What excites you or exhilarates you?
What infuriates or frustrates you?
What would you like to change if you could?
How do we find safe places to express these feelings, especially if we are young or vulnerable?
We only need simple materials-
pen and paper,
chalk and pavement,
spray cans and blank walls,
old magazines, glue and poster board.
I use textiles and the sewing machine to give voice to what is in my heart -
violence against women,
discrimination against children,
our environment.
May you be blessed with an opportunity to express yourself today.

Let's have fun!
Let's not just throw out our old T-shirts or use them as rags.
Let's use them to be creative ... and have fun :-)
I have used old T-shirts to make a 21st gift for my daughter. It was not only a unique gift but a wonderful way to explore materials and techniques.
Create alone or in a crowd.
Get a few friends together and have an amazing day together!

I like quotes that challenge;
that provoke;
that stimulate dialogue;
that invite contemplation;
that demand a response.

Each of us has a unique, incredible journey.
Some of us follow paths mapped out for us by cultures or families or religions.
Societal expectations put up road blocks to our becoming what we are truly called to be.
Others are gifted mentors or companions who enable and empower us to follow our heart's desire.
We need to learn to recognise and to trust our inner road map and follow the path that is ours alone.
This can take courage, perseverance, attentiveness to opportunity, and belief in our self.

May you be blessed as you journey through life.

Today is ANZAC DAY.
Lest we forget.

Libretto 

Requiem for the Fallen 

Words - Vincent O’Sullivan 

1. Introduction 

(Maimai Apakura) 
Nō tātou ia, tūturu nō konei 
Ko ia ngā takutai, ngā maunga tonu 
mō tātou 
Ka mōteatea ia ki te raki, ki te tonga 
hei tangi aroha mō tātou 
Ki te rāwhiti, ki te uru 
he kawenga reo o tōna iwi 

He is one of us. He is one of our own. 
He bears the coasts, the mountains, for us, 
He calls to the north and the south on our behalf, 
To the east and the west, he carries the voice of his people. 
He is one of us. He is one of our own. 

2. Requiem Aeternum 

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine (Grant them eternal rest, O Lord) 
 
3. Libera nos 

Libera nos, Domine (Free us, Lord) 
Libera nos a malo, (Free us from darkness) 

From the fear that we have of fear, 

Libera nos, Domine, (Free us, Lord) 

From the hate we return for hate, 

Libera nos. (Free us) 
 
From the memory that scars, from the wound that grieves, 
From the racket of battle as hope deceives, 
From the stalking of death and unmarked graves, 
 
Libera nos, Domine. (Free us, Lord) 

Save us O Lord to return to our partners, our wives, 
To the touch of children, to ordinary lives. 
From the final shadow across our path, 
From the hurl of grenades and impending wrath, 
From the ashes of bleakness, 

Libera nos, Domine. (Free us, Lord) 
Libera nos a malo, (Free us from darkness) 
Libera nos, Domine. (Free us, Lord) 

4. Gradual 

What we have left stays with us, as do you with me, 
Girl at the corner dairy, the kiss at the end of the drive, 
The beaches we walked, spring flung on the backyard tree, 
Those mornings we were alive. 
When the day was long as the hours crammed, the light 
Of the southern evenings as we talked of now, and how long 
We would spend, a lifetime, love, as we might a single night, 
When love and life were the ending of each song. 
We can hear the children clatter the kitchen tables, 
We hear their calls before bed, the dog’s late bark. 
We see the lights turned down, breathe the day’s hay bales. 
We march into God knows what, kitted out for the dark. 
 
5. Sanctus 

Sanctus (Holy) 

The light of another day, night’s gift of calm, 
Both time remembered and time to come, 
The figures gathered in our thoughts of home, 
Those who come after, those gone before. 
The gift of life and where it begins 
Those who give life 

Sanctus (Holy) 

that others live. 

Sanctus (Holy) 

May breath stay with us as dawn arrives, 
May the light endure 
May the light endure that we share, 
The wine of life, the bread of time, 

Sanctus (Holy) 

Our standing, comrades, together in the morning air. 

Sanctus (Holy)


6. Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)

We have followed the herd along the track,
We have rounded up the straggling flock. 

Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) 

We have followed the tramlines at dawn, 
We have driven the lorries to the wharves and back. 

Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) 

We have walked where you walk in our southern days, 
We have run the beaches where a child plays. 
We have looked to the mountains and the burning cloud
We, our living brothers, we, the unnumbered dead. 
 
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, 
(Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,) 
 
We too have hoped as you hope as the dawn arrives. 
We have seen the sun run fire as the light revives. 
We have felt our breathing catch as if breathing knives. 
 
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi. 
(Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,) 
 
Lamb of God who takes to himself the weight of the world 
Stand beside us, beside us now, in encroaching dark. 
Lamb of God, who has gone before us to the slaughter, 
Be with us, we, the unnumbered dead. 

Agnus Dei, dona eis pacem. (Lamb of God, grant us peace) 
 
7. Dies irae 

Dies irae, dies illa, (Day of wrath, that day) 
Solvet saeclum in favilla, (will dissolve the world in ashes) 
 
How it comes as a distant thud 
That staggers earth, 

Tuba, mirum spargens sonum, (The Trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound) 
 
How the trumpets blare us forward, 
Bombardment hurls us back, 
The rake of fire beyond the wire, 
A single rifle’s crack. 

