My Journey to the Ultimate Wonder
Posted on March 16, 2014 4 Comments
(Click title below to see video)
My Journey to the Ultimate Wonder
Ultimate Wonder
Journey over space and time
Know life’s one great truth
Make Haiku Comic Mini-Book #32
Posted on March 15, 2014 Leave a Comment
Birds flock to my garden
Balance on leaves, eat pollen
Breakfast with delight
Follow the instructions below to make this week’s mini-comic book. Enjoy.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR VERY OWN ZCW MINICOMIC from Brian Payne, artist
1.) Download the image to your computer desktop.
2.) Set your printer to the fill entire paper/borderless setting and use the landscape format to print it on a piece of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper (preferably colored.)
3.) Watch the tutorial I found on YouTube (see link below,) make sure your folds are straight, all the corners are even, and be extra careful with your cut.
Enjoy!
Simplify
Posted on March 13, 2014 8 Comments
Life’s simple pleasures
Sun, sea, silence soothe senses
Time stops for wonder
For the past month and a half, I was engaged in the uncertainty of unexpected unemployment. As a nurse, I knew I could quickly begin work as a travel nurse and signed up with five agencies. I was actually approved for two different assignments right here in Alaska. But, I really didn’t want to leave the comfort of my space, with the ease of doing my spiritual practice and the joy of looking out on the bay. Fortunately, life offered the opportunity for a new position, one I’ve wanted for years, RN Case Manager for a local clinic. I will once again be working with a Native American community as well as other Homer residents and visitors.
A new job, of course, offers it’s own challenges and demands. This morning, I woke up with the resolution to simplify my life. To reduce the distractions I’ve allowed to consume my time, to stop pursuing the magic method for achieving wealth through on-line marketing, or dubious “contract” writing companies. As I lay in bed, reflecting on my life, my ever changing and evolving interests, I realized only one activity has remained important to me. And that is my spiritual practice. I will always write and I will always love my husband and I will continue to work as a nurse. But, now I know this most important thought to motivate my actions is striving to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
This means that I continue to work to overcome my poisons of desire, anger, impatience. I must recognize negative thoughts and not allow them to become words. I must always remember that at some point in space and time, during all of my rebirths, everyone was once my mother and so I must be gentle and kind. Working with the ultimate wonder has made me acutely aware that time is precious and I must not waste this gift of a human life. So, I simplify to concentrate on what is most important.
Author Skywalker Storyteller talks about her new book, “The Ultimate Wonder: World Stories Illuminating Death”
Posted on March 11, 2014 Leave a Comment
This is another interview about my book and includes links to my new three minute story videos. Enjoy.
Death.
It’s certainly not a book genre. It has few fans, and it’s not a topic we typically seek out in our reading choices. We seldom want to think about it. Yet it is inevitably our common experience, regardless of where or when we live or whether we are kings or peasants (or if we talk, bark, or meow).
If you’re reading this, you’re still walking the Earth (go you!), but you have probably shared in the death of someone you care about or are facing such an unavoidable future event. If you yearn to make peace with that, or just be enlightened, you have to read The Ultimate Wonder: World Stories Illuminating Death by Skywalker Storyteller, an uplifting and unique collection of stories from around the world that show how the people of various cultures have faced and learned to accept life’s last great mystery.
I’ve been a…
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African Dance in Alaska
Posted on March 9, 2014 9 Comments
Drumbeats and colors
pulsations from head to hands
slap, tone, bass delight
The warm, enlivening rhythms of Guinea, West Africa filled the Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska from the middle of February through March 8th. Soriba and Shelley Fofana taught drumming and dance as part of the Bunnell Artists in Residency program. About 50 Homer residents, ranging from children to people in their sixties, participated in eight classes over two and a half weeks.
I was one of many who attended every class. I learned to play the djembe drum rhythms for the Coo Coo full moon dance and the Yankadi wedding dance. But my body demanded movement, as I also learned the dances. Although based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Soriba and Shelley enabled participants to experience the healing creative power of African music and movement, a rhythmic experience our hands and feet will remember.
Make Haiku Comic Book #31
Posted on March 8, 2014 Leave a Comment
White burst of brilliance
Blinding sun swallows dawn’s light
The sky awakens
Follow the instructions below to make this week’s mini-comic book. Enjoy.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR VERY OWN ZCW MINICOMIC from Brian Payne, artist
1.) Download the image to your computer desktop.
2.) Set your printer to the fill entire paper/borderless setting and use the landscape format to print it on a piece of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper (preferably colored.)
3.) Watch the tutorial I found on YouTube (see link below,) make sure your folds are straight, all the corners are even, and be extra careful with your cut.
Enjoy!
Skywalker Storyteller Works 