Soft- Belly

As I rode the bus home from the gym downtown on this sunny Sunday day, I was reading Stephen Levine's A Year To Live. In it he writes about meditating from a 'soft-belly' place. Not a soft-belly from cookies and potato chips, but from a place of letting go, surrendering, and being present in our world. It brought a smile to my face just thinking about it and so I placed my hand on my belly button, as I have over the years, and it felt good to be sitting on the bus observing life around me.

Over the years, when I have sat down to paint, I realized that without thinking, I have worked on my Little Girls from a soft-belly place. I have sat down and surrendered to them; I have allowed them to become whomever they are meant to be. It has been a liberating process. Even though I may have an idea of what I want to paint onto the canvas, in the end, with each brush stroke, I surrender.

The piece to the left is titled Expecting Me. It is a sort of self-portrait. It is inspired from a photo of Mama while she was expecting my older sister Glicelda. Since there was no photo of her while she was pregnant with me, I used this photo and incorporated myself into it by placing the red circle onto her belly; it is the clown nose in my self-portraits. When I think of Mama, I think of a soft-belly place. She has been an inspiration of loving kindness to everyone who has crossed her path. And so when I place my hand on my belly, I can feel a place where life began and still continues to begin with every breathe I inhale. I exhale. I inhale. Ahhh, so good.

May you have a soft-belly Sunday :)