25.9.10

Girl in Beacon Hill Park






Beacon Hill Park, by Emily Isaacson {sepia}








I took this photo in remembrance of a story of a young girl who was photographed in Beacon Hill Park in about the 1960's. She could not walk, and wore a brace, was wheeled about in a wheelchair. At her insistence, when the aunts who cared for her finally let her out of her chair to swing on the swings with the other children, she was healed, and was able to walk. They took her picture in front of the flowers, and well... when the photo was developed, it held not the girl in black and white, but the face of Christ.

I saw the photograph for myself when I visited an elderly woman at nine years old, and it was such a miracle that have remembered it ever since.

In every photo I took, starting here in Beacon Hill Park, with my husband at the time who was paralysed from the waist down, sitting on a park bench... I attempted only to catch a glimpse of the master's face.

Somehow the transcendent will appear, it will make itself known, if not through a photograph, through the ordinary progression of life as we choose to serve those who can't repay us.

In poverty of spirit,

Emily

23.9.10

Consulting The Oracle


The practice of divination as a means of aquiring direction and knowledge has been practiced from before medieval times, in fact, the sacred means of aquiring wisdom are mentioned several times in the old testament of the Bible. The stones Urim and Thummim are used by the priesthood as lots, to divine the direction to take in their leadership of the people. These stones are also mentioned in the book 'The Alchemist', a story about a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who is seeking his life's treasure. Whether God reveals to people the future remains a question in this book ... "God only rarely reveals the future. When he does so, it is only for one reason: it's a future that was written so as to be altered." The boy learns to recognize and respond to omens as a means of communication between himself and the spiritual world.
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How the spirit world communicates with man is a lesson that is learned over a lifetime, and to be successful in the spirit world is not necesarily of the things that make one rich in a worldly sense. What is your spiritual identity, and your role in a spirit world that is invisible and dependent on capturing the eyes of your heart and your imagination?
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Some find that answer in religion, but religion without the creativity of love and application of its precepts is a dead church. When we examine the spiritual world along with nature, and the beauty that God has placed around us in music, dance, art, writings, and prayer we find a mosaic that is bound together by love and trust, that resonates in response to good character and morality. To sing a song you must remember it, so it is written on your heart. In the Bible they told young men to write the words of God on the tablet of their hearts. This speaks of a tradition of leadership based on theology, handed down over centuries to become the integrity of today.
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It must be said that Christianity is rarely in favor of divination, and condemns this idea in the Bible as occult, but instead reverts to a relational means of aquiring direction and wisdom, to be friends with the Creator is to receive positive instruction. It depends on the written word of biblical instruction, pastors and leadership to guide and direct people who are said to be like sheep.
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The Oracle by Emily Isaacson, is an inspired book written by a modern day poet and prophet. It is one of five books in the collected work 'The Fleur-de-lis', coming to bookstores this December. This may be a book that can provide direction and wisdom, opened to any page, as it was written for the guidance of one particular person and people group in the face of contemporary and very secular society. Dedicated to Prince William and the First Nations, it has five poetry selections in three volumes, written to recapture the spirit of a nation in peril: her homeland Canada.
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'The Fleur-de-lis' enters with The Laurel Wreath , which is 222 poems in 22 sections: St. Augustine's formula. From beginning to end, it tells of human nature and our part in refining the soul for the spirit's benefit; in a postmodern sense it may be a revolution against the modern world, and contradictory to modern thought. However, it paints the poet's diametrically ordered and established world, offers perspective and waxes philosophic over poetic. With rarely a meter or rhyme, the poetry is like modern day song that superceded the hymn and hymnal.
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Very Truly,
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Emily
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[Painting: Consulting The Oracle, by J.W. Waterhouse]

