Drinking the River, Touching the Mist

To the Far Horizon - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2010

Solstice Flow - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2010

I turn my face towards the descending mist. I feel its softness on my skin. Barely visible--both gossamer and fleeting--it hovers between the downcast sky and pungent earthy realms. Its delicate power transforms the forest into Chambers of Joy, humming with life process, inspiring and humbling me.

Oh Cathedral of Grace, full of scent and motion, press the moisture of life gently to my cheeks as it anoints the oaks, pines and hemlocks with sweetness, making them supple and new, coaxing shimmering manes of fresh growth.

I am intimate with the river. Fervently I soak in the reverberating tides, those mysteries translucent but steady. Eddies of lace, pathways of stone, forge ahead in your yin-yang dance of ages.

I walk enchanted through verdant halls, wanting for nothing. I am as complete as the damp patch of earth under my feet, swelling with emerging life.

The Sacred Grounds rise to my consciousness as the Perfection of the Universe.

Rush - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2010

Sacred Meeting of Water and Stone - Image c Lynda Lehmann 1010

All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission by the author/artist, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my primary art site www.lyndalehmann.com if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography.

Thistle Thicket

Even the spiny thistle has its own character and beauty, and Nature’s wise hand plays its magic on both the buds and blossoms of that we customarily think of as a weed. Maybe our emphasis on labeling things is just a superficial convenience that really fragments our minds and closes off our perception. We dismiss things too easily, because we have labeled them by our own accord, i.e. by our verbal traditions, either personal or acquired. Whether we refer to something with a nickname we have coined or by the vernacular of our time and place, we may limit its impact on our lives by relegating it to a negative mindset and meaning. What do you think?

Image and Text c Lynda Lehmann

All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission by the author/artist, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved.

Notes on the Fragility of Life

Coming Into Being - Lynda Lehmann c 2010

Recent media coverage of the Gulf oil spill has been a reminder of the preciousness of life, now put in jeopardy by corporate greed. Let's not forget that the sea is the BASE of the

food chain

. Instead of a sparkling, vital and beautiful ocean bursting with

magnificent

life forms of unimaginable variety and scale, I'm afraid

we may have rendered much of it a lifeless, poisoned, toxic soup. And I'm afraid it may not recover for centuries. If ever...

And how far will the poison spread? Pollution has no boundaries, especially in the fluid dynamism of the sea.

All because our human societies do not promote rational limitations on what both governments and corporations can do. All because we look at the short-term gain instead of considering long term ramifications and a wider view of The Common Good... Because we've gone to the moon but haven't been able to legislate rational limits to the destructive forces unleashed by habits of Consumerism and its untidy extremes: greed and entitlement.

Looking at the tiny, emerging blossom in the photo above, I'm reminded of just how delicate the tender shoots of plants are, how delicate the physical manifestations of each species. All of life on Earth is comprised of delicate cells, tissues, membranes and organs. They are not made of plastic or clay. Each is made up of an orchestrated unfolding and cooperation of trillions of cells. In short, the chain is as strong as its weakest link. So it is with life systems. What the cell cannot withstand, is reflected by orders of magnitude in the health and longevity of the entire organism.

Consider your own cellular structure, protected on the outside by your "integument." Your skin is actually your largest organ. But consider as well, how easily damaged it is, by a burn or abrasion, or worse: caustic chemicals or radiation. So it is with the Earth, comprised of many life forms of wonderful and miraculous diversity. But each organism on our planet is vulnerable, and whole forms of life, which we call "species," have already become extinct. That means that in spite of the fact they they once flourished, they are now gone from the face of our planet forever!

So it is that when we damage whole ecosystems, we damage the integrity of Earth and all her inter-related species. Life is not to be taken for granted. It is not a given. It's made up of a statistically improbable, miraculously coinciding alliance of chemical and mechanical events that generate Life.

The creative force at the center of the universe may be powerful and enduring beyond our comprehension. But the species that populate our precious green planet, are not. And we are one of them.

As Chief Seattle said:

"

All things are bound together. All things connect......

Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission by the author/artist, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved.

The Sad and Terrible Truth

When corporations become sovereign, democracy is swallowed by their greedy machinations. When will we find our voices and stand up with intelligence, clarity, and political will?

A Ballet of Blossoms

Peachy Petals - Lynda Lehmann c 2009

Watch the petals of irises sway, billow and gently gesture in the breeze. It's like watching a ballet: the dance of sweet spring air over translucent sheaths of brilliant color, orchestrated interplay of air, color, and light....

Irises may be my favorite flower, for their intricate, sculptural forms, whose graceful spatial relationships flourish in 3-D. I think they're much more interesting than tulips, for example, whose colors are just as beautiful but whose petals form a more symmetric and predictable, cup-like structure. As with the process when I paint, I enjoy variety and a few surprises!

The closer I move with my eye or my view through the camera, the more I see of the fantastic architecture of the flower kingdom.

What's your favorite flower?

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.