Meri's Musings

Coach-consciousness seems to be nudging me in the direction of posts  with a transformational message. So if you're looking for sweetness and light as you meander through blog posts today, I'm inviting you to move on. . . . because this post is about diving deep letting the light shine through the cracks about abiding in a place of darkness and learning the lessons it holds. Not a topic for the faint of heart. Yesterday, I talked about  accepting what's true and finding empowering questions that move you beyond obsessing over why's (when the why questions are  a form of resistance to what is)  When we find ourselves in a dark place, a place of heartbreak and loss, a place in which we seem to be in some kind  of suspended animation while the outside world spins dizzily, one of the most important questions may be "How can I find a space of peace in the midst of this darkness?" "A Candle to Lig...

This morning I woke to find a message from a friend, sharing her family's heartbreak over the death of a beloved nephew by his own hand. They are devastated, reeling, full of questions, the kinds of questions that have no answers. Questions that begin with "Why, God?" and spread out from there in concentric circles of grief. My own dark nights never took me so close to the edge of the abyss that the leap into oblivion seemed the only answer. Somehow I held tightly enough onto hope in the midst of seeming hopelessness that I avoided being sucked into the vortex. By some measure of grace, I held onto the certainty that I'd find my way out of the darkness and back to the light. "Visitation" - copyright 2009 Meri Arnett-Kremian This poor soul must have been unable to absorb the love that his family and friends offered so abundantly. This lost soul must have believed there was no light to find his way back to, that oblivion was the answer. Why do some of us find...

There was a time, about five years ago now, when I started playing with images and saying "what if?" What if I crop this image and try this filter? What if I layer this altered image on top of a scan of one of my mixed media pieces? It was a time when I was trying to stay afloat in a sea of emotion. I couldn't alter my situation, but I could alter images, making them softer, more romantic. I could take my sorrow, merge it with creative energy and make myself into something new. A survivor artist. I could create meaning and come fully into my power as a woman of wisdom. I could speak my truth in visual images and words from the heart. From the ashes, a new life. How have you used sorrow as an impetus for transformation?