22.9.10

Carpe diem


Seize the day, or Gather ye rosebuds while ye may...
take care to realize your destiny, training to achieve your full potential. Practice your scales, stand at the barre, twirl your baton, swim your laps. Everything is useful for self-discipline, in the grueling pace and race of life.
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From the moment your alarm goes off in the morning until your head hits the pillow at nighttime, recite each moment as having meaning: in the way of the Celtic tradition, having a soul and the substance of a prayer. When we couple the daily monotonous events and rituals of life, sometimes menial, forever repetitious, with song and prayer, the moments become sacred and cherished. The essence of relationship forms, with both the divine nature, and those around us.
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Music is composed note by note, understanding is built word by word, transcendence is reached prayer by prayer. And a home is built on good memories and cherished moments with the people we love and care for. When we gather them as rosebuds, we have a bouquet to adorn the table, a jar of potpourri, a fragrant perfume, a drawer sachet.
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People enjoy the sea, yet they are cautious of her power, her unceasing rhythm, her roar of stinging salty grey which could pull one out to the depths and watery grave. Yet we worship in her fury, unceasing as the cords of death, we worship in her shadow. The sea is our mother and we cherish her power and her moons of plenty; her seashell harvest, and kelp washed beach of bleached driftwood.
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The sea is like the unicorn, vast and beyond our imagination, both myth and legend. It is like the lion shaking his salty mane. Home of the whale and the starfish, a desert of blue and milky tide. The beginning of an embryo is unlike the minute life of the sea, in its fluid like a small universe. We dare not transgress against its miniature life, its small form, its tiny shadow--fluttering heart. To care, to shelter this life against the storm, is in essence to save one's life against the sea in our macrocosm. When the smallest unit of our life and humanity on earth has value, it is imparted to everyone and all are welcome and received. This small child is not weak or poor, still shaping its constitution and powers, but has nothing to give until its journey into life is complete.
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Don't forget to love life unto birth, carpe diem ...
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Emily

20.9.10

House of The Unicorn


Inside the mind of the poet, in the house of the unicorn, there is a pale gold haunt of the spiritual nature and silver horn of truth. The unicorn, shaking his horn, salty-sea-fire, has words of revelation. The myth is central to his imagination and contemplation. The dance of time is his leadership to remain in the center of perfect will with absolute timing.

Revelation is the language of encouragement instead of information and contempt, indifference. It speaks to the spirit instead of the mind through symbol and metaphor, through verse and poetry. It provides images and art to nourish the spirit with a feast instead of veritable starvation. To eat of its table, we must accept the invitation to be part of eternity, to come in to the mother of peace.

The church in the end times is like a unicorn with no horn. It is a church without revelation, and missing its empowerment of the prophetic. It has the power of contemplation of a child in a bomb shelter. It suspects its judgement as innacurate, and its perception as evil under a plethora of occult books, movies and influences. It contantly corrects and overcorrects its inner imagination to newsprint and fact, to secular viewpoint and modern worldview.

When will we listen to the wind, the stars, the sea, to the cultures still paddling in birchbark canoes, and hear their perception of the creator in a galaxy of old meteor stones? We must listen, for the roar of our society drowns what is tranquil, quiet, and perceptive. It distorts the messages that regulate our bodies and our minds to create health. We must learn to listen to our bodies and its senses to write, to understand poetry, to be balanced and in balance, to be healthy and without disease.

The lion and the unicorn is a symbol, constituent of the coat of arms, metaphoric image of Scotland and England. The veil of romance is in their shield, as they represent the union of marriage. The lion and the unicorn must not divorce, but even now question their union. As one country asks to be removed from the Commonwealth, the nations watch. Canada states its cause, its needs, its requirement of spiritual influence which is uncorrupted. It presents its cause in the book 'The Fleur-de-lis', in three volumes, coming to bookstores March 2011.

