I posted to this blog on September 10, 2009 what I intended to be a weekly series on "Writing the Sacred Journey", by Elizabeth J. Andrew. I have handwritten many of her practice exercises to my personal journal, several times a week, often in the middle of the night. I can thank a Baha'i friend of Sufi background for the inspiration to write in the middle of the night. He might prefer prayer and meditation, but journal writing is like that for me.
I can also thank an eight year old girl who visited Split Rock Lighthouse this past weekend with her father, who proudly told me that she has been practicing cursive writing. I hope I encouraged her by praising her potential as an artist.
Art has been in the forefront of my community activities since October 5. Sandi Pillsbury Gredzens, who chairs the Grand Marais Art Colony board, led workshops in the School Forest in Silver Bay for students at William Kelley Elementary School. I assisted with the sixth grade. The weather turned cold and rainy the second day, so the final session was held in the Science Room. The subject was sketching landscapes, and within that, understanding how to view and use the horizon line.
I had taught the same students last winter in five weekly sessions as part of the Masterpiece Arts Program. They remembered the horizon line from an exercise in which they copied the Mona Lisa. (Remember what Dan Brown said about the Mona Lisa in "The DaVinci Code"?) I also reminded them about a local artist, the late George Morrison, who always sketched, or carved in his woodblock masterworks a horizon line a quarter of the way down from the top of the page or the block. It helps to remember such a useful rule, and then make up your own rules later.
What about the journey?
Here I am sixteen years after a short journey I made in 1992, the subject of last night's spiritual memoir exercise. The instructions: Recall a small journey. As I write the story, be aware of how the external journey mirrored my soul's journey.
That journey was in the realm of spiritual awakening, akin to my experiences of spiritual rebirth in 1957 and 1973. Born again and again. How many times are we allowed such a vision of our eternal spirit at work in physical consciousness? The object of my short journey was a four-day Visual Journals Workshop, led by Hazel Belvo at Grand Portage, MN.
Hazel is a key personality in the history of the Grand Marais Art Colony. She is Sandi Gredzens' current mentor. I count Sandi as my mentor, but it's not a formal relationship. If anything, the relationship will lead me into a serious commitment to the Grand Marais Art Colony. Setting my priorities to make that happen has been a problem for sixteen years.
Here is a link to the Grand Marais Art Colony website. Read about Hazel Belvo and George Morrison. Notice the list of board members, including Sandi and my Little Marais neighbor, Joyce Yamamoto.
http://www.grandmaraisartcolony.org/about.cfm
As with any creative effect, whether an experience of the living Word of God or a creative act of my own, there is mystical unity, an impulse that influences a vast community for years afterward.
Part II of this subject will be the exercise I wrote last night.
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