surrender to love

Surrender to Love
Mixed media on canvas paper
11 x 14″
©2019 Louise Gallagher

The snow came. The snow left. Autumn returns, its trees a little barer, its splendor a little less vibrant. Snow riddled clouds have disappeared, the days are warmer again and winter has retreat beyond the distant horizon.

I feel content.

We had guests this week. Delightful visitors from eastern Canada where summer weather has descended the land, pushing even autumn’s hues off the calendar. For now.

And that’s the thing. Weather comes. Weather goes.

The seasons keep changing with the turning of the earth as it spins its story around the sun.

I feel joyful.

My beloved fights a cough. I am determined not to catch it. I pound back Vitamin C and other holistic remedies in an attempt to thwart off any germs that want to take hold. Thus far, I’m winning.

And that’s the thing. Germs come. Germs go.

The seasons keep changing with the turning of the earth as it spins its story around the sun.

And I feel grateful.

I sit at my desk in the soft morning light watching the sun gently kiss the sky good morning with its rosy pink hues. Cars travel across the bridge towards the city center. The river flows constantly eastward. A squirrel leaps from one tree branch to the next, hop-scotching through the forest lining the river. I watch his passage, delighting in his journey.

A leaf surrenders its hold and falls silently to the still green grass below. Piano music plays softly in the background.

And I feel at peace.

The seasons keep changing with the turning of the earth as it spins its story around the sun.

A new day is dawning. Filled with sights, smells, sounds and delights.

And I surrender to its possibilities. I surrender to Love.

Art Journal Entry Jan 5
©2015 Louise Gallagher

I love layering when I paint. I love combining words and images, colour and texture. This painting was created in my art journal. The words were added in photoshop and are from my journal.

I am not sure which came first. The painting or the words. Or if they evolved together.

It doesn’t matter how they unfolded. What matters is, they did.

It is part of the flow. Of being in the process versus thinking about HOW I am going to make it happen.

Sometimes, like when I’m painting or writing, I find myself in the flow, at one with its unfolding and I feel embraced and supported by grace and ease.

Other times, like when talking with someone about something that holds an emotional charge, it is a bumpy ride fraught with energetic discourse that doesn’t flow all that smoothly. It is only when I come back to the page, either written or visual, that I find myself again effortlessly easing into the flow that was always there, awaiting my return.

No matter the measure or pace of my journey, whether I willingly surrender my resistance to being present or not, when I allow myself to awaken to the evolutionary impulse to create better, to create more of what unfolds my human condition in Love, miracles happen, art appears, words become my truth.

The other day, while having lunch with my friend Mark of Mark is Musing, he asked me, “Do you know what you’re going to write when you sit down at your computer in the morning?”

I laughed. Seldom do I have a plan for what I’m going to write. Often, I begin with the words, “I wonder what will appear today as I write…” As long as I keep typing, the letters form into words, the words into phrases, the phrases into sentences until eventually, I see the wholeness of what was unfolding through me when I first sat down to type.

“I then go back and delete the beginning thoughts and simply allow what appeared to be present. I seldom edit. I simply let it be.”

It is always a mystery and a miracle to me.

It is always a journey of letting go of fear and trusting in the process.

May you journey through Love today. May your heart be filled with joy. May your body be at rest. May your mind be at One with all that is when you let go of imagining what you need to be or do is anything other than surrender to Love.

Namaste.