• About
  • Artist’s Statement and Creative Bio
  • CURRENT OFFERINGS
  • GALLERY
  • Work with me individually (under revision)

Mysteries Unfolding with Cat Charissage

~ Making Meaning, Making Soul

Mysteries Unfolding with Cat Charissage

Monthly Archives: December 2014

Day 42, To See What We Can See, The Heart of the Mater work in progress

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_1423work in progress, acrylic on canvas, Cat Charissage, 2014

Dear Friends,

For those of you who are following these prompts, the past few days have been full. Today I want to give you just a few thoughts to ponder, and respond in image or word as you feel moved to.

My work in progress above is titled “Heart of the Mater”, and it references the Kabbalist Tree of Life.  Last night after taking this photo I glazed the whole painting with a mixtures of red paint the color of blood. Now I will brighten out the images again.  Each of the 10 images in the tree are symbols that came to me in dreams or waking visioning, and have stories that go with each.  When it’s complete I”ll post again.

“Mater” is the Latin word for mother.  “Mater” is also the root word of “matter”, “material”, and “matrix”.  Also “maternal”, “matriculate”, and “matrimony”.  Think about that.  Whether you understand “mother” literally, as your birth mother, or figuratively, as “Mother Earth”, “Mother Mary”, “Divine Mother”, “Holy Mother”,  or some other form of the Divine Feminine, “mater” truly is our matter, the material of our very being, and the matrix in which we live.

What matters most to you in this life?  How do you treat the material of this world, our water, our earth, our oil, our sunlight? How do you treat the material of your own body?

For you, how do you get to the heart of the mater?

With love,

Cat

p.s.  Today is also the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Mother of the Americas.  Dr. Estes wrote some beautiful posts today about this:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Clarissa-Pinkola-Estes/29996683634

Day 42 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Advertisement

Day 41, To See What We Can See: What Stands Between You and the Peace You Seek?

11 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_1416W.I.P., Heart of the Mater, acrylic on canvas, Cat Charissage, 2014

Dear Friends,

Today is a continuation of the last two days of prompts.  If you haven’t read those yet, go get caught up, or this won’t make a lot of sense!

Now take a look at your boxes of categorized stresses, with the eyes of your deepest self in touch with that which is most important and “real” in your life.  Look at those boxes, and read through your stresses with the eyes of love, tenderness, and compassion.  Now is the time to strategize.

What is standing between you and the peace you seek?

For each category of stress, ask this question of each stressor.  Listen to what comes up, and make notes before your insights drop back into unconsciousness.  Your self, your psyche, your allies will whisper answers, but they usually do so quietly.  Listen.  Continue to ask the questions “What do I really WANT to do?”  “What do I know I can do, choose to do, as an act of generous love and compassion?”  “What can’t I do, no matter what, as a matter of self-love and good conscience?”  “Does this really need to be done?”  “Can someone else do it if it’s so important?”  “Why do I fear this so?  What makes this so stressful?”  Listen and write, listen and write.

Finally, there will probably be some stressors that cannot be resolved or brought to peace.  For these, my dear teacher, Dr. Estes, as a saying, “What you can’t make better, make holy.”  There are some mysteries that won’t be solved today.  For these, metaphorically put them into a special place, bounded, seen for what they are, and then leave them with your most compassionate thoughts and intentions for healing and resolution, for when they can be healthily dealt with next.

Now, go do what is possible to make your world, our world,  happier.

With love,

Cat

Day 41 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Day 40, To See What We Can See: A Different Kind of Holiday List

10 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_1386

Dear Friends,

Today is the United Nations Day for International Human Rights.  Take a moment to ponder and ask how you can live in such a way as to preserve these rights.  And, if your city has a celebration for this, attend if you can.  More rights are taken away through apathy and ignorance than through wars and conflict.

