moon cycle circle


Painting the day of the a new justice vote.
Now reveals what hope, empowerment, action and energy look like.


October Moon 1 Acrylic & lace on canvas 24x24 unfinished.
I pour the crimson fluid-acrylic onto my palette. It pools, glossy, atop the lump of white gesso like newly spilt blood before running down in rivulets onto the wet paper beneath. It looks like fresh blood diluted and turning pink as it is washed away. Somehow, this month of the pink moon looks more like washed away blood than the usual joyful cotton candy pink of celebrating the harvest.
Just as I was standing at my easel contemplating how to paint the emerging moon cycle Walk Truth, Ruth Bader Ginsberg shed her justice collar. It landed on my fresh paint. Hanging there, it changed the trajectory of my inquiry.
How am I/are we to Walk Truth in this time when every attempt is being made to wash truth away? A passage from the book of Jeremiah comes into my head: "Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths. Ask 'Where is the good way?' Then walk in it and you will find rest for your souls."
RBG’s death points out ‘where the good way is’ for me/us to follow. There is Truth in that path. It is made of integrity. There are footsteps we can trust. She offers us a mantle we can pick up and wear as our own. We are not alone.
My pink moon will be filled with the names of all the truth seekers I can come to know as I paint her through the month. I am curious who will show up as I seek a path of integrity and courage.

Independence Day and the Full Moon shared the fourth of July this year.
The teaching of this moon cycle for July is LOVE TRUTH. She seems to be calling out to us to love the TRUTH of our country, the United States of America.
We need a comprehensive and unconditional Love to face the truth of our country's history. Facing the truth in our country's history is the only way to manifest the vision for our country written by our imperfect founding fathers.
Like most communities, our town did not have official fireworks this year, yet neighbors cobbled together their own informal shows. I went outside to look at the full moon. A friend had texted me the moon was unusually large and exceptionally beautiful. A disorganized yet seeming unending barrage of flashes disrupted my intention of contemplating this deep yellow globe hanging just above the horizon. My feelings from earlier in the day flashed in my mind--I woke up feeling an ambiguous but deep grief. I moved through my day, unsettled by feeling, but trying to focus on preparations for a social distanced barbeque. When Alexa selected a patriotic play list, the identity of my grief made itself known: the meaning I held of this holiday had been torn away from me-not by the president, although he is the principle catalyst, but by the explosion of truth telling that is bursting forth upending every aspect of our lives. There was my grief; the meaning of 'independence day' has been shattered.
I stood in the dark, watching. Fireworks flared and faded, sulfur smoked wafted thick and then drifted away. This July full moon, whose meaning for me is a reminder to LOVE TRUTH stayed steady and unaffected. It is possible to love truth even when it is ugly and has caused deep and long harm. Anyone who has recovered from an addiction with the help of the principles and tools of a twelve-step program has this experience.
Our country needs-we need, this kind of love of Truth that explodes the old myths and lies and nurtures the seeds of possibility and potential that the visionary authors of our 'declaration of indepence' compiled nearly 245 years ago. We are a country in need of recovery, and we may not have another chance if we fail to embrace our truths yet again.


