🎨 Visualizing Religious Freedom - Freedom Challenge #4
The subject of spirituality is taboo. Whether we're talking about religion, consciousness, or something completely mysterious, there seems to be a societal resistance to this area of conversation, for the most part. Some people cringe at the mention of certain names, as if they are poisonous. Some people can't seem to wrap their heads around certain walls and ceilings. Some people intentionally close the doors of their hearts.
It's simple to consider why spirituality is taboo. People wrestle over the truths, lies, and the violence that still exists today in the name of the people who best exemplified peace and harmony. At various times in various places, we strike people with stones, and burn people alive. Sadly, just this week, here in Austin, bombs took the lives of two prominent peace activists.
Some speak a little too loud, or think a little too logical, or behave a little too egotistical... fanning the fire of some people's fears. Some light prayer candles, burn incense, and cast their cares up in smoke. Some go numb, with nothing to believe. Some stay silent, living in secrecy. Some wait for the right place and the right time to speak up. Some believe Steemit is the time and place to share, right here and right now.
As for me, I sing and I paint, fanning the Creative Fire. I speak for the people, for the animals, and for the plants, cultivating the Sacred Medicine. I work to shine and sparkle in life, embodying the Warrior of Light. I explore spirituality on a daily basis. My study is firm and flexible. My line branches into a number of different paths, incorporating elements of several practices. My religion is open, inviting, and free. This is my Vision of a free world.
Note: Today, I am inspired by the #freedomchallenge, by @sagescrub, with the prompt: "If you lived in a free world how would your life be different?." My first thought with this prompt is: "Wait, but the world is free." And then I realized there are many, many layers of what free can be.
“I Love You So Much”
The Story
The illustration you see here is a simple glimpse of everyday heaven, featuring a man with a guitar and a woman with a maraca, making music together. The message reads: “Instantly there's light to guide us to the next step.” This book is a collection of sketches designed to help me envision the world I wish to live in. This video show my artistic process: in-the-flow. This music directly relates to the scene.
“I Love You So Much” is a sing-along song, designed for group singing. The format is a call-and-response, with repeating verses, inviting everyone to sing together in unison. It's a medicine song, a spiritual hymn, and an expression of gratitude. I received this song following a Concentration ceremony on June 15, 2016. This recording is a rough draft, just practicing the song.
I sketch these illustrations from the heart, working from memory and imagination.
The Lyrics
I love You so much
From the deepest abyss
To the highest of mountains
In thoughts words and actions
Heart mind and soul [soul]
I feel featherlight
I am gifted and lifted
With Love in my life
I feel fullness aliveness
Wellness and lightness [lightness]
Merry sunshine beams
Mirror myriad suns
On the waves in the moonlight
With one more reflection
The sparkle in my eyes [my eyes]
I choose to see
How You grant me my life
With my every heartbeat
I feel Your vibration
Under my barefeet [barefeet]
Peace begins with me
Being grateful for You
Being great in my life
And agreeing on being
The peacemaker I Am [I Am]
The Acknowledgements
I'm grateful to @sagescrub for bringing us Freedom Challenge #4. This is my first time participating directly in the event, although I've been an admirer since the beginning. Being the host of Steemit Vision Quest, I see the importance of visualizing the brilliance and beauty we wish to see in the world, and so it feels highly encouraging to put these visions into words today, regarding the freedom of religion.
I feel grateful for the freedom to share my thoughts, words, and actions through Steemit. I feel energized by the invitation to celebrate the Creative Age through the music and connections we share here. I feel encouraged by the growth I see in the people who participate in community challenge events like #freedomchallenge. Thanks to all of you who accept me as I am. And thanks to you for being who you are.
My family often joins me in the art sessions.
This post contains 100% original content by @cabelindsay.
Hello my dear Cabe,
There are so many lovely souls I have found on Steemit, and I thank you for your purity, kindness and love. I feel these every time I click on your posts and experience you and your family. You are all a gift to me, and I appreciate you. Your words are so lovely and who can resist a baby painting? I can't!
This is why speaking out is so important to me, but not in the aspect of riots, confrontation, or activism but still using my voice. I am happy you are speaking about this too.
