I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Painting “That Which is Sacred,” from the “Lands Beyond” gallery. Copyright Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Shadowscapes.com, 2002, 2020. All rights reserved. Continue reading
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo “Milky Way” by EvgeniT, Pixabay
“Ecstatic Love is an ocean, and the Milky Way is a flake of foam floating on it.” -Rumi
Morning Edit: 22July19 c.8am
I fixed the photo on the Gem. It’s so gorgeous and I didn’t want any of it cut from the frame. I also posted a link to the photo. Then I started wondering who named the Milky Way and things went on from there.
I learned it was called the “Milky Circle” by the Greeks. The story goes, Zeus brought the infant Hercules to nurse from Hera while she slept. She woke while the baby suckled and pushed him away. (His mother was a mortal, one of her husband’s many conquests). A few drops of milk spilled and formed the Milky Circle. The Romans adopted the name and called it “Via Lactea.” Translated, that means “the road of milk.”
In Germany it’s Milchstrasse. In Norway, it’s called Melkeveien. Both translate to Milky Way in English. But in Finland, it’s called Linnunrata (“path of birds”). In Armenia, it’s “hard goghi chanaparh,” or “Straw Thief’s Way.” In Sweden and Iceland, it’s called Vetrarbrautin and Vintergatan (Winter Way). In East Asia, it’s called “Silver River.”
Source: How the Milky Way Got Its Name
I love the name Silver River best because it comes from the story of the Weaver Girl and the Buffalo Boy. Two of my poems from Elanthian Love Songs are based on this legend, one for the Weaver Girl and one for the Buffalo Boy (also called “The Cowherd.) I was inspired to write the poems after seeing two beautiful paintings by Steph Law about this legend.
“Bridge of Dreams Where She Waits” by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Shadowscapes.com
“Bridge of Dreams Where He Waits” Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Shadowscapes.com
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Painting “Shaman” by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Shadowscapes.com
TICKLED PINK
Created in honor of Pinktoes’ “Pink-Themed Song Contest”
I found a Pink Love Potion.
I bravely took a drink.
I never had the notion
It would turn my blonde hair
Pink!
I tried another sip —
Aye brave I be, not wise.
Can ye guess what happened next? Continue reading
I hope you’re having a beautiful Friday. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Away with us he’s going,
The solemn-eyed:
He’ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than he can understand.
_____________
Did you know that three days in the Celtic Otherworld is three years here on Earth? I learned that recently while watching Myths and Monsters narrated by Nicholas Day. I find the thought very comforting.
There is a new page here on under1000skies called Missing Benjamin. All updates about Ben will be kept here from now on. All links from past updates to will be here, as time allows, in chrono order.
Have a beautiful Memorial Day weekend. See you Tuesday.
♡. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Welcome to our third ¤ Gallery Show ¤
Created using a PicMonkey template. Artist unknown.
Thank you so much to all the contributing artists and creatives who have helped under1000skies every day since we began in 2015.
In 2013, under1000skies was just a site Niki Flow created for random poems, photos and sketches.
She didn’t do much with it in 2014. Then on November 14, 2014, Niki’s whole life changed. She wrote a story about it here: It Begins with Me.
Year 1: Gems 1.1 to 1.81. It took almost a year to solidify a plan to keep the promise made in the November 14, 2014 blog. On September 2, 2015, the first “light-filled gem” was published: Gems 1.1
Year 2: Gems 2.1 to 2.82 On March 2, 2016, Niki’s oldest son Ben Archer, disappeared. Ben was one of the main contributing photographers and one of Niki’s staunchest supporters. As of this writing (1 year, 3 months later) none of his family nor any of his friends have seen or heard from him since. Many of the posts on under1000skies were about Ben that year, but the family decided to take most of those posts down. They thought Ben might be embarrassed at all the fuss and would come home when it died down. So we took down all the blogs, waited and never gave up hope. We never will. Ben’s case is also now on the Federal Database here: Ben Archer: NamUs MP # 33696 All updates about Ben are being kept here: Niki Flow. In October of 2016 we started an Instgram Account for under1000skies and in November of 2016 we started a Twitter Account. We’re also on Tumbler, G+, Pinterest and Facebook.
Year 3: Gems 3.1 to 3.65 (so far). In 2017 we began a brand new year with new photographers, artists and, for the first time, our first contribution from one of our homeless creatives, “Johnny O.” We also began our first Spotlight Saturday and hope to continue these at least every other week in the years go come. We also finally designed a signature logo and a website logo.
There’s a lot more coming in the next six months of 2017.
We’ll be getting under1000.org up and running as well as our stationary store under1000skies.com.
On or about August 1, 2017 Niki Flow will be begin a USA tour which has three objectives: (1) to meet volunteers and supporters of under1000skies around the United States; (2) to get the word out about under1000skies with road shows, poetry slams, music shows, and on-the-road gallery shows. We’ll have a table set up with information about us as well as boxes of stationary, volunteer packets, and artist packs; and (3) to follow in the footsteps of Niki’s son, Ben Archer who was a traveling artist. He visited 25 states in 2015 from one coast to the other and went to dozens of artist shows. This is where Niki will set up her under1000skies table with the Gallery Show and Ben’s photo prominently displayed. If anyone has seen Ben, it would be these creative folks he loved to spend so much time with. If you would like Niki to stop in your city; if you’d like to support this road trip with materials, a bed for a night, supplies, a meal or even a few hours of company, please write to us at Gems@gmail.com.
