Illuminated Heart

2021

Acrylic on Canvas (30" x 30")

This was painted while doing intensive work on one of my ancestral lines. This was a powerful healing for myself and my Ancestors. In the work that I am doing, the Delta represents the point where I stand between the river of my ancestral past and the vast ocean of my future lines. As I stand in this delta, I am healed by my ancestors and I, in turn, pour out healing to my future generations and the world. The following poem came from this experience.

Delta of My Heart

A thousand times over I’d been here.
A thousand times over I’d healed.
A thousand times over I’d known pain
But this last time round broke me
A thousand pieces to reclaim.

This time I came here, fresh and renewed.
Little did I realize I’d conjured you
To help fix the mess I’d left behind.
Little did I realize that healing involved breaking me down even more,
A thousand soul shards scattered to the wind.
But fix myself, I did.

Uncovering the past, lifetime by lifetime,
Until I hit the Motherlode.
With the roar of a dragon and the fury of Kali,
I broke the chains that bound me to the rock of Prometheus.
Soaring off on the Eagle’s back, no longer his captive,
But now his companion and He, my guide.

I dig and dig, mining deep into the veins of my Ancestors,
Digging for the promised Gold,
The healing gifts of this lineage tossed upon alluvial plains
Bearing up their bones for me to gather in vessels,
Hidden deep within the chambers of my heart.

I offer them my healing; they flood me with their own.
As I stand in the Delta, I am awash with their love.
Scoured clean of my story,
Shining light in all directions, like the stars above,
A beacon to a thousand pieces come home.

In honor of the Cushing Lineage
Barbara Wellborn 2021