January 13, 2015 – The field we live in

Listen to this post:

In response to last week’s post, my dear friend Dr. Victoria Bentley send me a beautiful reflection which included this:

The end of your blog made me think about how the inherent tension in things– between yin and yang, positive and negative poles, night and day, light and dark–is absolutely necessary for creation, may be the field on which our lives are played out…that your love of pink would not stand out so prominently in your life if it were not for the outward pull of the opposite pole.

And then Paris was attacked.  And I got all stirred up. Paris is a special place, that holds a special magic – for a lot of people on the planet – and I am one of them.  I went there for the first time when I was 22. I arrived at the Gare du Nord, off the train from Calais, having taken the ferry over from England.  Walking out into the streets, though I’d never been there before and did not actually know my way around, it was a familiar place. If we have past lives – and I believe we do – I have certainly lived there at some point.  I’ve been all over Europe and traveled some in the US and I have not been any place that felt like this.  I then spent a half a year there right after my divorce in my mid 30’s and it changed me.  A part of me I did not know existed was revealed to me there – ancient, lovely, refined, and very feminine.

When I told my dear Sister Mary that I’m planning on leading a small group of artists on a “pilgrimage” to Paris later this year, she exclaimed “Oh, Paris is the feminine heart of the world!”  I’d never heard anyone say this before, but it rings true to me.  This attack has inspired an enormous outpouring of solidarity and a move for unity.  I wonder if this isn’t related to what Paris – the City of Light – represents to the world – in addition to the obvious direct attack on freedom of expression.  We are inspired to rally around and protect that which we cherish.  I read this morning that 10,000 French troops have been mobilized to protect schools and other Jewish places all over France. A little girl was quoted as saying that she wanted to learn in peace.  The masculine protecting the feminine. And I don’t mean just male protecting female, the masculine and feminine live in all of us, in varying degrees.

The truth is, as much as my soul is so deeply feminine and my journey has been one to express it and live more from there, my life is my life because of what the masculine makes possible – how it provides for me.  I would not be an artist and a teacher if it were not for my husband providing for us as he has, while the business side of what I do grows.  And my incredible make-it-happen mom – besides being a creator of incredible beauty herself in her paintings – she makes so much possible for me: helping me with festivals, doing road-trips with me and making her real estate office available for our painting groups and workshops – all as a gift to me.  I cannot imagine how my life would have evolved as it has were it not for them.  Beauty and safe environments in which to create, to express our souls, are precious and give our lives a certain kind of meaning. But we exist in a physical universe, where we have physical needs.

There’s the masculine and the feminine, safety and freedom, that tension that Vicki wrote about.  Our universe has an inherent dual nature and the tension is where our lives are lived.   We need the feminine to inspire us, to move our hearts, to give meaning to our efforts – the “why” in what we do. And without the masculine we have no existence.  I’m just so inspired by what I’ve learned from Alison (Armstrong) – how the dance between the masculine and the feminine becomes an upward spiral by seeing how beautifully our differences fit together.  We can feed on each other instead of pulling one another down. We have largely moved beyond the “battle of the sexes” of the 70’s (a necessary step in our evolution).  Yet, it is still so easy to see the world from only our unique world view and diminish the other for not doing or being the way we are.   For me, it’s a constant balance between having the courage to express my truth and allowing myself to be contributed to by another whose voice is so not mine.

There’s so much more to say about this – I’d  love to hear what this stirs in you.

One piece that feels in me like it warrants more exploration is the whole idea of safety. That’ll be next week…

Until then, I send my love to you all –

Cara