“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do”. – Georgia O’Keeffe
“When there’s nothing left to do I pray for sunrise”. – Scott Stapp
The shades of desert night are birthed before the dawn, with a shard of red that beckons on, and on, and I think I’m in de Chaco, in my bare feet, without grace, and my heart withdrawn. I cannot see the reason why, but still, I think it’s my way of life. And to my right O’Keeffe she smiles, “I’m putting touches with my paint, let’s watch it dry”, her voice like a sound of lightning, “let’s let it dry. “there’s a lesson son in dreams to those who wait”. “Some terrified in moments before they see the paint”.
It could have been the pizza, of just the night before, but chills just don’t seem suited, to this vision, what is it for? The silence in the statues of the rocks where the dark angels died, the ark of the holy covenant rises fire from the eastern sky. It is such a mystery, mystery, with the ruins, gone by. My G_D to thee this morning when I’m born to die, is in a dream that you look me in the eye.
“It is a duty to paint her face”, says a dreamlike “Georgia” turning the brush like my fate. Those hands were pictures, I start to say, but it’s not important when you’re in this place. “Oh G_D you’re an element, in this dream, before the canyons and my dried streams, of hopes and thoughts about where I’ve been, from the top of a mountain, to the taste of sin. “A turn of her shoulder brings a certain pink”, says Georgia, whispering, as between her teeth. I haven’t thought to question, for my mind is a whirl, why G_D has chosen a dead painters world. But back to the silence of the morning that is, with de Chaco moving in my soul somewhere within. “The rising of the child is what you want to see”, suddenly Georgia’s voice is distant outside of me. For the walls of nature rise and arc and stand, before creation’s first thought of first man.
“No dark valley”, Georgia whispers to me, and I turn, and she’s gone, instead there’s just a pinon tree, but I turn again, and what I love the most, is “Adonai” that brought me shining down his ghost. Unto you all my whispers, and all my errant dreams, you of blended cells of mystery, that makes a child of me. For here in de Chaco in the sunrise of the worlds, all suddenly O’Keeffe’s words come into my heart and swirl. “I’m putting touches with my paint” a voice rumbles in my dream, it’s been drying in the desert while you walk in your sleep. I brought you to my birthplace here, the land an inward sea. And though I think I am asleep, the day awakens me from my keep, and all I hated has gone away, the black and white of my mistakes. A sunrise color like Georgia makes, has painted me with the coat of many colors for my destiny, the coat of many colors for my destiny! – 02.18.2018 – דָּנִיֵּאל
My dear brother, it would appear this is your greatest adventure yet, and from it has sprung your blessing, and it holds your answer. Shavua tov my friend. Shalom, Dennis
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Hi Dennis, thank you, I love your interpretations, and yes I suppose it is the greatest adventure. Funny, I awoke feeling spry for the journey. 😉 Shavua Tov to you my friend. Shalom, Daniel
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Dear Daniel, I too awoke with that spry feeling, perhaps we are on the same journey as I have long suspected we are. I thank you for the companionship and great words of wisdom that sustain us as we travel. 😉
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Daniel, I read this through many times. It is an amazing masterpiece, I am in awe. much ❤ and admiration. Lisa
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Thank Lisa, I am humbled by your compliment, and happy you liked the piece. Wishing you a great week ahead my friend.
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Your welcome, Shavua Tov dear Daniel. ❤
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When I first started to read this, I wondered how you would tie it together, and by the end of it, it didn’t matter, because it all was in harmony. This was so beautiful Daniel it brought me to tears.
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Hi Abigail, your comment meant a lot to me. I usually don’t know where I am going when I start a piece , and when some kind soul tells me they sensed harmony at the end, I am thankful beyond words. Have a great day. 🙂
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Your welcome, there is a great sense of harmony in all you write, I detect a search as well.
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There is so much in this wonderful piece of prose I don’t know where to begin. The weaving of so many lessons. Simply amazing!
