Never finished, I am a work-in-progress;
sometimes I know that this
is exactly how it should be.

Doors open unto doors,
Alice in Wonderland,
and when I surrender any notion
that I should be different,
I too can tumble down the rabbit-hole,
having adventure after adventure.

Measuring sticks and rule books
are tossed out the window
as I pull yard after yard of color
and uncertainty
into my center
from which all creativity and
unknowing arise.

Sometimes I need to stop my ears
against the droning voices
of shoulds and shouldn’ts,
and when I do
I can disappear freely and playfully
into the blessing of knowing
I am forever unfinished.

Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann
February 11th 2011

   

It is said, in Jewish Mysticism,
that what happens in the heavens
happens on earth.
As above, so below, it is said.
It is said, in Jewish Mysticism
that our relationship with the Great Creator
is mutual.
God effects us, we effect God.
You have painted two oceans side-by-side,
a diptych, where two become one.
It is said, in Jewish Mysticism
that God is One,
and that we are all an aspect of the
Great Oneness that is God.
You have painted two oceans side-by-side,
a diptych, where two become one.

What is it about the ocean
that lifts your soul, like
none else?
Is it the twoness of the calm
and the wildness
of the ocean?
Is it the twoness of the grey
and the turquoise
of the ocean?
Is it your knowing
that sometimes the ocean
like life, will buoy you, carry you gently
and sometimes turn you
upside down?
Is it the ever-changing movement
of the ocean, and its stillness?
The chaos and the order?
Eternity and the present moment?

There is a knowing in you,
a knowing beyond words
where Mystery can become visible,
in the paints you put on the canvas,
where your hand touches
the hand of God.

When you walk by the ocean,
when you swim in the ocean,
when you paint by the ocean,
two become one.

Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann
February 11th 2011