JOY LURIA:
When I think of Joy Luria with her not in my immediate proximity, I see “The Lady of Shallot” in a sort of impatient repose there on the lake, deep in thought; she seems to be thinking something through less than she is feeling it through. There’s the earmarks there of creative tension at work with the Lady. This masterwork captures something unique about the essence of the Joy I know.
One of the things I love most about Joy Luria is that she’s a complete original – I’ll wager everyone who knows her would agree with that. It’s something I very much admire because it takes a bit of the warrior in a soul to insist on maintaining their originality in a world so often given to abandoning its self-authority – but maintaining it in honor and reverence and a little bit of frickin’ humor. Really, you won’t meet anyone you know who’s quite like Joy; girl’s got her own rhythm she rhumbas to. She’s smart, funny, irreverent (something I like very much), and marches without apology to her own drum without sacrificing the beats of life’s natural rhythms – I’ve met very few people this connected to what I believe is the honest pulse of the planet as a feminine organism. And it’s because of her understanding of and respect for the masculine. What makes Joy so refreshing, to me anyway, is that her feminine sensibilities have found a way to embrace a balanced understanding of not just the masculine energy, but the dynamic betwixt the two. It’s a powerful thing to understand this, and it’s why Joy is such an insightful teacher.
By all measuring sticks and standards that define teachers to me, it’s Joy’s gravity of conviction and the level of choice and awareness in the steps she takes daily in her life that make her a teacher in my book. She goes about the daily task of being Joy in this way, she parents this way, and she creates this way.
Her background in Ayurveda was the initial propulsion in the creation of a skin care line (to include makeups, now) that is really something I’ve not seen before, and I’ll bet you haven’t either. The company she and her husband (Hank Luria) created, Anila, has parented a line of patented FDA approved skin care products that go about their tasks in alignment with what you’re asking the body to actually do. It’s revolutionary, really, the ethical logic behind the soul of these products. An example of what I mean: Anila’s (well, Joy’s) under-eye concealer not only uses the right colors for the pigment to color-blend and conceal dark circles or bags (most makeup companies use the wrong color for this), but it contains the natural messengers that address why the body is creating a bag or a circle in the first place. Completely natural, completely different, completely powerful stuff.
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I’ll tell you a little story. I had a fender-bender not too long back (I was at a stop-sign and was rear-ended), leaving me with some neck and back trauma. It affected the head, in truth, because I actually got a concussion in the mix. I was looking around for something I might have available to pull trauma out of the brain in the immediate aftermath of the accident, something that I felt would really work. I considered Rescue Remedy and then I thought of Joy’s under-eye butter. She’d recently explained over the phone to me its ingredients and talked at length about how the components were chosen for specific homeopathic tasks in the body. So I knew they homeopathically understood how to address trauma – she’d explained this specifically.
Anyway, Joy had recently sent me a box-full of her eye creams to distribute to my friends (free of charge; they’re still in the testing stages with the FDA on some products, I believe) and so I took her eye creams and slathered my face and even my whole head – hair and all -- and meditated to calm my brain and badly shaken central nervous system, alloing the creams to pull out the trauma in the brain. I was hit at full speed from behind, don’t forget, and so I was very worried, in the middle of the night as it was, that the brain might swell. I’m a pretty aware guy energetically; I’m telling you: I felt the trauma being pulled out of my brain. I got calmer and calmer and was able to soothe the brain out of its desire to totally freak out. The body wanted to panic in the aftermath of that collision and I thought it was too dangerous to allow that; since those products address the homeopathic messages in the brain, I used them. And whatever magic they work, I’m telling you, it soothed the brain enough that I didn’t go into shock. My body was very, very close to that stage.
Anila is to Joy much more than a company; Anila is to her the essence of a being she knows in her soul who strives to provide products that serve, products that facilitate core healing while also allowing us to wear our prettiest and best preserved faces. And who doesn’t want to feel beautiful? I mean, really. There’s a bit of the art at work in it all. I respect this. And it’s why Joy is such an original.
Anila is about to launch its color line of makeups and so the creams are in the testing stages with the FDA. If you’d like to be one of the product testers, please contact Joy or Hank and Anila.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ANILA PLEASE CONTACT:
Hank Luria
President/CEO
Anila, Inc.
hluria@anila.com
*The makeup does the same thing, by the way. It’s a unique application process, and it’s a unique approach. Again, the specific makeups address the homeopathic root of what created the condition it is being asked to cover up. So there’s use of pigment and color to conceal, but the products address the homeopathic levels of why the skin or eye, etc. created the problematic condition it is covering.
