Hello dear Soul Friend,
You, as much as anyone or any people you care about, are worthy of the same love and compassion as you have towards your own child. I remember the first time that really hit me. I was thinking about my volunteer work at the time at a sexual assault center (before I actually ended up working as staff there), thinking about why I was doing the sometimes difficult work of listening, witnessing. About how, in my best self, I wanted to help people be healed and find their place to belong, to have a home and whatever they needed most in order to not just survive, but to actually thrive. I was in a fairly stable place in my life and realized how fortunate I was to have come through my own struggles, both the ordinary ones of getting work and a good place to live as well as the deep difficulties of the past. I was deciding then whether to increase my volunteer hours, which would be difficult, but possible. Yet as much as I wanted to be of service I also wanted to dive into some independent study of the wisdom and mystical traditions in the world religions. While I felt pulled into doing that study, I was also very aware of the seemingly never ending needs of others.
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And then it hit me: I’m a person, too! Just as I wanted others to have what they needed to thrive, it was just as okay for me to have what I needed to thrive as well. Because I know myself best, I was the best person to be able to identify that, and so, in a way, I realized I had a responsibility to take care of myself as best I can, just as I would take care of a beloved child, and whenever possible, to reach for whatever would contribute to my thriving as a person, a woman, a fellow human in this needful world.
So I continued on with the volunteer hours I had already committed to, AND dove into the study of that which has been a defining piece of my life: the collective wisdom of humans who strive to be know and to be in union with that which is Greater, or More, than our individual selves.
If you’ve been reading this Substack, you’ll remember that a few weeks ago I wrote about the Immortal Voices that have burrowed themselves inside our psyches. I was then considering making a commitment that before I would jump into my work for the day that I would devote time to either or both my writing and my art. Well, I did make that commitment with the proviso that I would just do it — until May 1st, when I would evaluate the commitment and see what effects it was having in my life.
I highly recommend that kind of project if you are at all in any position to do so! (And we often have more freedom than we think we have! So just do it!)
Most days I’ve been exploring creating and painting Islamic Geometric Patterns, along with Morning Pages and other writing. I’ve included several of the designs I’ve learned to construct recently here in this article. I love the symmetry, the color, the complexity, and the feeling like I am participating in an art form that has been practiced for almost 1,500 years. Mostly, I love the feeling I get in my mind and heart, my spirit, when I’m making these patterns.
It’s impossible to work on these patterns if you’re too hyped, or too caffeinated! It’s okay if you start out restless, because doing them will bring peace and purpose. I love it that I don’t actively think or analyze while I am constructing or painting them. It works faster to get me into a contemplative frame of mind than meditation, and with more ease
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It’s when we are in a contemplative frame of mind that our human creativity can be accessed more easily. Albert Einstein said something about our current problems not being able to be solved by the same consciousness that created them. Being in a contemplative frame of mind loosens our current consciousness so that new ideas, new perspectives, sometimes crazy possibilities can arise from the depths of the best of who we are.
The world-as-is is not looking very pretty. It seems to me to be a trauma producing machine. We need a new consciousness to come up with different ways to disrupt the status quo so that the kindom of compassion can arise among us.
So, I don’t think any of us are being selfish when we follow our deepest longings, especially when they are longings to express creativity or do activities that encourage a contemplative stance to arise.
On this New Moon, which traditionally is a good time to start a project or to adopt something new, what is it that you are secretly (or not so secretly) longing to do? How can you make this happen? Even if just a little bit, try to follow that longing to see what arises. Maybe we’re being called to a new consciousness that may make a big difference. Even if that difference is just for you. After all, you’re a person, too, and you have the same right to thrive as any other person.
With much love and many blessings to you,
Cat
N.B. About the photos: all three designs are actually the same pattern arranged or painted in different ways. Yet they look very different. How many times are things that look very different actually very similar underneath?
I love your geometric designs, Cat...what amazing talent you have..you have inspired me to try
this as well, and you are right, it is as good as/better than meditation..
Your patterns are awesome and I am so glad they put you in a contemplative place! We all need that kind of practice. I remember when I worked on videos pulling all the visuals together from my big collection of footage, setting the music and narration to it, working on it for hours. I felt the way you describe feeling when you do your patterns.
On another note, it is too bad, that so many of us don't think we deserve the same goodness we give to others.