Honoring the hands,
An artist's gratitude meditation.
One hand I extend into myself,
The other toward others.
Dejan Strowanovic.
Welcome to this creative meditation from before the brush.
I'm Patricia Baldwin-Sagerbrook and with my hands open wide,
I welcome you to this honoring hands meditation.
The finest tools you possess you were born with.
As an artist,
Your two hands,
Ten fingers,
There at the end of your two arms,
Hold all the creative potential necessary to be coming into the world,
All you are meant to create.
What freedom we have in realizing that these two tools in our own personal storehouse contain and have contained since our first breath,
The talent to produce all our ideas and imaginings into the world.
This gratitude meditation will begin just as that.
Gratitude for these two tools will then go into an exercise which honors and extols them using charcoal or pencil,
Paint or crayon and paper.
Let's gather these simple ingredients and we'll begin.
Julio Ramon Ribeiro said,
We find only one tool,
Neither created nor invented,
But perfect,
The hand of man.
Were that this were true,
That you let it be true.
What then do you make of your ache to create,
Of your keening toward color and flow,
Of your desire for paint brush or crayon,
Pastel or charcoal?
Can you,
When you realize the gift and grace that this could truly be,
Could perhaps have meant to be?
Could you let it be?
Sometimes I find this to be the most difficult task,
To let it be.
That is to let it be true.
Let it be real.
Let it be a part of the divine grace that is my life and breath.
I find myself often discounting the gift of two hands,
Ten fingers,
Equipped to respond and reflect the passion of my personal divine touch.
Yet anymore I also realize,
What then?
What of these?
If I were to listen to the doubts and dismembering that often fled my thinking,
What of these?
If I were to cease responding to their touch.
I have made a choice for my life,
A choice that you can also make.
It is a choice that is very small.
No one notices,
But you will.
You will know you've made this choice and the universe will know you've made the choice.
And because of this,
You will move from this new place,
This expanded place,
With every breath thereafter.
The choice,
As I said,
Is simple.
Believe.
Believe that it is true.
Believe that you have two hands,
Ten fingers,
Equipped with more than you can ever dream or imagine.
Believe that God has put these here,
These hands,
Attached to your unique body with equally unique intention.
Believe that this intention is the passion you feel,
The call that keens for creation through you.
Believe that when you begin,
What you need shows up when you respond by putting these two beautiful hands,
These ten wondrous fingers,
To the paper.
So let's begin there.
Believing yes,
But putting a hand to paper,
Spreading these ten fingers across the smooth,
Clean surface.
Touch it with each of the five fingertips of one hand.
Feel the sensation of this touch spread through these nerves up your fingertips into your palm and through your wrist.
This is a calling.
Yes,
It's a gentle one,
A faint one,
But a true one.
Begin here.
Take pencil or charcoal in the other hand,
That waiting hand.
It calls as well,
Asking to be invited into this touch,
This practice.
Take up this tool and trace.
Outline the hand on paper.
Feel the sensation of the pencil gently brushing the outline of this divinely created hand around each fingertip,
Touching palm,
Joining,
Connecting,
Around from wrist to wrist.
And lift.
There.
No longer blank paper,
Touched paper.
Your hand.
Your beautiful,
Unique hand.
Honor it now.
Believe it now.
Extend it now.
From me to you,
This hand is where we've started,
From this place of believing.
Yet ask yourself,
What follows?
What now is keening and calling?
Is it color?
Is it line?
Do I sit quietly and look gently at this hand before me and give it those unique details?
Or do I close my eyes and feel the pulse,
The vibration that is the energy inside and paint it?
This again is your choice.
I make mine in color.
You make yours where the call comes.
One hand I extend into myself,
The other toward others.
Thank you for coming along on this creative meditation from before the brush,
Honoring the artist's hand.
Join me for more creative meditations on my profile or come along as I meet monthly for live meditations like this and more.
Always about color,
Always about expression,
And always about your unique design and motivation.
