Living from the EartHeart

LIVING FROM THE EARTHEART

Thank you for visiting. This site holds space for insights about living from the Earth's Heart.We are mirrors of each other. Whatever brought you here and whatever brought my words to you is part of a sharing of presence; an affirmation that we both exist in embodying our own journeys side by side.. an affirmation that we are One.

The EartHeart Journey is a sharing of my experiences from earth, heart, and art. My reflections have evolved on so many levels since I started journal writing when I was 11. What used to be a blog for my art projects and some public musings is now becoming a portal for sharing about consciousness, creativity, sustainability… of light, life, and love. Everything here is part of a sacred journey to oneness within and everywhere. However you resonate, may it reveal to you you inspiration, intuition, or insight for your own life journey.


Note: My new blogs can be found on my Portfolio Site.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

hold me















for the angel that held me and showed me the lines on the palm of my hands in a dream as he whispered a secret language


There is a poem that holds me
under vast sky
lacing through knowing branches
and a web of leaves
that strings my body
on the space around me
and beneath the flower bed.

Hold me.
Strum the ghazal of your wings.

Hold me!
in a dance in all directions.

Stretch me under the river
and grow me the heart of a seed.

Bloom this young woman’s yearning
in the evenings of my past.

Hold me
with that secret voice unveiling
what threads the invisible weave
that binds me to you.

Hold me now.
and the earth’s circle
becomes an embrace.

Monday, October 25, 2010

rooting: learning the ancient script baybayin

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to have a discussion and exercise on the Filipino ancient script Baybayin from my friends Reimon Cosare and Mini Gavino. Both artists are promoting indigenous Filipino wisdom through music workshops and activities using the baybayin script.

 
Baybayin is the ancient script of Filipinos prior to Spanish colonization. Baybay literally means "to spell" but it also means to search, follow, or to walk through the shoreline. Its origins are debatable but theories vary from the Brahmic scripts of India to Chinese and some South East Asian calligraphy. It is used phonetically to characterize words.


I have come across the Baybayin before but did not get the chance to fully immerse in its meaning and value. Now i want to embed it in my life as a Filipina, as an artist, and even as a seeker on a spiritual path - because for me, these are never separate from each other. I want to start my sacred arts journey where my umbilical cord is connected.

Growing up with western education, culture, and upbringing has disconnected me from my rich cultural history and identity. Even with a degree in Social Sciences and a pending thesis for a minor degree in Cultural Heritage from a local university, I still  feel so alienated with the depth of indigenous wisdom our culture bearers continue to pass on.
 
I was born in the island of Cebu, an island in the heart of the country in the Visayas region where the word Babaylan (shamans and healers who were mostly female) came from. My ancestors were among the first to fight against the Spaniards through the leadership of Lapu Lapu who killed the explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the battle of Mactan. My personal ancestry can be traced back to Chinese, Spanish, and Malay ancestors who probably have a mix of Indian and other south east asian races. What a melting pot! All Filipinos have this unique multi-cultural identity but reflecting on this deeply I realized all of us in the world have mixed races. Our races have evolved and intermixed beautifully through time.

A journey starts somewhere. Of course I have been walking this earth for God knows how long but this particular special inner and outer journey through my artistic path now (as a 28 year old Filipina given a Christian name Sarah, born in this lifetime and age of the earth 2010) starts with my understanding of babaylan wisdom and using the baybayin script.

The name of God - Bathala when written in Baybayin reveals the unity of man and woman - Ba (Babae/ woman) - Ha  (Hangin/ wind or air) - La (Lalake/ man).


Learning about this deepened my appreciation of my ancestors' creation story of how man (malakas/ strong) and woman (maganda/ beautiful) came from the same bamboo that was cracked open by a mythical bird that brought the heavens and the seas together to form the earth.

That day of learning unlocked something really deep within me because on my way home after yoga class, I sang a spirit song out loud while walking through the park with the trees and the moon and I felt a strong presence of something or someone else singing with me or through me and it sure sounded like a shamanic rythm. Until now I do not remember the melody. I am just grateful to have reconnected again to the the deeper layers of who I am now for it helps in understanding the journey back, forward, higher, outside, and within.

My sacred arts journey has now officially started. Bathalanawa!

Source
Baybayin script chart

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

an artist's prayer




















AN ARTISTS PRAYER

O Great Creator,
We are gathered together in your name
That we may be of greater service to you
And to our fellows.
We offer ourselves to you as instruments.
We open ourselves to your creativity in our lives.
We surrender to you our old ideas.
We welcome your new and more expansive ideas.
We trust that you will lead us.
We trust that it is safe to follow you.
We know you created us and that creativity
Is your nature and our own.
We ask you to unfold our lives
According to your plan, not our low self-worth.
Help us to believe that it is not too late
And that we are not too small or too flawed
To be healed
By you and through each other and made whole.
Help us to love one another,
To nurture each others unfolding,
To encourage each others growth,
And understand each others fears.
Help us to know that we are not alone,
That we are loved and lovable.
Help us to create as an act of worship to you.

*Cameron, Julia, The Artists Way, New York: Putnams Sons, 1992
* Painting: Gaia by Dana Andersen 

Two books for the road ahead


Today, I had an intense question about my upcoming art project backpacking journey that started as a dream in 2008. A handful of foreign bills and coins (even pre Euros era) in an old box saved up since I was a child saved from my own travels and from my father's easter egg hunt surprises just showed up in my life again today. It eventually served as a strange premonition for something that manifested 15 minutes right after. A crazy glitch in the fabric of time!

My sister, a vagabond travel writer who has gone around Europe and South East Asia left me two books before she left for an escape to Beijing last month that I feel I need to start reading soon:



1. A Journey of One's Own (Second Edition): Uncommon Advice for the Independent Woman Traveler


This book is actually a gift from me to her for Christmas last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel


I wish I had her sense of adventure. What's keeping me? Lots of plans and ideas - so many kites up in the air.

A dream that has been brewing for 2 years is now about to spill over.  Perhaps to jump off a waterfall, flow downstream through the river or perhaps just evaporate completely to be transformed into another kind of journey.


But first, what is a journey? I continue to reflect on this question.