You Are a Beacon of Hope

Keep my anger from becoming meanness.

Keep my sorrow from collapsing into self-pity.

Keep my heart soft enough to keep breaking. 

Keep my anger turned towards justice, not cruelty.

Remind me that all of this, every bit of it, is for love.

Keep me fiercely kind.

By Laura Jean Truman

December is a dark month. Daylight is weak and short. Under the vast dome of night, I sit and contemplate the unseen forces of change at work all around me. The cool, damp earth feels solid beneath my toes, but everything around me is swirling in transformation in the darkness. The irrepressible creative force that made the world is breaking down old patterns in nature, in culture, in my life, and from the maelstrom, generating new forms and a new year of possibilities. 

Since the dawn of humanity, when old worlds end, chaos descends, and then new worlds arise with new patterns, new values, and new ideas. We are living through the end of an age, an unraveling of old paradigms, the crumbling of familiar institutions, and the destruction of ecosystems that have long protected us. We are under great pressure, feeling extreme emotions, and experiencing extreme events in our climate and our culture.

A story we are living at the moment is about people becoming divided.

People are in one story and believe the “others” are in a different story and that the others don’t count, their way of being doesn’t count, and their lives don’t count. As a society, we are suspicious of our neighbors, anxious about our survival, and helpless to control the chaos. Each time the world takes a darker turn, it is easy to feel lost and hopeless.

It is fair to call these dark times, and many of us feel isolated, overwhelmed, and despairing. 

On the darkest day of each year, the Winter Solstice, ancient cultures believed the sun stands still for a timeless moment, and it is up to humans to bring light back into the world and renew the energy of the earth.

Where do we go to find the light our world so desperately needs?

Hope

Howard Zinn puts it this way, "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places there are so many where people have behaved magnificently. This gives us the energy to act and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.



And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."



Awakening the Deeper Self

These are not the first dark times, and they will not be the last.  The old stories and myths are filled with heroes and heroines whose ordinary lives are transformed through frightening encounters with horrifying monsters, dragons, and villains.

Author, historian, and mythologist Michael Meade believes we save ourselves by bringing forth who and what we are at our core.  He says, “The way out of despair is to become a more conscious version of yourself. Our deep self knows it is needed in this time and calls to us.  The losses, disasters, chaos are calls to us to turn inwards. To wake us up to a more profound sense of self. This deeper self has ways of healing and handling traumatic challenges. In times of great uncertainty and darkness, we can find this opening that can allow the expansion, a more conscious becoming. 

Our deeper sense of self has ways of opening our hearts, our eyes, and our imagination to creative ways of being even when the world itself is blind with tragedy and oppositional energies… It lives inside us alongside our traumas, our history, our fears, our stories.  It holds the medicine we need to heal ourselves. It waits for us to awaken and answer the call.”

In times of overwhelm, when we think we are isolated and alone, Meade invites us to connect to the archetypal energies of the human soul and its connection to the universal force of life. The human soul was once known as “the light found in the darkness.” The rebirth of the sun offers a potential awakening of the heart and soul of each person. When the light of the soul arises within us, it also contributes light to the world.

Exploring our own unique gifts, destiny, and individuality, we can find ways, methods, and practices to help us survive in times of overwhelm, tragedy, and chaos. 

Notice what you do when time disappears for you. Educator, author, and expert on world mythology Joseph Campbell  advised,  "When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”



As we become more tuned in to ourselves, we become more aware of the unseen world and its larger patterns. Turning inwards, we have access to experience deep calm and peace at any time.  

You and I are not here in human form to have a smooth, even passage through life. Stability, peace, and neutrality are always transitory. So are dark times.

We are here to discover the thread that beckons to us alone. Pursuing it, some switch is flipped, and we light up and begin to see the world the way we’re supposed to see it. We build resilience by going back every time we fail to our essence and awakening again from there. Holding onto that thread, we see our own destiny, and we can follow it.



The Artists Role

Toni Morrison says, “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal”

The struggle of the individual illuminates the common human struggle. The enhanced sensitivity of the artists who create art by diving into their interior world as a method for self-understanding or as a coping mechanism for whatever haunts their interior world tells us that nothing human can be vile or hideous, nothing stale, flat and unpalatable. Sharing those discoveries allows them and us to see and feel what we might ordinarily ignore or are immune to. 



