I am

I am

a rollicking ocean, far reaching as the eye can see

salt-stained, light-catching, surf-crashing

tectonic plates shifting, rupturing, pressure I never meant to release seeping out

volcanos can not be soothed with pets and pretty words

trust me, I know.  I've tried. 

I am

the sheen of rippling glass reflecting back depths

home to the host of teeming life

the great beast with heartbreaking beauty and bloody jaws, defying gravity, ten tons moving with rendered grace

colors, quarks, the charmed and the frightful, moving in one great life-cycle, birthing and living and devouring and birthing each other once again

sometimes the grandness of life steals the breath away.

I am

the soft roar and penetrating whisper

expanding in open valleys and rushing over mountaintops

a thing no easier to catch than wind, no less present that air

thinner than bone and full as the sea

riddles of sinew and memory entwine whether listened to or not

this path is ever peppered with light and dark, ease and ache, joy and sorrow

Today I chose to walk it.

* * * 

Drumroll Please...

Should you ever embark upon a giveaway of your own, I highly recommend  inviting the participants to share some sort of goodness.  Reading through your entries - and yes, I read through and sit with every single one - was such a source of joy to me.  Like little hits of sunshine peppering the side of your face, or whispers of beauty fluttering through your mane.  Plus, I now have a rich list of books on my to-read list to last me into the winter.  As ever, all of this is to say thank you.  Thank you to every single one of you who took the time to read my words, view my images, write out comments, share in the world.  Thank you.  From the whole of my heart.**

But for now, it IS Tuesday morning, I HAVE had my coffee, and we DO have a winner!  

Stephanie Moix, you gorgeous goddess you, I can't wait to work some silver in your name!   

 Again, my heart is full with gratitude: Thank you, thank you, y'all know how to make my days. 

- U

** (and to those for whom the website was acting up, and let me know via email or facebook, know that I added your names to the great bowl of papers!  Thank you for your patience as I work out the kinks with squarespace!)

A Giveaway and True Center Strikes Twice!

Good Morning you ladies and loves, magic makers and story weavers!  I'm here to tell you that registration is officially open for the Fall Session of True Center!  Summer session has wrapped up after six weeks of amazingness.  I tell you true: the women who joined with me over summer inspired me to no end with their ideas, inspirations, the way they turned thoughts into images and images into their own art, and the way they supported and encouraged one another.  They are and were Brilliant.  Capitol "B."  And due to multiple, multiple requests, I've already begun work on True Center Part Two, coming in 2014!

I've added a few elements in for Fall: two interview videos with a couple of my very favorite fem-creatrixies, women who continually make my jaw drop with the art they create, as well as a private Flickr photo sharing group.   We already have a few ladies signed up and I can tell this session is going hold even more magic (if such a thing is possible)!  You can read more about the course right here - including what some of the women from the Summer session are saying - and if you're ready for a Fall that will ignite your creative spirit, you can sign up either right here on the website or here in the etsy shop.

- NOW -

Because it is my joy to gift in celebration, because you lift me up and support me every single day, because I love to offer the work of my hands and heart, I have a little giveaway for you!  This gorgeous, potent slice of Nacozari Turquoise (seen below, resting on my index finger) will be set into one of my Cloud Gatherer rings, custom made for one lucky soul (and additional images of past, sold Cloud Gatherer rings can be seen below that).  My own Cloud Gatherer ring has hardly left my finger since she was set and polished, and I tell you true, more than once I've had some lovely stranger try to buy her off my hand!  

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is leave me a comment right here on the blog!  Tell me one beautiful thing you experienced this week, the name of the last book you read, how you're planning to take advantage of the weekend, anything at all, and you're entered. 

Now, for those who would like to bulk up their chances, here's how: Every time you share True Center the Fall Session link to either the etsy listing or webpage on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or any other social media of choice, leave me one additional comment.  For my ladies who are True Center Summer Session Alumni, AND for those signed up for the Fall session, leave me a comment saying hello and I'll give you TWO additional entries.

The Giveaway opens right now and closes at midnight on Monday September 2nd.  I'll announce the winner here on the blog come morning Tuesday September 3rd! 

Best of Luck to you! 

- Umber  

People of the Horse: The Continuing Series

Ancestral Mythology: People of the Horse

(sterling silver and arizona turquoise, second in the series) 

She's rich with the fullness of story and the truth in our bones, we People of the Horse.

* * * 

(you can find her in the shop right now) 

Ancestral Mythology: People of the Horse

Long ago, the People knew only peace.  They spoke with all the creatures of the land and sky, they shared their fires and gave thanks after the hunt.   

But then the Men came.  They smelled foreign, nothing like cedar and soil, but like something sharp.  Something bitting.  Knowing only peace, the People invited them to sit by their fires, to partake of their meals.  The Men came willingly, eating ravenously and jostling each other for the warmest seats.  They began to tell stories, of lands far away, of the glittering boxes people lived in and the way they conquered rivers and fields.  The People listened, transfixed, while day after day the Men told them more about this world over the mountains.  Soon they began showing the tools they brought with them, shiny and hard, cold and brilliant.  The men of the People held these tools in their hands and forgot what it was to run the hillsides after deer on sinewy legs and sure feet.  The women were silenced when they spoke of all the wisdom the Moon had gifted them, and soon they too begin to forget what it was to dance naked and hear the songs of the forest.   

But there was one Girl who kept her distance from the Men.  She was old enough to care for herself, but too young, too small for the Men to bother speaking with.  She spent her days in the council of the trees, practicing the language of the winged and four-legged creatures.  She sat alone on a high hilltop watching as the People began acting more and more like the Men.  They dressed like the Men, spoke like the Men, and the Girl knew it was time.  She crept back into camp under night's dark cover and gathered all the songs, all the dances, all younger children who could still hear the trees.  She lead them up to her hilltop and from there she called Horse.  

"Horse," she cried, surrounded by the children, "my kindred and I need your help, we need your swift hooves, your strength and your courage.  We have the precious secrets of the People and we can not make the journey ahead alone."   

Horse galloped up the hillside, followed by his band. "We will help you," he replied, "for the People and the Horses have always treated each other with respect, have always sought to aid the other that lives ripple brightly and grow strong.  But we too have been watching the Men, and we too have seen that the earth is changing.  The Men do not speak our language, they do not see us as brethren, and so we too need the help of those who remember."  

The Girl listened and thought.  From the great sack she had filled with all the songs and dances, she drew two long feathers, tying one into the mane of Horse, and one into her own loose locks.  She called the other children and bade them each take two feathers, one for their own hair, and one for the mane of the horse who would carry them.  She turned to Horse and spoke.  "Now we share this bond, seen by all the heavens.  Now whenever the People see a horse with a mane that flies like wings, whenever the Horses see a person with flight in their hair, we shall know that we are kin.  We shall respect and hear the other, we shall remember this day we shared, our cries for help and our vows of aid.  These feathers will pass back to the earth, but this bond will remain in the very blood that passes down through our children's children.  And all those People with our blood will know the language of the Horse in their bones.  No matter how the earth shifts and turns, how the landscape changes and the creatures morph, no matter the words forgotten by tongue and time, this will remain because it resides within our very marrow."

With that Horse nodded deeply, and the Girl climbed astride. 

And that dear child, is how we became a People of the Horse. 

* * *