Warrior Soul

Wow, wow, wow!  The universe really does work in mysterious ways and I’m so very grateful to have discovered this collaborative project and be a published contributing artist in this beautiful book, Warrior Soul! <3

I’ve just ordered a copy and look forward to holding it in my hands and having it as a companion. 🙂  This is the specific piece that I created and contributed to the book:

I call it ‘warrior within’ and would like to share a bit about what ‘warrior’ means to me. When I use the word warrior here, it is not to describe a military soldier!  It is more about how we greet life, especially the aspects that can be painful, such as abuse and pity.  It is about finding strength within to keep greeting life with open arms in spite of being cracked, wounded and broken at times.  It’s about getting to know ourselves, taking the time and effort to listen and look within, to have the courage to follow our hearts, to trust the divine light in each of us.  It is about the ideas on my favorite pint glass: dare, risk, dream.  Now, that I’m writing this, I realize that these ideas are what inspired the Brave Boots, Brave Hearts e-course.

I first came across an idea/definition of a warrior that resonated with me from The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  I found the following description online at http://www.toltecspirit.com/

“The quest of a Spiritual Warrior is for Personal Freedom. Personal Freedom means freedom from fear, illusions, and the fear based beliefs in the mind. In essence it means to win the war over the beliefs in the mind. It is with Personal Freedom that we are free of the human condition of emotional suffering. Spiritual traditions around the world have their own names for this state of awareness including nirvana and heaven. It is a state that is simply described as living your life with unconditional love, gratitude, and respect, for your self, and for others.”

I might add to be free from self pity, guilt, and grief, which are the scars that have affected me most personally… to find ways to thrive in harmony with one’s inner selves and all of creation; all that IS.  If this kind of warrior ‘fights,’ it is for wisdom, presence, peace, freedom and harmony. <3

I wrote a blog post sharing more of the story for this particular painting near the time it was finished, along with a dedication here:

https://thrivetrue.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/warrior-within/

We named one of our sons, Evan, because it supposedly meant ‘young warrior.’  We had not yet agreed on names when our twin boys were born 3 months early and we chose names partly based on the meanings and circumstances (as well as heritage and sounds we liked).  They had to fight for their lives… not against any other people, but to breathe on their own and grow and thrive… in some ways, don’t we all?

May we find ways to be fully alive in this journey! <3 <3 <3