When I first moved here to California, I went through a bit of culture shock. The air is grey, not yellow; people wear mostly dull browns, greys and blacks, not bright aloha shirts, sarongs and bright-colored clothing; friendly greetings in stores on the street are regarded as suspicious and either ignored or given stink eye; […]
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Tag: consciousness
REBEL
What happens to kids who just don’t fit the square, round or even triangular holes in society? They end up like I did, seething inside, wishing for friends, afraid of the certain mockery when I opened my mouth, envying the easy friendships others had. Finding solace in art and reading; always alone, always wary of […]
SAM: Likes Shiny Things
The second time I was raped was a far cry from the first. Looking back, I count what happened to me that day as a stroke of incredible good fortune for myself, and out-of- the-blue evidence of amazing community solidarity in its intolerance for violence and cruelty, and its endeavor to maintain peace. I was […]
OLIVER: Sees You
September of 1999 was a hot one. I had just returned to Santa Fe a short month ago from a stint back east, house-sitting for my dear friend, Cynthia, out on Long Island. I hadn’t been able to find a place I could afford yet. I did find a little secluded glade down by an […]
BELLA: Early
My dad used to burst into my bedroom, at dawn:30 a.m., throwing the door back with a bang, roughly yank all the covers completely off me and my bed, and cheerily spout, “Time to get uuuuuuuppp!!” He thought he was being SO funny. N O T . But could I ever convince him of that? […]
BUDDY: in the Light, Shadowed
When I drew this, I was focusing on the white part so much that it wasn’t until later that I saw the funny blue face. I particularly like this one because it’s so silly (Silly really ought to be my middle name), and so obvious … but not. It’s a great metaphor for my life […]
SYLVESTER: Hiss
Lately I’ve been really struggling with sleep imbalance. It’s so strange – I can sleep 2 or 3 hours, but then my legs get all jumpy and I have to get up. Then within an hour or three, my eyes slump shut and I’m sleepy all over again and have to get horizontal before I […]
SCREEN PARALYSIS: JESSE: Caught
I’ve been writing up a storm lately, and last night as I got up to take a little break, I caught my reflection in the bathroom mirror as I left – I looked kinda like this! I realized I’d be practically glued to the screen for days! So today I’m focusing on remembering fun, funny, […]
HOW to FREE UP YOUR CREATIVE ENERGY
I was very honored to be invited to be the featured guest of the Lone Star Dowsers monthly meeting last week (July 28, 2021)! First we went into dowsing, then EFT/tapping – pretty deeply. I’ve been using dowsing for 40 years, 20+ of those years using a dowsing rod, getting pretty extraordinary results. I showed […]
BEARY BEAR’S DAD, BURT: Mellow
Burt is the kind of dad everyone should have. Holds little babies as if they were the gods’ own treasures; plays with the toddlers; treats little girls to merry-go-rounds and lots of colorfully illustrated books and art supplies; little boys to Tonka trucks, small-hand size tools and paints, encyclopedias, roller skates and skis; and young […]
SHYLEE: Searching
I was 13 years old the first time I was raped. Not to worry, this will not be a rant or a self-pity party. Just a story about overcoming evil who took the form of a ‘nice’ man everyone liked and respected. The summer before my sophomore year, my mother thought it would be a […]
GUS: I AIN’T DONE NUTHIN’
Some days I feel just like this. Like there’s not a single thing I can get right, and if I do do something right, it isn’t enough, or good enough. Who the hell sets up those rules??? We are so conditioned! So programmed to think we are less-than, not good enough, not productive enough, not […]
CARLOS, ALWAYS HAPPY
I have a friend who, no matter what befalls her, is always happy. For a long time, it would piss me off that she never lost her equilibrium. I think I was jealous that I didn’t know how to do that, too. But then she told me why. She grew up in horrifying circumstances. Imagine […]
PETEY, PICKY!
