Kathleen Botsford

Traveling Beads

I purchased these ancient African glass beads last week.  Every day since, I find myself drawn to my studio, drawn to these beads like a moth to a flame.  They are very, very old.  My expert has appraised them at over 1,000 years old.  I have many old artifacts I have collected over time.  The dates of some are even hard for me to believe.  These beads are not near the oldest pieces I own but somehow they have entered my imagination with a fervor and I cannot put them down.  I hesitated cutting them apart to make a necklace but my desire to wear them won out. 

How many hands have touched these beautiful glass orbs?  What were they used for?  Were they loved and cherished or traded for daily necessities.  I know many African beads were traded for slaves.  I pray this was not the journey of these beads.  These beads that happened to stop for a very short time in my home, my possession.  I wonder where they will travel from here?  If only they could tell their story........

Adding Love

I flipped on the television this morning to catch the weather report.  The newscasters told stories of human suffering ranging from Elizabeth Edward's new law suit, Charlie Wilson's death, the blizzard on the East Coast and of course the horrible tragedy in Haiti. 

I turned the set off.  I lit a candle and offered my prayers. 

The sun came up and I experienced the weather first hand.  It was a beautiful, sunny and frigid day here in the Midwest.  I put on my boots, grabbed my scarf and coat and walked out the door. 

Everybody can love in the place that they are.

We can all add our share of love without

leaving the room.

~Helen Nearing

When the Time is Right

As much as I love the winter with it's long and dreary days made especially for contemplating and puttering about, I can still find that little voice in my head, if only a whisper, that constantly urges me to 'do' something more, something 'bigger'.    Sometimes it irritates me.  Sometimes I pay it no heed.  Other times I question myself and my own sense of inner rhythm and knowing.  These are the times that illicit the most opportunity for growth.  How long will it take me to come home to myself?  Home to the simple act of 'being'.  Home to that place of peace and contentment.  How long will I struggle with my demons before I take a deep breath and send them packing?

Some-days a few moments of quiet centering are all that is necessary.  Other days I flounder and thrash against my invisible foes for hours before I wear myself out and surrender to the bliss of nothingness.  I cannot 'miss' my destiny.  I am living it, every day, every hour, every minute. 

In the pursuit of knowledge,

everyday something is added.

In the practice of the Tao,

everyday something is dropped.

Less and less do you need to force things,

until finally you arrive at non-action.

When nothing is done,

nothing is left undone.

True mastery can be gained

by letting things go their own way.

It can't be gained by interfering.

Wake up!

 

I love the feel of old papers.  Both soft and brittle at once.  Book pages, ledgers, music.  Anything old and worn.  Anything touched and fingered by people long gone.  Beautiful and painstaking penmanship, an art disappearing as silently as a February thaw.  New technology pushing forever onward with time warp speed, leaving all that is fine and quiet and elegant in it's mechanical wake.  New and ever faster is their battle cry.  What's next to keep our illusions of 'the good life' in constant play.  It must be bigger and better and faster and newer. 

No time for a pen and paper.  No time for writing of thoughts and feelings.  No time for quiet music and contemplation.  No time for anything hand made.  Hurry, hurry, hurry.   We may miss it.....the next 'text' or email may be the one with the key to our happiness......

When will we wake up???

Thank You

I have had lots to be thankful for as of late.  Lots of hurt feelings to investigate.  Lots of self pity to be illuminated.  Lots of people not giving me what I think I need from them.  There is always another layer of the onion skin to be peeled away from the inevitable truth of being.  I am always in exactly the place I need to be at whatever moment I find myself there.  The place to heal and take responsibility for my feelings, my emotions, my life.  It has always been all about me even when I forget that fact.  And there are always the benevolent lessons of the Universe  pointing me back to the answer. 

Love.  I am Love.  And that is all I can ever be.  It is all I can ever need.  Just me, loving all that is my life, my family, my world.  Thank you dear ones, for the many opportunities to take this lesson deeper.