I also promised that today I would suggest ways to deal with holiday challenges. Start with one of your beautiful backgrounds.  List out, in point form, all the stresses, common, chronic, and specific to the season, that you are or will be dealing with in the coming month.  Just brainstorm everything.  I had 25 on my list, but of course it’s not the number of stresses, but the intensity.   (Though I like the phrase “Being nibbled to death by ducks”, referring to that awful feeling of lots and lots of little things that can really get you down..)  Once they’re written out like this, you’ll know what you’re dealing with, and don’t have to feel that dread of the unknown.

Now take a look at them and thoughtfully acknowledge them.  Go to yesterdays sketch, and take some silent time to get in touch with what’s most important in your life, what motivates you to keep going.  Hold on to that feeling of knowing what’s most important, and go back to your list.

Our goal here is to be as proactive as possible in preventing illness, depression, and burn-out.  As you read your list, think of the natural categories they go into.  Some might be everyday stresses that are aggravating, but you’ve basically got them under control.  Others might be worries about people or situations that are completely out of your control.  Even others might be chores and errands that are related specifically to the season.  Perhaps a pile are related to physical conditions that you need to be careful about when stresses pile up.  You’ll intuitively know what categories make sense to your situation.

On the next page (or facing page) of your journal, draw some boxes, as many as you have categories, and label them. (And yes, some of us will need more pages!)  Now rewrite your stresses into the appropriate categories.  Boxed up like that, your image is reinforcing to your psyche that these stresses are handle-able, that no one stress need to take over your entire life, nor ruin an entire season.  Make the boxes and your items in them as beautiful as you can, to remind yourself that you are creating, as much as is in your control, a beautiful holiday season and by extension, a beautiful life.

That’s enough for today.  Tomorrow we’ll do a little more with them.

With love,

Cat

Day 40 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Day 39, To See What We Can See: Holiday Challenges

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_1419Journal page, watercolor, Cat Charissage, 2014

Dear Friends,

Today’s prompt is an elaboration and deepening of yesterday’s prompt.  I want to talk about challenging times, the addition of one stress on top of another until the bad effects of the stress are multiplied, and the importance of facing reality.

I could write a book on this (and hope to, sometime).  I want to encourage you today by reminding you that you need to keep in touch with your depths in order to be the person you want to be when challenging times and chronic personal challenges overlap.  These tend to overlap at holiday times, birthdays, illnesses, etc.

Many of us have some sort of chronic challenge in our lives.  For me, I live with chronic pain and need to manage several chronic illnesses.  They never go on holidays.  In addition, my spouse (sole wage earner) has lost his job.  Hopefully that’s a temporary, not chronic, challenge, but it’s certainly a challenge at the moment. Others of us have special needs children, or cancer, or family living in war zones.  And then others have the difficult mothers-in-law, or abusive members of the family who come with the territory at Christmas get-togethers.

Also, many of us have a mixed history with Christmas itself.  The “most wonderful time of the year” isn’t, because it’s filled with memories of very stressed or grief-filled previous Christmases.

Some people are able to fly to a Caribbean beach until, oh, about April. . . . but most of us will be right here, coping as best we can.

Today, to start, I’d like you to paint or sketch (or paste in a picture from a magazine) the image of a peaceful, prayerful woman who is in touch with the deepest parts of herself, in touch with the goodness in life.  Imagine what it would be like to feel that peace within the full acceptance of all that your life is, and holds, right now.  Today, assert the possibility that you can do this, be this, in solidarity with the rest of us who are doing this.  Today, you don’t have to solve any of the problems and challenges. Today, just make a little bit of time, and acknowledge, in image, this sinking into the depths of love and goodness.

Tomorrow we will look at some strategies to keep in our consciousness both realities at the same time:  the here-ness, the real-ness of the challenges, as well as the real-ness of staying in touch with the depths of goodness, acceptance, love.

With love,

Cat

Day 39 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Day 38, To See What We Can See: Investments

08 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_1380W.I.P., Tree of Life, acrylic on canvas, Cat Charissage, 2014

Dear Friends,

Today I invite you to invest in your own physical and mental health.  Identify some activity or non-activity that you know, from past experience, will be pleasant, restful, and restorative.  These will be so exquisitely varied, just as each of us is so varied from the others.