Have you ever watched as birdies peck at seeds on the ground? It doesn’t look like they pick and choose at all – more like they do a general all-over snatch and grab, no matter what it is. But they actually have sharply discerning senses that allow them to choose ‘seed’ rather than ‘something awful,’ […]
SAM: SHINY THINGS
Did you know that a group, or gathering, of ravens is called an ‘Unkindness’? It’s odd to me that that’s so – I’ve never thought of them as unkind. My dog and I used to walk the arroyos outside of Tesuque, New Mexico. Always there would be groups of huge ravens in the trees above […]
HAROLD
I didn’t realize, as I was drawing this, that I had drawn 3 horses. See what I mean? Each of these 3-color images has so far ended up being mysteriously more than what I had thought I’d created! I love that! text & image © Angela Treat Lyon 2021
FIDO
I love Fido. He is faithful, calm, loyal and very wise. He knows just when I’m hurting inside because he comes up to my side and rests his head on my lap, and looks up at me with those big brown eyes that say, “No worries, My-Human, I’ve got this! You just go relax!” Too […]
MARTHA, SUNFACED
Well, so I started a new series. This is the Odd Critters Series. Although it will probably include humans, too. I can’t help it. I just keep seeing all these new beings, and have to draw them. The underdrawing is all in blue against the black. Then I go over it with white, and include […]
WINTER DREAMS
Exactly 20 years ago today (April 1, 2021), I returned to the US from my year and a half stint as the first Artist-in-Residence for Gore, New Zealand. I left NZ at 7 am on April 1st, and after a 9 hour flight, arrived in Honolulu at 8 am on … April 1st! I was […]
DAWN WAVE
Sometimes, before the sun is up all the way, the wind skittles across the glassy-smooth surface of the ocean, and it looks like a pinky-blue streaked mirror. The swells come rolling in, incessant, constant, hypnotic. Every so often, the current and the swells clash just right, and a surprised wave pops its head up to […]
WING and WING
I grew up on a small harbor right off Long Island Sound. We used to go down to the little beach near our house and watch the 12-meter racing boats cruise into the harbor on their practice days. So exciting – they were so huge! One of them could have eaten my tiny 13′ boat […]
JOURNEY
I think I have mentioned that, for 35 years, I carried in the back of my mind, continual, persistent, destructive thoughts of offing myself. Wondering, how can I do it – pills? A gun? A knife? Drive over a cliff? But somehow my eternal self, the One that is the True me, kept me going. […]
ALL IS LIGHT
There have been times in my life when my entire system went on dizzy-mode. I’d have to stop whatever I was doing, or pull off the road, or stop a conversation I was in, in order to simply not fall down. After a few of them happened, I began to just close my eyes and […]
CURLY
For the last few days I have been a social cactus. I’ve been so irritable I felt like I could bite someone’s head off. Not sure why – seems like a lot of the tension from the last few years has released – but – there it is. So since I believe in transforming nasty […]
HE WAS ABOUT TO…
I was cruising on Facebook, when I saw that my friend, Bruce, who lives in South Africa, had posted 3 or 4 posts saying stuff like, “…Bruce Maxwell Cross …This is my journey thru an incredible life as I lay down my Cross and look forward to Heaven…….” And another post saying, “…Anxiety Depression and […]
I WILL KEEP YOU SAFE ALWAYS
When my kids were little, they were friends with a pair of brothers whose mother was insanely over-protective. She used to drive me nuts. I can still hear her shrill shriek, “Don’t climb that wall, you’ll fall off! If you go up that tree, I’m not going to take you to the hospital when you […]
WASABI
It was 1966. I was 21. I was new to California culture, having been brought up back East. I had come west to stay with an aunt and uncle in San Francisco, after I divorced my first husband. I eventually landed in Santa Cruz. Those were the hippy days – lots of pot and acid, […]
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY…
How many times have we heard, “Laughter is the best medicine”? Lots! Right? Well, a neighbor who is constantly bugging me about this little thing or other started in on me today. I had been standing on my little door stoop, enjoying the sun, and wasn’t about to let him wreck my day. I thought […]
A TRIPLE WHAMMY
I posted on Facebook a couple days ago that I hadn’t been feeling well. No worries – not The Big V Thing! I got triple-whammied by other completely stupid stuff! First, I must have eaten something off, because I started feeling weak and nauseated. I was about to go to bed and let it wear […]
2-YEAR TRUCKABOUT
In the mid-80s, I had been living in Kailua, on Oahu, in Hawaii. I had a nice house, drove a Volvo station wagon, had a simple carving studio, enough to eat…but I was unhappy. And I couldn’t figure out why. So I sold everything I owned except for a few favorite things, sold my car, […]