More Photos from Mexico

Be sure to check out my website for more photos from Mexico.  I’ve created 4 albums with photos from:

1. The Embodied Imagination intensive in Malinalco
2. Mexico City – Markets, street scenes and Aztec ruins
3. San Miguel de Allende, a fabulous historical town filled to the brim with creative energy and artists from around the world
4. Mexico City – Wandering around the Contesa neighborhood and local market place

I hope you enjoy my photos.  Be sure to let me know what you think.

Just click on this link to go to my website and then click on the tab that says “Photo Gallery”

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Mexican Smiles

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The Wonder of Ice

Drip, drip, drip.

As the days become longer and more yellow comes into the morning light I can feel my soul stirring to wakefulness again.  It has been a long cold winter but warmer days are here and the ice is almost gone.  What beauty it can hold within!  Not much longer now before all the ice and snow are gone and we have mud and grass again!

Celtic Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire.

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Blessings of the Earth

May the deep blessings of earth be with us.
May the fathomless soundings of seas surge in our soul.
May boundless stretches of the universe echo in our depths
to open us to wonder
to strengthen us for love
to humble us with gratitude
that we may find ourselves in one another
that we may lose ourselves in gladness
that we give ourselves to peace.

J. Philip Newell from his upcoming book Praying with the Earth

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Last of the Snow People

Spring is definitely in the air.  While I was out walking today, I couldn’t help noticing all the snow people slowly melting away.  There was something a bit sad about seeing them all go, leaving their hats and gloves on the ground behind them, as the snow quietly departs.

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Spring Classes at Monkey Bridge Arts

Spring session will begin on Tuesday March 9.

All levels are welcome in these classes, including complete beginners.  You will be able to work at your own pace and have fun, no matter where you are in your creative journey.

This session, I will offer the following classes:

Colored Pencil – Color Relationships

Tuesdays, 9:30AM – 12:30PM

March 9 – May 25 (No class March 30 & April 27)

$250 (10 Weeks)

Drawing – Keys to Drawing

Wednesdays, 9:30AM – 12:30PM

March 10 – May 26 (No class March 31 & April 28)

$250 (10 weeks)

Embodied Imagination & Creative Dreamwork

Fridays, 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

March 13 – May 21 (No class April 2 & April 30)

$225 (9 weeks)

Creative Mentoring & Embodied Imagination Sessions

I will also have 2 openings for one-on-one creative mentoring or embodied imagination work starting in March.

For more information and registration: 952-412-4786 or e-mail me at SheilaAsato@comcast.net

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Six Words Only – Your Life Story

An AFWJ friend recently called my attention to a wonderful piece on NPR about writing your memoir in only six words.  What a wonderful challenge.  Here’s what I came up with for mine:

Healing dreams move love into the world

How would you sum up your life story in only six words?

Here are two of my favorites from NPR

Found on Craigslist: table, apartment, fiance.
Becki Lee

Alzheimer’s: meeting new people every day.
Phil Skversky

What’s your story?

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A Winter’s Faith

Help us to have a winter’s faith, Blessed One.

Give us faith that is content to know that life slumbers in the frozen ground, not demanding that green shoots appear before their time.

Give us faith that looks with sympathy on the doomed beauty of a frost-covered tree, knowing that the fragile crystals will melt away in the sun’s light.

Give us faith that longs to tramp through the unbroken purity of new-fallen snow and does not despise it when brilliant white fades to gray. Give us, we pray, a humble faith, a quiet faith, a winter’s faith.

– Plymouth Congregational Church Unison Prayer, 2/14/10

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What a Difference Sunshine Makes!

October was an unusually gloomy month in Minnesota.  Yesterday, we finally had some sunshine again and the sky was magnificent.  I can’t believe what a positive effect a beautiful sky and clear light have on my spirit and energy level!

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Albedo Blossoms

Over the past few days I have been busy traveling between Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  In between all the flights and events I had scheduled, I’ve been immersing myself in readings about alchemy for my training program with Robert Bosnak in LA.  Even though I am a bit tired from all the running around, I have also had the opportunity to savor a bit of spring in each of these locations during my morning walks.  Here is a small sampling of some of the beautiful blossoms I have  enjoyed while thinking about the alchemical idea of “albedo” or whitening.

In science, albedo refers to the amount of light reflected off of the surface of an object.  When an object has a high albedo, it means that the surface reflects most of the light that hits it.  So pure white has the highest albedo of 1 because it reflects back all of the light.  Click here for examples of scientists measuring the albedo of arctic water, ice, snow and tundra.

In alchemy, albedo refers to the second stage of transformation of base materials into gold.  C.G. Jung, who was very interested in alchemy, saw it as a wonderful metaphorical system for understanding the process of transformation in the lives of his clients he worked with.

As the second year of my training program with Robert Bosank draws to a close, we have begun to focus on the study of alchemy as it relates to dreaming and the imaginal realm.  For me, alchemy is such an alien system of thought that both inspires and totally confuses me.  It is also providing me with just the right combination of stimulation, challenge and fun that makes life long learning such a delight.  More than anything, it feels as if I am finally starting to understand a wee bit about my own Western cultural heritage, which in many ways is still such a mystery to me after living so long in Japan.

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The albedo of a

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