Sacred Gift honours the sensitive soul through deer, angel, and ginkgo symbolism in a painting of resilience and inner light.

I had been in a bit of a creative whirlwind.

The inspiration was coming faster than I could keep up. I would sit down to begin one painting, and another would land in my mind’s eye more urgently.

I didn’t want to lose the flow, so I followed it… but somewhere in there, I started to feel like I was falling behind.

This piece came right in the middle of that.

It was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time – have you ever felt that?

At the time of painting, I was about to begin a Kriya Yoga online course with Ananda. That thread was very much alive in me, and it was shaping what was coming through in my work.

Peace as Ever-New Joy is about self-realization, direct communion with the Divine.

The word yoga means union—union with God or whatever language feels true to you.

What many think of as yoga – the physical postures – that’s meant as preparation for comfortable seated meditation.

And meditation? That’s meant for communion.

This painting reflects that ultimate inner process of meditation.

Meditation is also enhanced by the work we do of bringing awareness, balance, and openness to the first six chakras (energy centres in our astral spine). But the seventh… that opening happens on its own, when the others are ready.

At the crown of the head, the lotus opens.

That opening points to a real moment in meditation—when awareness lifts beyond the body and mind, and there is a direct experience of union with the Divine.

It’s not about reaching for something outside of ourselves, but recognizing what has always been there.

It’s what Jesus, Yogananda, saints and other great masters have achieved. Christ Consciousness. And it’s what meditators across the planet are sitting for.

I’ve yet to come close to a calm mind when meditating in this fashion.

I can sit working on a painting with total focus for 18 hours, but sitting even 30 minutes with my eyes closed, focused on my breath and keeping a calm mind…. nope!

And that’s exactly why I joined the Kriya Yoga preparation course.

I’m hoping this style of meditation will help me on my journey.

The structure in this painting delighted me as it emerged.

The form was inspired by the roofs of the Ananda temples, which I had always found incredibly beautiful. You may remember it from my Temple Drum.

Here, it represents both the human body as a temple and the framework of a sacred life.

It holds the meditator.
It holds the practice.
It holds the path that brings us inward.

Above the meditator, the soul is surrounded by a circle of light.

What felt essential was that this light did not stay contained within the structure.

It expanded beyond the inner blue frame of the temple… into the gold, into all that is, connected with Truth, in union with the Divine.

Self-realization is not about perfecting techniques or staying within a structure. It is about letting go of all techniques and realizing oneness with all that is.

At the same time, the teachings remind us that the techniques prepare us. They steady the mind, open the body, and guide awareness—so that eventually, we can let them go and rest in the bliss of oneness.

There is peace here, but it is not static.

As Paramahansa Yogananda taught, when we are anchored in inner peace, we begin to experience an ever-renewing joy.

It’s a quiet, steady, living joy that continues to arise from within.

That is what this painting points to.

This painting sold before it was even finished.

It will be making its way to a collector in Newfoundland, along with three other pieces from my Peace Collection when I return on May 15th to the island to manage the Universal Law Mandala collection.

To have a painting find its home while it is still in process is an amazing feeling – a dream come true. It supports me as I keep going, keep trusting the flow, and continue painting what is being given.

This original painting may have found its home, but others in the collection are still available. You’re welcome to explore all my available pieces here in my online shop.  Prints on paper or canvas are also available of this painting and of many of my new paintings in my print-on-demand shop.

Is there one or more calling you?

“Planting Seeds of Peace” (12″x 24″) – $1,111 CAD

There are moments in the creative process when something begins to move faster than you can name it.

This piece came through in that way.

For weeks, inspiration had been arriving in a steady, almost urgent flow—one painting leading into the next, each revealing itself just as I was finishing the last… or even before it. I wasn’t planning. I was following. And at times, I could barely keep up.

Planting Seeds of Peace became the final piece in that wave.

Not because it simply ended on its own—
but because I told Spirit I needed a break from painting.

And this piece completed that conversation.

At the heart of this work is a simple, living truth:

A seed becomes a pod.
The pod becomes a vessel.
The vessel becomes a life that learns to tend what it has been given.

And so it continues.

The figure sits within what once held her—a seed pod that is no longer just a beginning, but a sanctuary, a memory, a transformation. She is held, even as she holds.

Above her, the light—sun, source, Divine energy—radiates downward.
Below her, the roots extend into the unseen.

And surrounding her, the tree rises—not separate from her, but as the living expression of what grows when something small is nurtured, again and again.

This is the energy of peace as I’ve come to understand it.

Not something we arrive at.
But something we participate in.

Something we plant.
Something we tend.
Something that grows far beyond us.

This painting also marks a moment of integration.

After co-creating this painting with Spirit, I stepped out of that intense creative current and into a different kind of tending—returning to the parts of life that had been waiting patiently in the background: writing, tending to practical things like taxes, and simply catching up with the rhythm of daily life.

