Make a mark, and when the voice says “that’s not the right color” use it anyway.
Know you are a fiber of a thread of mother earth.
Make another mark.
Notice how the paint moves on the paper.
Yes, you’re painting.
Are you surprised?
Make a third mark, and notice. Notice and breathe.
How do the colors work together?
Let the answer travel from the tip of your finger, up through your arm on the current of your breath to your heart.
Forget what your mind says.
The colors work well together, but how do they play?
They tumble and twist as they move.
Breathe into the excitement.
How does your fourth mark play with the others?
How does the violet meet the black?
Where does the sublime depth take you?
Let your hand travel and your fingers dip and trip.
Where have you gone?
Into the earth, down a spring path, through the field, into the woods.
As you walk along the stream bed, stepping from sand to rock, efforting to keep your feet dry please know that you can take off your shoes.
If you leave them by grandmother oak they will be there on your return trip.
Now you easily travel in flow with a cool clear trickle around your ankles.
You are free. Free to notice the lady slippers, the birds calling, and the cascade of sunlight up ahead. Something white peeks out from last fall’s leaves.
Verdant fiddleheads line your path, your footsteps sync with your heart beat as you bend down to uncover the mystery.
The spear you pull forth is the point of an antler, discarded by a buck and bleached by time, polished smooth in the stream bed of your ancestral home, bathed in the sun shining through the pines.
You are alive in your surroundings, one with the heartbeat of nature, anchored to the earth.
Still in the woods, in your creativity, feel the support of mother earth, one breath after another.
Trust your breath, this connection between your heart and hands, the journey will take you where you need to go, one step at a time.
With Love,
Briah
Co-Creator Of Womxn’s Work
In Grateful Partnership With Sarah Cohen
