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

The Song Of The Rainbow Labyrinth

After writing my journal and breakfast and a nap, I walk up the lane each day singing 

The Song Of The Rainbow Labyrinth.

Each day the song changes subtly as I come to understand her more clearly. Today it became obvious that vocal beings live in the sky and those who listen and remember are ocean beings. I suspect they are a tad interchangeable? Emerald beings have been Love, breath, Healing and breathing. Today they are healing loving kindness. Ruby beings have been core beings. Today they are both our heart and the heart of the Earth, both dancing and centred.

I then feed my animal family and the local pair of red kites before I paint a rainbow labyrinth.

Each rainbow labyrinth is different. Today i was concentrating on showing the relationship between turquoise and blue. I sat a looked for a while when I had finished. I was in awe of the colour and energy, aware of the boundaried green.

The Song Of The Rainbow Labyrinth

We are violet beings.

We are mysterious beings.

We are beings who know.

We are divine.

We are indigo beings.

We are night beings.

We are beings who see.

We are dreaming.

We are blue beings.

We are sky beings.

We are vocal beings.

We are sound.

We are turquoise beings.

We are Ocean beings.

We are beings who listen.

We are memory.

We are emerald beings.

We are forest beings.

We are beings who breathe.

We are healing, loving, kindness.

We are yellow beings.

We are rock beings.

We are bone beings.

We are strong.

We are amber beings.

We are magma beings.

We are blood beings.

We are art.

We are ruby beings. 

We are heart beings. 

We are dancing beings. 

We are centred.

We are Earth beings.

We are rainbow beings.

We are rainbow labyrinth beings.

We are peace.

It seems that painting rainbow labyrinths is becoming addictive.

I am loving the vivid inks I acquired last week

and. after what seems like years of trying to keep my labyrinths neat and symmetrical, I am loving the way I cannot control these water colour inks and how different each one is. Long before I had the dream, my friend Ann gave me a little portable pallet of watercolours and I would play for hours with the colours of the rainbow fading into each other in concentric circles. From these meditation paintings, I am beginning to think that painting in labyrinth walls interferes with allowing the colours to fade into each other.... maybe following the path of the labyrinth was never meant to be this easy?

Another thing that does not seem to want to be controlled is the story. For some reason, I thought it was complete but yesterday it became clear that it was just the beginning of a much longer set of adventures and then today when I went back to my long hand original version, I found a sentence which proves this was what was planned all along. Now all I need to do is write it.....

This afternoon I managed to type up the story of the rainbow labyrinth, provisionally titled "The Trouble With Trouble". Not quite sure what to do with it now? I suppose all I have to do now is finish eight paintings, one of each colour of my eight layered rainbow labyrinth, and see what happens next?

I do love the process of writing, of editing as I type, of reading the story out loud to myself and hoping that other people will share my taste and point of view.... 

There are times when I am not happy with my creations but when I am there is a small voice in my ear telling me not to show it, not to be big headed...

If I am not allowed to like and enjoy my creativity then what is the point?

The Heart of The Arts

Heart felt gratitude on Valentine's day to dear Vivi Sojorhn for including my work and photographs in the Heart issue of The Arts. The way she placed the pictures of Ladies who Labyrinth captures the fun we had on the inaugural outing of the 8' x 10' rainbow labyrinth I finished last spring equinox, three months before I knew my heart was disabled since birth.

May the dream of The Arts live on to materialise in an even better home <3

Interstitial Moment in the Electronic File

By Brid Wyldearth, Wales, UK •

 

August 1, 2013

Photograph by Brid Wyldearth 

I really had to face that I am not Super Woman this week. It was almost as though I had not recently been admitted to hospital with heart failure, when I tried to hoover my entire cottage and van prior to spraying it with heavy duty chemicals because my poor dog has flea allergy. It really did come as a shock to me that I cannot physically do this, despite not having been able to do this for some years now. It also felt like climbing Everest to ask my friend to give me a lift to her birthday treat when I had promised her one, and, if I could have physically loaded the dishwasher before she came back the next day to do it for me, I would have. Every fiber of my being wanted to, wanted to say "no" to her kind offer. I am still weeping on and off with the memory of how this incredibly busy woman made a few hours of helping me have some fun.

I would never have expected to feel so unwilling to be disabled or to ask for help and I have been miserable. But last night, instead of bemoaning how short a walk I am now able to do, I found a pair of swans at the mouth of the river and just sat with them, hugging my dog and being. This was the second time I had seen them and not had a camera - so this picture is of a lone swan from another time and place in my photo library - but the gift of not having a camera and the gift of being disabled and slow is that I had all the time in the world to let these beautiful creatures begin to teach me how to just be.

Ladies who Labyrinth, Frances Mowat, Amanda Laugharne, Cheryl Beer, Linda Udin and Brid Wyldearth in March 2013

Excepted from her Poem "Heart's Labyrinth"

In my paintings

she becomes

a spiralling

folding

layered heart

of energetic

spirit

wheel

chakras 

a rainbow labyrinth

Editor's Note: Brid Wyldearth is an experiential artist who participates in drumming, singing, dancing and more. She created this labyrinth from a dream, and in the central photo is showing off her self-designed labyrinth tattoo. 

The door opened 

all was still

for a moment

for a long breath

a figure held my attention

by doing nothing

by being

fully embodied

conscious of every breath

when she moved

the stillness did not end

she carried it with her

she did not seek attention

the feather weight gravity 

with which she was dancing 

was magnetic

she told me she meditated

and saved up each year

to go to India

and do painting meditation with children

Her eyes lit up as she described their enthusiasm, 

their creativity

their communication with spirit

I was young

distracted

by dreams of fame and fortune

I wish I had thrown off the chains

of rebellion

against parental expectation

of empty dreams

I wish I had followed her

I always remember that first encounter

reminded of her 

on the rare occasions

that stillness, silence and solitude have found me

in the midst of art and being

Now I am old

I meditate 

I paint

I write

I dream

I live alone

I have come home to myself

I guard my piece

of stillness, silence and solitude 

ferociously.

By Bríd Wyldearth Imbolc 2014

inspired by listening to John O'Donohue

Contribution for 2014 Brigid Poetry Festival:

https://www.facebook.com/BrigidPoetryFest