Green Tara

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Swoha

quilting stories

Immigration Stories Told in Quilts

A new exhibit at the National Museum of Mexican Art tries to put a human face on immigration. It’s called A Declaration of Immigration, and it features photos, paintings and multi-media projects from several ethnic groups. As part of the exhibit, some Chicagoans are telling their families’ stories, by sewing them in muslin and ribbon.

Karen Musgrave stands with a group of women at a long skinny table. They lean in for a better look.

Musgrave is a master quilter who’s leading the museum’s “Quilt Me a Story” workshop for the next month. Some of the women here have never sewn on anything but a loose button. Musgrave tells them there are no mistakes because there’s nothing you can’t fix.

MUSGRAVE: I’ve watched so many women in so many places, their whole body language change, from being very nervous and very tense, to very loose, very free. And I love that process.

Musgrave says she hopes to connect cultures, one quilt at a time. She tells the women it’s important to share their stories.

MUSGRAVE: The wonderful thing about quilts is, you’re going to make a quilt, and that quilt is going to outlast you. So a part of you is going to be around here for a very long time. And who knows, maybe in a hundred years, it will end up in a museum. You know, we just never know.

ambi of Quilting class

Norka Perez Lozada is from Puerto Rico. She left her warm, island home last fall just in time to see her new city turn cold and gray.

She’s laid out a grid right in the middle of her quilt, just over a mountain and the ocean. The grid symbolizes the streets of Chicago to show how boxed in she feels sometimes.

LOZADA: It’s difficult for me to be inside of a place when you want to be outside. But you can’t because it’s too cold. So being inside all the time, I have to escape, I have to go.

She came here to become an artist and teacher. Someday she plans to go back.

LOZADA: I think I’m knowing more myself outside, and even though it has been difficult, I’m still here, trying. That’s what I want to represent there. The hope of catching the dream.

The students begin ripping strips of muslin. Luisa Santoyo digs through bins of fabric, and pulls out a delicate floral pattern.

SANTOYO: I am making my grandmother’s hands because her hands symbolize her strength. I feel she was a very strong person, someone that lived before her time.

Her grandmother came from Mexico. She helped raise her brothers and sisters, and then her grandchildren.

Santoyo says there weren’t many Mexican families in Blue Island at the time.

SANTOYO: You could see the reaction of some of the people if you dressed traditionally, if you ate the foods. It was very frowned upon. So I was expected to speak English.

She never became fluent in Spanish.

SANTOYO: Now, I don’t like it. I really don’t like it. I feel that a part of me has been taken away.
MUSGRAVE: Can everyone come over here for just a second?

Karen Musgrave pulls out puffs of netting, and lays them over a quilt.

MUSGRAVE: You can use tulle to mute a sky….

Maria Guadalupe Herrera returns to her quilt. She’s basing it on her dad and calling it the man of a thousand journeys. He’s told so many tall tales, she doesn’t know what’s true or not. He likes to talk about struggling across the border, but really, she says, he came on a plane.

HERRERA: My dad, ever since I can remember, since a child, has been telling stories of how he came here. Yet every story, even though it’s the same, has a different ending or a different journey. I was a pilot in the war, then I became a butcher, and then I was a gardener, and then -- I’m surprised he hasn’t said he’s the president of Mexico (laughter.)

Herrera plans to decorate her quilt with tiny figures of her father in all the uniforms he’s claimed over the years.

She says her family’s been lucky. But they struggled in the early years.

HERRERA: We were poor. With seven sisters, by the time you got the hand-me-down, it wasn’t even a hand-me-down anymore. It was torn and bad.

There were lots of gangs and shootings in Little Village when she was a kid. But her dad’s stories were like a journey somewhere else, and they made her feel safe.

HERRERA: At the end, we were still happy. Even though we didn’t have a lot growing up, 10 of us, it never really made a difference. I think, to me, it was because of his stories, and the love and my mom.

She says she’s grateful that she and her siblings have more to give their children. And she credits her mom and dad.

I’m Lynette Kalsnes, Chicago Public Radio.

P.D. PUNCH THE TITLE TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Adquiriendo LUZ

How Do We Take in More Light?
by Valerie Donner
_______________________________

I think this is pertinent since as Lightworkers this is part of our job. If we want to be "on guard" for where our Light and energies are needed, we should be more aware of how we can take in this Light..

First, we must know that in the Higher Realms we are known by our sound, color and Light energies. The more we increase our consciousness and our Light the more the Light Realms can work with us here on the Earth. The following are some suggestions for taking in more Light. You may add to this working list so that you can consciously take in and use more Light. The more that you can receive the more you will have to give...

