Today is Yom HaShoah,
Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time for sharing
heartbreaking memories, courageous and heroic stories, a time for surrounding those who survived and are still living
as well as their children who grew up cocooned in the shadows of their parents’
pain, with lovingkindness and compassion. It is a time for healing.
The relatives who I think
of as family were incredibly fortunate; they emigrated to the United States from
what was then called Austria-Hungary in the late 1800’s during the pograms.
Fortunate is a relative term I suppose. Life was not easy when they left their
homes and any family members who remained, nor when they arrived here at Ellis
Island. Still my great-grandparents, grandparents and parents were not in
Europe during the Holocaust in the 1930’s. We do know that some of my father’s
relatives who stayed behind survived and some did not.
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More on healing in a different context:
I am
deeply honored to tell you that I have been interviewed again! I was invited by
Hali Karla, Artist-Healer, teacher, creator of LilyWheel Slide to write about being an artist/healer and share
some of my work as well. This felt like/feels like a pretty lofty title for me
to shoulder, one I would never have given myself. I worked very hard on this
interview, digging deep to be as articulate as I could be in answering Hali's
difficult questions. Really, they became a map for me to look at my life from a larger perspective. I hope you will come and see what I have written. She
really has something special going on with all that she offers as well as the interesting people she has
invited to contribute their artist/healer stories. Please come read my interview
HERE, it would mean a great deal to me to receive responses either here on my blog or on Hali's. As always thanks for your support. If I didn't feel so held by your kindness I would not have gained the confidence to write as much as I do, to boldly explore photography, or continue guiding others on their own healing journeys individually and through the meditation tele-circles and podcasts in The Healing Womb and Minucha B'Lev.
Nature Note: Can you believe I found a tiny black heart enfolded and protected in the spiral center of this plant? I think it will be a fern when it unfurls from it's furry casing. I discovered many more over the past few days and have been photographing them as they push up through the soil. There will be more macros to come as I mark their development.
I couldn't recognize that fern until you said what it was! I thought it was a nest of some sort, but now it is obviously a fern. My father would pick 'fiddleheads' from the ditches at the cottage, and I often think about the pesticides that they would have been sprayed with, being the 1970s. Oh well. I shall go and read your interview, Lois.
ReplyDeleteIt is incredible that such spiritual growth and something as beautiful and healing would come from the holocaust. Remembrance at its most positive.
ReplyDeleteLaura,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't comment on Hali's website, but wow! The whole interview was spectacular. I especially liked the part about being broken and whole. Your vulnerability is your beauty through art and healing.
I did not know that it was Holocaust Remembrance Day. Thank you for sharing that with us... Your photo is SO interesting, and works well with your words. I look forward to to more macros as you post them!!
ReplyDeleteLaura..I hope you are feeling a bit better...You have such an eye for picking out the details of natural beauty around you..amazing..I am off to read the interview. Thank you for posting to Nature Notes...Michelle
ReplyDeleteLaura, your post and photos are beautiful. You have a way of finding the beauty in simple things. Take care and thanks for the link to your interview.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on a FANTASTIC interview, Laura! A joy in every way to discover more about you & your work. I can so much relate to your journey dealing with health, and also the connection between art and healing. :o) ((HUGS))
ReplyDelete