Meri's Play Place

Dear Allegra, my valiant friend: I lit a candle for you, you lover of peacocks fabulous food all things beautiful and all creatures great and small. I am sending healing light and love your way because I don't know what else to do. This is all I can offer: I am holding you in my heart, Dear One. Peace.

For more Haiku My Heart, click HERE .  Celebrate the birth of the One who brings the Light, spreads it far and wide.

  Wordless Wednesday (Merry Christmas) And visit me at my other blog for Share the Joy Thursday

Let me transport you to a magical place where color seeps into your heart. . .  and warms your soul. © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian Mosaic Monday Mexico Monday

© 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian bottles line the wall cobalt blue more intense than the sky fills my eyes Weekend Reflections .

© 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian. Ruby Tuesday.

She is all around, answering fervent prayers. Working miracles f or those who believe. Radiating goddess energy out into the Universe. Just being an inspiration and consolation. Mosaic Monday . Mexico Monday. A Virgin a Day . And please join us  for Share the Joy Thursday .

She is revered in Mexico the brown-skinned lady with sweet eyes like pools of chocolate, with a mother's compassionate heart. The holy lady, worker of miracles. Omnipresent in Mexico. For more virgins or to join the procession, visit Rebecca . 

Not to steal her thunder or anything but I've always loved the iconic figure I've come to call "Rebecca's Virgin." Her halo, her reverent eyes, her hands folded in prayer, all speak to me. © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian So I was really excited when Rebecca led us on a pilgrimage to see "her" Virgin and even let us take pictures. For more virgins, wander on over to Rebecca's place .  Don't miss Deb's virgin painting .  Or Annie's sorrowful Pieta . I love Noelle' s Reflections on a Black Madonna. Then there's Fran's journal page , Elizabeth's Gray Seduction , and Spadoman's Sacred Mother Earth . I'm proud to know such talented, thoughtful people! p.s. the link for Share the Joy Thursday will be posted   here by 5 p.m. pacific time today if you'd like to play along. 

I was walking along the waterfront, trying to catch a glimpse of the progress on the Chinese Reconciliation park  when I accidentally discovered these lovely berries adorning branches. So appealing and so RED. Ruby Tuesday .  

Feeling a little prickly today? © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian. To get a dose of fun, click on over to Mexico Monday .

Between the poetry bookstore and a performance of Hair by the tour company, I sneaked in a little visit to Anthropologie and then next door to Williams-Sonoma. One gift for Danielle. Two gifts for me. At least I'll have something under the tree. For more Mosaic Monday, click HERE . And please join us  for SHARE THE JOY THURSDAY . Tell us (and show us) what gives you joy. Share those incomparable little moments.

For more Weekend Reflections, click HERE .

Mary is the centerpiece of virgin-adulation  in the Christian tradition, though she is  not the only religious figure said  to have given birth asexually.   Nor was she the first.  Mighty Isis gave birth to her son Horus  by immaculate conception after Osiris  was murdered and hacked into tiny pieces  by his wicked brother Set. Michaelangelo's Pieta - photo © MAK 2010 This Virgin Mary, of course,  is part of the Pieta,  an incomparable sculpture  carved by Michaelangelo.  Besides being rendered awestruck  by its ethereal beauty, you can't help  but notice that this Mary --  probably in her late 40s or early 50s  at the time of the crucifixion --  has the countenance of a teenager.  There are no wrinkles,  no signs of life lived well.  There is perhaps a suggestion of shock  or perhaps surrender,  but not the overt grief that might be anticipated  from a human mothe...

When   Christianity made its way to Ireland the Celtic people weren't ready to give up the Goddess. Brigid was the goddess of the fire, the protectress of blacksmiths, of healers and poets. She was the High Mother Goddess of Ireland. Her feast day is February 1, known as Imbolc, the beginning of Celtic spring. Today, Brigit's wells dot the Irish landscape. She has been incorporated into the persona of St. Brigid of Kildare, thought to have been a nun in the 500s. She is often mistaken for the Virgin Mary, but her sacred status long predates Christianity. To see other Virgins, visit Rebecca 's "A Virgin a Day."

One of the virgin images found in Guanajuato, Mexico is that of Our Lady of Guanajuato, patron saint of the city. Her statue resides in the basilica built between 1671 and 1696. This antique figure was a gift from King Charles I of Spain and his son, Phillip II of Spain during the colonial period. Image © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian It is thought to be the earliest piece of European religious art to arrive in the New World. Each year on August 9, there is a ceremony commemorating the statue's arrival  in Guanajuato  in 1557.   The statue is placed on a huge, lavishly decorated  lighted bier for closer inspection. A special Mass and Rosary are said.  Then men of the parish carry the statue outside for waiting throngs to see. Hymns are written for the ceremony and Aztec dancers perform. In the evening there are three hours of prayer, music and general adoration, culminating in a fireworks display. The next day an embroidered velvet mantilla is draped on ...

Not that I'm in the same league as St. Brigid of Ireland or Our Lady of Guadalupe but I was a virgin ....... once upon a time. Sorry..... I couldn't resist playing with the theme. To see more typical and saintly virgins, visit Rebecca's Recuerdo mi Corazon .  And if you want to play along with SHARE THE JOY THURSDAY, click HERE .