This was a very interesting thought and expression you made. I find that the layers are what I am in the process of unraveling. What I find so amazing is that Steemit is the right place for me and I am coming out of some sort of creative block and it is people such as your self that are helping me break free. So I thank you. A'oo
Beautiful comment @eaglespirit. I appreciate and bow to your beauty of spirit 🙏✨🌍💙
Awww thank you so much lovely people.
Blessings
Eagle
You know, you've given me some of the most thoughtful, caring comments. Thank you. I am learning so much through you, and through our kinship, and through your generous way of witnessing, and seeing the big picture, and reading between the lines, and offering your focus... just like an eagle. Just like an eagle spirit.
Awww you are most welcome dear heart!
Much love to you and your family.
Blessings
Eagle
Hey @cabelindsay, thank you for participating in the #FreedomChallenge!
First off you have a beautiful voice and I really enjoyed hearing you sing this sacred song.
I appreciate you bringing art into the freedom challenge! Thank you for having the courage to speak your thoughts on spirituality and how that ties in with your idea of freedom. Your vision is kind, compassionate and joyful! And you expressed that so masterfully in your painting :)
Ah, what a thoughtful comment. Thank you. Your challenge is a brilliant and beautiful effort, encouraging us to check in with our personal freedoms, and societal freedoms, doing the important work of envisioning the changes we wish to see in the world.
This is so touching Cabe, beautiful human, shining example 🌞 from my heart to yours 💙 love you @cabelindsay!
When I see the lightness in you, the brightness, the brilliance, it's like I'm looking into a mirror and seeing who I can be. When I shine. Thank you for your reminders. Thank you for the ways you inspire and enliven me, and all of us. You are such a sparkling diamond, you mountain jewel.
Cabe, 💙🦋🙏✨🌍 so so beautiful , that light 🌞 thank you; yet another of your comments I’ve saved for a rainy day. I love the way you see and share the brightest and best parts of us you see. You’re a truly amazing human touching so many.
wow, I really love all in this post... and yes, my kids use to join me as well in the art sessions... nice to know you..
I love your post @cabelinday. I completely agree. We should be free to be spiritual in the way that we want to. I don't believe walking into a building and listening to a man to tell me how to live my life. I have a conscience, morals and values. To me being more in balance with my place in the grand scheme is more important than a book.
I appreciate your comment here, @tryskele. Yes, I imagine most of us have conscience, morals, and values, and these aspects of our character are greatly influenced by our spirituality. I crave the day when we can honor each other's beliefs as is, allowing each other to believe what we choose to believe, as long as we're living in harmony with our surroundings.
Completely agree :)
The fact that spirituality makes so many people uneasy is unfortunate. There is so much to give each other from deep within. Religions may vary but they all seem to have a common goal to car for one another and make the world a more harmonious place. Beautiful entry. I really enjoyed your painting and song. -Aimee
Yes, I think you're right: caring for others and living in harmony are common goals we see advocated in various religions. It appears people are mostly very similar in our core beliefs, and so there is much to be gained through acceptance of each other's surface-level differences in religious beliefs, trusting we are united deep down. Thank you.
Uplifting, uplifting @cabelindsay, and very mellow singing and painting.
And why is spirituality taboo indeed? Why do people feel entitled to dismiss it as airy-fairy, impractical and pointless - when it is the opposite? Why is it seen as synonymous with organised religion? Why are people scared to look inside at what they might find? Why does the world look for answers in every corner of the physical realm, yet deliberately ignore the little doorway that leads inside?
Hmmm indeed :D - all I can say is that until I walked through that doorway and allowed myself a conscious experience of myself as a non-physical being, I was sitting on the fence torn in two directions, with the sharp bits sticking uncomfortably into my bottom! I had to discover that I could look inside and that I didn't need permission to do so; and most wonderfully of all the process itself becomes the teacher!
Thank you!
🔆 🔆 🔆
Yes, exactly! Thank you for expanding upon my questioning here, and helping to elaborate. I completely relate with you, feeling limited in my initial perspective on life–seeing myself as a physical being of flesh and bone, with my feet standing here on the horizontal plane. Now I also see myself as a non-physical being, existing on a vertical plane, where there is much to be explored. And I believe this is true for all of us. And maybe if we'll work to better understand the invisible realm, then we'll discover ways to establish that harmony, love, truth, and justice we all want to have here in the physical. Closing our eyes and looking inward, we find that Guide Inside. This is what spirituality is all about, to me. I really appreciate your perspective here. Thank you again.