Perhaps you will catch up in your journal, or paint some beautiful backgrounds.  Or take a nap, or a long bath or shower.  Maybe you will go look at the Christmas lights, or sit in your living room tonight after everyone else goes to bed, and enjoy the silence.  Maybe you will do some random acts of kindness for a stranger, or distribute warm, new socks to the street people in your city.  You’ll know what to do that will reap future benefits to your physical and mental health.

For me, today I will paint on my current work in progress (the Tree of Life, above).  I will also, while painting, send loving thoughts full of blessings to all of you.

Near the close of the day, write a short note in your journal about what you did and how you feel about it.

May we all be happy, may we all be blessed.

With love,

Cat

Day 38 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Day 37, To See What We Can See: Depth Dimensions

07 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_1370 Heart portal, acrylic on canvas, Cat Charissage, 2014

Dear Friends,

Another Sunday, and a sunny day it is here where I am.  Plus 5 degrees (about 40 degrees to you in the States), and calling for a walk!

What will you do today to explore your depth dimensions?  Notice I used the plural: dimensions.  There is much within us that is worth exploring.  We live in a holographic universe, so in some mysterious but accurate way the whole is present in each of its parts —- we hold within us the entire universe.

How might you explore more than one dimension?  Reading and incorporating into yourself what is good about another religion’s wisdom is one way, as I suggested a couple of weeks ago.  A suggestion for today is to try a new way to open to the Sacred, or to what is most “real” that we can know.  Another way of saying that is, try a different way of praying than you ordinarily do.  Do you usually have a dialogue (or monologue) in your head?  Try 5 or 15 minutes of silence.  If thoughts come up, just notice and let the thoughts go.  Imagine being under the river, where the thoughts are the boats that go by on the surface.  Watch them go by, just don’t get on any of them.  Before you start, you might want to paint a page in your journal one luscious color and focus on that color as you sit in silence.

Or try writing out your prayer or exploration in your journal.  Write a poem, prose or in some form.

Or, just ponder what it might mean that within you are many dimensions.

With love,

Cat

Day 37 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Day 36, To See What We Can See: Montreal, 25 years ago

06 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_0638Hildegard of Bingen, acrylic on canvas, Cat Charissage, 2013

Dear Friends,

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.  On December 6, 1989, a lone gunman (don’t you just love those descriptions?  —- makes him sound kind of like he ought to be the hero in some western. . . ), anyway, a lone gunman walked into the Ecole Polytechnique, a postsecondary technical college, walked into a series of classrooms, told the men to leave the room, then proceeded to shoot the women.  Before it was over, 14 women were dead, more wounded, and the gunman had killed himself.  In the “manifesto” he left, he claimed that he hated feminists because he held them (us) responsible for the lack of success in his own life.

To say it was shocking is a gross understatement.  I remember exactly how I found out, where I was, how it felt, and what I then did the rest of the day.  You see, I was the executive director of the Sexual Assault Center in London, Ontario at the time, and was one of the “public feminists” who was called on to comment on the violence.

That was 25 years ago, before the Soviet Union disintegrated, but just after the Berlin Wall came down.  There was optimism in the air.  It was years before the collapse of the Twin Towers and our current climate of fear of terrorism.

Yet today, 2014, the statistics on violence against women have not changed.  Most of us know many women who have navigated abuse, fear, and threat, even if it’s “only” verbal abuse, and “not life-threatening”, so “it’s not that bad”.

I chose to include the painting above because it’s how I choose to live within these realities of this suffering world.  I sit like a rock, solid, listening, loving, responding, speaking and writing words that will both tell the godawful truth and words that may strengthen and heal.

Today, sit in front of your blank page with these memories.  If not too upsetting, remember the stories you’ve heard either in person or in the media about women living with these threats and recovering from these soul wounds.  Perhaps you have your own lived experience of this.  Be gentle, but be truthful and strong.  How will you write about that, how will you image that?

If you feel paralyzed, or if nothing comes, draw an image of a weeping willow tree.  Its branches are sensitive to the winds around it, bending and thrashing around, but its wide trunk and deep roots keep it stable and rooted in the nourishing earth.  Strong storms will not bring this weeping willow down.  Bend, but not break.  Now you be that tree.

