Life Dance

My favorite show by far is So You Think You Can Dance on FOX.  It's almost at the end of its ninth season.  The dancers captivate me as I watch them, and the choreographies are impressive.  Lately I have been writing down some of the thoughts this show stirs within me, as well as some of the quotes by the judges.

The collage pictured above is one I made with pictures of dancers that I found in my collection of collage materials.  I hung it up behind my desk so I could see it when I sit to write.  I would like to focus on why dance has such meaning for me, and dig deeper into the messages that coincide with the dance of life.

There is something special about the dancers who have their own style and quirkyness.  They bring all of themselves to the dance floor, knowing who they are and not being afraid to show it.  The dancers who are fluid in their ability to move carry versatility; they are able to take on whatever situation they are put into and handle it with grace.  When the dancer lives and breathes the music, she is able to become an embodiment of the piece - the soul of emotion, the music - and for those few minutes, another dimension is experienced. 

Trust is an essential element in the best dances.  When the dance partners trust each other, and when the dancers trust their choreography, they are able to allow themselves to be thrown fully into the routine, even if the dance throws them off-kilter.  When they go full on into it, no matter what it holds, it becomes a thing of brilliance and beauty. 

There is something about being surrendered to the dances that allows vulnerability to show through and gives the audience the opportunity to truly connect with the dancers.  When the audience is able to connect with the dancers on an emotional level, they can get through to the top - even without being the best dancer technically.  Technicality is not what matters most.  Perfection is thrown out the door.  It's about being able to realize that sometimes getting as into the routine as you need to in order to show your commitment to the piece sometimes means that you're going to have to beat yourself up pretty badly.  It's not always going to look pretty, as was explained about the piece Addiction, choreographed by Mia Michaels.

This show provides such a learning experience for me that I desire to carry over into life.  Strong messages are spoken of how I would like my Life Dance to be.  I want to be able to let it all out, let go of the baggage, "stop dancing with all the baggage," as the judges have encouraged some of the dancers to do.  I want to let loose and show emotion, show who I am in my daily moments.  I want to give something raw and uninhibited...  The dancers who push their limits and break down the walls are the ones who leave the biggest impressions and create the most unforgettable moments.

Focus, Flow

I made the collage above using postcards prints, and a business card, from the artwork of an artist who owns a really cool restaurant and gallery space in Jim Thorpe, PA, called FLOW.  My family and I visited the place with some of our close family on an outing last winter.  My husband and I had read about it in a magazine and always wanted to see the place in person.  From the outside, our family questioned whether or not we knew our stuff, but once we got in, and after the whole experience, it was clear why we had been so excited to go.

 

I framed the compilation that I created from the postcard prints and placed it on the wall behind my counterspace, where I spend time preparing food for meals.  I needed something there to look at as a reminder of what inspires me and of what I am seeking, just like how my word 'freedom' sits on the ledge above my sink.

 

Last week, my kids and I kicked off our new season of homeschooling, and as any transition presents its challenges and special needs, I knew I needed to create something to help me focus on my goals and reasons for doing what we do. 

 

I traced the letters "F-O-C-U-S" on cardboard, and used materials from my collage collection to decorate them with messages and symbols of inspiration and motivation.

 

"Shift from annoyed to enjoyed"

"Changing the way"

"feel good, live simply, laugh more"

"A revolution of hope and healing"

"The Joy...  The Joy...  The Joy..."

"Love is the flower you've got to let grow..."

 

After gluing on the images, I covered the whole creation with glitter mod-podge, one of my favorite inventions.  Then I added some sparkly silver and gold stars for a special last touch.

 

Where will I put this, I wondered?  I wanted it somewhere that I could see it regularly, to be reminded and inspired by the messages in this piece.  I tried it out on top of the framed compilation from FLOW, and it fit just so: 

 

 

I am still able to see the images from the original collage in the background, and be reminded of the messages and visions in the artwork that spoke to me.  I especially like how the FLOW business card is fully visible between the C and the U.  Now this piece as a whole has more meaning to me and it is helpful to see it while I am spending time at my counter, catching glimpses of inspirational phrases and images that are meaningful to me.  

