Greening Hands

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Within a few days after I arrived in Sydney, Australia in October of 2009, I had a powerful dream. It revolved around an image that has become a guiding symbol for my life here. I am sharing this dream with you because starting at the beginning is not only a very good place to start, but also because this dream led me to create my first painting in a very long time.

In the dream I had been pulled up by a force outside of myself and was flying to a plaza in a large urban area. Once I landed I noticed something very unusual. I looked at my hands and they had changed. I was curious but not anxious. My hands had partially turned green and brown and my fingers had become sprouting twigs. They were alive, woody, and flexible. One finger/twig had been partially damaged but was already healing. All other fingers were vibrant and had small pods of seeds growing on them.

I awoke with the reflection that the greening of my fingers meant that I will be in touch with an out of the ordinary and very vital kind of life energy here. This heightened my excitement and curiosity about how my relationship to this land, with its deep aboriginal roots, would unfold and how I would actually experience the sprouting of my hands.