Dear
Heron Dancers,
By the time you get this, I hope to be paddling a lake
of quiet, a lake of dreams. Or maybe sitting by one
of those lakes listening to the wind rustle leaves and
wild water. Yes I do, I do. Hopefully I won’t
be carrying a canoe on a slippery, ice-covered portage.
That doesn’t happen often on these trips, but
the fact that it might adds a little to the sense of
excitement and adventure I have sitting here today thinking
about the whole thing.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a cross
country trip I took about ten years ago. I was out on
the road, interviewing people for Heron Dance. I traveled
through Virginia, Texas, California, Colorado, Montana,
the Dakotas, Michigan and home. I had an old Toyota
van and I slept in the back. There were long periods
of solitude on that trip. In between interviews, which
tended to be clustered, I didn’t talk much. I
ate mostly at picnic stops along the highway or just
walked into a forest or mountain desert.
Anyway, I got into a deep meditative place on that trip.
There were no real details to worry about. No phone
calls, no emails, no bills, no people issues. When I
got back, I felt deeply peaceful.
I hope to return back here in a week or so from when
you receive this. I hope to be in that quiet cocoon
of psychological comfort when I get back. And this time,
I’m going to see what I can do to live and write
and paint from that place, at least for a little while.
It’s fleeting, that state of mind. It needs to
be nurtured and protected. If I could do that, HERON
DANCE would be all the better
for it.
It is not an easy task, but a most rewarding
one, to bless the marketplace with a contemplative presence.
It seems to me that the life of work and prayer is not
only possible, but greatly enhanced by standing firm
in the real world with one’s being anchored solidly
in the Ultimate Reality. It is the harmony of the universe
that echoes in the heart of the “new monk”
who works and prays, lives and loves, re-creates and
recreates in the center of the present world. The mystical
monastery is the whole of society; the marketplace is
one of its cloisters. The Holy Rule of the New Monk
is the solid perspective of the spiritual practice embraced.
- Theresa Mancuso from
“A Monastic Life."
In celebration of the Great Dance
of Life,
Roderick W. MacIver
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The Heron Dance Nature Art Journal
The new issue of The
Heron Dance Nature Art Journal is now available.
We’ve been getting a little feedback.
The erotic content is smallroughly about 10%--but
it seems to be controversial.
This new issue, an experiment, explores the
same themes as does our Pause for Beauty, but
through the eyes of a semi-fictional wild artist
and his effort to live a meaningful, simple
life close to wild nature. It's primarily a
creative journey, a spiritual journey.
HERON DANCE
celebrates the beauty and mystery of the natural
world through art and words.
To
subscribe, please visit here.
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Two
Egrets
Single Matted Print
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Looking
Unframed Original Artwork
$800.00
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Surya
Namaskara
Signed,
Limited Edition Print
$75.00 - $250.00
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HERON
DANCE NEWS:
2010 Calendar:
anticipated in mid-October
2010 Daybook: anticipated
in late October
Meditations Diary: anticipated
in late October
Mediations on Nature: anticipated
in early November
Art as a Way of Life: late
November
Issue 58 (The Gentle Arts of a Well-lived
Life): early November
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Earth,
My Likeness
Walt
Whitman was a wild soul. His love of wild nature
and the sensual experiences of life are felt in
everything he wrote. This carefully selected collection
of poems alongside the beauty of Roderick MacIver's
black and white watercolors creates a grand tribute
to this sensitive soul.
As I have walk’d in Alabama my morning
walk,
I have seen where the she-bird
the mocking-bird sat
on her nest in the briers hatching
her brood.
I have seen the he-bird also,
I have paus’d to hear
him near at hand
inflating his throat and joyfully
singing.
And while I paus’d it
came to me that what
he really sang for was not
there only,
Nor for his mate nor himself
only, nor all sent back by the echoes,
But subtle, clandestine, away
beyond,
A charge transmitted and gift
occult for those being born.
—
Walt Whitman, excerpted in Earth,
My Likeness
Visit
here to order Earth, My Likeness.
Visit
here to read additional excerpts.
Visit
here to view Mountain Meadow,
the image featured above.
 Birches
II - Notecards
These
striking 5" x 7" notecards (blank
on the inside), are printed domestically on
Reincarnation, the same premium recycled paper
that we used for our Holiday cards.
These notecards feature one of Roderick MacIver’s
most memorable images, Birches II. The set
contains 10 notecards and 10 matching envelopes,
also made from premium recycled paper, all
of which is tucked securely in a sturdy natural-finish
box embossed with the HERON
DANCE logo on the front.
Visit
here to order the Birches II
Notecards .
Visit
here to view the Birches II
image.
 Back
Issue Selection:
Issues
55-57
Issue 55: Still
Dancing, is a 72-page softcover book, much
like the issues we published years ago, but
in full color. Featuring more than 50 of Roderick
MacIver's wild nature paintings, it highlights--through
art and words--the beauty, peace, and sense
of mystery that can be found in the natural
world and explores the nuances of human connection
to that world. In addition to poetry selections
and notes from Rod's journals, Issue 55 contains
excerpts from the journals and books of backwoods
wanderers (Thoreau & Harlan Hubbard),
scientists, biologists, artists (primarily
Van Gogh), and spiritual writers.
Issue 56: Gratitude &
Wild Rivers, explores the evolution from searcher
to a person who has put down roots. It is
about a love for rivers in general evolving
into a love for one river in particular. It
is about the rewards and risks of becoming
a member of a community of like-minded people.
It is about accepting others and being accepted
despite the flaws and embarrassments.
Issue 57: The Song I Came
to Sing, published in August 2009, took the
form of a semi-fictional work: life through
the eyes of a certain wild artist and lover
of wild places, wild rivers and wild women.
It explored the same subjects as prior issues--the
human connection to the natural world, the
human search for meaning--but through the
eyes of a character who lives on the fringes
of our culture, who reads a lot, thinks a
lot and who spends a lot of time wandering
around in the woods and paddling rivers.
Visit
here to order Issues 55-57.
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