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STEPHANIE HARDY:
Stephanie Hardy is one of those people who just is an artist. That’s its own category, really. An artist has something at work inside them apart from just a talent. Lots of people can draw or paint or write, I think, but you just know the difference between something that is inspired and something that is just pretty, you know? Not all paintings are great art, let’s face it. Valid expressions, for sure – but what makes a Mona Lisa a... well, a Mona Lisa? Leonardo wasn’t so much a result kind of dude – he was often a liability as a paid artist in his own lifetime because he had a reputation for not finishing his work. I think it was about the process for him, not the finished result.
They’ve just done scans on the Mona Lisa and they found Leonardo’s signature “smokey shadowing” was part of his application process of layering on fine, fine layers of just slightly pigmented luster – about 30-odd layers in all, they determined. The shadowing on the Mona Lisa’s face is what gives it such an otherworldly aura and the mysterious, ethereal quality that continues to draw humanity to it. It’s as though it has its own soul. The artist goes for that textured depth of creation, I think; I doubt Leonardo ever considered the Mona Lisa finished, frankly. He lent his soul over extended periods with most of his masterworks, working on them over long periods of time – and I think it’s why they still seem to have a vivid life force to them when we see them today. They are alive, I think because some part of Leonardo’s creative presence is alive there within those layers of texture and color and form. Logic might conclude, then, that the artist is a creator, yes?
So why doesn’t everyone create at that kind of committed level, then, we might ask? Simple: fear of pain, I think. Real creation in this cause-and-effect free-will world isn’t for sissies; it can be dodgy and messy. Ask any mother who’s ever given birth how intense the creation process is; it takes a little bit of guts to do it, honestly, because in a physical world creation always involves an element of risk in reaching out to another force. That’s how it works here: one thing connecting with another thing (mother mating with father, mother being pregnant, baby being born, baby growing up; writer’s hand to pen, pen to paper, paper to editor, manuscript to publisher, book to public, etc.). Humanity is a collaborative effort essentially. The reaching out feels risky and is very scary for some people. The artist, by contrast, is fearless in this way: He/she goes toward what others run from, very often. The artist seems in life to somehow perpetually straddle that perceptual line falling somewhere toward the center of creative tension itself, at the very propulsion point of it all, there on the line betwixt two determined forces of internal energy colliding to create; a line of balance for some that can feel like a tightrope walk between reason and insanity at times, of limitless possibilities and then just plain scary emotional states at other times. Some artists find it to be a harrowing calling; others thrive there (Leonardo lived to be, what, about 90? That’s like being 150 years old back then). I think the artist always has a voice inside calling him/her to ever-deepening understandings of the human condition, to greater observance of human behavior and emotions, and ever toward human interaction. What the artist does that perhaps others don’t always (and which can seem so personally-precarious sometimes) is that they embody certain conditions in order that they can synthesize a feeling through heart expression in a physical form. It’s an alchemical process, really. At least that’s how it seems to work in my artistic world.
I wanted to share Stephanie’s blog with everyone for a couple of reasons: 1) Because she’s a very cool and accomplished lady; and 2) because I think this blog is fearless. It’s like watching an artist’s process, this blog, and I think it’s a very generous gift that she shares her process this way.
As an artist Stephanie works across mediums, and her blog is alive with a mix of media – fully expressive of her. There’s a certain awareness an artist keeps with each day, a certain eye that’s always taking something in, seeing things in new ways, capturing moments, re-imagining a poster they saw; always with an open ear interpreting a byte they heard or synthesizing an encounter they had or an emotion they’re trying to understand. Stephanie’s blog is just vibrant Stephanie in the middle of Stephanie’s day, but it’s the heart, mind, and soul of an artist fully with shirtsleeves rolled up and just there in the middle of it all.
While Stephanie’s blog is an inside glimpse into the process of the artist, it bears noting that Stephanie is also a very successful brand ID specialist with prominent and visible brand logos in the mainstream media. Stephanie’s web site for this focus in her work will soon be ready, so look for that soon. In the meantime, though, I hope you’ll visit her blog and lend a little love.
BLOG
http://StephanieJeanne.tumblr.com
WEB SITE
Coming Soon
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JAMES TENNANT
James has been a valued and respected colleague of mine for some time now. I often ask folks I know to write things for our web site, and James was kind enough to write the following piece back in 2007.
