Ganesha comes to the Desert

Listening to Krishna Das chanting the Hanuman Chalisa on this cold (for Tucson) late autumn day. I look up from the keyboard and see chartreuse green leaves of the mesquite and the green trunk of palo verde. The sky is blue with white cloud puffs hanging. Low-hanging clouds are obscuring the top halves of all the mountains around here. I will see soon when i go out to do some errands if there's snow on the mountains. I like snow.

inner strength, trust

If fear is part of growth, how do we develop inner strength and how do we develop trust?

Trust is a very important part of the spiritual journey. Not trust in a particular outcome, but trust that you can open to the present moment. And we don't just automatically have that trust; it's something that we develop... [through/with]... mindfulness.

~Pema Chödrön, Noble Heart.

magic star & butterfly

teapot no. 243 (no. 43 of the third set of 100 teapots)

~*~

Sitting in front of the open window with my palo verde and mesquite tree friends and some cholla and prickly pear cactus. I'm wrapped up in a wool shawl, sipping oolong tea out of my newest little teapot. Turtle beans are cooking in a big pot in the kitchen. Their overnight soaking water had turned purple-y this morning ... would make a fine textile dye, I thought, but fed the water to the rosemary bush instead.

Jesse just crossed the wide space between my house and the neighbor's. she looks around, crouches down, and scurries across to the safety of a porch. The squatty pipes on D's house look like a Buddha and her recently trimmed trellis vine looks like a sadhuni's trident. Tree branch and cactus pads cast angel shadows and reach toward the blue sky. Good to feel the blessings that abound and see the angels all around. Out into the day now ~ will walk with Yuki, feed the baby mesquite tree, plant wildflower seeds, bicycle over to the pottery studio for open lab, and pick up a mop on my way home... it's a beautiful day.

a selection of my recent paintings, handmade books, and pottery

teapot paintings ~ 233-237

See the growing collection here

recent teapot paintings (227-232)

[this is the inverted version of teapot no. 32 ~ colors digitally inverted]

tea & oranges ~ teapot no. 26 (226)

***

Suzanne

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.

~lyrics by Leonard Cohen

teapots 222, 223, 224, & 225

teapots 218, 219, 220, 221

Tea with Nuestra Señora y Gatita (teapot no. 21/221):



Tea with Ganesha (teapot no. 20/220):



Kanzeon no Chamise (teapot no. 19/219):



Tea with Lizard (teapot no. 18/218):