Bone Sigh Art, A Review-Strength Must Come from Within

When my friend and I took our mini-vacation to Asheville, we also visited the town of Black Mountain, NC. Black Mountain is an even smaller town than Asheville, but it is absolutely chock-full of artistic and folksy goodness and because we were under a time frame, we did not get to see all that we had planned. Oh, well... I guess that means we'll have to take another road trip!

One of the best stores that we went to is called, Mountain Spirit Cards & Gifts. Frankly, I was a bit hesitant to visit, because I thought the cards and gifts might be really cheesy, but they are not at all. The store is full of recovery art, even though the owner of the shop didn't even know that her arts and cards qualified as such. My friend and I talked to the owner at length about how much we liked her store and about recovery in general and she was very personable, interested, and enthusiastic.

Her store features a lot of watercolor paintings with recovery poetry on it created by a woman named Terri. Her art can be found at http://www.bonesigharts.com/. Terri writes:

"During the most painful time of my life, I made a promise to myself. Instead of numbing my pain, and avoiding it, I would turn into it. I feel what was going on inside of me and explore it. At times the emotion was too much for me, filling me up so completely that I needed to let some spill out. It is in that spilling "bone sighs" were born, adding watercolor to the words was my way of completing each thought that came out, my way of honoring them."

I bought one of her "Bone Sighs" paintings for my room. The vow is a writing that resonants deep within my soul and I need to read it every day. I am so inspired by the words that I instantly knew I would need to share them with you. (I am not going to scan it in, even though the watercolors are beautiful too, because I want to support her work and if you would like to have one for yourself, I suggest you visit her website, and purchase one.)

i commit to me, myself, today.
i vow to listen to and follow and believe in my goodness,
to recognize my strength and wield it
with the added power of compassion
to know my heart and trust it and not
turn to outside expectations to feed it,
but rather turn to my own inner
guidance to lead me,
to know that i am the person i want
to be and to work to uncover more
of my beauty daily.
and to be gentle with myself when
i slip-loving myself even in
the darkness.
to me, myself, i give my love-
and it is from me, myself, my
love is returned.

Isn't that message beautiful? I stared at it for a long time in the store mesmerized. In fact, my friend and I argued about which one of us would buy it! The words are so inspirational to me and I hope they are to you too. Terri has a blog, called Honor Yourself, which I am eventually going to add on my blogroll. It's full of beautiful writing and her art site even has a community where people can discuss art, spirituality, and dealing with emotions, mainly from a female perspective. As you can tell, I am in awe of this woman!

Her message reminds me that my strength and self-worth must come from within and my Godde and no one else. Yes, people and community are needed, but still, my own personal strength, hope, and goodness, must come from within. Without a strong belief in myself and the Goddde within myself, I will flounder searching for the approval that I already ironically have within me.