12 card draw

Hello friends.

On 1st January 2014, I did something new. Instead of writing down some New Year's revolutions (yes I meant to write revolutions instead of resolutions), I drew 12 cards from my pack of 44 Healing with the Angels cards by Doreen Virtue, one for each month of 2014.  I like using these cards. Not only are they beautiful works of art and uplifting to look at, they each present a word of encouragement. They help me tap into my intuition and give me pictures and words on which to contemplate. Here is the spread.

January - Forgiveness

February - Meditation

March - Blessings

April - New Beginnings

May - Enchantment

June - Nature

July - Surrender and Release

August - Manifestation

September - Focus

October - Divine Guidance

November - Body Care

December - Serenity

I shall enjoy pondering on these in the coming months and I will post up anything of note that my intuition and contemplation reveals. 

Declaring a year of creativity

When the clock struck midnight on December 31st 2012, I declared to myself that 2013 would be a year of creativity for me. For quite a while I had been longing to express my creativity in different ways but had often put off making a start in favour of focussing on my humanitarian aid work. Now I feel it is important to bring into balance the other facets of my life and personality and make room for them. By this I mean I feel I am more than a humanitarian aid worker - I am a writer, a musician, song-writer, painter and drawer, photographer, energy healer, naturalist (not naturist!) and cook.

I had started this process a little before December 31st 2012 though, having made home-made peppermint creams for my friends and family over Christmas! Yummy! They went down well...And forayed into the realms of producing photobooks through Photobox, which is fun and very satisfying. I made a photobook for mum for Christmas covering many of our day trips to palaces and parks in London and I have just produced another for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day, a little memento of a long weekend in Brisbane when I popped over to Australia on R&R from Papua New Guinea where I was on mission to the United Nations. Ssshhhhhh don't tell him!

In recent weeks I have been fascinated by mandala art. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning the container of essence or energy, circle, totality, completion and/or primordial sound. It is the space where inner and outer worlds meet, a place that can hold the powerful energy of intention (creation). 

Isn't that wonderful? Mandala's have often been used in spiritual practice for meditation in Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity to name but a few ... think rose windows of cathedrals for example. I find them a celebration of the beauty of form, the splendour of colour and sacred geometry, in which the mysteries of life are held.

I had been yearning to do some drawing and painting for a long time and felt prompted to have a go at drawing a mandala. Where to start? Well, I found many useful 'how to' videos on Youtube. I plucked up the courage to pop into Ryman's to buy a sketch pad, compass and felt tip pens and then sat down to 'have a go'.  My first challenge was to overcome the fear of not doing it right! I took a few deep breaths and swirled the pencil and compass around the page. When I relaxed I began to notice energy imprints on the page, which guided me to put down the shapes and I intuitively felt, which colours to place next to each other. See photo on the right for the finished mandala. What do you think?

The experience of drawing the mandala took on a therapeutic, almost trance-like quality as I found myself zoning out and feeling lighter as I put colour to the paper. Today I completed another mandala, this time it is in monochrome - black and white. 

Inspired by birds, I call this "soar". I hope you find it as uplifting to look at as I did to draw it! I am interested in your feedback. 

Creation is alive and kicking - it's evolving

Hello! Have any of you watched the 4thoughtTV series on "Is it possible to believe in God and Darwin?" last week? It was like a breath of fresh air to me, especially this short film with Dr Ruth Bancewicz, a geneticist, click here to watch. As a biologist by training I've been passionate about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution for years.

Studying plants and animals both in the wild and through the microscope enabled me to revel in the wonderment of a complex, yet perfectly intricately woven creation in which new species were being discovered all the time. However in the many churches I happened to venture into during my spiritual journey I have only ever been told that evolution does not exist, only creationism as described in the book of Genesis.

I feel for Darwin's dilemma, when as a devout Christian and natural scientist, the brought his theory of evolution into the public domain through this groundbreaking book "The Origin of Species" knowing full well the backlash he would face from the church. 

This dichotomy, between science and faith did not sit right with my intellect or intuition. It seemed as though evolution and creation in the worlds of science and Christianity were mutually exclusive. But are they really? I began to ponder on this. I remember having a lively debate about this topic one evening, in french, with my Congolese french teacher in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009, who was also a follower of Jesus which brought my thoughts to life.  

In my mind the six days of creation described in Genesis represent periods of time, not necessarily strict diurnal days. So just as  'the day of the lord' can represent over 1000 years, a day in the creation process could mean thousands and thousands of years.  It is interesting  to note that the order in which God created living creatures has been backed up by paleontology, geology and archeology, it's just that in Genesis it is written in a much simpler form for people to understand! I struggle to grasp the notion that God created the universe, our planet and everything in it and then stepped back. The creation was finished. That's that and God took a well earned coffee break. When God told Adam and after the flood, Noah to "be fruitful and multiply" it is clear to me that creation was still ongoing. To me our planet is something which is dynamic, living, breathing, ever changing but tightly interconnected, I suppose I think of it more in terms of James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis.

I conclude that evolution is God's creative process unfolding throughout time and history and therefore is still going forwards: in fact creation is alive and kicking - it is consciously evolving.