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Hi Kelli, thank you for your kind comment, I am thrilled you liked the piece. Wishing you a wonderful day.
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This is very much a new favorite for me, the Scott Stapp music fits so well, and the inter weaving with Georgia O’Keeffe is pure genius. ❤
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Thank you Anlosa, I enjoy the music of Scott Stapp very much, and relate to many of the stuggles he ha gone through in his life. I am happy you liked this piece. Thanks again.
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I was not familiar with his work as a solo artist, until hearing this piece. Thank you for the introduction, 😉
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At the risk of sounding the same way every time I comment on your post, I love this. Your world is always full of surprises and I am grateful you choose to share them with your readers. This is a new favorite for today. ❤ ❤ ❤
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Thank you for that dear Heather, as always I am grateful you find my work worthwhile, and it is my great fortune to have readers such as yourself. Shavua Tov my friend. 🙂
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Your welcome Dear Daniel, Shavua Tov to you and your lovely wife. ❤
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🙂
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“The phantasmagorias of dream and vision are of “subtle matter.” Extremely fluent and mercurial, they are not illuminated, like gross objects, from without, but are self-luminous. Moreover, their logic is not that of Aristotle. In dream, we all know, the subject and object are not separate from each other—though they seem so to the dreamer—but identical; and two or more objects, furthermore, not only can but always do occupy the same place at the same time. The images, that is to say, are polysynthetic and polysemantic—and, I might add, in both aspects inexhaustible when analyzed from the standpoint of waking consciousness.” – Joseph Campbell – who was very well writing about you sir. This is great!
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My friend, you quote from a person I most admire for so many reasons, when you are reviewing my work. May I say I am humbled and grateful to you. Wishing you a great week ahead with your girls Wang, thanks again. 🙂
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Astounding work, I love your mix of the classic, the dream and the modern (referencing the pizza) 😉 To echo all who will read, fantastic prose! ❤
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Thank you Gwen, I have found the mixture you speak of above drawing me my entire life. Especially the pizza. 😉 I am grateful and humbled by your words. Have a great day. 🙂
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Pizza helps weave a great tale, I suspect you enjoy it often as you write! 😉
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I too had to read more than once, you have a host of mysticism packed into this, and wisdom. Thank you, you never fail to surprise. 🙂
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Hi Brenda, thank you for reading and your wonderful comment. I always hope the surprise is a worthwhile one. 😉
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I love surprises. 😉
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Daniel, I have to add my two bits in here. Being an O’Keeffe fan, I am delighted with how you pulled this off. This was good stuff! Write on man, write on!!
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Thank you Steve, I too am an O’Keeffe fan, and had wanted to do something for awhile to mix her into a piece. Happy you liked it. Have a great evening my friend.
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You have a great evening as well Daniel perhaps dream of the purple hills. 😉
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I enjoyed this Daniel, one of your best yet.
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Thank you Layla, very happy you liked the piece. Wishing you a great day ahead. 🙂
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You too!
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This wonderful piece carried me back to another piece you penned about Chaco Canyon. https://danielswearingen.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/sante-fe-chaco-canyon-1978/ This like that piece is filled with a trove of mystic wisdom’s. I enjoyed this very much my young friend.
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Hi Bill, you remembered, Sante Fe was a favorite of mine, thrilled you matched them, and also honored my friend that you keep up in such away with what I put out on this blog. Have a great day Bill, Daniel
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Your post often are the highlight of my day my young friend. 🙂
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And your comments mine! 🙂
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This was an amazing piece to read, the best was the summation and how it tied to the beginning. The idea that we still need to work to be painted by our supreme. Love it!
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I agree, some old saying somewhere, about being a work in progress and all of that. 😉 Thank you for a wonderful comment.
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I am a work in progress, a little further back then some, but still anxiously awaiting the paint! 😉
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I’m sure you are running the same pace as me. 😉
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Well written Daniel, a sinner’s prayer indeed to find sunrise, and to see the light paint the colors upon your face. Chaco Canyon must be magnificent.
