Author: Clarity

I live and work in a beautiful place with a river and beach and the wild west coast. Having grown up without a TV, as a family we read a lot. This lead to me writing a lot which in turn lead to a habit of writing poetry to make sense of my world. My grandmother painted. Lovely oils and water colours which she encouraged me to try. For many years I did very little, life was not conducive to creativity until came a time when life turned on its head and suddenly I found expression in creativity with the Intentional Creativity method taught by Shiloh Sophia McCloud in her Color of Women training. So here I am, writer, artist, ritual maker showing my offerings to the world.

Colour of Women 2019

A great adventure! In 2019 I took a journey in paint to train as a teacher of the Colour of Women method of creativity with Shiloh Sophia McLoud.

Bringing intention, thought, prayer and fear to a canvas as a way to work through, dream into being, access new ways of thinking and being. My art page holds the images and stories of this year – and tried not to take on anything else as is my habit to do too much at once. I had no training in technique so had to learn along the way, which is a good thing because when teaching others it is good for them to see I am not full of talent and ego, that I am just like them with a desire to let my sub conscious and conscious have a party on the paper or canvas and hopefully work some stuff out.

Now a Colour of Woman Teacher in NZ. I will be designing and teaching workshops to women who are brave enough to listen to their hearts and say ‘I Can.’

Insight

When asked to consider how my brain functions, the left and right hemispheres, the flow and the structure and how they work together, the resistance to structure was quick fierce. It was a struggle to finally understand that without structure there can be no flow. Like the riverbanks guide the river, the frame contains the creation and the tube contains the paint, so creativity needs a container to flourish in.

Insight 11-18

Life moves on

Having spent time living in a caravan, scratching a living in elder-care and taking a trip around the world to take a walk across Spain, I have finally found a wee house and am in the process of settling down once more. Putting the past where it belongs, it is time to look to the future and find my way back to myself. Somehow with all the life events of the past five years I have lost my way on my path, allowing the upsets, grief and losses to push me around like a piece of driftwood flowing with the current of the river.

So this year, 2019, is the year I delve back into life, into creativity and into creating a way forward. Colour of Women 2019 is my focus for now, calling me to the canvas to grow through anything that holds me back and allow my artist self free reign. A big learning curve indeed.

My journey with the Magdalene

So then I decided to try a really big canvas. An online tutorial with Shiloh Sophia and the Magdalene led me into places of the heart, of the place of women in this world, of transition and a move to another life, living in a caravan…. and because I was moving to a caravan and could not yet bear to put her into storage, she now hangs above my sisters bed, and there is little likelihood she will leave there…

The Magdalene

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Moments

Space opens

Between each breath

And each heartbeat

Between dawn and sunrise

Sunset and twilight

A baby’s cry

And a child’s giggle

The bursting seedpod

And blossoming flower

Between tears of grief

And howls of laughter

Space widens

To embrace each moment

For it is here

The Beloved resides.

Polish Your Heart

Not unexpectedly my father died

And his spirit ascended to the heavens

Imagine his surprise as he collected his wings

And assembled with the angels

for his next assignment

You must, he was told,

Polish the rust from your heart

Until it shines so brightly

Your loved ones will mistake you

For the brightest star in the sky

With this their way will be lit

By a light that will guide them

Through the tricky bits

Until it is their time

To make this journey home

I Want

I want to breathe through my skin
sucking through every aching pore
the smell of the earth
and hear her breathing me in
when I exhale into her vastness

I want to know the breath you stole
with your cheating torturous lies
is blown clean by hurricanes
flowing back toward me,
wanting to be inhaled again

I want to wash the insides of my cells
with the waters of the oceans
flooding like a monster tidal wave
and feel myself taken with her when she ebbs
back to the shores of existence

I want the waters of the tears that
were torn howling from my being
as your indifference left jagged wounds
flowing back toward me
ready to spring anew in laughter and delight

I want the shadows staining my soul
to rest in the arms of the forest giants
as they fold their great wooded arms around me
taking my shadows to rest deep in their leaf litter
as we sit together in silence

I want to light the dark hidden places
where the grief you could not see in me
has flayed me naked to my bones
and allow the shadows to flow away from me
creating space for molecules of light

I want the tempest of life
to allow me to be strong enough
to withstand the crushing blows
that ride in on the back of the Valkyrie
As I stand able to love myself

I want the storms of my soul
to subside to a murmur
casting me into calm waters
where the sweetness of living
is flowing back toward me
© C Henderson2016