Making scratch drawings is easy. I did it often as a kid. First you take crayons and using many different colors you entirely cover a piece of paper. I normally swirled the colors but you could do blocks as well. Then you cover the crayon with a layer of black tempura paint. When it dries, you make an image by scratching through the black revealing some of the colors below. Simple process but beautiful and interesting results. It occurred to me during a retreat this weekend, that is what our lives are like. We start in heaven or whatever your personal idea of the "beforelife" is. When in this place outside of time our soul essences are gorgeous swirling masses of color. We are then covered in darkness. We forget everything. On the surface we appear to be a blank slate. Then the itches begin and we scratch them.
We itch to learn, and when we scratch that itch we reveal a part of ourselves. We itch to love, we itch travel, and we itch to grow. More of the blank blackness is scratched away and our true form is revealed. You may be tired of reading the word "itch" and trust me--no one wants to forget about itching more than I do since I'm currently covered in red itchy welts. Courtesy of Maine woods black flies. As uncomfortable as I am, I'm not really complaining because I was biten for a good cause. I was in a ceremony designed to be a challenge and was expected to keep on task. Everyone in my group had a different experience because everyone needs different challenges for their own personal growth. The spirits of the universe apparently thought that assaulting me with black flies was just the distraction I needed. It was hard ignoring them and moving past the uncomfortableness, but in the end I felt that I had passed a test--even if no one but myself was grading my performance. Sitting here scratching at my bites, I can see the image of the person I'm striving to be start to take form.
No comments:
Post a Comment