WAYS TO TAKE IN MORE LIGHT

*Meditate and breathe in the Light
*Pray
*Cleanse and purify the body so that you can become a more clear vehicle for the Light
*Remember that you come from the Light and that you are comprised of the Light
*In meditation send Light to all of your chakras and to all of your cells - Feel them come alive
*Learn to connect with the energies of the Creator and breathe in that energy to raise your vibration
*Pay attention to your thoughts - Where your thoughts go your energy goes - What is your focus?
*Spend as much of your time focusing on your spiritual path as possible - Begin to see that you can make whatever you do spiritual if you come from loving service and from your heart
*Breathe in love not fear
*Realize that through the Light the Masters and teachers from the Higher Realms can use you for greater service - Make it your intention to be of greater service to the Light
*Connect in the stillness with the Great Central Sun - This will infuse a direct circuit of Light from your Creator
*Drink lots of water - Water carries consciousness and as your frequency increases your consciousness increases
*Find like-minded groups of other Lightworkers to meditate with and to connect with on a regular basis - There is exponential power in group meditation
*Nurture your body with good nutritious food that raises your vibration - Certain foods have a deleterious effect on the body so this makes it harder to increase your vibration - Most of you probably know what some of these foods are and you may not like to see this list but pay attention anyway - See how your body feels when you eat junk food, drink sodas, eat sugar, lots of meat or dairy, drink alcohol, or take drugs - Most of you probably don't do these things but if you are mindful of the effects of some of these things you may make some new choices - The list is not inclusive - The nurturing foods include fresh fruits and vegetables (Organic is best), nuts, whole grains, live and raw foods, etc
*Call forth balance in your life so that you can feel better and better in every way - When you are feeling good lots of good can come to you and through you
*Get help when you need it - This means ask your Angels, Guides, Masters, healers and earthly friends to help you - Remember you are not alone in this game of anchoring in the Light
*Limit the amount of time you watch television and listen to the media - There are subliminal messages that affect your consciousness greatly
*Remember to be grateful for all of the good and Light that comes to you every day - This will bring more good to you!

p.d. gracias Nat por compartir esto con nosostros

SUEÑO CON SERPIENTES

«Hay hombres que luchan un día y son buenos.
Hay otros que luchan un año y son mejores.
Hay quienes luchan muchos años y son muy buenos.
Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida:
Esos son los imprescindibles".
Bertolt Brecht

Sueño con serpientes,
con serpientes de mar,
con cierto mar Ay!
de serpientes, sueño yo.

Largas, transparentes y en sus barrigas llevan
lo que puedan arrebatarle al amor.

¡Oh!
La mato y aparece otra mayor
¡Oh! con mucho más infierno en digestión.

No quepo en su boca me trata de tragar
pero se atora con un trébol de mi sien
creo que está loca le doy de masticar una paloma
y la enveneno de mi bien.

¡Oh! La mato...

Esta al fin me engulle
y mientras por su estomago paseo
voy pensando en que vendrá
pero se destruye
cuando llego a su estomago
y planteo con un verso una verdad.

¡Oh!
La mato y aparece una mayor
¡Oh!
con mucho mas infierno
en digestión.
La mato y aparece una mayor
¡Oooooooh!

Silvio Rodríguez
«Días y flores», 1974 | 1975.

ventana al mar/escalera al cielo

Reflexiones espirituales: La verdadera satisfacción

La satisfacción verdadera viene sólo cuando finalmente decido vivir en coherencia con mis principios y valores, con mi esencia. Ser lo que sé que soy, amar a los demás como son, estar atento a las necesidades del ahora.

La satisfacción significa que ya no me atasco más con pensamientos acerca de los demás. Permanezco más allá del miedo, de los deseos y las pretensiones, disfruto de la verdadera alegría.

Olvidarme de mi singularidad, de mi naturaleza única, crea falta de propósito y significado. Estar apegado a mi singularidad crea arrogancia que cancela la benevolencia. El universo reconoce mi contribución única a la vida. Yo también debería hacerlo.

Si les pido a los demás que me muestren amor y respeto, lo que he de hacer es hacerme digno de recibir amor y respeto. Si espero que los demás sean virtuosos y comprensivos, lo que he de hacer es convertirme en lo que quiero que sean los demás. Si tengo la expectativa de que los demás me den lo mejor de sí, lo que he de hacer es aceptar lo que sea que me den y empezar a partir de ahí. Si me agarro a los demás convencido de que ellos son la fuente de mi felicidad, lo que he de hacer es soltar estos apoyos adictivos. Ser libre.

He de aprender a:

Convertirme

Cambiar

Aceptar

Soltar

Entonces experimento el amor.

Cuando la mente está calmada, silenciosa, desapegada, entonces los pensamientos se convierten en hilos que se entrelazan con Dios. Estar combinado con Dios nos crea una conciencia más allá de la materia, del tiempo, incluso de los pensamientos. Ahí experimentamos la dicha y la satisfacción ilimitadas.

p.d. enviado por Reflexiones Espirituales

Bjork - All is Full of Love

enjoy bjork and love!

Os Tribalistas - Velha Infância

velha música. disfruta!

poem of hope

Love is the way messengers
from the mystery tell us things.
Love is the mother. We are her children.
She shines inside us, visible-invisible,
as we lose trust or fell it start to grow againg.
-Jelaluddin Rumi-

air moment

I am creating a big peace of mind
a dream that come true and reality in the fair moment
a space out of nowhere- inside me
where plants can grow and seeds of possibilities
I always wanted to be alone
knowing that independence is a quality of me
and too much noise suffocates me
I create in silence
I build strings of connections with others
I don’t see my pieces alone
I like family
and the clan
and the lovers.