Emily

17.9.10

Footprints of Waterhouse


The enchantment of Waterhouse makes its way into the present with the dozens of his historic paintings of figures of Greek and English mythology. I have almost a half-dozen life sized Waterhouse hanging in my home, a gallery of tribute to the namesake of The Waterhouse Foundation. Almost daily we add to the number of artists who wish to associate themselves with our cause to further contemporary art forms under the name of this great painter who pinioned like no other the muse.

I invite artists from around the world to make themselves known through our networking directory and become registered artists as never before. There is a passion and inspiration that births itself in the discipline of the many mediums of contemporary art forms, but we must first approciate the art of others before we strike out to do something of our own. Each artist sees from within his own heart, through his own lens, on his own unique life's road, and creates through art a paradigm for interpretation of the world, nature, literature, movement and film.

There is something beautiful in capturing the poor, the cultures of the earth, nature's resplendent roar, the sea, the seasons, and the dance of mythic legend imprinted on the face of the earth like footprints.

Where we walk, angels fear to tread.

Emily

16.9.10

The Last Battle


You may remember in the last book of The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, how Prince Tirian had for his closest friend, a unicorn. The beautiful and mythic creature invites us to contemplation, to enclosure, to a medieval spiritual world that in his case was corrupted by evil, and resulted in many people suffering from disillusionment in their inability to see or hear from the Great Lion Aslan.
For some reason during this time, Aslan was not making himself known to the people. Instead, there were two impostors of lions, the monkey Shift, and his lion-skin dressed partner, a donkey named Puzzle. No matter how you dress a donkey, it is still a brute creature, and the imitation of intelligence and bravery can only cover up so much cowardice.

In our day and age, I hope we are not dressing up in old lion skins to cover up for our lack of true character: the nature of chivalry, justice and liberty. We are hesitant to go the extra mile for anyone, even if this defines love. We so often sow hurtful or demeaning words towards those we don't understand, and we look down on those with less money or possessions.

We are also inundated with things to buy, places to go, and zoom zoom.

When we cherish the simplicity of the things that money cannot buy, we are looking for what makes up the threads of family and friendship. Eventually, if we consider the songs and stories of life as essential, we will have a tapestry of legacy that will bind together generations with the essence of what heals.

We must begin to heal with our words, our uncomplaining gestures, our heart intentions, or we will maim what is most precious to us.

When the intimacy we value the most seems so far removed in this day, we can know that the nature of God he put in each person to draw us to himself will draw us to become the character he wants us to be. If you are singing a song that speaks of truth, it comes from your inner being, and you will continue to sing, even if you are cast into the darkest prison.

Never give up, for this may be the last battle.

Emily

15.9.10

Voetelle Exhibit


This is my first solo exhibit, and encompasses my work of the last five years. With only a camera, I started in 2004, with aspiration to model my art exhibits after GAUDI, from a brochure I saw from an exhibit in Europe. So far, this has been successful, as on September 11, eleven people came by to view the gallery, with comments like this reminds me of Gaudi, Ansell Adams, Guess. It helps if one is interested in the professional art of photography if you could work for a magazine and take photographs that are both pristine and professional with a quality of a magazine ad. I look for this in my digital work, although none of the images exhibited this year are digital. All are analogue, without any computer enhancements.

With all the world hads to offer there is much to be photographed, and you can become overwhelmed by the number of photographers, particularly on Flickr, a worldwide repository for photos. I am always encouraged by the delicacy of the fact that every photo is different and every photographer sees a different angle and dimension of life. I have always sought to benefit the disabled community with my work, and this exhibit is dedicated to VTEA Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association, in Langley where I volunteered with the horses and disabled children for three years. The photo I took in the barn there will be given to them at the end of the exhibit as a donation.

I have always enjoyed working with the disabled on horses, teaching them to ride, and appreciate their ability to contribute and give back to the community in whatever way they are able. Whatever our condition, we are always in the position of finding someone with less resources and benefitting them with our talents for the betterment of humanity. Thus a humanitarian cause: one which does not discriminate, but equates all with deservedness of the service.

In good faith,

Emily