Ears Still To The Lonely Wind — Mandala For Rabbit – 26/52, BlackBerry 52 – WEEK 26, July 10th, 2011, photo © 2011 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Medium: Drawn by hand with a black Staedtler archival pigment ink Fineliner on Canson Mix Media XL Series 98lb drawing paper, collage paper. Colored & collaged with DecoColor Glossy Oil Base Paint Markers, Caran D’Ache NeoColor II Water Soluble Wax Crayons, Sharpie Medium Point Oil-Based Opaque Paint Markers, Lineco Archival PVA Adhesive, archival card stock paper. Gogyohka & haiga by QuoinMonkey. Photograph taken with a Samsung DROID.
It must be a plentiful year for Rabbit. I see her everywhere on my journeys across the Twin Cities. If you look to the spiritual aspects of Rabbit, she represents calling out Fear—looking it right in the eye. It is said that if we focus on people, places, and things we fear, we draw them closer to us. The very act of ruminating on what we are afraid of creates opportunities to learn the lessons conjured by those fears.
It’s a good time for me to pay attention to Rabbit. Lotus wrote the poem Becoming a Rabbit -26/52 for one of the BlackBerry 52 Jump-Offs in our collaboration. I pulled in a line from her poem that spoke to me, wrote a gogyohka, and scripted it around the edge of the circle that would become a haiga:
Sidewinding summer rain plays hide and seek with the sky. Rabbit holds her ground --- blades of mint awash in shadow, ears still to the lonely wind.
I want to carry my Rabbit fetish from New Mexico in my pocket for the rest of July; there are challenges ahead of me with outcomes out of my control. Is it on the dresser with the other animals? She was a gift from friends, hand carved, and sold at one of the pueblos. I have carried the balsa Rabbit for a long, long time. To help ease my fear.
Rabbit may signal:
- feeling frozen in place from trying to find resolution to a situation you are unable to resolve
- being too focused on the future, trying to control what has not yet taken form
- a need to write down your fears
- space to stop, rest, reevaluate
- time to wait for bigger, outside forces to move again
- opportunities to reframe the way you see your present set of circumstances
- the need to take a deep breath, burrow into a safe space, & release your fears
Lucky for me, Fear is a universal emotion. There is not a person on Earth that has not experienced Fear. I read it in the Writing Practices of friends. We talk about it over birthday dinners. I see it at the state, local, and federal government levels. I read about it in the news every day.
Naming my fears helps to dissipate anxiety I feel about things I can’t control. Rabbit helps me remember to breathe. And to listen for answers. Ears still to the lonely wind.
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, July 10th, 2011, with gratitude to Lotus for the inspiration
Lotus and I will continue to respond to each other’s BlackBerry Jump-Off photos with text, photography, poetry (however we are inspired) for the 52 weeks of 2011. You can read more at BlackBerry 52 Collaboration. If you are inspired to join us, send us a link to your images, poetry, or prose and we’ll add them to our posts.
-related to posts: Flying Solo — Dragonfly In Yellow Rain, Shadow Of A Dragonfly, Dragonfly Wings — It Is Written In The Wind, Dragon Fight — June Mandalas, EarthHealer — Mandala For The Tortoise, ode to a crab (haiku & mandala), Eye Of The Dragon Tattoo
Very nice! Love it!
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The drawing is wonderful with such a great combination of colors. Enjoyed reading the gogyohka (have to look that one up).
Sometimes I feel like I’m surrounded by fear generated not by myself as much as by other people who would have me be afraid. We live in a time when fear is used for so many purposes and not all of them good or necessary or real. I’ll think of this post often in the coming days. Great job! Thanks for sharing it all with us.
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what a lovely mandala, rabbits are wise, that’s an element of their make up that is often overlooked
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diddy, thank you! Sounds like you are having a great summer. Bet you are seeing lots of Rabbit where you are living.
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Bob, thanks so much. I decided to stick with basic yellows & greens on this one. And leave Rabbit in pen & ink. I had fun with it. (The gogyohka is the 5 line poem, one of the more modern poetry forms that was generated from haiku, haiga, tanka, renga.) About fear, I was telling Liz last night that I think it helped me a lot to work on this mandala. There is a lot of time into it. Drawing, coloring, photographing, then getting the post ready for red Ravine. All that energy into Rabbit has subconsciously helped me to transform some of the fear & anxiety I am feeling about a certain event in my life. It will end some day. It’s just keeping my focus on the positive energy while walking through it. I feel calmer after spending time with Rabbit it this weekend.
