Ponderings #2

I've been thinking a lot about how our society perceives things. Especially flaws..... When did we take in this hyper-perfect mindset? When did we get away from when something is natural it's too flawed. Perfect example of this is fruit at the grocery store. If you pick up an apple, rarely will you see imperfections. If someone cuts open the apple and they see brown spots, they throw the whole apple away.

I grew up eating apples straight off the trees. Raspberries straight off the bushes.... Sure you'd see insects or worms, but you'd shoo them away or cut off the worm holes and eat what was left of the fruit. When did we get so complacent and picky about our food sources and other things that we have around us? We've become such a throw away and buy another society. This type of mentality is not sustainable for us as humans. not for the Earth we call home.

This concept of mindfulness that has been going around as a meditation practice, which is good, but this can be used in practice for so many other things besides stress relief. I am a practician of nature and when pressed to define what I mean by that, I tell that I am a Taoist Pagan. That's where I see a lot of eyebrows raised, flicker behind the eyes and mostly the conversation stops there. I'm always open to discussing what that means for me, but rarely do others decide to jump in the pool with me. I'm not offended, but I do know that being off balance in one extreme or the other is never good for us as humans and humankind.

You may have noticed the photo. It's a picture I took off one of my books on Tao. So many fantastic sutras reside inside the Tao Teh Ching and The Book of Tao (photo), is no exception. As it states in the front 'Within the pages of this little book lies the key to the Mastery of Life.' As my business has shifted to the Talisman concepts, everything seems to be fitting into place for me. As I've expressed, I am the artist and the mediums I work with are my art. I am not creating hyper-perfect products. I am creating perfectly imperfect entities. They are hand created, not machine stamped. They are each unique, not a cookie cutter mass production. There are hours spent until the Talisman expresses it's completeness. I am only the vessel carrying out their wishes. And in doing so, I am complete as an artist and as a human.

Sutra # 22:

Be humble; you will remain yourself. Be flexible, bend, and you will be straight. Be ever receptive and you will be satisfied. Become tired and weary and you will be renewed. Have little, you will have enough; to have abundance is to be troubled.

Thus, the truly wise seek Unity, they embrace oneness, and become examples for all the world. Not revealing themselves, they shine; not self-righteous, they are famous; not seeking glory, they are leaders.

Because they are not quarrelsome no one quarrels with them.

Thus it is as the ancients said: "To yield is the retain Unity." The truly wise have Unity, and the world respects them.

I have yielded to my art, done forcing it into a mold it did not want and when doing so, it opened the universe for me into what I need to create for myself to feel whole and to be able to share that vision with you all. Namaste.

-Dana