Doodling the Dead

Face Up * The Art of Recognition • "Doodling the Dead #9" by Dar Freeland"

images & text © 2012 Dar Freeland | all rights reserved

In the passing of our loved ones, we eventually celebrate the life they had woven, the joy they had brought, and we dance in the memory of their humor, their love and even their failings. How is it that we wait until one is gone, before we learn to forgive? Is it easier without a body to relate to? Are we so afraid to lose their love in the relating, that we'd rather wait to find healing, until they are not there?

Does forgiveness know the difference? 

Do we sit and talk to the departed, as if they are still there? Why didn't we say those things when they occupied their body? Because they had a mouth to talk back? Because they had an opinion that we don't think they have now - just without a voice that speaks out loud? 

Sometimes the ONLY thing that remains after our loved ones have dropped their body, is their opinion.

Likewise - in metaphor, what in our lives now are asking to be shed? Which old patterns, beliefs, ways of being, or points of view are presenting themselves to be released? Are our issues, dramas, perceived pains and inner stories really worth hanging onto? In doodling the dead...the "dead" could perhaps be our "departed loved one"...the old way of doing things. 

Sometimes shedding asks to happen, even when we don't like it.

Forgiveness, acceptance and allowance and mostly integrity - are all the tools we need to engage with our loved ones while they are alive, in the most peaceful way. What if we cultivated these traits in order to share a more rich, juicy and loving relationship with those around us now, rather than playing it safe and waiting until they are gone?

-- dar freeland

faceupstudio.com

Treasure

Face Up • The Art of Recognition • "Gone Back Home" by Dar Freeland

images & text © 1994 - 2012 dar freeland | all rights reserved

A treasure knows its true value, even when buried below the sand of the seabed floor.

A treasure’s value doesn’t ever diminish. To remember itself, it may still look up from beneath the sand and see beautiful coral groves and everything above – dancing within the current. It can see colored fish darting and bobbing, even though it is buried beneath the sand, and the enormous weight of water and years crush down upon it. It can still look up - and even beyond - the tangle of new growing coral, the enormous beauty of the color swept fish – discovering and exploring their own new world.

Treasure knows it is still beautiful and valuable – even though obscured from the view of any onlooker.

The treasure can look even beyond the chaos and see sunlight piercing through the water - peering down at it with a nod. The rays remind of a life that once was, that waits again for the day that the treasure and the sun will one day meet again. A treasure’s value will be known again – if only in a different world, one that lives a different life above the waves, than what the treasure once knew.

The silent weight of the sea brushes over the treasure. She weeps at its caress, knowing it seeks only to remind her she is still alive, still valuable – simply unseen for now.

The treasure notices that she sailed too soon, and she fell by God’s design in an angry sea – and sank to the depths. She learned no matter how much her value remained (value being an illusion in the grand design, a story made of nothing) that it alone could not lift her back to the surface to meet again with the sun.

Within her cloud of illusion, she forgot how to rise.

No one came for her, and she was forgotten. So she spent her days peering through the sand, watching the beautiful colors of life swim by, and sending love to the world by winking at the sun through the rays that reach through the ocean. The Sun's love reminded. She will never again forget her value, or how her love sparkled to those who knew her above water – when she could touch the sky.

As every true treasure knows – its value is in what it gives, in what it has given…a bell that cannot be un-rung.

A treasure is not any less valuable, because it rests, obscured, at the bottom of the sea. It does not give any less with an ocean sitting upon it. The gifts journey through more layers to reach the sun, but they are given none-the-less.

Treasure is only obscured from the sight of those who would assign it a meaning.

Treasure becomes something to someone else, only when it is observed. Yet to itself, it is always itself, and knows it with absolute certainty.

There are days she will weep at her yearning to touch others, and give her value, what she truly holds inside of her. Even knowing her truth, she still has moments when not sharing and connecting will frustrate. Eventually she will observe her own weeping and yearning - once tired of it, and shrug.

She’ll be discovered again one day, and her love will sparkle in the warmth and connection with the sun. She will then recall, that she was never disconnected at all.

--dar freeland

faceupstudio.com

Ants and Cracks

Face Up • The Art of Recognition • "Ants & Cracks" by Dar Freeland

images & text © 1994 - 2012 dar freeland | all rights reserved

When we walk through our house, (not yet our home) what is our focus? Is it the ants swarming our food, or the cracks in the walls that threaten in a whisper…”I will fall down around your head one day…” – is this our focus?

Today, on a day designated to celebrate love – can we focus instead on the beautiful blooms in the garden – the voice of spring itself bursting forth in the yard, despite dismal attempts at caretaking with impossible schedules to achieve? Can we look upon each other with loving eyes for the blessings of the things we admire and respect about one another – just as we look with loving anticipation at a pair of old ducks looking to roost in the pond?

Today, can we be as grateful for the roof over our heads, when looking out upon those without one. Can we focus instead on the gift of freedom to choose our new destiny, when looking out upon those who do not have a choice? Can we remember why we fell in love in the first place, what brought us to share our lives together? Can we remember the bigness of who we are, instead of grasping at our smallness, and weakness – in our vain attempt to justify why we want to give up and have it be “easier”? A house takes tending, a heart takes tending, a love takes tending.

The relating part of relationship isn’t always easy. For some, it is worth it.

Can I see, that all of this is my story told to me by a house? Will we walk away from the ants and cracks? Will we make a house, our home?

--dar freeland

faceupstudio.com

Shedding

Face Up • The Art of Recognition • "Taken Back" by Dar Freeland

images & text © 1994 - 2012 dar freeland | all rights reserved

Ever feel that sense of aggravation, stress or despair when you are struggling against a piece of clothing that simply will not come off?

Has the life of the past taken on this meaning for you?

For some, it feels like the old skin will never shed, despite the most dedicated efforts. A snake will hibernate, feel vulnerable, rub and writhe against immoveable objects to release his old skin. Is that what we are doing? The immoveable objects will help us in moving the old within us – if we use it properly.

Do we grasp old skin unconsciously not wanting to let go of the familiar? Even when it is painful, are the unknown possibilities standing before us bringing up more fear, followed by paralysis? Do we justify that it may be best to keep the old skin because at least we know what to expect?

What beautiful new butterfly is inside of the chrysalis waiting to come forth?

Whether a snake, a butterfly or an old turtleneck sweater – peeling off the old to allow the new to emerge is the task at hand, the path before us. We can choose to thank those objects that will not move, shift or transform – and move ahead anyway.

It is our blessing to leave the old skin behind.

--dar freeland

faceupstudio.com