the heart of a woman

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the shrine I recently completed was inspired by my heart. actually, by a letter my heart wrote to me. the letter writing was an exercise suggested in a book I'm reading, Awaken Your Genius, by Carolyn Elliott. first you are prompted to write a letter TO your heart. you are seeking guidance for the place you are right now in your life. then you respond to this letter by writing another letter, but this one is from your heart's perspective. the book's instructions describe a symbolic language to use while writing from your heart. not surprisingly, my heart used her own symbolic language. (she shares that gene with me that makes direction following  a last resort.) her language inspired me, and I interpreted it to create a shrine. my Heart of a Woman shrine is built inside a prized old paperback of Maya Angelou's book of the same name. below are photos of this shrine and excerpts from my heart's letter.

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Honey,

you grow like a gentle water violet in the water & the air; embrace the 2 legged version of yourself. she carries the encyclopedia of forgotten prayers strapped to her back. her petals, her feathers, her scales, her fur, her boat that sails among clouds are all unseen by the stream of accept without questioners.

she will grow into this body; don't doubt her. but she may never grow into this calendar & clock of human ways; don't limit her. she seeps outside of the bars of everyday imaginings of what it is to be sealed in skin, covered with clothes and shoes. she oozes passed the coins, the gatekeepers, the digital screens, the magazines in the grocery check out--out into the breath of moonlight. out into the open arms of cypress & oaks. out into the slippery camaraderie of mud on the banks of the river that washes thru her.

slither deep into your mission, whispering an invitation for fellow stragglers to join in the rhythm that is blood pounding thru fire, wind dancing with clouds. these believers do not want to trap you, contain you. they want to join you.

ooze between the bars, my dear.

~Grandmother Heart

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