U is for…

  is for Upanishads

Welcome Summer!  Welcome Friday!  Welcome to the observation of National Pollinators Week!  And welcome dear friends.  Put on your wings.  We’re going to cover a lot of ground today in the Garden of Deborah.

First, let’s begin with U.   Upanishads. 

The Upanishads are a collection of over 200 texts that are considered the philosophical basis for the Hindu religion.   The first are considered to have been written between 800 – 400 BCE.  Upanishad literally means “sitting close to” and refers to the practice of sitting near and listening closely to the teachings of one who has recognized fundamental truths of the universe.  

One of my favorite passages is: 

 “That is perfect. This is perfect.

Perfect comes from perfect.

Take perfect from perfect, the remainder is perfect.

May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.”

I’m calling that forward as energy I want to dance with this summer.   Noticing the perfect in everything.  Celebrating peace everywhere.

Here’s the index card I created today for the Daisy Yellow ICAD Challenge. 

I really like that background olive branch paper.  Olive has popped up on my radar lately, so we’ll see where they lead me this summer.   But in any case do pop over to the Daisy Yellow site.   Fridays are when a new linkup is posted so you can see what folks have created this week.

U is also for up – the direction of winged things.   Our beloved and beleaguered bees, butterflies, birds, and bats – the pollinators of our world.  National Pollinators Week (June 17-23, 2013) was instituted 6 years ago as a way to start officially addressing the pressing issue of declining populations of the pollinators.

It feels all the more critical to me now that we all get involved, as there is now definitive evidence that the neonic class of pesticides is linked to increased bee die-offs.  The European Union has imposed a 2-year ban, but our own EPA has yet to take a stand against the extremely powerful pesticide lobby.  There are many environmental agencies working to change this, so please do throw your support their way.  If you don’t know where to start PAN – Pesticide Action Network is a good place.   And here are some ideas you might want to check out for celebrating National Pollinator week as well

I can’t help but be passionate about this issue, and think we all should be, but I’m stepping off my soapbox now.  But let me continue with my celebration of my beloved bees.

If you attended my recent telecircle where we closed out the old season and opened the way to Summer, you know I choose a poem each quarter to add to my seasonal altar.   This summer I chose Mary Oliver’s Hum, which is about bees humming amidst the roses.   Here’s one of my favorite lines:

 “The bees have gone simple, sipping,

that’s all.  What did you expect?  Sophistication?

They’re small creatures and they are

filling their bodies with sweetness, how could they not

moan in happiness?”

Isn’t that a lovely image to remind myself with all summer long?   

This summer I’m playing in the online Summer of Color challenge.  A color combination is chosen each week and players create something with it.  This week’s colors are hot pink and orange.  Do check out the link and see what wonderful creations have been posted.

Here’s my piece, hot with all that fiery summer color energy, with Mary Oliver’s poem written on the back.

And now my friends, because it’s Friday and that means it’s time for Share the Blog  Link Love.

Here’s a list of my 5 suggestions of blogs that have inspired me:

• Rachel Payne of Creativity Tribe has a post up this week about her method of organizing her thoughts and her papers.   I could use a little help with my burgeoning mountains of papers.

• You may think I’ve chosen this next one, hello bee, because it has to do with my buzzing buddies.  It doesn’t.  But I’m linking to a tutorial to make a simple daisy chain floral crown.  It’s summer – we need crowns!

• Honey Love blog IS about bees and urban beekeepers

• Rise and Shine is a blog about food and folk art.  Two of my faves for sure.  I’m linking to a tutorial on papercutting.

•  New to me, I’m really excited to have stumbled upon this Dublin-based artist and photographer Cat MacBride.  I came upon her papercutting work on Flickr and then hunted down her blog.

• bonus link:   It’s not to a blog, but rather a newspaper article that features the fabulous art of Aganetha Dyck who collaborates with and honors bee.   Fabulous stuff! 

Whew. There we have it.   I told you we’d be flitting all around today, and I hope you enjoyed it.   Now what about you?  Doing anything special to celebrate Summer?   Have a favorite pollinator you’d like to acknowledge?    What’s perfect in your life?   Where do you need to seed some peace?  Do tell – you know I love to hear.