I like what you say about fear that’s being generated from outside of ourselves. Whether other people, the media, politicians, whoever generates fear so that people cower and make choices they might not ordinarily make if they didn’t feel all that conjured fear and anxiety. You bring up a good point, too, in that fear is multi-layered and takes many forms. Sometimes my fear has been coated in anxiety. Sometimes it’s full of anger. I rarely feel fear in its purest form. Is the other side of fear, courage? Or is courage the willingness to walk through fear. It does bring up many things to ponder. Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate it.
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Thank you, Juliet. And thanks for adding wisdom to the characteristics of Rabbit. I agree. We have a few resident rabbits in our yard that I photograph every year. I feel a great peace when I see them quietly munching on the grass. Sometimes they will clean themselves the way our cats do, rubbing their paws over their faces and then licking them. They do seem wise, alert, and playful as well. I should probably go back up and add these positive attributes to the main list in the body of this piece. I mostly focused on the fear because that’s the aspect I’m trying to work with within myself right now. But you remind me, if I also focus on the wisdom and playfulness, I will move forward with a little smile on my face. Thank you.
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Beautiful to read and wonderful to behold – thank you!
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QM, this is a real “keeper,” so lovely and, for me, calms my present fears. So much of what I fear is cloaked in the unknown. Free floating anxiety grips me and says, “I won’t let you go; you are in my control now.” And I cower in the unknowable while my imagination conjures up terrible scenarios that creep into my consciousness.
Thank you for this rabbit, which will remind me to be quiet and listen for the “still small voice.” “There is no fear in love, and perfect love casteth out fear,” and this truth I will cling to, until a higher sense of love dissolves the ugly stains of that which I fear.
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Beautiful poem and mandala. It’s interesting for me to think of Rabbit as fear, because in my associations I think of them as pure joy. One day I came out of a very intense retreat on Whidbey Island. I had been crying for hours the night before. I went out for a walk and everywhere I turned were rabbits. I laughed and laughed and felt so joyful, watching them hop around, under trees, along the road and into their little cubby holes. I bought a rabbit sculpture to put in my yard, to remind me of that joy I experienced. Associations are interesting, no? It’s hard to be afraid when you are joyful. I hope you are able to find this other side of rabbit too, as you move through the fears you are experiencing.
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I absolutely love your mandala series, QM! I get excited when I see one! Lovely haiga drawing! When I get a chance to be on Flickr, I’ll be adding it to my favorites, that’s for sure! It’s amazing that you wrote about what the Rabbit symbolizes as it’s been constant for me as well; I too see rabbits everywhere I go (particularly this summer)! The more we do this collaboration, the more we are somehow in tune with each other thousands of miles away. I still can’t get over that fact. 🙂
Anyway, I wish I can draw as well as you and Yb! I can only doodle a bit but even that takes forever! I love art since I was a child and I was considered the “best artist” in my class (according to my peers). However, if I had taken some formal art courses growing up, I know I would become much more skillful in drawing/painting/etc. I just love experimenting with colors particularly. Maybe one of these days, I’ll take a course in drawing; that’d be neat. 🙂 As you already know, I have a heart for collages and origami. 🙂
I also agree with Teresa as well in that rabbits also symbolize pure joy. One of my sisters was born in the Year of the Rabbit and her spirit is generally optimistic and pure happiness and thoughtfulness. Rabbits enjoy the simplicity of life, which is a good reminder for all of us.
Enjoyed this post, QM!
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i found you today while looking for haiku inspiration —
found that & so much more. i do hope this monkey mind will return,
with an offering of nature’s elements from my earthly pixel.
your website is muy fabuloso!
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QM, I loved this immediately when I saw it in my inbox. (Because I subscribe to posts via the email stream, it sometimes takes me a while to make it over to the actual site, but I do read every post.) First, I loved the poem, and I did go over to A~Lotus’s site to read her original. A~Lotus, that line–“ears still to the lonely wind”–is just so poignant. You’ve captured so much with that…tenderness and loneliness and being awake…oh, I love it! And, btw, A~Lotus, I tried to comment on your journal but I messed up and in the end did not try again.
QM, then there’s your mandala drawing. Such wonderful energy. I like that you kept the colors simple and the rabbit in black and white. Striking! I do love your style.
And finally, I enjoyed reading more about rabbit energy. We see rabbits every day as we leave our house. They are all along the driveway, running from one side to the other. Lots of vegetation lines this long drive, and so there are many opportunitities to jump across. I can see the fear aspect, because I can see their fear as they jump out of our way, or as my dogs run after them. And so when I see them now, I remember that, the idea of confronting fear.
Glad you worked through yours with the mandala. Drawing and writing almost always calms me and grounds me, which is why I think I continue my practice.