 

This is a special creation to have to the left of my sink.  This whole area is a space that I spend good chunks of time in, and it is helpful to ensure that it is a place that contains elements that are meaningful to me, that speak to me, and remind me of the intertwining of my inner and outer worlds, combined to help me focus and make me whole.

Freedom Heart

From a page in my Freedom Journal.

Liked with Clytie's



~Kept~

Isaiah 49:16 (AMP)

"Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me."

Isaiah 41:13 (NASB)

“For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand,
Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’"

You are kept. 

Cross references:

1. Isaiah 41:13 : Is 42:6; 45:1
2. Isaiah 41:13 : Is 41:10

Linked with:

   &

 

And very grateful to be featured on

Inspire Me Monday - Week 18!

~Exquisite Beauty~

"Ex-qui-site"

(of exquirere: to search out; ex- + quaerere - to seek)

definitions from Webster's dictionary:

- carefully selected: CHOICE

- marked by flawless craftsmanship, or by beautiful, ingenious, delicate or elaborate execution

- marked by nice discrimination, deep sensitivity,

or subtle understanding

- ACCOMPLISHED, PERFECTED

- pleasing through beauty, fitness, or perfection

(an exquisite white blossom) 

- ACUTE, INTENSE (equisite pain)

- having uncommon or esoteric appeal

Job 10:8-9 (Amplified Bible)

"Your hands have formed me and made me. 

Would You turn around and destroy me? 

Remember (earnestly), I beseech You,

that You have fasioned me as clay

(out of the same earth material,

exquisitely and elaborately). 

And will You bring me into dust again?"

Matthew 6:28-29

"And why should you be anxious about clothes? 

Consider the lilies of the field and

learn thorougly how they grow;

they neither toil nor spin. 

Yet I tell you, even Solomon

in all his magnificence

(excellence, dignity, and grace)

was not arrayed like one of these."

~Nest~

The birds, they just collect bits & pieces, and with these, make their homes.  It's all they need, and they are able to create their safe havens, for their families to hatch and grow.

I'm just always thinkin about how You, Lord God, care for Your young, the birds, the lilies, You provide all they need.  They don't worry.  The birds go about their days joyfully. 

How can I grasp this, and go about my days as they do, making my nest in You?

Psalm 84:1-4 (The Message)

"What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!  I've always longed for a place like this, always dreamed of a room in your house, where I could sing for joy to God-alive!  Birds find nooks and crannies in your house, sparrows and swallows make nests there.  They lay their eggs and raise their young, singing their songs in the place where we worship.  God-of-the-Angel-Armies!  King!  God!  How blessed they are to live and sing there!"

Psalm 104:10-12 (Amplified Bible)

"He sends forth springs into the valleys; their waters run among the mountains.  They give drink to every (wild) beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst there.  Beside them the birds of the heavens have their nests; they sit among the branches."

Sharing with:



~Delicate, Intricate~

Psalm 139:14-15 (Amplified Bible)

"I will confess and praise You
for You are fearful and wonderful
and for the awful wonder of my birth! 
Wonderful are Your works,
and that my inner self knows right well. 
My frame was not hidden from You
when I was being formed in secret
(and) intricately and curiously wrought
(as if embroidered with various colors)
in the depths of the earth
(a region of darkness and mystery)."

~Hope~

Hope is one of those perpetual, eternal things,

and signs of its existence can be seen

in all seasons.

Last year, March was still a cold month

and snow still covered the ground.

This year is quite different -

we haven't had much snow this winter

in the northeast and we are already

enjoying Spring temperatures.

But I wanted to post this collage before we got

to into Spring because it is a reminder

of that care, that sustenance, provided to the birds,

seen through those red berries.

