Ripen

Ripen (Stacy Wills, 2013)
digital, mixed media from source image (seen below)

Spring has arrived

and with it comes

the furious planting,

the anxious waiting.

I, too, will plant

 in my own way,

and I will come

forth with new life.

But I will not be hurried.

I will not cast off

Winter's stillness

like an ill-fitting garment.

I will take my time -

my own sweet time...

to ripen.

-Stacy Wills (3/21/13)

Because Her Womb Grew Fruit (Stacy Wills, 2013)
alcohol inks on river rock 

Many Portals

Time and Space (Stacy Wills, 2013)

digital, mixed media from a source image

Hodie Aperuit

Today a closed portal has been opened

that which the serpent suffocated

in the wise-woman

is revealed to us.

Now the flower of the Virgin

is alight in the dawn.

-an Antiphon by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

During this season of Lent, I am traveling with Hildegard of Bingen and a blessed company of kindred spirits, through an online retreat  led by Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts.  Creative expression is an important part of this journey, and  I hope to share here some of  the art that  is bubbling up  in me as a result.   As it so happens, it feels as though many portals are opening all at once in my life right now!

Although I knew of Hildegard because of  her connection with mandalas, I truly "met" her for the first time this past year during another Abbey retreat, Women on the Threshold, and came to appreciate more fully the scope of her vision and understanding.    The visual meditation, Creation Two Ways, was inspired by her.

Time and Space was created using the alcohol ink painting below as a source image.

    Bubbling Up  (Stacy Wills, 2013)

3" x 4" alcohol inks on yupo

Here is a recording of Hildegard's beautiful antiphon:  Hodie Aperuit  
(As you listen, I invite you to click on Time and Space for an enlarged view.)

Awaken My Heart

O, You who are ever

giving life to all life,

moving all creatures,

root of all things,

washing them clean,

wiping out their mistakes,

healing their wounds,

You are our true life -

luminous, wonderful,

awakening the heart

from its ancient sleep.

-Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

Waking Up!

Awake!  (Stacy Wills, 2012)

"Beyond living and dreaming

there is something more important:

waking up."

-Antonio Machado (1875-1939)

Rain in the Desert (a poem by John Gould Fletcher)

south by southwest (stacy wills, 2012)

Rain in the Desert

The huge red-buttressed mesa over yonder

Is merely a far-off temple where the sleepy sun is burning

Its altar fires of pinyon and toyon for the day.

The old priests sleep, white shrouded;

Their pottery whistles lie beside them, the prayer-sticks closely feathered.

On every mummied  face there glows a smile.

The sun is rolling slowly

Beneath the sluggish folds of the sky-serpents,

Coiling, uncoiling, blue black, sparked with fires.

The old dead priests

Feel in the thin dried earth that is heaped about them,

Above the smell of scorching, oozing pinyon,

The acrid smell of rain.

And now the showers

Surround the mesa like a troop of silver dancers:

Shaking their rattles, stamping, chanting, roaring,

Whirling, extinguishing the last red wisp of light.

-John Gould Fletcher (1886-1950)

let the beauty we love...

Multiples (Stacy Wills, 2012)

let the beauty we love

 be what we do.  there

 are hundreds of ways to

 kneel and kiss the ground.

-rumi (1207 - 1273)

you glow, we take fire

You Glow, We Take Fire (Stacy Wills, 2012)

you talk, we act.

you learn, we seize.

you inspect, we choose.

you chew, we swallow.

you bargain, we buy.

you glow, we take fire.

you assume, we know.

you ask, we take.

you search, we find.

you love, we languish.

you languish, we die.

you sow, we reap.

you work, we rest.

you grow thin, we grow fat.

you ring, we sing.

you sing, we dance.

you blossom, we bear fruit.

you taste, we savor.

-composed by a young beguine,* name unknown,

in response to criticism from a master of theology.

*the beguines were a christian lay religious community most active during the 13th and 14th centuries, comprised of women who dedicated their lives to jesus.  semi-monastic in nature, they took no formal vows, but lived out their lives in prayer, personal spiritual development, caring for the poor and other acts of charity.