Living Graciously
Elena Ray calls her daily work grace, because it keeps her “centered for the purpose she serves.”
Her work is a grace to others as well ~ certainly to me. Her exploration of sacred symbolism is created with an elegant hand, and her intelligence is ample. She may be somewhat apostate when she makes a statement such as:
The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon, though the elegant hand and the intelligence that animates it may actually be as important as the moon; and in fact, may be the moon.
Om Bird ~ by Elena Ray (used with permission)
I, too, hover between longing for the divine and reveling in my own divinity. We have often been reminded that the map is not the territory ( I like to say, don’t try to eat the recipe book). But since we are apparently divine beings wrapped in a physical package, it seems to me that the mundane and the divine are in a constant state of flux.
In fact, I have come to believe that all things serve a sacred purpose: to wake us up to our own divinity.
My work is a beneficence in my life, a grace that never fails to enlighten, challenge, and even entertain me (if that is not too profane).
In a profound way, art is a gift that I give myself. I go to my studio. I pick up tools and allow my mind to become engaged with a subject. I make the choice to keep working when I could do something else ~ watch TV, play bridge, paint my toenails. I am fascinated with how my life ~ through intuitive glimpses, realizations, discoveries ~ manifests itself into works that can be seen and touched by others, as well as my self.
I am a creator, and my creations teach me what it means to conceive, conceptualize, and birth something into being. Not worlds, perhaps, but with great enough intentions, who knows what I, or you, could manifest. At the very least, my intention is to continue being grateful for my life, and the art that enables me to take expeditions beneath the surface of that life.
That, for me, is living graciously.
You prepare the feast
A banquet of images
My full heart sings OM
Some of Elena Ray‘s galleries:
Absolutesnap (I love this: is it absolute snaps or absolutes nap?)
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