As the season of frost-covered beauty

officially comes to an end,

the promise of Spring is a reality.

Crocuses are beginning to bloom,

even as they did last year beneath snow,

showing that they were given

sufficient light and nourishment

to grow.

~The Beauty of Change~

We are hemmed in, fences try to limit and hold back,

but change is relentless, it pushes through anyway

and change is unchanging at the very heart of its promise.

Fragmented, change comes in bits here and pieces there,

it frees us.  We peek through, see where we came from. 

The boldness of colors to come leads us on,

full-knowing our promises are better than what we see now. 

The dead leaves pile up,

to be swept away, for another year,

when we'll again, undoubtedly,

find ourselves beautifully changed,

through the gradual immersion that

merges the fragments of our lives, 

experiencing stages that blur distinctions

to be combined into one.

Romans 5:3 (The Message)

"There's more to come: 

We continue to shout our praise

even when we're hemmed in with troubles,

because we know how troubles

can develop passionate patience in us,

and how that patience in turn

forges the tempered steel of virtue,

keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. 

In alert expectancy such as this,

we're never left feeling shortchanged. 

Quite the contrary - we can't round up

enough containers to hold everything

God generously pours into our lives

through the Holy Spirit!"

Psalm 4:1 (Amplified Bible)

"You have freed me when I was hemmed in

and enlarged me when I was in distress..."

~Let There Be~

"LET THERE BE"

That's all that was said,
on each day of creation, and there was.

Each element, spoken into creation,
and it existed, it became.

Light, explosions, and even as
this business of creating happened,

the thought to generously

set eternity into the hearts
of men on earth occurred.

I try to fathom all this,

while cutting pictures from various places

and arranging them onto one picture

so I can see them all together -

the velocity, the immensity

of this universe in which I live.

A star explodes in the sky, the Crab Nebula,

and its remnants contain neutron stars -

the weight of which is so dense that
a piece just the size of a sugar cube

is compared to the weight of a mountain.

I cannot behold this

so I just imagine

and place all the pieces,

the crumbs that I've gathered.

It strikes me how much it all fits.

The pictures from the briny deep,

underwater creatures and fauna.

The ice, frozen, mirrors explosions,

and I cannot fathom the worlds

that microscopes would find in them.

The world is studied
through scopes
that help us

see closer

see farther

discover what is

inside and underneath.

I want to behold,

drink it all in,

my mind gazes in wonder

at the depths of all these things.

The resulting praise

leaves me in wonder

at this God

who created

the unimaginable

and who has

unfathomable love

for each human being.


Some of the elements included in this collage design are:  a photographed picture of the Crab Nebula, which is a supernova remnant, the remains of an exploded star.  There are pictures from a local artist, which are from a local magazine journal:  photos taken of "The Art Of Ice".  There are pictures of the "Briney Deep", also shared in the same local journal.  Together, they form a picture of the universe.  Similarities of the elements can be seen.  I am provided with a glimpse of the Creative Mastermind that God is. 

~Drink Deep~

This collage is dedicated to the Living Water,
Who quenches my thirsty soul.

 

Life's moments can be chaotic,
but there is this everflowing river of life
existing parallelly, 
and it's up to me to 
choose to take a drink.

 

"He split rocks in the wilderness

and gave them drink abundantly

as out of the deep."

Psalm 78:15

"He who believes in Me

(who cleaves to and trusts in

and relies on Me)

as the Scripture has said,

from his innermost being

shall flow (continuously) springs

and rivers of living water."

John 7:38

"But whoever takes a drink of the water

that I will give him shall never,

no never, be thirsty anymore. 

But the water that I will give him

shall become a spring of water

welling up (flowing, bubbling)

[continually] within him unto

(into, for) eternal life."

John 4:14

"The water I give will be

an artesian spring within,

gushing fountains of endless life."

from The Message

"...I want to drink God,

deep draughts of God. 

