New Year Labyrinth

My new year labyrinth is dedicated to the Rainbow Labyrinth Project, to following where she leads me and to sharing her with the world.

After breakfast I walked up the lane with my dog and cats and sang the Song of the Rainbow Labyrinth. She changes every day, teaches me something new. Yesterday she added the word "darkness" to the indigo verse. Today "life, death" to the amber verse. Each morning I sink deeper into the Rainbow Labyrinth that is the Earth, my home planet.

Then I shared raw chicken with my animals and the red kites who dance above us as we walk and lit a candle for the Rainbow Labyrinth, another for me and one for the gnomes I work with. Then I painted a rainbow labyrinth. If I could do this every day of my life, I would be deeply, deeply happy and at peace. Maybe this year I will do so more. Maybe this year the minutiae of life, the noise of building work will intrude less on my creativity and peace?

How many other people prayed for peace this new year? How may years have many, many people prayed for peace? What will it take for the world to agree to play a new game of peace?

                                                                   Peace at any price

often means peace at the price of somebody else’s freedom, oppression or silence.

True peace is priceless

and true peace costs far more 

than most people of power and wealth and priviledge are prepared to pay

True peace costs the courage to be angry

the courage to listen

the courage to communicate clearly

the courage to share all our resources fairly

the courage of our convictions

the deepest of convictions

in the right of every human being

to co-exist on this planet

with true equality.

 By Bríd Wyldearth 2015

Breathe Hope For Roisín

I first met Roisín just after she was born. The thing I remember most about her was her huge, beautiful, bright blue eyes. She was and is perfect. Her parents who I had known since we were teenagers were and are full of love and pride. Every time I have met or spoken with or emailed Roisín since then she has been full of joy and optimism and love.

I painted the above prayer for her after watching her wonderful video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L67x1qWIF6w

I lit a candle and sang about her and our friendship as I painted.

Her Friend Andy has put it on ebay. We are hoping to add the the £35,000 she has already raised towards the life saving treatment:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beautiful-water-colour-painting-being-auctioned-to-raise-money-/151457652006

This is the very first time I have tried to auction anything let alone on ebay. Please help me by sharing both this blog post and the ebay link.

Lessons In Love

Within a week of blessing my work with two rainbow labyrinth mandalas, and praying for ways to share it sustainably, a friend has asked for one.

Yesterday I read and adapted the Franciscan Fourfold Blessing:

THE GIFT OF TEARS

 May I be blessed with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships, so that I may seek truth boldly and love deep within my heart.


May I be blessed with sacred anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that I may tirelessly work for justice, freedom and peace among all people.

May I be blessed with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that I may reach out my hand to comfort them.

May I be blessed with enough foolishness to believe that I really

can make a difference in the world, and maybe do what others claim cannot be done.

and illustrated it with this painting:

I have called this painting "Gift Of Tears". She was co-painted by raindrops, tears of Mother Earth. The friend to whom she is winging her way told me never to be ashamed or frightened of honest tears.

I love lighting a candle and painting a rainbow labyrinth mandala with a person or event or blessing in mind. I hope this a beginning of people asking me for rainbow labyrinth mandalas. This week I have painted one for the largest bruise I have ever had:

One to bless my first ever home on our ten year anniversary: 

and one today to bless my heart:

I could never have imagined in a million years that painting rainbow labyrinth mandalas was my destiny when I was growing up.

Just over a year ago I met a pair of swans near the beach where I like to walk. I felt they were teaching me to be, to accept that I am not wonder woman and maybe how to listen to my heart? I did not have a camera then and I did not have a camera today when I saw them again.  Of course I cannot know if it was the same pair of swans but I like to think so. The tide was out and there were dogs and people to disturb them this time. I sat on a rock and watched them circle me three times. At one point I could hear the wind in their wings. I hope they were deliberately communicating with me, teaching me how to "love deep within my heart". I hope they were a good omen. I hope I remember how they flew together around Cardigan Bay, devoted, inseparable, powerful.....

Blessing My Work

Yesterday I lit a candle an began to paint this Rainbow Labyrinth Mandala to bless my work, to pray that I do work that is completely new, unique , challenging and recognised as such. This was the result.

This morning I picked up my copy of Anam Cara by John O'Donohue and it opened at this blessing, which I had never read before:

May The Light Of Your Soul Guide You

by

John O'Donohue

May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work

You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.

May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those

Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.

May your work never weary you.

May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.

May you be present in what you do.

