of
nature. Every hill and tree and river is holy, and the simplest human
acts of eating and drinking, still more of birth and marriage, have all
retained their sacred character. ... It is there that the West need to
learn form the East the sense of the 'holy,' of a transcendent mystery
which is immanent in everything and which gives an ultimate meaning to
life..."
Thomas Berry was an American priest in the Passionist Order who
called himself a "geologian." A student of world religions and of
contemporary science, he was a great ecological prophet as is clear in
his books, The Dream of the Earth and The Great Work,
where he warns of the work we must do to reinvent our educational,
economic, political and religious systems if we are to be a sustainable
species on this endangered planet. He writes:
"The human venture depends absolutely on this quality of awe
and reverence and joy in the Earth and all that lives and grows upon
the Earth. ... In the end the universe can only be explained in terms of
celebration. It is all an exuberant expression of existence itself ... A
way is opening for each person to receive the total spiritual heritage
of the human community as well as the total spiritual heritage of the
universe. Within this context the religious antagonisms of the past can
be overcome, the particular traditions can be vitalized, and the feeling
of presence to a sacred universe can appear once more to dynamize and
sustain human affairs."
I do not paint things as such because I cannot capture the wonder of created things; say as a butterfly which moves in its own unique way. This is why I express thoughts and feelings. Wishes and desires in a way I cannot fully understand myself, as I am a limited being at this point in time. Yet.... ah the future.. Yet isnt it always the present. A gift not to ignored and set aside to open in the future! Boom, we are here now my brothers and sister, but will be elsewhere shortly and it will still be now! O am I going to go now for sure before I start to get confused and dont really know where I am. Actually, I covered this earlier I am at the centre of one of many universes... And `I` will be `one` with `you` and all that is and all that will be.
No weapon that is formed against me shall prosper; and every tongue that
shall rise against me in judgement thou shall be condemned ..... Isaiah
54:17
Falling or rising!
Stretching out my consciousness I still
come upon a cross or is it an intersection!
Deep down, each one of us is a mystic. When we tap into that energy we
become alive again and we give birth. From the creativity that we
release is born the prophetic vision and work that we all aspire to
realize as our gift to the world. We want to serve in whatever capacity
we can. Getting in touch with the mystic inside is the beginning of our
deep service.
Lets all cheer and be cheerful for all that has been and is and is to come. We have our part to play in creating the reality of all. So for my part this universe is a place of joy, love and forgiveness. Trials of hurt and horror are but growing pains that well pass.
I pray today for the freedom of all captives be them human or other species. Be they locked up in pig pens or cattle stalls. Being restrained by unfair laws or sexual bias and dominance by men. Be they restricted from jobs or from wearing what they want. This will pass and things do change.
Would but we realize our greatness and cheer for one another to reach enlightenment.
Martin Luther had a dream about mankind.
I dream about all sentient beings existing as one, beyond our present understanding!
Blessings and love to you my brothers and sisters and to all beings. Your bro Peter.
!
