Painting the Tipi...........

I'm one of those people who believes we are always receiving messages.  Some are coming from conversations with others, some come from something we picked to read and other things come in the way of intuition.  If I'm suppose to "hear" something and I miss it the first time, it will come again and again......  if I am not paying attention.  I may not have been ready to hear the first message, usually by the second or third time, I get it!

For instance, I have been reading a book, it has taken me all summer to read.  I loved the book!  The book is DREAMWALKER, by Mary Summer Rain.  It was a book that jumped off the shelf as I scanned the shelves at the bookstore.  It wasn't a book I felt I had to finish quickly to get to the revealing chapter, each chapter was revealing in it's own way.  What I was mostly struck by, the day I would choose to read a chapter or two, it would address the exact same thing I'd just been thinking about.  On another day I would have missed that message altogether, but just "happened" to read it when I needed to read or I needed to understand something I'd just been pondering.  Some days my friend and I would have just been talking about something, I'd pick up this book and read what we'd just been discussing, giving a clear explaination, I call her and say, "You are not going to believe this!" and read to her the paragraph.  We only can say, "Isn't that amazing?"

My friends and I often find ourselves thinking about one another and then one makes the phone call to the other.  One day I was calling one friend and my phone rings and there she was calling me!  We always laugh and say, "I was just thinking about you!"  Awesome stuff when you listen!

Last January I had this idea to take pictures of the hands of my children and grandchildren, as well as Richard's and mine.  I was having this time of reflection about my own hands, when did they begin to look old, where did their youthfulness go.  Who's hands in the family resemble mine or Richard's?  I decided to take pictures of all the hands in our family and do something with them, although not quite sure what, still waiting on the inspiration or "message".  I still have all these hand pictures.  I think it was the beginning of what I'm about to share now.

In October, I attended a retreat, I have found that at these retreats there is always something revealed to me.  I don't remember anyone else getting this particular message, it was just something I needed to hear I guess.  Before getting this message however, I had a wonderful massage.  While getting this massage I, of course, was chatting.  The topic of aging hands came up, I mentioned the photos of the family hands I have. She began telling me about a trip to Peru and at the end of her work there, all the children put their hand prints on a cloth and someone talked all the Chief's into doing it as well.  She described how wonderful it was, the sizes, the hands receiving knowledge and the hands of the ones sharing the wisdom.  This light bulb idea went off in my mind to do a swirl of my family's hand prints on the cloth door of my tipi lodge.  I was so excited!  It was if I had made the most amazing discovery! Then something was mentioned during one of the sessions of the retreat and hands again were in that message, it was brief, and it confirmed the idea that I had to do the artwork of hand prints of my family on that tipi door.

[I might also mention here, the tipi door I am still using was the same door from my old tipi lodge that was nearly shredded in a summer storm this year.  When I ordered a new cover, I kept the old door to continue to share the spirit of the old tipi with the new.]

In November all my children and grandchildren gathered at our house for a celebration of fall birthdays.  I took this time to explain to them my idea and ask each of them to pick their "spirit" color.   For some that may have been the wrong way to express the idea of choosing a color.  I restated by asking them to pick their favorite color. My objective was for them to pick a color they always think of when they think of their favorite color!  Their hand was painted in the order of youngest to oldest.  Little Tatum, just over one year old, has her hand in the center and they all swirl out and around to my husband's hand being last. 

I can now say I have "painted" my tipi lodge.  I have also decided to order a new tipi door and keep the one with hand prints in the studio for the winter months and use it inside the tipi as art next year.  It has become a treasure, a record of our families hands and their favorite colors in 2010.