I'm thirsty for God-alive..."

from Psalm 42:1-3

"...Oh, visit the earth,

ask her to join the dance! 

Deck her out in spring showers,

fill the God-River with living water...

Creation was made for this!..."

from Psalm 65:9-13

"...drink deep of God's pure kindness..."

from 1 Peter 2:1-3

~Breaking Through~

In this collage:
There's a volcano, erupting in the background,
as the white snowflake flowers and the grass
have broken through the ground. 
Water breaks through, rushing, cascading,
over smoothed rocks, it continuously flows. 
The icicles, yes, they usually hang down,
but here they face up, as if they've broken through the ground. 

So much in life is about a breakthrough,
in the inner and outer worlds, there are breakthroughs,
and God, above all, breaks through, this world,
his Spirit, breaking through, in love, in glory, in grace
in us.

And we are made new,
and we are who we were always intended to be
when we deliberately seek these
Break-Throughs,
when we go hard after our dreams.

The sunflowers in the collage had this quote with their picture:

"The glory we share will be the glory showing out of our lives."

Oh, this Glorious Breaking Through

~Kaleidoscope~

A collection of colors creates the image seen in this Kaleidoscope collage of mine. 
It began as a mandala, drawn with marker; then the idea of collaging rainbow colors on top of it came to mind. 

So pieces were clipped from here and there collections, pictures from magazines - of birds, butterflies, flowers...

Sorted into colors, and glued together to create one piece.

The process was quite satisfactory and the product is well pleasing.

When I look around at this world, this what I see: 

A gorgeous array of colors in everything,

a kaleidoscope of shining beauty.

An eye-full, heart-full, soul-filling feast.

When you look around, what do you see?
What do you see in this Kaleidoscope piece?

~Sea Gulls~

"Sea Gull Collage"

(This picture is made up of many different pieces:

- the autumn leaves, taken from photographs of a local artist,

printed in a local journal-magazine.

- the lavender, pictures from an article I'd saved for years,

about lavender's healing, medicinal properties,

and the weathered farmer's hand, holding a bouquet.

- pieces of zebra fur pattern, from a magazine ad for a fashion company,

saved since I was a teenager.

- the seagulls flying over the ocean, a picture saved from a calendar.

- the flowers popping out of the grassy field,

and background trees; pictures saved for years, from a magazine.

- the waterfall, a magazine photograph from the

hot spring falls of Zarqa Ma'in, near the Dead Sea.

Patterns of nature, Creation

Pieces of the world in one fractalized picture.

Fringes places in layers,

making it all come together. 

Curved edges, to create flow,

the life flow of newness,

of water's ebb & flow.

And holes that create patterns

through which we can see.

The seagulls remind me of an all time favorite book of mine,

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Jonathan Bach

Some quotes from the story:

"You have the freedom to be yourself,

your true self, here and now,

and nothing can stand in your way."

"The only true law

is that which leads to freedom,"

Jonathan said.  "There is no other."

"The gull who sees farthest who flies highest."

While I'm collaging, I don't have a vision of

what the final piece is going to look like. 

I just grab the pictures that feel like the right ones

to be put together into one piece at the time,

and I cut, place and glue them on paper.   

The act of collaging is freeing,

and something within me receives healing

as I replace, rearrange, and piece back together.

Collage represents what is happening to my life

at this point in time, by the One who is leading. 

Through the act of this process,

I hear a Voice speaking to my heart, teaching. 

This piece, specifically, it's about freedom. 

Set your heart on being free, the Voice tells me,

and I breathe deep, and I follow.

A Word of Life comes to me,

stitching the pieces together:

 ^"So, my friends," Paul is writing,

"...when Christ died he took that entire
rule-dominated way of life down with him
and left it in the tomb, leaving you
free to "marry" a resurrection life...
But now that we're no longer shackled
to that domineering mate of sin,
and out from under all those oppressive
regulations and fine print,
we're free to live a new life in the
freedom of God."

I am grateful for this.

~Brianne