A weary angel
prepares for
the season of joy;prepares its
spirit to fly
and sing joyfully.IN SPITE OF ALL
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In spite of all.
Homemade
heartfelt joy –
ORGANICALLY GROWN.
The work of angels.The energy of joy –
IN SPITE OF ALL.– Michael Leunig
May the angels visit you and your beloveds with their blessings of joy these holidays.
And may you be blessed to remember that you are one of their throng: Sing praises, for there truly is no “out there” there!
love and joy, thanks and celebration
From the incomparable Michael Leunig– bless his awakened heart.
In case you find the text difficult to read, here’s a transcription:
TO VASCO PYJAMA
Dear Vasco,
I was delighted to receive your letter this morning and read the joyous news that you have finally embraced your stupidity and found such blessed relief. How very good for your heart Vasco. How marvellous! What a momentous achievement this embrace has been, and what a splendiferous liberation awaits you. What glorious songs the birds will now sing for you – great fugues of rapture, just you wait, as the miracle of your “beautiful stupidity” comes wobbling and clanking into your life and sets you free. My most extravagant congratulations Vasco and a warm welcome to the fold.
After I had read your letter I, straight away, seized my tin whistle and went up to the top field where I did a celebratory dance in your honor – a sort of weird jig. This was quite a stupid thing to do because the ground was slippery and muddy from the rain which was pelting down and I kept falling over and made quite a mess of my new corduroy trousers.
Still, I had a lovely bowl of soup for dinner this evening which was all the more delicious for me having fallen in the mud and I’ve never enjoyed a bowl of soup so much in all my life. It goes to show you, doesn’t it. I’d better hop into bed now because I’m feeling very pleasantly sleepy. The day is done. Goodnight Vasco,
Yours truly,
Mr Curly
xxx
Sitting in my rainforest sanctuary on Christmas Day, alone and at peace, listening to the forest sing its hymns of praise, wondering when the mercury will stop climbing and the mozzies munching – noticing a little urge to send my thoughts of love and joy, thanks and celebration, to all the beloveds who join me on this wee patch of cyberspace. I’ve shared my delight of the art and writing of Michael Leunig in other posts; this is his beautiful Christmas prayer.
…
Christmas.
Dear God, it is timely that we give thanks for the lives of all prophets,
teachers, healers and revolutionaries, living and dead, acclaimed or obscure,
who have rebelled, worked and suffered for the cause of love and joy.We also celebrate that part of us, that part within ourselves,
which has rebelled, worked and suffered for the cause of love and joy.We give thanks and celebrate.
Amen
…
Huge clouds of brown butterflies swirl up into the dazzling light, parrots swoop to grassy earth, honeyeaters ravish the sweet flowers of the bottlebrush, echidnas trundle steadily in search of each other, lizards dart among ants and ancient rocks, the fine branchlets of the manna gums quiver to the mating growls of koalas, ibises stroll and feast on grasshoppers and gleaming Christmas beetles hang from eucalyptus leaves like small green baubles. The birds sing gloriously and not a wrong note is heard. This is Christmas in the [Australian] bush.
For joy and meaning [let us] turn to our natural country and witness miracles of vitality and new life, of inspiration and profound beauty; all in some humble, quiet and improbable place.
…
I’m happy to confess that I am holed up in a “humble, quiet and improbable place.” But whatever and wherever your place may be, I pray that your holy-days are a source of the miraculous, the vital, the beautiful and the sacred.
Quoted text from www.theage.com.au
Artwork by Michael Leunig
Asking contracted energy what it needs is a lovely way of acknowledging its presence and becoming intimate with it. Everything that is not at rest wants to be acknowledged, to be received and bathed in gentleness and benevolence.
~ Pema Mags Deane
If you haven’t read Pema Mags’ last blog post yet, please do yourself a sweet favor: As Energy Comes Home
Then have a look at this beautiful little film Heart on a String inspired by Michael Leunig’s work. Your heart will love you for it!
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Michael Leunig’s website
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Michael Leunig knows how to pray. I love his outpourings and the cartoons that accompany them to perfection. The image I’ve used here isn’t the one that goes with the prayer in the book mentioned, but I am currently without a scanner so am using an etching of his that’s been hiding awhile in my computer. To me, it says everything.
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God accept our prayers.
Send us tears in return.
Give freedom to this exchange.
Let us pray inwardly.
Let us weep outwardly.
This is the breathing of the soul.
This is the vitality of the spirit.
For this we give thanks.Amen
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Michael Leunig: When I talk to You – a cartoonist talks to God
Moments of no consequence
Seem to make a lot of sense;
Like the gentle pitter patter
Of the things that do not matter
As I sit alone and stare;
Neither here and neither there.
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Image source – Michael Leunig’s website
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Today I begin a six-week silent retreat at Wangapeka
in the autumn-tinted mountains near Nelson.
I take you all with me, and oh, how Light we are!
May your days be drenched with delight.
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Nelson
Aotearoa New Zealand
this unlit light 