This is why Iris Murdoch observed, “Tyrants always fear art because tyrants want to mystify while art tends to clarify. The good artist is a vehicle of truth, he formulates ideas which would otherwise remain vague and focuses attention upon facts which can then no longer be ignored. The tyrant persecutes the artist by silencing him or by attempting to degrade or buy him. This has always been so.

Each epoch reveals something new for the artists to interpret. The darkness and chaos that feel most unsurvivable are what artists must most urgently interpret for us to design a new order and a new and stronger structure of possibility.

Modern political and religious groups demonize each other, and the polarity of their conflicted feelings, oppositional instincts, and contrasting ideas are the modern crucible for creative individuals to imagine a genuine sense of unity truer and deeper than all that alienates and divides us. 

Befriending Fear

Too much safety creates a sterile prison, and too little safety means you have to be hypervigilant, constantly scanning your environment and scanning people for threats.  

Michael Meade explains, "Many people believe that eliminating the apparent causes of fear will eliminate it, but fear, like beauty, is part of the world. The fear of fear results in the growth of terror as well as a loss of the beauty and wonder of the world. By fearing fear, we create room for terror and panic to grow. People become blinded by fear, driven by anxieties, and increasingly ruled by phobias and obsessions. When we fail to recognize how fear works in the world, we become ruled by it. The point is not to become paralyzed with foreboding or be caught in the panic that can grip the collective and cause people to run blindly in the wrong direction. The point is to willingly go where most fear to go, to follow where the fear might lead and face the ways that the world roars at us."



When we treat fear as an ally directing us towards what we must go through to awaken to who we are intended to be, who we already are at our core, we become more genuine and live more fully. 

Educator, author, and expert on world mythology Joseph Campbell said, "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." He means that on

e of the paths you see before you but are afraid to take ultimately leads to self-actualization, and you must be ready to change the way you are now and leave the familiar world behind.



Nurturing the Gift

What does it mean to turn inwards? How do you self-actualize and find the thread that is yours alone? Where is the door into the inner world of peace and calm?

Could you begin by recognizing and nurturing what’s been entrusted to you to own? Could you stop looking outside for someone else to come to your rescue? 

Your body, your psyche, your curiosity, your passions, and your vitality are gifts bestowed on you at birth. Every day, you wake up as the steward of all your blessings and this miraculous vessel that allows you to experience this world's delicious beauty and wonder. Do you treat them with gratitude and loving respect?

Are you creating art? What are you feeding your psyche? What images are you watching? What music do you listen to? Are you filling your mind with good things? Are you fueling your curiosity? Did you get enough rest? Did you drink enough water? How does the food you’re eating make you feel? Have you spent some time in the natural world? Did you fill your heart with love and gratitude today? Are you connected in a circle of care?

Discipline is the practice of putting boundaries around your own needs and placing them before the needs of others. It is the practice of recognizing your self-worth today and the next day, too.

Practices of contemplation and giving thanks bring a sense of wholeness that is often missing in our busy daily lives. You can follow any one of thousands of disciplines with inward paths to reach the unseen realms of spirit and great imagination, or you can follow your own inner wisdom. The need to be touched by grace and feel connected with the underlying holiness of life is at the root of most traditions. 

It is possible for you to walk through the world unfettered and unbothered by needs that drain your life force energy. There are so many things and so many people that can drain you, and you don’t want to be drained. Every day, you get up, and you are given a choice. Do you pick up your phone? How will you spend your precious hours? Do you give your time away to others, to distractions? Discernment will bring your gifts back to you. The life you experience is the accumulation of your choices.

Self-care opens you up to your inner world. You can become aware of the way your gut contracts around certain people and relaxes in the company of others. You might notice your posture adjust or a sensation in your body in response to what someone just said. Observe the way you clench your teeth when you’re angry or hold your breath when you’re fearful. Observe yourself as though you were observing someone else. When you feel and acknowledge the full range of your emotions, you make better choices for yourself and those who share your life.  

A healthy body overflowing with creative juices is primed and ready to receive divine downloads, ready to act with courage and conviction. 

Staying committed to courage, kindness, and caring for others regardless of their choices allows you to live a life of generosity regardless of the state of the world. 