May you never become lost in the bland absences.

May the day never burden you.

May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,

Possibilities and promises.

May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.

May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.

May your soul calm, console and renew you.

 I read the blessing aloud as I prepared to paint a second blessing for my work. The shape and the colours are different as is the blessing.

Maybe sometime soon I will feel ready to share my work with the world and allow her to support and feed and nourish and nurture me?

A Magical Day

Last Friday began with a telephone order of lemon eucalyptus and neem oils and a white sage smudge stick from one of the oldest herbalists in London, a Harry Potteresque, dark wooded shop on the Walworth Rd that I used to be able to walk to from my flat in London. I could picture and smell Baldwins as I placed my order and reminisced, so grateful to my friend and hedge witch Mandi that I can control the fleas, as if by magic, on my dog and cats without resorting to dangerous chemicals.

It was full moon and I had a signed copy of "East of The Sun, West of the Moon" by Jackie Morris to pick up from Solva Woolen Mill, near St David's. I get such pleasure in being able to give presents that are signed personally by the artist. I have learned the hard way to get copies of each book with my name in them, otherwise I give them away too.

After a cappuccino in the cool mill full of woollen and luxurious goods, I headed to St Non's well.

 I come here at least eight times a year and have never noticed this flower before

I met some dogs on the way down to the well who had obviously had a very good time there. I have never seen it so muddy.

The cows were very insistent that I not visit the chapel this time. They would not let me through. Sputnik, my dog had refused to come down to the well this time, possibly because they had been a little over familiar and curious with her at Solstice?

Then to the cafe on the beach at White Sands and a hot chocolate with whipped cream. The first time I ever had this luxury was in The Copper Kettle in Cambridge prior to seeing Euripides' "Electra" in classical Greek at Kings College almost 40 years ago. My best friend was Italian, wore Fiorrucci slacks, spoke impeccable Latin and Greek and insisted I try a hot chocolate with whipped cream.... and here I sit on the edge of Wales remembering ....

gluten free apple crumble and ice cream followed ...bliss

 A selfie of the artist dreaming. The idea of a Rainbow Labyrinth colouring book came to me out of the blue.

Sputnik kept a look out

 

I could not resist a sunset swim

under the cloud dragons

               
                     

and as I drove home, the silvery moon had risen above St Davids

Love Letter To The Earth

I want to make deep, 

passionate, 

real, 

unhurried love 

to you, 

beloved Earth,

every day of the rest of my life

I want to lie down on your soft belly and feel you breathe

You are a wild, untameable, woman who will not be rushed

and if I can slow down and listen long enough

I might also gain the courage to go wild

I might hear the myriad secrets that you hold

the thousand daily miracles that you unfold

in every single cell of your magnificent body

I might dare to dance with you

my heart beating time with the timeless heart

of this wild untameable woman who will not be hurried or rushed

I want to slow 

down 

down 

down 

down

down

and really, 

truly, 

madly, 

deeply, 

slowly 

love the Earth

by Bríd Wyldearth 2014

Inspired by http://www.lovelettertotheearth.com/,

what started off as a poem encouraging others to slow down and listen to the Earth and has also metamorphosed into an invitation from Earth and then a statement from me that I want to love her, has at last become what I think she was always intended to be, a love letter from me to the Earth. I am amazed what a difference personal pronouns can make and how long it has taken me to declare my love directly to Earth. It is terrifying to me to declare my love to any being in this way. With humans there is a very real possibility of rejection and even ridicule and shame. With Earth I realise that there is no possibility of rejection. The invitation to love her has been there from the moment I was conceived, waiting for me to notice and listen and accept. This letter is therefore both a declaration and an R.S.V.P.

Solstice Blessing

I painted a rainbow labyrinth for the first time in a while today. 

Somehow life gets in the way of doing this thing that gives me such pleasure and peace. 

It is as though the labyrinth and the painting speak to me and teach me as I paint. 

Today she showed me how our universe whose centre is, for us, the centre of our earth, 

is the centre of a whole other universe, a whole other rainbow labyrinth 

which in turn is the centre of a much larger one. 

Is it possible that we live in a Russian doll like, infinite series of multiverses?

Solstice Blessing

may your soul shine with wisdom

may your vision be clear

may your stories be full of magic and truths

may you listen and remember and pay attention

may you walk in forests and breathe 

may you heal and be healed

may you be empowered and strong

may you create beauty and joy and love

and may you dance the dance that only you can dance

the dance for which you were made