This is an excerpt from The Deep Water Leaf Society: Harnessing the Transformative Power of Grief (copyright 2008, Claire M. Perkins. All Rights Reserved.)
from chapter 13: Voices from the Big Wave
Between funeral arrangements and a steady stream of visitors, some weeks passed before I got around to dialoguing with The Big Wave collage images.
The process of journaling dialogue with images involves writing with both hands. My dominant hand, the one I normally write with, speaks for my conscious self and asks questions of the images. My non-dominant hand answers the questions, speaking for the image.
It is an amazing process that works because the non-dominant hand has direct access to the right hemisphere of the brain, where intuition, emotion and spiritual connection reside. It was an awkward process at first. Once I got used to it and allowed the non-dominant hand to just write, uncensored by the critical voice or the logic of the left brain, I found that amazing insights would arise.
I sat down to dialogue with the images in the Big Wave collage toward the end of May, several weeks after Cameron’s death. I was wiped out, emotionally and physically. I was searching for answers to that unanswerable question, “Why?” It took me two days, several days apart, to dialogue with each and every image in the collage. The messages they gave me were profound and brought me much needed peace and healing.
(I am highlighting one of these dialogues in each post of this series. The questions of the dominant hand are noted (DH) and the answers of the images, transcribed by my non-dominant hand, are noted (NDH).)
I am What Calls Out for Love (excerpt from The Deep Water Leaf Society) by ArtfulAlchemist on Polyvore.com
5/24/04 Dialogue with Baby in the Galvanized Tub
Me (DH): Hello little boy being bathed – who are you?
Baby (NDH): I am what calls out for love, for nurturing. I am content with simple things. I am well loved.
(DH): Do you have a name?
(NDH): My name is Earth Child.
(DH): Earth Child, how do you feel?
(NDH): I am sad for the mother who loves me so but thinks that she hasn’t enough to give.
(DH): Why do you feel this way?
(NDH): Because love is all I have ever needed. She cries for me but doesn’t see she’s given me the greatest gift of all.
(DH): But you live in poverty. She doesn’t know how she will feed you. Your life expectancy is so short. She bathes you in gutter water. The city is full of disease. She cries for the you that could have been – that should have been. She cries for not knowing how to heal you.
(NDH): She loves me. That is all. That is enough.
(DH): What can I do for you?
(NDH): Don’t become cold. Never give up on the power of love.
(DH): What gift or wisdom do you bring me?
(NDH): I show you the power of your heart.
The grieving and broken-hearted part of me was angry with the idea the love was enough. How could it be enough when my son’s life had been cut so short, when he had faced such difficulty despite my loving him? I argued with the photo in its own terms – gutter water and Third World poverty – but what my heart was really crying out was that in the midst of plenty, in the midst of middle-class white-bread suburbia, with every opportunity and all the love I could give, my son was still dead at the age of 26. How could love be enough? But the child in the photo insisted that it was and some part of me opened up to receive that message.
~~
to be continued . . .
As always, I welcome your comments here or by email (Claire@DeepWaterLeafSociety.com)
Visit my website: www.DeepWaterLeafSociety.com
This hits hard. And I don't know if it makes sense, but it hits hard in a gentle way. Firm and simple, straight to the heart.
ReplyDeleteI also do this work...in fact, one of the first times I did the non-dominant hand writing answers was about 20 years ago, and I can still feel the reverberations of that experience.
I know that you won't ever "get over" Cameron's death. I feel like the healing you are working with is transcendent of that kind of perspective -- it's not about curing or getting over. It's about living with, and living on.
I also know that your gifts are very much needed in this world, and I'm grateful you are putting them out there.
Cindy
(aka artandsoul)
Thank you for your comment, Cindy. I think I do know what you mean. It's the same way I feel about this work - the messages that come through are so simple, so powerful and so on target. I hope you will continue to read this series . . .
ReplyDeleteClaire