Rainbow Brightness Handcrafts

Quite a happy-go-lucky name, I know, but as of now, Rainbow Brightness Handcrafts is the official name for my jewelry business. I've discovered another name that seems more ripe for a cooperative of artists and crafters, Hands of My Sisters, or Manos de Mis Hermanas in Spanish, yet am still seeking guidance as to how that name is going to grow into an entity. There are many ideas in my noggin from a childens daycare to a fair-trade import/domestic art consortium to a skill share network to an affordable massage center catering to a bi-lingual community. Clearly, most of these ideas would require one (me, that is) to settle down in one place and not be traveling about like a gypsy. But all in good time...

Anyway, while I have been slightly settled over the past few months, I have been creating jewelry to sell to support my next travels, my current needs, etc. Have a look at some of the current masterpieces!

Nesting into the chilly days

I am blessed to be house and dog sitting for a friend in Fairfax for a few weeks. The crows and finches keep me company during the alternating days of sun and mist. Afternoons in fall are dear to my heart, especially in Marin County where I first experienced and explored this season. Everything seems content, all of the color changing leaves, the bohemian houses, the neighborhood moms going about their daily pathways. It is all comfortable to me, yet I cherish it all at an odd arms length. I observe the tranquility of the safely decorated porches and conveniently warm coffee shops as if I am looking into a perfect catalog. Don't get me wrong. I love it all with a blanket of gratitude so thick it is sometimes painful. It's just that it is all so incredible, this world. That people and their communities live with such different resources and realities all around the world is a fact that often dumbfounds me. I have only seen a handful of the streets and boroughs around the globe, but I've seen a varied group of them, from unassuming palaces to urine soaked temple steps to homegrown squatted cooperatives. Lately, I have felt sort of stricken with a silence based on all of the input into my mind. What do I say about all of it? Why do I have such an urge to keep seeing and experiencing these different faces of the planet, and more importantly, what is the purpose of my exploration? Compelled to make something of what I have collected in my psyche, to collage together the gifts I have been given in this life, I ask these questions to the universe and to myself.

Paradoxes

Paradoxes abound in this life. I must live knowing that the moments of today or this week could be my final moments in this body, functioning and making choices from that particular platform, while simultaneously I behave with the foresight that I may live another 5, 10, 52, or 99 years in this body. I am called to be both present and directly alive, while also patient, persistent, and allowing a subtle, tree-like growth pattern. Similarly, my roots continue to grow deeper into the earth, grounding me into this body, this physical realm, and my relation with things of this earth. Yet ironically I am traveling and moving so much lately that I cannot even establish a garden of my own in which to grow roots! So a spark of truth illuminates in this paradox... I get to see where my true roots are growing... into and from my heart that is. My sense of center and my connectedness to the source that is endlessly abundant is not dependent on external things, one example being a situated home. (Okay, now I've got it and I can stop traveling and settle down! Haha just kidding, my beloved parents!)

And so I walk these lines with a sense of wonder. A sense of wonder because it is all so beautiful and mysterious how it all balances, all of Creation like a swirl of oil and water. Building my awareness helps me walk though time. The garden metaphor works well for me as I see that what I am doing is tending to my garden, which is in essence nurturing the desired plants and not helping the weeds! I sometimes feel good and clear, and sometimes I can't make sense of it all. But that's okay. The great story is not one to be "figured out" like a containable equation. Each day there is the witnessing of more birth and more death. The palpable force of our attention is a sword and a chalice, too. As a sword, this attention beams onto others and the environment around us, and there are effects, consequences of where we shine this piercing force of our attention. Also, it behaves as a chalice as we collect and receive that which we put our attention upon. This profoundly intricate process of relating the interior with the exterior is tremendous in the way it reflects and ricochets, like a beam of light pointed into a hallways of mirrors. We create what we see. We become what we focus on. We perpetuate what we hold in our minds. What do I want to put my attention on? This is the question I keep asking myself as I walk this road. This is my medicine.