With love,

Cat

Day 36 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Day 35, To See What We Can See: Bone

05 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_1095

Dear Friends,

Can you stand one last (for now) Mary Oliver poem?  I’ve gotten on a roll, and gotta roll it out!

The image from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves of singing over the bones, singing flesh onto what seems dead, bringing life again, resonates deeply with me.  That’s why when I was gifted this poem from a friend, I immediately grew to love it.

Again today, either write out this poem onto a beautiful background you’ve already made in your journal, or write or image your response to the poem.

 

BONE

1.

Understand, I am always trying to figure out

what the soul is,

and where hidden,

and what shape —

and so, last week,

when I found on the beach

the ear bone

of a pilot whale that may have died

hundreds of years ago, I thought

maybe I was close

to discovering something —

for the ear bone

2.

is the portion that lasts longest

in any of us, man or whale; shaped

like a squat spoon

with a pink scoop where

once, in the lively swimmer’s head,

it joined its two sisters

in the house of hearing,

it was only

two inches long—

and I thought:  the soul

might be like this—

so hard, so necessary—

3.

yet almost nothing.

Beside me

the gray sea

was opening and shutting its wave-doors,

unfolding over and over

its time-ridiculing roar;

I looked but I couldn’t see anything

through its dark-knit glare;

yet don’t we all know, the golden sand

is there at the bottom,

though our eyes have never seen it,

nor can our hands ever catch it

4.

lest we would sift it down

into fractions, and facts—

certainties—

and what the soul is, also

I believe I will never quite know.

Though I play at the edges of knowing,

truly I know

our part is not knowing,

but looking, and touching, and loving,

which is the way I walked on,

softly,

through the pale-pink morning light.

 —Mary Oliver New and Selected Poem, Volume Two.

 

With love,

Cat

Day 35 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Day 34, To See What We Can See: Extending the Airport Runway

04 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

"portal" from Magistra Veriditas painting, 2013

“portal” from Magistra Veriditas painting, 2013

Dear Friends,

I can’t resist inviting you to transcribe and to respond to another of Mary Oliver’s exquisite poems, Extending the Airport Runway.  Though the word “soul” is not in the poem, for me, the poem is completely about “soul”.  What do you make of it?

 

EXTENDING THE AIRPORT RUNWAY   —- Mary Oliver

The good citizens of the commission

cast their votes

for more of everything.

Very early in the morning

 

I go out

to the pale dunes, to look over

the empty spaces

of the wilderness.

 

For something is there,

something is there when nothing is there but itself,

that is not there when anything else is.

 

Alas,

the good citizens of the commission

have never seen it,

 

whatever it is,

formless, yet palpable.

Very shining, very delicate.

 

Very rare.

 

With love,

Cat

Day 34 of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

Day 33, To See What We Can See: Wild Geese

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by mysteriesunfolding in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

IMG_1374

Dear Friends,

Are you familiar with my favorite (at least this year!) poet, Mary Oliver?  Her poem Wild Geese changed my life many years ago, and it continues to be one of my all time favorites.

Today I’d like you to write out this poem in your journal, perhaps painting a simple background first.  If you have a little more time, ponder or journal your reactions to the poem.  What do you think of that first line?  What has been, or is, your despair? What do you think of when you see the geese flying overhead?

WILD GEESE  by Mary Oliver

 

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

With love,

Cat

Day 33  of a series of daily prompts for written, visual, or art journalling, or just for pondering.  For more background information, see the Intro pagehttps://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/, or this post on visual journalling: https://catcharissage.com/2014/07/12/talking-about-journals/.

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • First New Moon in 2023; Chinese New Year: Starting with Silence and Beauty
  • Year-end thoughts
  • Sending Out My Book to Publishers!
  • “Mission Statement” and “Strategic Plan”
  • Can we talk about Overwealmth?

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011

Categories

  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Mysteries Unfolding with Cat Charissage
    • Join 60 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Mysteries Unfolding with Cat Charissage
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...