Tuba, mirum spargens sonum, (The Trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound) 
Mors stupebit, et natura, (Death and nature will marvel,) 
Cum resurget creatura. (when the creature arises) 
Dies irae, dies illa, (Day of wrath,that day) 
Solvet saeclum in favilla, (will dissolve the world in ashes) 
Tuba, mirum spargens sonum, (The Trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound) 
Mors stupebit, et natura, (Death and nature will marvel,) 
Cum resurget creatura. (when the creature arises) 

Beyond the wire, 
A single rifle’s crack. 
How the earth reels out beneath us, 
Keeping step with doom. 
Morning seeps the green of summer 
Into choking foam, 
The rain that gave last season’s harvest 
Scything fields of mud. 

Tuba, mirum spargens sonum, (The Trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound) 
Mors stupebit, et natura, (Death and nature will marvel,) 
Cum resurget creatura. (when the creature arises) 
Rex tremenda majestatis, (King of tremendous majesty) 
Salve me, fons pietatis (Save me, source of mercy) 
 
God, who stalls within our hearts, 
Time’s fabrics tear, 
‘Fount of pity’ as you taught us, 
Be with us here! 
Ah, the silence
Lies gorged on fear. 

Lacrimosa, dies illa, (Tearful will be that day) 
Qua resurget ex favilla (on which, from the ashes arise...) 
 
Save us from the unknown killer, 
In the trenches, on the hill, 
Hear the random sweep of fire,
Hear the leaden gasp’s choked choir, 

Dies irae, dies illa, (Day of wrath, that day) 
Solvet saeclum in favilla, (will dissolve the world in ashes) 
 
How it comes as a distant thud 
That staggers earth, 

Tuba, mirum spargens sonum, 

How the trumpets blare us forward, 
Bombardment hurls us back. 
The rake of fire beyond the wire, 
A single rifle’s crack. 

Tuba, mirum spargens sonum, (The Trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound) 
Mors stupebit, et natura, (Death and nature will marvel,) 
Cum resurget creatura. (when the creature arises) 
 
Lines set in blood 

Lacrimosa, dies illa, (Tearful will be that day) 
Qua resurget ex favilla (on which, from the ashes arise...) 
 
Time falls still. 

8. Memento Mori 

I walked out today as far as Evans Bay, 
Down streets I walked as a boy. 
The harbour lay sleek as tightened silk, 
To breath was the morning’s joy. 
And I met a cobber on the road, 
Coming down the remembered way, 
Only, I was here, as large as life, 
And he was in Suvla Bay. 

9. In paradisum 

In paradisum (into paradise) 

Where are they, the streets of the new Jerusalem? 
Where do they lead, the paths of glory, 
Where does the spirit walk in the risen dust? 
I have told you that. I have told you that. 
I have even joked about it in my lemon squeezer hat! 
In the streets of home, that is where, at home! 
How the bliss we crave at last is what we have known. 
 
Veni creator spiritus, (Come, holy spirit) 

Creator, come. 
Comrades, 
Our abiding word for Home.

10. Pax vobis. Et cum spiritu tuo. 
It was glory we first went to, 
The jitter of flags, the anthem’s blare 
It was King and Country we went for. It was for all things fair. 
It was mud in our throats when the singing ended. 
It was summer green with gas on the faded fields. 
A friend we could tell by the size of the boots he wore. 
 
Pax vobis.(Peace be with you) 
Et cum spiritum tuo. (and with your spirit) 

‘You go as boys,’ they said, ‘come back as men.’ 
The speeches singing our praises, not knowing 
A thing. Not knowing the fear of night, 
The worst fear of day. Not knowing 
The thud in one’s chest, the broken prayer. 
Not knowing a cobber’s face that’s no longer there. 
 
Pax vobis.(Peace be with you) 
Et cum spiritum tuo. (and with your spirit) 

We go where we go, alone. 
Dropped bayonets rust. 
The machine-guns too have gone, 
Badges flake to dust. 
Oh my loves, my last remembered…. 

Pax vobis.(Peace be with you) 
Et cum spiritum tuo. (and with your spirit) 
Requiem in aeternum (Rest eternal) 
Dona nobis pacem. (Lord grant us peace) 
New

How do we bring about change for the better, for the Common Good?
Some people sing.
Others pray.
Some paint.
Others protest and lobby governments.
Some people stitch and knit: articles that will give comfort and articles that will challenge.
I use textiles to bring about awareness of needs in our community,
such as Cancer and Family Violence and Conservation.
Others write and speak.
Some simply recognise the face of God in each person they meet and meet their need.
I am grateful.

Am I satisfied?
Am I content?
Am I grateful for the gift of stability?
What is the restlessness that unsettles my being?
How do I see the world -
through the lens of desire and longing
or with an attentive, grateful heart?
How do I learn to love the world I find?

From a book review ...
"Underneath the light verses is a playful but profound reminder
of our connection with the natural world
and the notion that we aren’t so different from our fellow nonhuman beings,
with whom we share a reality in an intricate mesh of belonging.
But Krauss’s most important message wasn’t an overt one.
In fact, what makes her books especially exceptional
is that she frequently featured female protagonists --
far from the norm at the time and,
sadly, still an exception half a century  later when only 31% of books feature female lead characters. It may seem like a simple thing --
 the seemingly benign choice of hero or heroine in a children’s story --
 but to offer a quietly dissenting alternative to a fragment of hegemonic culture is no small gift. 
Krauss was a generous gift-giver."

How do we live as people of the light?
How do we move from a penitential posture to one that reflects LOVE?
How do we move from pain to joy?
How do develop an attitude of gratitude?
Attentiveness.
Mindfulness.
Creativity.
I used some old and some new textile art to reflect on the Stations of the Light, the Via Lucis.