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

Violet before me

Violet behind me

Violet be right of me

Violet be left of me

Violet above me

Violet below me

Violet surround me

Violet within

I am violet woman

I am spirit woman

I am woman who knows

I am divine

Indigo before me

Indigo behind me

Indigo be right of me

Indigo be left of me

Indigo above me

Indigo below me

Indigo surround me

Indigo within

I am indigo woman

I am star woman

I am woman who sees

I am dreams

Blue before me

Blue behind me

Blue be right of me

Blue be left of me

Blue above me

Blue below me

Blue surround me

Blue within

I am blue woman

I am sky woman

I am woman who hears

I am memory

Turquoise before me

Turquoise behind me

Turquoise be right of me

Turquoise be left of me

Turquoise above me

Turquoise below me

Turquoise surround me

Turquoise within

I am turquoise woman

I am ocean woman

I am woman who sings

I am sound

Emerald before me

Emerald behind me

Emerald be right of me

Emerald be left of me

Emerald above me

Emerald below me

Emerald surround me

Emerald within

I am emerald woman

I am forest woman

I am woman who heals

I am love

Yellow before me

Yellow behind me

Yellow be right of me

Yellow be left of me

Yellow above me

Yellow below me

Yellow surround me

Yellow within

I am yellow woman

I am rock woman

I am woman with power

I am wild

Amber before me

Amber behind me

Amber be right of me

Amber be left of me

Amber above me

Amber below me

Amber surround me

Amber within

I am amber woman

I am magma woman

I am woman who crafts

I am art

Ruby before me

Ruby behind me

Ruby be right of me

Ruby be left of me

Ruby above me

Ruby below me

Ruby surround me

Ruby within

I am ruby woman

I am core woman

I am woman who dances

I am peace

Rainbow before me

Rainbow behind me

Rainbow be right of me

Rainbow be left of me

Rainbow above me

Rainbow below me

Rainbow surround me

Rainbow within

I am rainbow woman

I am labyrinth woman

I am rainbow labyrinth woman

I am Earth

Earth before me

Earth behind me

Earth be right of me

Earth be left of me

Earth above me

Earth below me

Earth surround me

Earth within

by Bríd Wyldearth 2014

I was given this prayer and vision in a dream. Each rainbow labyrinth I paint and each time I walk the prayer, I am given more information and insights. This is the most valuable gift I have to share with the world and I hope to live long enough to co-create a rainbow labyrinth for people from all over the world to walk. Maybe I'll live long enough to see rainbow labyrinths created all over the world? I need help to do this. Please try this prayer out for yourself and share here your experiences and any ideas and ways in which you are willing to help me co-create this vision.

I include all genders in my use of the word "woman" and invite you to substitute "one " or "man" or "child" for "woman" as suits you. 

I love taking the time to walk the whole prayer but find using the verse beginning "Rainbow before me" works very well for a hurried morning grounding prayer.

SLOW DANCE

SLOW DANCE

slow down,  

and listen to the land

lie down on my soft belly and feel me breathe

I am a wild, untameable woman who will not be rushed 

and if you can slow down and listen long enough

you might also gain the courage to be wild

you might hear the myriad secrets that I hold

the thousand daily miracles that I unfold

in every single cell of my magnificent body

you might dare to dance with me

your hearts beating time with the timeless heart 

of this wild and wise woman who will not be hurried or rushed

slow 

down, 

down, 

down, 

and listen, 

really listen 

to the Earth

 by Bríd Wyldearth 1999

Pictures with spoken words are followed by credits, which, in turn, are followed by pictures with written and spoken words. 

I was lying on the coastal path in Cornwall, in 1999, feeling the pulse and breath of the earth beneath me, when these words came to me. As I prepared and collected the photographs for the exhibition, "In The Footsteps Of John Piper" at the tower at Oriel y Parc, St Davids in the summer of 2013, I noticed that they seemed to go well with the words of the poem. It was at the private view of this exhibition, where I performed the poem, that Cheryl Beer envisioned this digital story. 

The photographs are all taken in West Wales, except for: the cave roof, which is in Chinoyi, Zimbabwe and is dedicated to the women of Zimbabwe; the footprints which were in a labyrinth I created and danced in the estuary at Appledore Arts Festival 2002, North Devon; and the labyrinth in the sand which was in Mounts Bay, Cornwall.

Thank you also to Rhiannon, aka Kim Prangley, for taking the photograph of Bríd cradled in roots at Avebury, Wiltshire and to Ron for helping to crop some of the photographs.

