Meditating on bugs and bassett hounds

If you like beetles and cats and frogs, you might want to meditate on the above image which is one of my pet mandalas.

In the Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions, mandalas are considered sacred art. They may be used for focusing attention and as an aid to meditation and trance induction, helping one to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the universe. Groovy.

Carl Jung saw the mandala as a "representation of the unconscious self." I'm big on Jung and his thinking often informs my work as a psychotherapist. Yes, I am a therapist as well as a pet collage artist!

So, back on the subject of bugs. What does it mean if you dream of one? It could be that something is bugging you. Or that there's a part of you that, like a bug, is something icky or scary you don't want to look at. One thing for sure, you don't want to wind up in the bug house!

You know what bugs really bug me? Those little gnats that fly around your kitchen and in front of your computer screen. Did you know that gnats can come from houseplants where they like to breed in the dirt? And that there are non-biting and biting gnats.

Here's another mandala. It's a bassett hound mandala. All together now - ooohhhmmm.

Bluebird of Happiness Day

Check out my story that's featured today on the EFA blog: 

etsyforanimals.blogspot.com/2011/09/national-bluebird-of-happiness-day.html

EFA stands for Etsy for Animals aka Artists Helping Animals, and is a group of independent artists, craftspeople, vintage suppliers, and art and craft suppliers that combine their efforts to provide charitable relief to animals.

At the helm of this fabulous enterprise is Nicole Brizel.  She describes herself  this way " I am a craftswoman & artist; a mother to the animals that look to me, to the trees & gardens that I’ve planted, and to the land that I am pioneering."

See her artwork at:   http://www.etsy.com/shop/brizel4TheAnimals?ref=pr_shop_more

HERE' ARE MY BLUEBIRDS OF HAPPINESS!!