Shaman in San Miguel

The soul selects her own society,

Then shuts the door;

On her divine majority

Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing

At her low gate;

Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling

Upon her mat.

I've known her from an ample nation

Choose one;

Then close the valves of her attention

Like stone.

Emily Dickinson

It's very difficult to describe my relationship with Eunice O'Hanna.  At times she is my artistic shaman.  Other times she's is my creative mother.  Yet other times she is simply my friend.  I've never met anyone else like her and probably will never again find someone to even parallel her talent.

While some people spend most of their time thinking,  Eunice has spent a lifetime doing.  She's a petite lady filled with larger than life ideas and visions.  She's both  an introvert and an extrovert in the same body.  She chooses carefully her company and willingly shares her views and loves to teach life lessons.

Eunice has been blessed with creativity.  She has spent her life harvesting it and putting it on the walls of her home.  In fact, she has created her own museum.  The pieces will survive time like the Mayan art she has studied.  Her art transcends the necklaces, miniature sculptures, paintings, and murals that adorn her home in San Miguel de Allende.  Her home is an expression of herself.  This is something she believes should be true for all of us.  I know she is right.

We made a unique connection this shaman and I.  In a blog titled "Empty Handed" I wrote:  "There's a place creative people frequently find.  It's a place where nothing seems to flow; a spiritual dry well.  We know the well is far from empty, but we cannot draw from it.  Without a doubt its a source of anguish and frustration."

During my stay with her this past week.  My friend, shaman, and teacher was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  "I really liked that blog you wrote", she would tell me.  "I can't remember it but it truly describes what I feel.  It's just not coming to me."

I've not given up on my creativity and I pray that Eunice will have the opportunity to create more.  You see it's something we truly have to do.  It's a part of us and as essential as breathing.