Thanks to the inspiration and practical help and expertise of my friend Cheryl Beer, as one of the most wonderful birthday gifts ever, I spent yesterday afternoon in Cheryl and Jeff's studio recording this poem in one take and watching Cheryl create this digital story form of this photographic poem. 

Strangely I feel very proud and very humble at the same time. Sometimes, when I write a poem, I look for and choose and arrange and rearrange the words. I enjoy word sculpting and am willing to take some credit for being skilled at it. Slow Dance, however, appeared in my head and on my tongue fully formed. I hope it does not spook you to read that I am convinced they are the words of Earth and only my words in the sense that I am part of Earth. I have felt, from the moment they came to me, an urge and obligation to share them as widely as possible.

The photographs are always pure chance with me. I never feel I have time to stop and manually focus my digital camera, which is always set to automatic, and I am always grateful to her and chance and the moment and place for the beautiful pictures I am given. The photograph of Chinoyi cave roof is even more of a miracle because it seemed completely dark to me. I pointed my camera upwards at a cacophony of bat screeching and stink of ammonia as a joke. When I had the film developed back in Cornwall, there wasn't a bat in sight, but this stunning cavernous cathedral that I never saw in the flesh.

Cheryl and I are both disabled artists and belong to Disability Arts Cymru and wanted to make this piece fully accessible as well as to show the pictures with no writing and spoken word voice over, which is how it was originally conceived. It seemed so appropriate to the subject matter that the experience of watching it should not be hurried and I love the happenstance that places the credits in the middle, leaving the viewer with an uncluttered, slow, final image.

Tribute to Nelson Mandela, Father of the Rainbow Nation

Last night, I heard that Nelson Mandela had died. I heard that "RIP Nelson Mandela" was trending world wide on the web. Words and deeds of this man that I have heard of before are sinking in more deeply and I am wanting to thank him personally for how he has contributed to and inspired me and my world.

This afternoon, I drew a heart shaped labyrinth on the beach and danced to her core, singing "thank you", "Hallelujah", "nkosi sikelele afrika", wishing him the deep dark peace of the African earth.

In searching for a way to pay tribute, I hope it is fitting that I begin my Rainbow Labyrinth Woman blog in his memory and dedicate this painting in gratitude to the father of the Rainbow Nation?

More than ever before, I am bowled over by how this man refused to become as full of hate and anger as his oppressors had been. It is only during the last month or two that I have realised how angry I have been for most of my life with a woman in my family who labelled him and his comrades "terrorists" and "communists" and "evil". I was dismayed to realise how like her I had become in my bitterness and anger. This woman was cruel to me but she did not imprison me for twenty odd years. In my upbringing "forgiving and forgetting" meant allowing the crimes to be repeated:

Re-membering by Bríd Wyldearth 2007

To forgive and forget is to allow injustice to be repeated.
Nobody learns from the experience
and the victim remains a victim.

Forgiveness is a process,
not an act of will.

It is impossible to forgive,
to give to the past
and move on from,
wounds that we cannot remember.

Amnesia is an illness,
not an accomplishment.

It is only when we forget how much we love our beautiful planet,
how much we depend on her for our very survival,
that we can poison,
rape
and destroy her.

It is only when we forget how much we love our beautiful children,
how much we depend on them for our very survival,
that we can poison,
rape
and destroy them.

It is only when we forget how much we love our beautiful selves,
how much we depend on ourselves for our very survival,
that we can poison,
rape
and destroy ourselves.

We must remember
and re-member,
reconnect with our severed limbs,
our disowned parts,
our humanity.

Thank you Madiba for showing me how to forgive and be determined that the atrocities never be repeated. You have allowed me to begin to reconcile with the word forgiveness.

"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite" - the truth of this seems so obvious now but I grew up amongst people, some of whom I loved and some of whom said they loved me who did hate and fear "evil terrorists and communists" and seemed unable and unwilling to listen to an alternative perspective. It seemed to me as if they had been born hating and I did not dare hope that apartheid would end in my life time. As a child I was also confused because many of the people I knew who were full of this hatred and fear also espoused Christianity and a god who commanded them to love their neighbours. When I questioned them I was dismissed and silenced. In hindsight I wish I had had the courage to stand up more strongly for my beliefs and to be more optimistic. Thankfully Mandela and the ANC did have the courage of their convictions and risked their lives for freedom from oppression. I wish I had met Mandela.

What I can now do is try to contribute to a better world and I am currently doing so by painting a dream I had that the earth is a rainbow labyrinth, that we are all part of her, that our individual uniqueness is what we all have in common and that human hatred, fear and cruelty is irrelevant to her beauty.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you Nelson Mandela
Deep peace to you
Deep peace to you
Deep peace to you