Shema Productions

A Musical Gift for You

A Holiday Message and Song

Singing helps me express my gratitude for life. I think of something I am grateful for and allow the sounds of love to come out of my mouth. Sometimes the tune reminds me of something my Grandpa would sing, a melancholy or joyful tune from the old country. Sometimes it sounds pretty good and other times it definitely doesn't. I erase those from my iPhone. Others I keep.

Today I am grateful for all the wonderful people I have connected to over the past year. If you are reading this, you are one of those! Thank you for being on this journey with me. Wishing you a joyful, peaceful and beautiful holiday season and new year.

Here is the circle of letters I was looking at when I sang this for you! You can see (if you look hard) that three letters - Shin, Lamed and Final Mem which spell Shalom - are in the middle.

 

 

 

How can I help?

 

Pictures of our Holiday Marketplace

I love it when things are easy. Amy, the owner of the Rookwood Inn, and I just hosted a holiday marketplace together here in Lenox, MA. Amy sold pre-copies of her new book and I got to meet lots of people from my new community while sharing and selling my artwork. Amy gave me the whole dining room to display my work. Thanks Amy for making me feel so welcome!

You know how things can just flow sometimes? Well this did. In thinking about why this worked so well I realized that my suggestion to Amy to host a gathering together came from my sincere wish to help her get her product out to the community and get more people to visit her Inn. I had the idea that we could do that and create a space for me to be introduced to my new community while showing my work.

Amy loved it. She is a real community person and she wanted to help me too. With little effort (except for all the food that Amy and her staff prepared- which was great) we wrote a press release, it went out, we had lots of people visiting and schmoozing and we had a good time. We both wanted to help one another. I really think this is key.

As I go forward putting my work out in the world I want to remember, "How can I help?" as a mantra for getting things started on the right foot. It isn't about me so much as it is about right relationship and timing. If the juice is there and the intension is good things do seem to take off with a better start.

 

 

Heavenly Forest

The other day I was so stressed. Finally, I got myself to go out my door and take a walk on the grounds of my new home. I have been here a month and have walked around the adjacent golf course but this time I took a side path and what I found was truly magical.

There are trails and paths behind my home that I didn't know about! The beauty was almost overwhelming. I was so moved I began to sing like a prayer to the Presence that surrounded me. I even googled Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, born in the 1700's who brought esoteric teachings more prominently into the chassidic movement of Judaism. I know, how totally un-cool and not particularly present to use my iPhone in the midst of my own mystical forest experience, but somehow it felt right. Rebbe Nachman was famous for going into the forest to speak and sing directly in conversation with God, so I kind of wanted him near me!

As I wandered in my new playground, one particular tree really called my attention. She was larger than any others and she stood out very prominently. According to Professor Suzanne Simard, she was probably a Mother Tree connected to and nurturing the surrounding smaller trees! (Thanks for sharing this link, Ria!) 

I have to tell you, today I woke up to another view of this amazing gift I have outside my front door. We had a snow storm and the winter wonderland was again heavenly, in a different way.  I feel so blessed to have these trees near me. I missed forests living by the ocean. "There is something about trees," I said many years ago and it holds true for me today. I feel held, grounded and very grateful for the wisdom they hold. I can relax and regain my sense of self when I am with them.

Happy December. May you be blessed with beauty and nature always. Want to go for a walk?

Power of Place

It’s taken me a long time to settle down and into my self but I feel like I may have found the place that supports me the best at this time. My last home ON the ocean helped me heal after my divorce and FLOW with my own creativity. I opened up to my art again and even allowed myself to tap into my Jewish roots which I resisted for years.

Now in Lenox, MA, two and a half hours west of my old home, I feel a very different kind of support. I am surrounded by trees, boulders and mountains. I feel very GROUNDED. In two short weeks I been able to settle in, unpack, and go out socially with a lot of new friends. I am most excited that I feel energized to put my work out in the world with more ease - artwork, workshops, online meditations, and even proposals to do corporate training again! Fun stuff that I couldn’t seem to energize as easily near the water.

Is it timing, creative community, the solid ground below me? Likely all of the above. What I know is it was the drive to create my souls work that had me unroot myself again. Moving from one place to another, year after year, had its challenges. Each place served a purpose in my evolution though. It was like adding and subtracting what works and what doesn’t so I could feel at ease and aligned with what is truly mine to do. I think I am getting there! Phew! It feels good.