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Hi Lynette, Chaco is magnificent, I think of it as the birthplace of my creation. 😉 Thank you as always for reading and your wonderful comment.
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It is evident that the land always has a spiritual meaning to you, when you write of it. The Southwest in particular.
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Daniel I am always stunned by your use of adjectives and descriptors, putting metaphors and parables in a story. Most of all I am amazed by how you weave the mystic into your prose, leaving me to gain something that I will always take with me. I loved this piece, as well as any other you have written, and perhaps more. ❤ Ruby
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Hi Ruby, well I as always am indebted to you for a wonderful compliment, and I am humbled by what you say. The thought that I put something down that stays with you in a good way (I hope 😉 ) well, that is the ultimate. Thank you.
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Every word you put down stays with me. I can’t remember what I had for breakfast but I remember almost by line most of what you write. Hows that for crazy! 😉 ❤
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🙂
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Love Love the new Scott Stapp edition! ❤
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Stunning!!! ❤ this!
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Thank you Delilah!
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You write well mate, having made a visit more than once to Chaco Canyon, and seeing the sunrise there, I would say you are on to something. 😉
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Hi Shaun, it is an incredible place with some incredible views. Happy you are familiar with it. As always thank you for a great comment.
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Taking a trip out there this summer, might see you wandering around somewhere. 😉
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Mystical, wonderful and full of unbridled joy at the discovery of your existence. This was brilliantly written Daniel.
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Thank you Jane, I love the way you put your comment. Have a wonderful day and week ahead. 🙂
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Your welcome Daniel
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Daniel, “Sunrise with Georgia” was written with raw emotion, I found the words inspirational, and full of the vibrancy and color. Definitely a new favorite for me. ❤
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Thank you Erin, happy you found SWG to be inspirational. I was trying to get to that point with the piece but wasn’t sure if I had arrived. 😉
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I find inspiration from other’s who our involved in a deep journey, something that is real inside them but hard to hold to. That is me too. I find so much in common in my own journey and in what you write.
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I think we are all on the same journey, some of us in different lanes, still it is strange that as individuals it is such effort.
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That is what I think, sometimes I think the collective approach is where we go wrong, so many individuals with great abilities, surely we can learn from the individual. BTW, I adore conversations such as this. 😉
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As do I.
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When I was a kid, my dad would drive the family from our home in Winslow to various canyon parks in Arizona and New Mexico. I remember us visiting Chaco and dad pointing out the way the sun danced off of the rock formations. Your post brought a flood of memories to me. Thank you. ❤
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Hi Raquel what wonderful memories, thank you for sharing them with me. Your childhood sounds much like mine, enthralled with the wonders of the sandstone and sagebrush. 😉 Thank you for a wonderful comment.
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Yes, my childhood was like that, one of the reasons I am so drawn o your writing is I can sense that in you, the wide open spaces, the high desert.
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Well written Daniel, and the tie in with O’Keeffe’s work is fascinating.
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Hi Darrin, thank you for commenting, I appreciate your kind words.
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Very welcome Daniel, always pleased when I see an entry from you.
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I just arrived at your blog on a previous piece you had posted about Chaco Canyon. I adore your writing. The use of language to convey messages from the spirit you have nailed down. 🙂 I look forward to reading more of what you have to say.
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Hi Jo, welcome, really nice to have you here. I am interested in sensory language and how to use it when writing, it sounds like you do the same with art. Thank you for your comment, I am humbled. 🙂
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🙂 ❤
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A super prose, Daniel. An interesting muse in Georgia O’keeffe, and her work.
So prose, like painting is a coat of many colors, and you wear yours well. I really like the song you chose, it works very well with your piece. Still, I could not get https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glggureA_Kk off my mind!
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Thank you Resa, I love that “coat of many colors” one of the greatest reasons I am drawn to your work so often, obviously you get it. 😉 How did you know I love Ray Charles, and yes it would have been appropriate. 🙂
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Beautiful mystical writing!
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Thank you very much. 😁
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