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Black Mountain Under a RedYellow Sky

Image Swimming: Day 2 of 60


Image Swimming is a term I invented for a series of literary meditations inspired by visual work — in this case, the work of Deborah Koff Chapin, creator of Soulcards. I’m using the cards from Deck 2. Please visit https://touchdrawing.com/ for more on this transformative process.


Image used with permission from Deborah Koff Chapin

Seen one way:

In the bowels of a black mountain with treacherous paths running along its edges, paths that, in places, crumble away into bad, steep drops, the earth pulsates with tenderness and presence. This black mountain of my life, layered with reckless commitments and unlikely outcomes, blooms precarious and invincible in the gaze of a mothering spirit breathing oxygen through all my tasks, her mysterious mudras moving strangers to return my fallen wallet to me.


Seen another way:

This could be every moment I abdicated, everything I didn’t say that I need to say, every opportunity I didn’t believe was mine and so it found someone else, every “whatever” that stood where righteous outrage and action should have stood, yelling their heads off. This could be a picture of everything I buried alive. And yet even so, the sun still shines behind the bulwark of my denials There is no mountain high enough to disinherit this end-of-day moment from its glory. And my life is still alive inside of everything, despite everything that I buried.

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