Fire Update + Dare Stream

Dear One,

Our ranch is safe so far…the fire is close to us however, and the smoke is bad – as it is all over the Bay and beyond. We are sending out love to all impacted. Thank you to everyone for your love and care and messages. I evacuated a few days ago and I decided to keep teaching the Radiance retreat with Amy Ahlers – I don’t know what else I would do anyway. We couldn’t do it at our place, so we moved to San Francisco to Elizabeth Gibbon’s studio. And now, tomorrow, Dare class is live and live streamed – Chris Zydel and Flora Bowley are going to join me and – I thought, let’s not cancel, let’s paint and circle up! We are here at Unity Spiritual Center right now with Maggie Oman Shannon setting up easels and canvases. Art is my practice, and teaching is my service, and so this is what I am doing.

I often say to my students, when you find the thing you would do if you had forever to live, or just a day – and it is the SAME thing – that’s your thing. This is mine. So that’s the basic update, and it is hour by hour. And today I changed my tune a bit about the focus of my prayers.

Did you know that for a rainbow to be revealed through a prism, the light has to be coming through at exactly 42 degrees? That’s specific, and so I got specific.

Work in Progress for the Black Madonna

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ~ Charles Dickens

Dear One,

Many have heard about the wild fires that have ravaged Northern California this week, and so dear to my heart – my beloved Sonoma town where I lived as a child and now live. My focus for now is to keep myself centered during the fires. I have begun to focus on praying to The Blessed Mother in her Guadalupe visage and her Divine Child Jesus, for miracles. I wanted to just focus my conversation and energy somewhere very specific and familiar to my sacred path.

Join me in that if you choose. To end the fires and protect our home / studio / museum. It feels weird to pray for myself ~ rather I have been praying for everyone. So I have been in a ‘what will be will be’ framework. Yet today I finally just focused on our place, knowing that whatever the Divine does in these instances translates to all beings. Hence the 42 degrees.

I am seeing the “image” of the Lady as giant, and hiding our one-acre land with redwood trees around our home – placed under the hem of her garment. The crescent moon like a knife cutting through space time and protecting. There are stories like this with the Theotokos. We have icons of this concept in our church. Under the mantle of protection. Our mother church is called Protection of the Virgin. So I’m holding that resonance.

Then seeing that protection spread out in waves to all impacted areas ~ yes I am visualizing a miracle. We need one, and I know they sometimes come?!?!

I have no idea how prayer works in these situations – but it is how I can focus my heart and mind – and how to have my circles join me.

There’s a lot of art at our place – Jonathan rented a storage facility in another town and started moving Sue’s art and some of mine from there. He is there defending borders (he is after all, retired military).

I have a class tomorrow called DARE with Chris Zydel and Flora Bowley as I wanted to keep painting, there will be art! And there will be a women’s circle. Come join us online live or paint anytime. Art and circle are my spiritual practice in times like these. Paint with us in solidarity tomorrow? Or just keep the prayers coming! And those of you who can help with the evacuation – please keep up that good work. A percentage of profit will be going to those who are in need in these many challenging stories.

Sorry if this message is a little more disjointed than usual – thanks to my team and Sarah Mardell for helping me get it out here to you.

Asking for protection and guidance for all who are navigating this fire path.

We appreciate your thoughts.

with love,

Thank you to Elizabeth Gibbons for opening her home for our workshop this week – I had an amazing time leading with my dear friend, Amy Ahlers in our Radiance Circle.