Each week, after A Pause for Beauty is sent, we get a lot of feedback
from Heron Dancers sharing their gratitude, insights and stories. We really
appreciate your words and enjoy sharing them with others. If you write to
us and would prefer that we do not share your comments in a future Pause
for Beauty, just let us know.
Rod,
I totally love Canyon Crow! What an amazing painting! If I had the money, I would surely purchase it from you, but as I don't, I'll just return to this Pause for Beauty and gaze at it often. You have a powerful gift, and I thank you every time I receive a Pause for Beauty or Heron Dance in the mail.
Your verbal honesty is at times frightening, but it is a necessary and vital part of traveling your path...reading and thinking about your words encourages your readers to examine their lives and reach for their own truths. I have a quote hung in my office that comes from the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and I think it may be applicable. At the end of the book, while Harry is recovering in the infirmary, Dumbledore tells Harry: "The truth....It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution." I think that we can become so beguiled by "truth," or what we perceive as truth, and so enamored with introspection, that following them, without the leavening power of Art, can lead us into a dangerous downward spiral that may be difficult to break free of.
Chris H. (Responding to A Pause for Beauty 306)
Dear Rod,
It was so enlightening to read the sharing of your experience in your recent art workshop. I love what you said about nurturing your inner beauty and nurturing the beauty in all those who come into your life. Our world has so many opportunities to think negatively and see what's wrong with others or with life. Your HeronDance has always been a light in the darkness for others. It's great to hear how your inner journey is giving you the opportunity to bring that light into your own life. I see the beauty in you through your love of nature and your beautiful reflections through your artwork. Thanks for reminding your readers of how important it is to nurture the beauty in ourselves and to see the beauty in others. We all have free will and choice; to see the good rather than the ugly.
With gratefulnes for all you share,
Christine (Responding to A Pause for Beauty 305)
Rod,
I have been reading and loving your emails and artwork for a very long time now. I have never felt compelled to write to you before reading your latest Heron Dance entry. Hear this~ Whatever people's negative responses have been ...ignore them!
I, too am an artist and i know it's very hard to ignore the bad stuff but stay authentic and put it out there anyway! The reason i keep opening these Heron Dance emails and buying your books and artwork is because you seem to lack pretension entirely, your style is SO loose and flowing, it truly inspires my to do more watercolor... no bullshit, it does.
Recently, I have begun the process of giving my first home back to the bank (deed in lieu of foreclosure), my hubby lost his 3rd job within a year, and we got in a car crash on my birthday...blah blah the economy yadda yadda, sounds sucky I know. I have been challenged to the very edge of my optimism lately and still, I feel real, held in the embrace of my Higher Power....like Spirit has me safe and sound... sometimes when I feel completely overwhelmed, I (like you) need to retreat to NATURE AND LET HER NURTURE.
So, keep on keeping it real okay?
PS. though I can't condone biting that models' neck, I do understand the lust of the moment and the delight imagining the unknown body, that tension and vibration is like nothing else on Earth, (thank God for the bodily sensations aye?)!
Know that you are inspiring this frustrated, artistic, tree-huggin’ mother of two in California so don't stop creating and sharing your journey…
Peace,
Krista, red-headed tree hugger from California
Hi Rod,
I have never responded to any of your writing (or any writing ever), but I feel compelled this morning to respond for two reasons. One, I have a feeling that you took a risk, put yourself out there and know you are going to receive negative feedback from your latest writing. Therefore, I hope to balance that out for you. And the second reason I am writing is because I can completely empathize with what you said.
I love Thoreau, and have read his writing a dozen times, but I always felt that he was missing the sensual. He could write about living simply or feeling the wild energy to kill an animal, but he was always missing that wild energy of sexuality. And sex is one of the most natural and incredible parts of being an animal! Like you, I am also someone who tries to live a balanced life and nature is definitely my temple, but I am also a sexual being and have also struggled with my desires like you wrote about. It was truly refreshing to read what you wrote and it has helped begin a dialogue in my head about living a balanced sexual life.
Sometimes reflective nature writers can be so Puritan and I think they are missing out on one our biggest connections to nature.
So, thanks for the risk you took with your writing. It was a pleasure to read.
-Katie
You are a wise and courageous man, Rod, to speak so candidly of your sensual nature and sexual desire. One who lives the deep and vital life in the great ebb and flow of truth, spirit and the deeper meaning of all that is cannot help but know the intensity of passion; of love in all it's forms including intimacy with ones self and with an other. Tantra is not just a lofty ideal; it has the capacity to be the highest and most challenging form of meditation. Practice and be joyful. Hold no guilt or regret to yourself or any other. Be gentle and compassionate in your observations of your thoughts and your choices. It takes great courage to love fully, even for a brief moment in time. I cannot imagine living this human journey without sexual passion and an appreciation of the pleasures of our senses. Perhaps some of us were born that way to ensure that we would, indeed, plumb the depths of every essence of our being.
Blessings, Ruth Eileen
Missoula , MT
Send us your feedback
on A Pause for Beauty.
If you write to us and would prefer that we do not share your comments in
a future Pause for Beauty, just let us know.
Interested in receiving A Pause for Beauty on a regular basis? Give it a try for a week!