To all our artists, photographers, writers and advocates, quote suppliers, cheerleaders and especially to our homeless creatives and those who love and support them too, with all our hearts, thank you.
With deep thanks and lots of love,
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
#17 in the “Divine Feminine” series. In October and November we’ll be featuring quotes about, for and by women. Inspired by the Awakin.org call with Elle Luna, author The Crossroads of Should and Must. See also Aphrodite Emerges on Medium.com and “#the100dayproject” on Instagram.
We welcome submissions of poetry, prose, art and/or photos. See our About page for more information.
I hope you’re enjoying our featured photos and artwork. We are now linked with Volunteer Biographers and have recently launched an exciting photography/art project:
Though everyone is welcome to contribute photos and/or artwork, we are currently working with artists who are between homes (homeless). The challenge: “Show me what you find beautiful.” When we know what another person finds beautiful, we get a glimpse into their creative hearts. Our creative hearts connect us instantly and joyously. Every contributor, follower, volunteer, and artist will be a co-creator in this connection.
So far we have three volunteers working in San Francisco, Denver and Philadelphia. If you are interested, please leave a comment below. As soon as we have our website up, we’ll have a contact email and a Artist/Volunteer forum for Q&A.
(More here on our About page.)
To kick off the Gems Project, Sara Michele O’Sullivan (Niki Flow) will donate 100 percent of the profits from her book, Elanthian Love Songs – A Bard’s Tale – a collection of 21 love- and story-poems, featuring the beautiful paintings of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.
Thanks for reading.
♥. Niki Flow
Cyprus by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Shadowscapes.com, one of the paintings featured in Elanthian Love Songs.
♡ Gems, Gemstone, and Elanthian Love Songs – A Bard’s Tale ♡
Things are going smoothly here save for a few last-minute changes to my poetry book Elanthian Love Songs – a Bard’s Tale. It is to be my first published book. The release date is still set for Valentine’s Day (Sunday) on Amazon. It’s nearly there! The book is closely tied in with Gems as you will see, below.
My days are more balanced as I work hard. Dreams I’ve had for years are coming to be. I’ve been getting up with the sun, doing yoga and meditating, then starting my day. I’m off coffee completely and drinking either ginger and lemon tea or peppermint (from fresh-cut herbs) as a morning drink. At home, we’re putting in a hardwood floor in our living room and hall this week. We’ve been unloading boxes and boxes of papers and I’ve been organizing filing systems both for our house budget and my own writing projects. The Hay House video series had some great ideas about that.
We’re walking more and as the snow is melted now, we’ll be out daily again to get ready for the 5th Annual Running for Joy 5k/1 mile. I can’t believe this is the 5th year. You’re very welcome to join us (no matter where you walk the miles). =) Remote walkers/runners who do either the 5k or 1 mile will receive shiny awards made of 1’s and 0’s too!
My oldest son is staying with us now and has been such an encouragement and good example. He is learning musical healing techniques, Ayurvedic yoga, herbal healing, and meditation. I’m learning with him! It’s been a joy to talk to him every day about everything he’s learned. I’m stronger and healthier than I’ve been in a long time using his suggestions and especially getting rid of all the toxins in our home. We eat really clean now, and almost everything is from one-ingredient organic sources. We rarely eat meat and most of our protein comes from fish and plants. We recently joined our local, organic whole-foods co-op in Newark which also has a huge selection of fresh-cut herbs.
Today I’m putting the final touches on my book and cover. I’m waiting to hear back from my editor on two poems and from my artist friend about the cover design I did. The cover and every one of the poems feature the beautiful art of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (Shadowscapes.com). We purchased limited copyright for Elanthian Love Songs.
under1000skies is on temporary hiatus until we get more original photo donations. I’m working on a gallery show and the opening date will be February 29th.
So far I am working with a man in Denver named John who writes poetry. He is currently unhoused but he is still taking time for creativity. He is working on putting together a two- or three-week series of photos for me and those will be featured next His friend Nicole (Wild Dream Walks) of Denver has facilitated my introduction to John. He’s a beautiful soul and very creative. Nicole also has one person in Denver that is interested in being a volunteer for Gems / Volunteer Biographers and one in San Francisco, so that’s exciting! We’re also hoping to affiliate soon with a soup kitchen in Philly.
My biggest contributor of photos in the past two months was a man who was “homeless” by choice during most of 2015 — my son Benjamin. He says he prefers the term “nomadic” to “homeless.” During that year, his life was touched deeply by a spiritual awakening. He came close to dying twice. In both circumstances, his survival was miraculous. During this year and his awakening, my son literally did an about-face. This new direction he walks is filling me with joy — and health! He has been instrumental in helping all of us — my husband Mike, his brother Joe, his Nana (my mom), and many of his friends, too.
Laddership
The Laddership Program by Service Space where I have been one of the co-creators (as our beloved mentor Nipun Mehta calls it) since 2014 showed me that I can be a part of the gift economy and design for generosity, too. The people I met through the program showed me that I can live my dream within the framework of my principles as they are doing or plan to do. So, to that end, half the proceeds from the sale of Elanthian Love Songs will go toward supporting this site and the artists.
I hope you have a beautiful day.
Happy Hobbit Day! Gems today celebrates fitness, fun, JRR Tolkien, Middle Earth and all things hobbit. It’s also an invitation to a 21-day Walking challenge in collaboration with Wild Dream Walks on Kind Spring. It runs from September 23-October 6. All welcome!
Painting Copyright © Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Shadowscapes.com 2015. All rights reserved.
under1000skies 