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Hey yb! Thank you so much for reading my poem! 🙂 So glad you enjoyed it! It’s alright about not being able to comment on the blog itself. That happens sometimes.
Thank you for another perspective of the rabbit. In a sense they do confront fear and acknowledge it as well. Wow, I am enjoying the many interpretations of the rabbit… Throughout this summer, I’ve been seeing rabbits hopping everywhere during my walk home after running at the park trails, so this was where I got my inspiration. 8)
Yes, I can agree with the fact that drawing and writing have many benefits to our well-being. 🙂
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walljasper, thank you. And thanks so much for stopping by. Always a pleasure.
oliverowl, “cloaked in the unknown.” That is a good way to put it. No fear in love. I like that line, too. I felt really anxious during the day today. But somehow when I come back and look at the mandala and read the comments from readers, I feel calmer. It really helps to know that people are out there who have experienced something similar. Fear is a strange thing. Taking that next right step as I walk through it. When I was younger, I had an underlying fear of doing the wrong thing. As an adult, I float between wanting to be alone and take space and be out there in the world. Is that fear. Or just a need for rest. Thank you for stopping by! Will get to see you soon.
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Teresa, thank you. I find joy in watching Rabbit. They are nervous creatures but also have a calmness about them when they are frozen and checking out their surroundings. Your story from Whidbey Island sounds healing. Rabbit as healer. The rabbit sculpture is perfect. Working with the Rabbit is helping me to stay focused on the things I can control. A stressful event is coming up on Monday. I found my Rabbit fetish and will carry her in my pocket. Maybe I can ask those who have stopped here to send good energy Monday morning, July 18th. It’s another step in a long process. Trusting the process.
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Lotus, thank you for the inspiration. I was so happy when I saw your poem was about Rabbit. You are an artist, Lotus. Your origami is beautiful. I am not good with those kinds of spatial relationships, so I’m in awe of those who are. I like working with 2D. Though I have done some sculpture before. I like sculpture when I don’t have to be exact. My work is kind of rough around the edges. I am enjoying our collaboration.
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alicia, I hope you return as well. And thank you for taking the time to stop and comment. So much appreciated!
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Thanks, yb. So far everyone has commented on seeing Rabbit where they live. I like imagining all of you out there watching rabbits in all these different places. Then stopping by to comment. I like that you mention seeing their fear when they jump out of your way or watch for the dogs. Rabbits are so alert to what is around them. I hadn’t planned to do the Rabbit mandala. Was more thinking of doing the Frog mandala next. But then I read the poem from Lotus and knew I had to follow that lead. It has been helpful. Because it reminds me to keep alert, stay calm, and also that it’s okay to have fear. Please send good energy Monday, Roma! I’ll be soaking it in from the Great Northern Plains. I appreciate your comments on the art and haiga. Thanks for stopping by!
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I feel the calmness of the moment. I just printed two copies of the Rabbit mandala. One I glued to the front of my Moleskine sketch book and notetaking journal. The other to the inside cover of my Journal 365 writing journal. The one in my writing journal is on the inside page where it says:
In case of loss, please return to:
Rabbit
As a reward: $ Peace & Quiet, Forever…
,,,Ears Still To The Lonely Wind.
Gratitude to all who have stopped here. Please send good vibes over the next few days. Embarking on the next step of the journey, through some of the most beautiful country on God’s Green Earth. Spiritual solutions are only known to something bigger than us. We don’t control outcomes. There are only next right steps. Listening to the silence.
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[…] to posts: Ears Still To The Lonely Wind — Mandala For Rabbit, Flying Solo — Dragonfly In Yellow Rain, Shadow Of A Dragonfly, Dragonfly Wings — It […]
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I see our resident Rabbit out in the yard and am thinking of the role that Rabbit played in my life in July. I did carry her in my pocket on the North Dakota trip and beyond. Now she sits back on the dresser next to the other fetishes. I am still working with the fear, but it’s been transformed. I have come to understand it better and the process that is taking place in my life right now. There is a certain amount of surrender that goes on in situations like this. There is so much that is out of our control. Letting go is sometimes what is needed. Clear boundaries. And being truthful and honest, sticking up for what is right. Rabbit has given me more courage. She is small with a racing heart. She keeps me pointed toward something bigger than me.
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[…] to posts: Labyrinth Mandala At The Aquarius Full Moon, Ears Still To The Lonely Wind — Mandala For Rabbit, Flying Solo — Dragonfly In Yellow Rain, Shadow Of A Dragonfly, Dragonfly Wings — It Is […]
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