Bubbles on the Half-Shell – Pt. Reyes
The water’s edge is one of my favorite places for both image-making and contemplation. The gentle sounds of the water as the tide recedes, and with it, the revelation of otherwise submerged life work together as a natural guided meditation. Sea foam creating bubbly designs between rock, shell and creatures tempts me to tiptoe into the water. It is at that point that I feel most connected to the elements that will become integral parts of the pattern forming in my mind and camera frame.
One of my favorite mystics is Julian of Norwich who lived from 1343 to 1416 (her death date is actually a mystery). She was highly sought after for her wisdom. Although voluntarily confined to the “Anchorage†and church from which she took her name, she had immense freedom. She reformed and re-visioned Christian doctrine into a universalism that focused on the goodness of both God and humans.
Julian’s teachings were never disputed or retracted. She is the first known English language woman author. Her feast day was May 8th so she has been particularly on my mind.
She publicized the concept of “oneing†through her writings and visions. For her there was no distance between the human soul and the Divine Presence. She wrote: “…all humans are oned, and one person is all people and all people are one person.†(Showings 51).
As the water tickled compositions out of the shoreline it was there that I felt the oneing with both the Divine Mother (Goddess and Julian) as well as the sea/landscapes before me. So I gift you with intimate seascapes: “Bubbles on the Half-Shell†and “Tide Washing – with Sponge and Anemone†as cairns in the watery vision of “oneingâ€.
Our Lady of the Harbor – Pt. Reyes Station
Afterwards my wanderings took me to the nearby memorial, “Our Lady of the Harbor,†at Point Reyes Station. With a little help from my 3-D app I tweaked her aura and ethereal presence. The sculpture is by David Best, the Petaluma artist known for his found-object collage, sculpture and wildly embellished art cars, as well as his art installations at the Burning (Wo/man) Festival. David constructed Our Lady of the Harbor in memory of a local child who drowned and as a memorial to other children in the community who have died.
Our Lady of the Harbor, erected in 2011, was standing in silence, much like the thousands of women at 1:00 PM on Mother’s day who demonstrated the posture of peace which longs for a safe world for the children and their children’s futures — a poignant stance as we remember the nearly three hundred Nigerian girls that were kidnapped nearly a month ago and remain missing.
If we could only return to the power of the “oneing†that Julian of Norwich, Spiritual Mother of Generations, taught! Like the sponge, the anemone, and the “other†next to us – we are all children of the universe needing to be loved and healed by self and each other!