Detachment as Offering

I like to start my week with yoga class as often as I can. I have been going to Ahimsa Yoga here in Oak Park for a bit over a year now. I’ve been an on and off again practitioner of yoga since my knitting teacher loaned me a book of poses when I was about 13 or 14 (yes, that makes it 40-ish years of yoga!) Synchronicity brought me to Ahimsa. Last winter I created my textile art piece titled “A Stitch In Time Saves” (the inspiration for this blog moniker) to publicize the One Earth Film Festival and my work was hung on display at Ahimsa. So this monday morning I made it to my class where my lovely teacher and now friend, Jackie shared an Inspiration deck from which I could draw a card. My card for today is “Detachment“. Perfect, of course, as I’ve been making an effort toward the goal of detaching and letting go. I spent much of last week cleaning out my basement and detaching from my physical “stuff”. Now, time to work on my attitudes, thoughts and beliefs~

Coincidentally I cut out a page from the May/June 2004 Yoga Journal during an art making session a few weeks ago written by Sally Kempton on Detachment. She writes, “the way I ease myself toward detachment is to practice offering…….I offer up whatever it is that I’m doing, whatever I’m intending or wanting, or whatever I’m trying to get free of……Offer the fruits of your labor to God.” …..”Offering our actions helps train us to do things not for any particular gain or personal purpose but simply as an act of praise or gratitude, or as a way of joining our consciousness to the greater Consciousness. Offering our desires, fears and doubts loosens the hold they have on us, reminding us to trust in the Presence- the source of both our longings and their fulfillment.” There is no expiration date on this advise!

Then I spent a little “art journaling” time before working on some commission pieces that I need to make headway on in my studio this week. (And I did make some great progress this afternoon!) Here is my journal entry embellished with my tree imagery and the Yoga Journal article with wood and bark texture~

And here is the the work I made progress on in the studio today. First, an acrylic and mixed media canvas. The working title is “Can You See the Forest for the Trees?”