A LIFE OF INNOCENCE & EXPERIENCE

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WENDY STRETTEN

hello! nice to meet you!

 

As an painter and writer, I am a fan of the world’s great mystics including the poet and artist, William Blake, whose most famous work, Songs of Innocence and Experience, helps us see the contrasting states of the human experience. Blake believed that the soul is united with the divine and then comes to Earth to take a journey. It is born into youthful innocence with an invitation to experience itself through trial and error. Why? To learn how use everything for the soul’s learning, growth and upliftment and to learn what works and what doesn’t in becoming a Loving creator. As we progress, we learn to misidentify with and master the contrasting states of negative and positive, harnessing the energy of the polarities as a launchpad into what some describe as oneness, non-duality, or heaven on earth

This is one soul’s journey of their creation… so far.

 

A LIFE OF INNOCENCE & EXPERIENCE

I grew up in the midwest and moved to California where I married aN ORDINARY man I met in an ordinary bar who worked in an ordinary warehouse. TURNED OUT HE WAS A GIFTED WRITER AND One day, he suddenly got a break and ended up in the upper tiers of Hollywood.

I wasn’t prepared.

A wild ride of contrasts.

It chewed me up and finally spit me out.

Thank God.


From innocence….

Love. Birth. Family. Pet Rat. Nature. California. Marriage. Hollywood. Children. Stillbirth. Spirituality. Ordination. Traveler. Artist. Ordinary Soul. Love.

…to experience


TO REACH SOMETHING GOOD, IT IS VERY USEFUL TO HAVE GONE ASTRAY AND THUS AQUIRE EXPERIENCE.

~ Theresa of Avila

innocence

EXPERIENCE


Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves

~ Henry David Thoreau

innocence

EXPERIENCE


And we are put on earth a little space

that we may learn to bear the beams of love

~ William Blake

innocence

EXPERIENCE


sweet sleep, with soft down

weave thy brows an infant crown

sweet sleep, angel mild

hover over my happy child

~ William Blake

innocence

EXPERIENCE


The person who never in their mind and thoughts

traveLed to heaven is no artist

~ William Blake

innocence

EXPERIENCE


Fill you paper with the breathings of your heart.

~ William Wordsworth

innocence

My Watery Friends

Our house sat on a large lake with a small pond behind it and a creek connecting the two that ran through the field next to us, my watery friends and companions. An imaginary bench remains tucked between the willow bushes on the creek where my spiritual guide awaits my visits. He sits next to the metal culvert that the boys on the lane dared me to walk through, but I chickened out and they rode off on their bikes. I took solace with the giant cottonwood that reigned at the edge of our lawn, sitting against its trunk, energy shooting up my spine while I flew through the air with its cottony children blowing freely in the wind, a fluffy field of summer snow covering the grass. I called to the Canadian geese at the shore, and they waddled over for a visit and some Wonder bread. A toad peed in my cupped hands as I carried it into the house. I loved to hear the occasional sound of my mother’s voice, even if it was just a little scream of surprise.

EXPERIENCE


some compassionate self-forgiveness

I forgive myself for buying into the belief that my website still needs to be improved.

The truth is, it accomplishes what I set out to do: courage!

What other people think of me is none of my business.

I like who I am and I want to go outside and play now.

Anyone want to go pick some dandelions and blow our wishes into the air?