SACRED ART PLAY

Descansos and Recuerdos

The Spanish word "descansar" means to rest.  In religious folk practice "descansos" have come to mean a place where someone is laid to rest and remembered. They can be found all over the Southwest, from Texas to California. In New Mexico a descanso often marks the spot where a funeral party stops to say a prayer for the deceased on the way to the cemetery. You have probably seen a tombstone or cross decorated with a photograph and plastic flowers along the side of the road. This probably marks the place where a life has been lost. A descanso is a way to keep the memory of someone who has passed away alive. It is a gesture of love meant to honor someone precious.

Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. 

William Shakespeare

If you're going through hell, keep going. 

Winston Churchill

The Spanish word "recordar" means to remember. A recuerdo is a keepsake, memento, memory, or remembrance. A part of us may be restless until we have laid a loss to rest or we may be haunted by the loss of someone we love. Creating a shrine to honor and celebrate a person in our life can help us remember what we treasure about someone and work through the grief process so we can move on. In nature, death and life are interwoven; something dies and something is born. When we get stuck in a loss we can miss seeing what wants to be born around us or in us.  Making a shrine to deal with an injustice or sadness in our life is a creative way of coming to terms with something difficult and it makes space for new life.

Descanso with Flamengo

Highway 26 in Oregon

I've seen what a good laugh can do. It can transform tears into hope.    Bob Hope

For Both of Us

As long as I can

I will look at this world

for both of us.

As long as I can

I will laugh with the birds,

I will sing with the flowers,

I will pray to the stars,

for both of us.

As long as I can

I will remember

how many things

on this earth

were your joy.

And I will live

as well as you

would want me to live

as long as I can.

Sascha Wagner

The cure for anything is salt water, sweat, tears, or the sea.

Isak Dinesen

"Blossomings" may seem like a strange name for a shrine that honors loss but it has its roots in grief. I made it as a tribute to the seeds in my life that have never blossomed. It felt like this shrine was a way of calling them into life and growth. It was also a way to honor the seeds that will never blossom - at least not in the way I'd hoped.

I love beachcombing and the tiny shells at the bottom of the shrine are symbols of all the things I've gathered throughout the years: experiences, both painful and joyful; skills, knowledge, memories. I wanted to feel that they all made sense in some way. There's a faceted citrine bead hanging at the top with a pearl attached. The pearl reminds me of the things that are aggravating and painful that, like a grain of sand in an oyster, turn into something precious and beautiful. In the section at the top I placed a nest made out of copper wire and in it, a variety of seeds: a fruit seed, a flower seed, and a seed for a tree. All of them have a different way of becoming.

Blossomings Shrine

The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.

An Indian Chief, 1876.

This shrine was in the basement of the Royal Villas hotel in Mazatlan, Mexico. It was made by some of the people who work at the hotel. There are some faded flowers at the base that might have honored someone who died. This shrine is a way of bringing warmth to the workplace by personalizing it with cultural and spiritual symbols.

To the right is a shrine along the road to the Mazatlan airport. Inside is a photograph of a young man surrounded by silk flowers and some artifacts meant to capture something about him.

To the left is another shrine along the airport road with what looks like it might be a church in the background.