I always see Buddha standing somewhere on the perimeter when I think of James, and it’s not in any way by accident. James is a really clear-thinking dude and, like the Buddha-minded, he tries to keep himself grounded somewhere near the heart of what purity of beingness means to him. Expressing that with integrity of heart and self is very important to James, I’ve noticed, and it’s what makes him such an exceptional man. I think, in large part because I feel so personally committed to expressing the creative directions of my own purity, that James does something in his life that is very difficult to do: he interfaces with the world as a business man and lets himself be visible and present and giving while maintaining that place of purity inside that nourishes him. And it’s for real. It’s a tremendous gift as a teacher, and this clarity of personal direction makes James present in a way that you don’t see with everybody.
A prism in chaotic motion doesn’t catch the light well, does it? And the projections are disjointed and diffused – still beautiful and valid and real, but nevertheless muddled. If direct beams of illumination are what you’re looking for, it’s the stable and centered prism that best catches the light for you and directs back sharp, clear, brilliant streams. That’s a star to my notion: it’s self-consolidated and bright and shines asking for nothing but to be what it is. And the world is very often captivated by its glow, aren’t we?
James is a successful teacher and healer with his own studio, Tejas Yoga, in Chicago, IL, and he’s definitely a friend and brother-of-heart on this planet
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SACRIFICE
by James Tennant
I never gave the concept of sacrifice much thought until recently. That may be because sacrifice was my way of living life up to this point. Sacrifice connotes giving something up that you really want or need, but giving it up anyway for the higher good of someone else or many people. And to me that’s always been a good thing. How noble such an act is, I felt; isn’t that what we are supposed to do? But I started to realize how much of my own power, my attention, and my energy I was giving away and how often I wasn’t allowing others to find their own power.
Because sacrifice was so ingrained in me from many lifetimes, it was what felt natural. In fact, if I did receive anything there was an automatic response in me to give back to the point of deficit (whether it was time, money, or even affection). I had become so habituated to not taking, not having, and not asking for energetic balance that accepting anything made me a little uncomfortable. It took many years to allow the people in my life to give to me without me feeling guilty or feeling that I needed to reciprocate in any way, to just accept and be grateful. However, I had no problem teaching others that it was okay to receive what I had to give without expectation or a need to reciprocate. I always wanted people to be comfortable and content, even if I had to sacrifice my own attention, money or power.
I have come to understand just how much sacrifice starts in the mind, how often I would become fixated on a relationship or problem, just analyzing or questioning the situation over and over again or wondering what the person was thinking or doing. I know that experiences in our lives have to integrate and be processed, but I would open myself up so wide to the problems of others and make their problems my own mentally that I often lost me. This just played havoc with my mind and, ultimately, it began to manifest in my physical body. The Navajo believe that when the body gets sick it is due to the spirit/soul being out of balance with nature, and I believe this is the state I would often find myself in. I was not in harmony with nature, with the balance of the universe. I would take on situations or problems for people, process or transmute those issues for them and, in turn, they would feel better and I would feel poor. I was convinced that I would feel badly for a shorter amount of time then they would and so it was better that I “took care of it.” This very behavior was the way Jesus worked and ultimately he sacrificed his life to “try” and repair human consciousness. Look at us…perhaps things would be a lot worse if he hadn’t done what he did, but I’m not living in Utopia…are you?
Sacrifice went on in my life unconsciously for all of my childhood and most of my adult life; it’s apparent in the “people pleasers” of the world. As I became more sensitive to the happenings in the present moment, I gained awareness that this exchange is what was going on. The idea that I can process another person’s problems better than they can may sound quit egotistical. Well, it is egotistical. Even though I felt I was doing it out of concern and love, the ego was still very much involved because the truth is that I can’t process anyone else’s issues better than they can. In the short term they may feel better if I process things for them, but in the long term that issue, that lesson is theirs to learn – not mine.
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| James with Albert Lee, Director and Teacher of Lotus Palm School of Thai Yoga Massage in Toronto (albertlee@lotuspalm.com) |
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This was a pattern that has been with me for many lifetimes and was a method that was, perhaps, more efficient in the past. Now, however, the universe is asking – telling us – that this can no longer be the way; we all have to face our own karma, lessons, and fears in this lifetime. They must be confronted and healed. As a teacher I have become very clear that I can only shed light on what those lessons may be for others and point them in the right direction. They must do the work and have the realization, though. As teachers and light workers we all have our own way of demonstrating that assistance. But I’ve realized that living in sacrifice isn’t the way anymore and that there is a difference between living in sacrifice and living truly within your power. I’ve become more conscious of when I’m making sacrifices on any level, and when that occurs I ask if it is appropriate not just for me but for everyone. Finding that balance and creating that awareness will be different for everyone, but we have to start understanding a fundamental truth that can liberate us all: God does not ask us to sacrifice anything.
