Keira McArthur

What happens when we don’t take responsibility for healing our own lives, and instead project our buried trauma out onto other people – our children, our families, our friends, our colleagues?  What happens when we use all our energy in criticism and complaint, when we use charity and judgement as a way of maintaining privilege […]

Do we all have a natural buoyancy?  I wonder.  Some call themselves ‘sinkers’, and describe the great effort required to stay afloat.  This is subjective, of course. Effort, to some, is a thing to be minimized if not avoided altogether.  To others effort is a joy,  a ‘coming to meet’, a solid, positive investment in something […]

Only slowly have I become aware of the enormous reservoir that floats above me like a helium ship vast, volatile impossible I am Astonished I’d have noticed it years ago, but I’ve only recently developed the habit of looking up Like the water towers in every small town there’s a name writ in large letters […]

4:30am in the studio is like hanging out with a special old friend I’ve not seen for a long time.  We both like gentle light, strong hot coffee.  We share a deep enjoyment of the act of listening to the day as it begins.  I feel my face wake up, muscle by muscle, and take […]

acres of open acres and acres of open grassland like water in the wind but grass sings differently than water, if you listen Grass sings air On the treadmill today I close my eyes and listen to Africa my shoulders stop fighting gravity and every muscle is fluid easy, open, walking steady and forever like […]

Mama said there’d be days like this.  It’s been weeks of days like this. When you need to change your mind about something that’s buried deep in your blind spot, getting a good, swift sucker punch or two from someone close will do the trick.  It’s best if the motivation behind the attack is baffling […]

We were in my studio where almost every inch of wall, floor table and shelf is crammed with stuff in process and use, with tools, & paint & vine charcoal & buttons & books & thread & blank paper & other paper covered with notes or ideas or solo, duet, trio, quartet or orchestral music.  […]

It’s become a bit like being in my own reality TV show, this process of getting paintings out the door.  The day has just passed that I’d targeted as my deadline, barring a major dharmic intervention.  I will say that I have made great progress, and these two huge impossibles are very close to being […]

8:30 pm, on the final day of 2012. I’m on the edge of a tiny old quarry in Canada, witnessing a light-battle between the  blazing-hot fire pit and the mostly full moon. It plays out on the foot-deep snow around us – the perfect contrast of indigo and gold. I have no words for this […]

In my mind I see heavy ropes as thick as my leg, one end of each securely tied to My Ship, the other attached to an immense anchor, to a wharf – strong ropes for whatever the need – this is my father, to me. As captain, it’s up to me to make good use […]