The measure of your greatness is the measure of your generosity. When people become aware of their genius, live it, and give generously from it, they change the world and bring more light into the darkness. And when they depart everyone knows something is missing. 

 

Making Meaning

One of my favorite essayists, Rebecca Solnit, wrote in “Hope in the Dark,” “It's the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone."

Meaning is not something we find — it is something we make, and the puzzle pieces are often the fragments of our shattered hopes and dreams. French writer Albert Camus reflected between two World Wars. “The transmutation of despair into love is what we call meaning. It is an active, searching process — a creative act. Paradoxically, we make meaning most readily, most urgently, in times of confusion and despair, when life as we know it has ceased to make sense”.

Remember to Dance



Since the world will not soon settle and the current tensions and the heartbreaking conflicts that divide us may yet intensify, now more than ever, we need to awaken the light of the grace within us. As more of us connect with the divine spark of life, we rebirth the sun and contribute more light, more healing, more art, and more love into the world.

Facing the darkness together as whole, creative human beings in the midst of the anxiety, conflicts, and tragedies affecting the world will be a marvelous victory for us to call forth. 

Gabrielle Roth reminds us of the path to follow “In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: "When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?” 

Let us join together to sing, dance, tell stories, create art, and feel fully alive.



For me, I am creating a bigger vision for my life and my contribution to the world. I feel I am being called on to light up the world around me with my inner joy, vibrancy, and passion for life through art. I am inspired to elevate others in letting go of the struggle and deepening their connection to the mystery through the creative process. Please join me. 

I will end with this quote from the Gospel of Thomas, “If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, then what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” 



Whether you’re an established artist seeking new horizons or a budding creative looking to elevate your work, I hope I have given you some ideas on how to awaken your artistic potential. Perhaps I can invite you to become a member of my artistic “circle of care,” where I can support your artistic development. If you would like my mentorship, guidance, and advice in exploring your own artistic path please reach out to me. It makes me happy to share my insights and my knowledge with you.

Please consider my holiday special as an opportunity for you to share your love of art with a relative or friend. It makes a great gift, even if it's a gift to yourself. Book a four-hour Fun with Flowers Workshop for 2025, and if you pay before December 31, 2024, the second person is free. All supplies and a homemade snack are included.



If someone shared this newsletter with you and you'd like to subscribe, please reach out to me below with your email address. I promise, no spam, no overloading your inbox, just the good stuff.

 I welcome the opportunity for connection, conversation, cooperation, collaboration, and commissions. 

With Light and Delight

Susan Convery

My resources for this month's newsletter were:

https://www.themarginalian.org/2024/11/06/transition/

https://www.themarginalian.org/2019/02/12/iris-murdoch-salvation-by-words/

https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/04/09/find-your-bliss-joseph-campbell-power-of-myth/

https://youtu.be/EL-M3Sj4CUc?si=y_j2H0FyFf5JStMa

Light in Dark Times Michael Meade

https://youtu.be/RfnHiq-FzXM?si=3YwkYTbY0Gnvvy-R

How Not to be Overwhelmed

Jon Batiste — The Quest for Originality and How to Get Unstuck

Quote:

Instructions on Living in a Broken World 

lean into community 

seek out love

applaud the good you see 

keep paying attention 

talk to your neighbors

dance to the music and embrace art 

look for love and small joys

take breaks and relish in nourishing your body 

donate what you can

linger at the dinner table with friends 

check in with your people 

let yourself grieve

love one another as deeply as you can

the storm is upon us and we must hold on

don't give up, 

we're here together.

• still we rise

Sketchbook Prompt:

Scribble charcoal all over your sketchbook page, then rub the whole page with a tissue until you have a uniformly dark surface.  Use a kneaded eraser to draw some shapes. Smudge some of them with the tissue or your finger. Wipe out what you don’t like.  Add more charcoal lines.  Smudge some of them.  Keep adding and subtracting until you have a mysterious composition you like.

Title: SunGlow

Media: Oil on Canvas

Size: 20"x 20"

Frame: Gallery Wrap

Price:$666

.

Title: Something to Crow About

Media: Mixed Media on Arches

Size: 15" x 22" framed 22" x 28"

Price: $555

Frame: Gold

Watercolor, ink, gouache, stencils, so many marks and so much fun! A celebration of the Chinese year of the Rooster.

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