JoDee Luna's Blog, page 9
March 9, 2022
Bird of Paradise the Wingless Bird of Surrender
I’m captivated by the Birds of Paradise that grace my garden. These lovely flowers hold special significance for me. They remind me to surrender lofty aspirations in exchange for blessings that come from living an everyday life in an attitude of surrender.
Like the Bird of Paradise, the wingless bird of surrender, life plucks our feathers, our idealism, our unrealistic dreams until we find ourselves searching for meaning in the mundane. This takes surrender. We must release our lofty ambitions and create where we live.
The Bird of Paradise is a beautiful image of surrender. Whereas other birds soar freely in limitless skies, this beauty roots herself into the ground. She shows off her colorful blooms and seems to be content just to grow in one place. Oh that I had a little more of the Bird of Paradise in me!
Recently, I revisited a couple of posts and poem I’d written that were inspired by this majestic flower:
Bird of Paradise: Finding Contentment through Art
Then came the compulsion to craft a video using the Birds of Paradise from my garden, the poem, and some excerpts from the posts:
This poem really grounds me because I’m a dreamer by nature, often viewing the world from an ethereal perspective. Often waiting for those sublime moments, those bursts of inspiration, those special tasks.
So the concept that contentment and purpose are found along the paths that we walk, in the everyday stuff of life, motivates me to be present in the moment. To look for opportunities to enjoy those I love and to capture ideas I can transform into art.
Years ago, I made a mixed media for my poem using my daughter as a model. A picture of her gazing at a Bird of Paradise captivated me:
So, I projected the photo onto a canvas and used the shadows and highlights as a painting guide:
I’m grateful for the Bird of Paradise, and the lessons I’ve learned about surrender.
February 23, 2022
Ambition: The Rhinoceros of the Soul
Ambition is my Achilles heel—a character weakness in my animal-like nature that drives me off course.
Ambition is the fly in the ointment of my spirituality—an ever-present annoyance that buzzes around my brain, convincing me to go off course in chase of another vain pursuit.
Ambition drives me to obsess the future, take big steps instead of small ones (I can manage), and spin out in bouts of panic about my purpose.
Yet, ambition is also my soul’s fuel to move me from complacency to commitment.
When directed into positive pursuits, this force can propel me past my most formidable fears and further down my purposeful path.
The problem lies in whether or not I can discern what pursuits have eternal benefit and which are merely expressions of my desire to feel important.
I don’t know about you, but I often fail in this discernment stage. I convince myself I am supposed to do something only to discover that it was my good idea all along. It ends up sucking the very life out of me, leaving me discontented and discouraged.
This is the point when surrender kicks in. I must return to that altar of surrender and muscle my ambition on top of the rough stones. In my mind, I take a knife and plunge it into the toughened hide of my desire until the knife sinks into the flesh of my obsession.
If you’ve ever witnessed the slaughter of an animal, then you know how ugly this death to self can be. I have vivid memories, as a kid, of the butcher slaughtering our pig on our property. It wasn’t pretty. The body jerked and convulsed, kicked and screamed.
So it is when we finally surrender something we’ve loved yet isn’t right for us.
Yes, ambition is a rhinoceros of the soul—powerful, willful, and resistant to death. However—when needed—ambition helps us to power through obstacles in pursuit of our dreams.
Photo Credit: Josiah Filler, “Safari in the Kruger, Mpumalanga, South Africa”
Check out these other posts about ambition:
February 13, 2022
Garden Angel Painting Roses Around Disappointment
February 12, 2022
Isaiah’s Portrait
February 9, 2022
A Tendency towards Multiplicity
February 3, 2022
Welcome Home
Welcome Home is a mixed media oil portrait.
The project began as a collage of photos from my husband and my trip to Maine. Originally, I titled the artwork “Art and Soul” after the trendy art gallery photo I’d taken under her eye.
But as I painted her, something surprising happened. The compulsion to paint a woman from Latino heritage ended up with her emerging on the canvas. I went against my initial decision to allow the photos to show through and ended up creating a face over the photos.
The title changed to Welcome Home as I studied the front porch with the American flag waving. It seemed to speak of an invitation to enter. I come from families of Italian immigrants whose stories always create a sense of awe and wonder when they tell of my great-grandparents seeing the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island for the first time.
I’m thankful for my ancestries that came to this country and provided a legacy I am very proud to call my own.
Welcome Home is my tribute to the millions of immigrants who have sought refuge and a better life in America. We welcome you!