© 2007 by James Tennant
CONTACT JAMES
http://www.tejasyogachicago.com/
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SUSAN HALLY
Susan is a long-time collaborator, supporter, and co-creator with the Source Legacy Foundation. She is also a yoga instructor at GreenMonkey in Miami, Florida, and is an avid lover of worldwide travel and adventure.
A PRAYER FOR THE DREAMERS
by Susan Hally
Shawnee Chasser is a dreamer: a dreamer who has a vision to give hope and healing to homeless teenagers, including pregnant girls, by providing them a safe and nurturing environment.
Shawnee’s home just happens to be a tree house, and it just simply fits her. It’s part of her vision and her grounding. It’s located on a property in North Miami, which shares space with a six bedroom house that she plans as a refuge for homeless youth, as well as lush tropical landscaping, waterfalls, a pool, and a Jacuzzi. Shawnee’s green thumb and gift for landscaping make the property a garden of earthy delights. Seeing Shawnee living her life in a tree house reminded me of the Swiss Robinson Tree house.
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| Shawnee's Treehouse on "The Farm" |
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This is not Shawnee’s first go at trying to bring healing to a chaotic urban environment. For thirty-two years she presided over an oasis of light and spirit known as “The Farm” in Miami’s Little Haiti district. The Farm has hosted weddings, drum circles, graduations, community pot lucks, an earth day commemoration and other celebrations, as well as hosting field trips for the Dade County Public Schools.
At that time, Shawnee’s dream was to bring together other community visionaries and organizations to expand The Farm’s capabilities in serving an area of the city often overlooked by the rest of the community. Her plans included expanding the organic garden into a community garden and creating a youth center where children could deepen their appreciation for nature while nurturing their spirit. The plans also included classes in Yoga, meditation, African dance, drumming and healing, with the surrounding buildings occupied by businesses and organizations committed to health and empowerment.
So just who is this dynamic woman of vision? Shawnee Chasser is just a girl from a good Jewish background in Miami who describes the experience in of seeing “Hair” on Broadway in 1968 as completely transforming her life. And a radical was born. Shawnee would eventually go on to redefine the word “Hippie.” But first she had to move to California to become an actress.
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Los Angeles quickly taught Shawnee that there might be more important things in life other than just trying to be an actress. She started to meet and share ideas with contemporaries like Abbie Hoffman, Angela Davis, John Lennon, and Jane Fonda (to name a few) and Shawnee’s life purpose became clear to her: she, like her contemporaries, found her voice in demonstrations advocating for equality, justice and in the war protests that sought to defend peace. It became a mission and a passion which soon had her working with fellow activists like Angela Davis, George Jackson, and Malcolm X. This generation collectively set out on a course that would, in fact, change the course of history.
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Still wearing her wig and false eyelashes from California, Shawnee traveled across the country in a van full of activists to demonstrate in the 1972 rally in Washington D.C. to stop the Vietnam War. Fifty-thousand determined protestors were prepared to petition the Pentagon to have their message heard. Shawnee recalls the chaos and commotion that ensued: “There were tear gas bombs, national guards with guns, blood and fear everywhere.” The protest landed Shawnee in jail (where she refused to relinquish her wig and eyelashes). After her release, she continued her journey to a commune in Durham, North Carolina, where she worked and lived for a time (with no running water; she bathed in the lake), before moving to B. F. Skinner’s Walden Commune in Virginia – another community for men and women sharing daily responsibilities of farm living and work. One of her fondest memories was assisting in the birth of a calf, an experience that so touched her that she hasn’t eaten veal to this day.
Shawnee then moved her way up the coast to East Twins, Massachusetts where she met her husband with whom she has two children, Wren and Joshua. Shawnee eventually made her way back to her hometown and for thirty-two years has raised her family (and many animals, too) on “The Farm” in Miami. Along the way she adopted a little girl from an unwed teenage mother and this daughter, Lantana, has become part of her thriving family. Shawnee is dedicating her newest property to her recently deceased son Joshua; it was a home she’d bought for him, and it is now a new mission to his memory. A new generation blooms in the amazing off-the-grid Tree House now with the addition of grandchildren.
