20190822_124819

a prayer to let go of unnecessary grief   (unfinished)   $20

 

the news of the world is weighing me down.   Life is So SIMPLE   How can all this be happening??????

I need to make Cloths.  to remain sane,  to comfort myself,  to keep showing myself how things REALLY are,  to tell my story.  I make Cloths too to pay my way.  Kind people buy them.   But lately,  i find self making Cloths i can't bear to sell.  And really,  there's no need to keep making  Cloths to keep.  And i look at this which is a prayer in the form of how i have found i can pray.  Can you sell prayers?,  i wondered?   Is that OK?,  to sell prayers?  Who might buy a prayer?  Would I?  When i was thinking about praying a week or so ago,  would I have jumped at the chance to buy a prayer?   …..and then it went from there:   I saw a skinny old woman who sells prayers…it brought to mind characters from Gabriel Garcia Marquez novels,  100 Years of Solitude for instance…..skinny old woman sitting at a small table at the market place.  Stacks of prayers,  baskets full of small ones.  They are not labeled.   People ruffle through them and finding one that resonates,  hold it up.  Old woman looks…"for the germination of a seed.  2 dollars" she says.   Done deal and the person walks off,  the prayer in the palm of their hand.  They feel hopefull.

If i sold prayers,  I'd have 1/4 of my phone~internet bill  in two days.

 

 


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the potential is enormous.  And for the hours i did this this morning,  I was able to CARE without aching.  I just prayed.

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28 responses to “i’m going crazy”

  1. Jan Avatar
    Jan

    prayers that can be held. from your hands to someone else’s. to teach someone else how to pray. easing the ache.

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  2. Mo Crow Avatar

    My favourite memory from One Hundred Years of Solitude (a book I have read over and over many times) is when the old man made the little golden fish with ruby eyes then would melt it down and then make the little golden fish and then melt it down… the magic is in the making

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  3. Mo Crow Avatar

    selling prayers, talismans, amulets, magical charms, art whatever you want to call them is an honourable way to make a living

    Like

  4. beth Avatar
    beth

    I think that reading your post from today spoke straight into me. Something for me to remember. I might copy and paste it into an email to myself!! A prayer to let go of unnecassary grief……….I exhale long. AHhh,…. This got me in my core. Thank you Grace. This whole post is so image making. Clarissa Pinkola Este would/could/has said much about this as well.
    I think I’ll go an stitch some more on my friends cloth.
    peace
    hermosa

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  5. Mo Crow Avatar

    with impeccable intent which you do (((Grace)))

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  6. Michelle Slater Avatar

    A decade plus years ago, in a time of rage and grief so palpable I experienced a constant taste like iron or blood in my mouth. I wasn’t eating. It happened that I had a talk with a Jesuit priest trained as a psychotherapist. He was deeply thoughtful for some silent time after I spoke and then, leaning forward slightly, said “Life is a complicated ship to sail.” His voice was the essence of compassion. Then, being catholic he suggested this ‘penance’ as they do after ‘confession’: “Twice daily, first upon waking and last at night, pray that they be forgiven.” Sounds simple. It anchored me to a world I wanted to leave behind and delivered me to kindness I’d forgotten.

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  7. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    I think your manifested prayers, and what they contain, are absolutely gorgeous. Also agree completely with both of Mo’s posts. And would personally buy any or all of them. There is one specifically that made my whole soul bloom just knowing it existed.

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  8. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    also can strongly relate to the post title. The cognitive dissonance of shining earth-bound blessings in my personal world always backdropped by this endless abomination of humanity’s INhumane aspects. And also Gaia losing so much of herself as we have known Her. I’m glad you found prayers to guide you back to your core. You describe the process perfectly – “going” out of your mind. Sufficiently to get out of your head and into your heart.
    Stitching for me is like setting a sturdy psychic and emotional taproot. I sensed the feelings woven into the words and you grounding your intentions. Nourishing and supporting your own healing as you prayed. YES.

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  9. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    So touching of a story Michelle, thanks for sharing.

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  10. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    Grace, I am feeling overwhelming grateful to come here and find such wise and compassionate women gathering in prayers of all kinds.

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  11. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Prayerful Blessings to you Grace .. my heart is singing. Such a beautiful post!!

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  12. Beth Avatar

    How beautiful this is…

    Like

  13. Dakotah Avatar
    Dakotah

    I am feeling this, too. Wanting to be a part of what is happening here.

    Like

  14. Dana Avatar

    Your prayers in cloth are powerful. I’ve always been attracted to small wisps of creativity, like sumi or haiku, because it seems to me that beauty and the sacred are often evanescent and hard to pin down. The little prayers of the moment seem to touch them most successfully.

    Like

  15. dee Avatar

    I share your anguish. What is to become of us? Will anything help? What power what hope what resources? You are a resource. A font of clarity that refreshes. Brings self back to self. Please know this.
    I was a teeny bit surprised about how it all relates to your work tho since I’ve always seen your cloths as prayer cloths.

    Like

  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    easing the ache. if it can, then yes, yes.

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    it is, isn’t it. it’s in the making.

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar

    the thing about them is that they made me Happy.

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    Pinkola~Estes…i wish. I WISH she would appear here

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar

    to be delivered to kindness…this. To be delivered to
    kindness.

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  21. grace Forrest Avatar

    maybe it’s enough? to know of the existence of Something?
    I love this thought

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  22. grace Forrest Avatar
  23. grace Forrest Avatar

    We ARE. We are so deep and so Real and so everything

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  24. grace Forrest Avatar

    Tina…i can feel you, your prayer, kindof praying, so
    Light and Gentle and so full of soft love

    Like

  25. grace Forrest Avatar

    our Wondering is Great, isn’t it

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  26. grace Forrest Avatar

    these tiny pieces, nothing, yet so much. I love them.

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  27. grace Forrest Avatar

    your question is interesting…has me wondering…
    I think maybe the difference is that my Cloths come from my own experience.
    These small prayers, they belong to everyone, someOne elses story, through someone elses eyes?

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  28. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    Jude’s actually the one who brought this centrality-of-awareness to my attention so long ago that I forget exactly when it was. 2005, I think. and I love you too, Grace

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