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.)

gratitude unlocks...

gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. it turns what we have into enough, and more. it turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. it can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. gratitude makes sense of your past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

-melody beattie (author, b. 1948)

20/20 night vision

i have been revisiting
some things lately,
turning them over
(and over) again
in my mind...
sorting them out
in my dreams, and
wishing the 20/20 clarity
of my night vision
translated more easily
into waking life

oculus

...i dipped into

the future

far as the

human eye

could see;

saw the vision

of the world,

and all the

wonder that

would be

-alfred tennyson (1809-1892)