Shawnee has a lifelong committment to helping underprivileged children and supporting them in a loving, nurturing environment. Her dream is to be able to expand and sustain that environment where people can live and feel safe while they are supported with love and kindness. Life always provides for the Dreamers, and this magnificent rebel dreamer has unquestionably lived her life with passion and fervor, always looking for opportunities to share love and boundless compassion.
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© Copyright 2010 Susan Hally
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CHLOE PYLE:
Chloe Pyle has been a friend of this organization for many years – since she was a little girl, in fact; her mother, Marilyn, is a co-founder and teacher with Source Legacy. When I thought of all the things I might want to say to introduce everyone to Chloe and The Wire Tree Collection, it seemed truest to me just to let her do it herself:
"The sacred fig, or the Bodhi tree, represents ones journey into infinity, into Nirvana. As the seed, which begins tiny, grows open and free, so should the mind and heart."
“I have been inspired by family and friends to reach out and create, express and grow and to them, my thanks are extended as I share with the world, you, my collections of beautiful beads.”
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“I am a college student from Florida and have begun making jewelry and meditation beads that were originally gifts for friends and family, but have now expanded to share those things with you! I will be keeping some items in my shop but, for the most part, my business is custom – so please check out the things in my store and see what I can do to make specific items special for you!"
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ESTER BEN-ZION
There’s no one in this community of friends, co-workers, collaborators and artisans that I don’t love and respect, each in their own individual ways. It’s what makes a community, honestly, this diversity. Each of our individual gifts is rare and unique, I believe, and I love those gifts because they help us shine who we are to the world. One of the things I love most about Ester Ben-Zion (better known to the world as Dr. Etti) is her complete command of her physical world; I don’t know anyone in my immediate community who has this particular gift in quite this particular way. I’m not talking about controlling her external world, but the graceful conviction she has to maintaining balance of the personal space over which she has authority – her body and being. Not inconsequentially, Ester is a powerful creator in her external world because of what she insists on in the temple of her life. It all begins at home, right?
Ester’s work, of course, is then powerfully related to the balance of the temple (the body of course being the only temple over which we really have such final authority in this world, all said and done – and even that is but a temporary arrangement) and what can be created in ones life when we learn to BE within that temple with self-honor, to connect to the self-nurturing built into it, to express that, and to share that. Life becomes Holistic then, and so it’s really no accident that she has crafted a business where these principles can be practiced, shared and honored: Holistic Health Studio, in Miami Beach, Florida.
I think what I respect most about Ester as a person (between you me and the walls) is her ability to hear truth without judgment and not let any biases mislead her in understanding that; in my experience, she’s very even and clear with this gift and it’s why she is so adept at synthesizing and moving the challenges life provides us through to wisdom so well. She has a great clarity with understanding the truth of things in a very pure way, and it’s why she’s been able to create such vibrant connections in her life and why her work touches so many people (women especially) in such healing ways. Ester’s command over her own temple is the foundation of her strength and courage that, I believe, underlies her ability to step fearlessly out into the world to create in bold, sure strokes; it takes a lot of courage to create in this world and be accessible and visible and really strive for something that authentically helps create real shifts in lots of people’s lives. In the physical world, the power is, let’s face it, in the body; everything we are spiritually, emotionally, and mentally, in the end, lives in that temple of the body – and it works best there in the now. I’m grateful that we have a friend like Dr. Etti at task in our community reminding us in her work of the divine power this truth holds for each of us.
Please visit Dr. Etti and the Holistic Health Studio at
http://www.DrEtti.com
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Perfectionism and the ROLE OF THE Healer
by Andrea Puglese
When I work with my clients, I often find that perfectionism comes up as a major defense in therapy. I define perfectionism as rigidly holding onto the idea that I am not allowed mistakes, that there is one right way to manifest my intentions and I am wrong or bad if I don’t uphold that image. Making mistakes is part of the human condition. And allowing for a growth process is part of human evolution. Yet my clients can have a very difficult time accepting their own limitations and their mistakes. I too sometimes fall into the self-judgment loop that states, "I must act perfectly and I'm not allowed any mistakes." Even in the healer role, I am still developing my own worth, self-love, and grounding. This reminds me that my role as a clinician is not to stand on a hierarchal high-ground telling a client what to do from a place of authority, but to approach all relationships on this planet as a fellow human being, remembering I am actually exactly the same as the client, and to offer support and the invitation of positive change.
When thinking about my own perfectionism, I often laugh at myself because my tendencies are so unbelievably consistent. I am perfectly knowledgeable that hanging out with a certain person is a bad idea, or that a certain thought pattern will cause me to feel bad about myself. But I still make the same mistake of returning to that dynamic again and again. I like to joke that, “At least I’m consistent” so I can mitigate my own shame at “not having learned my lesson quickly enough”.