Energizing My New Home

I am really excited about my move to Lenox, MA. I have butterflies in my stomach sometimes because I can’t believe I have done this again - an 8th move in as many years which requires making new friends and so much more. But I have. I felt a distinct ‘it’s time to move’ call from deep within my bones about two months ago. From there, I followed guidance and was led to just the right location. I am so grateful.

I am meeting people, having fun and unpacking everything I can quickly but with ease. The furniture just fits, I mean literally by inches in some cases. I find just the right spot for this piece of art or that furniture. I haven’t hung all the pictures, but most of it is done.  What remains is perhaps the most important job, hanging my Alphabet of Vibration^TM paintings.

I’ve come to understand the incredible power these ancient symbols of creation hold. When they are in a circle they create a supportive energetic field, so where I put them in the house will matter. I have some over the fireplace (as you can see in the picture) and a few in the front hall. But for most of them, I want to feel settled before choosing where I place them. 

Now that my nest is pretty set, I have to remember to get outside for a long walk in the beautiful mountain air! That's next.

On a Clear Day

I always pay attention to the songs in my head that seem to come out of nowhere. I've learned over the years that this is one way Spirit is able to get to me. It's like, 'Phew. Her mind is quiet. Now we can get through!" So here is the song I woke up to just one hour ago, at 2:00 a.m.

On a clear day
Rise and look around you
And you'll see who you are
On a clear day
How it will astound you
That the glow of your being
Outshines every star
You'll feel part of
Every mountain, sea and shore,
You can hear from far and near
A world you've never never heard before

And on a clear day
On a clear day
You can see forever and ever and ever and ever more.

I get it. The more I clear my thoughts, release fears and patterns of behavior that no longer serve me, I will be able to tune into the truth of who I am. I will feel my interconnection with all there is. How fun to get that reminder - even if it is in the middle of the night!

Swan Lake

Scared of the unknown. Wanting peace. I drive in the car to recover myself. Not knowing what I will find. Stuck in traffic I glance to my right. A-bun-dance. Beauty beyond my wildest dreams. Laughter. Joy. Delight. Thank you.

 

Dangerous Beauty

 
My favorite movie of all time is Dangerous Beauty, a true story of Veronica Franco who was a famous courtesan, poet, writer and defender of love and women’s rights in 16th century Venice. Veronica’s mother convinced her to be a courtesan because she recognized her daughter’s beauty and thirst for knowledge. She knew that given the family’s low status Veronica would live a life of drudgery if she did not choose this path of pleasure. Women of that time, even those of wealth, were uneducated and disempowered. This was their only path of freedom, as limited as that was.

In the movie, Veronica’s mother brings her to a richly appointed library. “Mother,” she says, “we can’t go in there!” Her mother explains that while common women are not allowed in, courtesans are. She says, “Courtesans, my dear, are the most educated women in the world.”

I love the sumptuousness of the movie and what keeps bringing me back to it again and again is the message. Passion, a woman’s voice and her value as an intelligent and worthwhile human being are worth fighting for.

Entering Peace

OMG! "Entering Peace" came to my mind and heart as soon as I drove into this magical place, the Hancock Shaker Village just north of Lenox, Massachusetts. I was taking part in a Peace conference co-presented with the Center for Peace through Culture.  I learned a lot, sang with Barbara and Graham Dean from Summersongs, connected with friends new and old, including Nancy Roof of Kosmos Journal, and took in the simple, elegant magic of this place.

My heart is full, full, full. I will be living near here soon, as part of a vibrant, creative community dedicated to social and spiritual activism, peace and conscious living. I am forever grateful.

 

Music of the Spheres

“You now what’s out there? A series of higher tones arranged by nature and governed by the physics of the whole universe. It’s an overtone. It’s an energy. It’s a wavelength and if you’re not riding it, great Lordy, you’ll never hear it.

“Where do you think it comes from, what I hear?”

“I think it comes from all around you. Really, I mean it comes through us, some of us. It’s invisible but I feel it.”

“So only some of us can hear it?” “Only some of us are listening.”

Wizard (Robin Williams) in conversation with 11 year old music prodigy August (Freddie Highmore) in the movie August Rush (2007)

For a rich description of the Pythagorean theory of music and wonderful scientific and cross-cultural descriptions music as a healing force see this article.