But there is no need to feel shame. What I truly believe is that I simply have a wound, or sort of a soft spot to be attracted to or tempted by certain dynamics that then lead to unhappiness for me. With no intervention, I unconsciously re-open this wound again and again. I used to become frustrated and waste even more energy trying to fix things within that unhappy dynamic. But it never works. And each time I fall into old patterns I really allow myself to see the lesson and how I can bring more of what I really want and who I really am into the material plane, into my immediate surrounding environment.
When I make a mistake – that is the crucial time for me to practice self-acceptance and unconditional self-love: to be in the hurt and disappointment, and watch all my reactions come up – reactions of anger, pain, sadness, victimization, punishment, embarrassment for showing whatever aspects of myself my ego didn’t want me to let others see because it’s “ugly”. That is the time to practice acceptance and forgiveness, to watch those dark and reactive thoughts come and go without acting on them, to acknowledge my own emotional state even if it’s uncomfortable to me. Then softening the resistance around “what is” and allowing myself to change through whatever process I choose.
One way I soften my resistance is to remember that my wound is not a "bad thing" or deficiency, but simply a positive aspect of my true self that has become distorted. For example, I could be a very open person who accepts people easily into my space, but when this becomes distorted I can become invaded by others’ negative energy because I have no boundary in place. Another example is that I can be a naturally loving and forgiving person who likes to give people a second chance, but when this becomes distorted I might allow myself to be taken advantage of in my good disposition. One thread I have been working on recently is the knowledge that I form attachments easily. This part of me is really an asset when people value engaging me in relationship. But this aspect can also become distorted if I get attached prematurely or to an unworthy object.
There is nothing "wrong" with me – I'm a beautifully attached person in my true nature and I just need to be aware that I may make mistakes with the way I distort that truth. I used to think I could just change and not be attached anymore – but it hasn't happened. What I have found more success with is to just totally accept my wound as a distortion of a very lovely truth, and to practice being aware of how I present this aspect of myself in relationship. As I identify how that distortion manifests, I can then work a process to use that distorted energy more to my liking.
In the past I used to really feel embarrassed by my own mistakes and waste good energy getting stuck in that resistance. I used to get stuck in victimization or become internally enraged that my needs were not being met. But the more I practice unconditional love for myself and total acceptance for my human condition the more I can see the reality of the situation and make the changes needed to align myself with my truth in a relaxed way.
In softening my own self judgment I came to see that everyone has a wound and a pattern of imbalance, and that it’s actually okay. It is just part of the human experience. I have a wound, my clients have wounds, everyone has a wound. And often times there are several wounds. But I don’t need to be perfect or totally heal my wound in order to be of service to others and offer my support from a place of compassion. I can offer my clients the same knowledge I use for my own processes. And I find I am more compassionate to others’ processes when I remember what it means for me to be in a process. I look at the questions my clients look at and deal with the problems my clients deal with. We really are not that different.
It feels so good not to have to be perfect! Everything can soften and relax and shift into a comfortable place even when I just think “I accept my limitations” or “It’s okay to make mistakes.” What a relief! I can just be myself, be a Human Being, and offer service to others from an authentic place that respectfully reflects my current experience. My experiences have shown me that people respect authenticity and openness. People can intuit if I am being disingenuous by trying to be perfect. Besides, my clients are not even asking me to be perfect. They are asking to be acknowledged in their current experience. All that is required of me is that I show up, be open, and perform the duties of service. And service work has never failed to improve my mood, even when I make life's mistakes.
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| Ania at Source Legacy's 2009 Retreat (...she catered it) |
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ANIA ROBERTSON
Ania is a collaborator and co-creator with Source Legacy, a gem specialist, a designer and artist, and a renaissance woman in every applicable sense of what that means; she is dynamism in motion with a focus on friendship and sharing. Ania is the owner and artist-in-residence of “The Renaissance Gallery” in downtown Albuquerque.
To find out more about this unique artist's work, visit The Renaissance Gallery online at:
www.TheRenaissanceGallery.com
The Renaissance Gallery has some really beautiful, unique, and soulful pieces; all of Ania's creations intend to inspire the conscious artist and lover of life within. Check her out.
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| Amber |
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| Aventurine |
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| Carnelian, Quartz |
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| Mother of Pearl and Pearls |
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| Sonora Sunrise |
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