There is a season for receiving.
And there is a season for grounding what has been received.

This is that season.

With this piece, the eight seeds of peace have now been planted.

I’m not sharing them in the order they were created.

This one—though the last to be painted—was the next wanting to be revealed.

Because that is also part of the process…
learning to let go of sequence, and trust the timing of what wants to be seen.

Planting Seeds of Peace
#8 in the Peace Collection

Although this painting as already found a home, there are other original works from the Peace and Universal Law Mandala Collection in my online shop here.
Prints of this painting are available here – on canvas or paper in your choice of size.

Living with art that carries intention can become a daily reminder of the energy we choose to cultivate within ourselves and in the world around us.

Thank you for supporting visionary art and the spreading of peace through energy-infused beauty.

This new painting — #5 in my ongoing Peace Collection — continues a body of work that has been quietly unfolding in response to what is happening in our world.

Not from alarm or agitation, but from a clear inner sense of direction.

At times, creating this collection has felt less like initiating something new and more like answering a call — a conscious choice to focus on peace and to contribute to that energy through beauty, prayer, and intention.

The title, Into the Hands of Peace, was inspired by the affirmation used during Shavasana, the deep relaxation pose between yoga and meditation in my regular practice of Ananda Yoga:

“Bones, muscles, movement I surrender now; anxiety, elation and depression, churning thoughts — all these I give into the hands of peace.”

What has always drawn me to the Ananda style of yoga is that every posture is paired with an affirmation. The physical movement becomes a doorway into awareness. Rather than exercising the body alone, the practice gently invites the mind and heart to move in the same direction.

Over time, this integration creates a quiet inner re-patterning — a way of meeting life with greater steadiness, trust, and openness.

Artistically, this painting also marks a return.

Unlike the first four works in the Peace Collection, this painting reintroduces the arched stained-glass window structure that shaped my Reconnection Collection in 2018/19.

The window has always felt symbolic to me: a threshold between inner and outer worlds, between the human effort to lift and the grace that receives.

In this painting, the narrow vertical frame naturally draws the eye upward. The central figure lifts the Earth — and with it, the weight of human worry and uncertainty — in a gesture of offering. The angelic presence above forms a protective halo, suggesting shared guardianship and the quiet act of entrusting what feels too heavy to carry alone.

It is almost as if the woman is saying: “Here — you take care of the world now. I place its troubles into higher hands.”

In times of collective uncertainty, it can be tempting to believe that our only meaningful responses are external or reactive.

Yet spiritual traditions across cultures remind us that peace is not passive.
Peace is participation.

To cultivate inner stillness.
To pray.
To release fear rather than feed it.
To hold a vision of harmony even when it is not yet visible.

Because where attention goes, energy flows.

This painting is yet another offering into that shared field.

If you are feeling burdened by the weight of fear or anxiety — about what is happening in the world or in your own life — take a quiet moment to surrender it to the Divine.
You don’t have to carry the weight alone.

May this image be a reminder that surrender is not weakness.
It is a conscious placing of our lives, our worries, and even our world into wiser hands.

And that choosing peace — again and again — may be one of the most beautiful contributions we can make.

Prints of  Into the Hands of Peace are available here, in your choice of size and medium.
There are 4 other original works from the Peace Collection in my online shop here. Each was created as a contemplative spaces — quiet invitations to return, again and again, to stillness, trust, and inner alignment.

Also, a reminder that the remaining 8 pieces from my Universal Law Mandala collection are now available, with the intention of placing them before I return to Newfoundland in mid-May.

They are currently offered at $2,500 CAD ($1,000 off), with payment plans available. You can explore all 8  by clicking here.

Or step into the energy of two of the pieces in these short videos on YouTube:

• Law of Divine Oneness
• the Law of Correspondence

Living with art that carries intention can become a daily reminder of the energy we choose to cultivate within ourselves and in the world around us.

Thank you for supporting visionary art and the spreading of love, peace & transformation through energy-infused beauty.

Prints available.

Two great spiritual teachers appear together in this painting — an image that may feel unexpected at first glance.

Does it feel surprising to you — or perhaps strangely comforting?

For some, seeing traditions reflected together may feel unsettling. Others may light up at the sense of unity in purpose.

A saffron-robed monk beside a familiar Christian figure may feel unusual to Western eyes. And for some today, the very image of Jesus can stir complicated feelings because of painful experiences connected to religious institutions.

All of these reactions are welcome. Each one can be an invitation to notice what arises within us and explore it with curiosity.

In many ways, this painting reflects the kind of spiritual bridge our world is rediscovering today — where wisdom traditions meet, overlap, and illuminate one another rather than compete.

As you may recall from an earlier post, I was recently inspired by Buddhist monks who completed a Walk for Peace across the United States, ending with a multi-faith gathering in Washington.

A century earlier, something similar began unfolding when Paramahansa Yogananda first arrived in America.

You may know him through his spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi, which has sold millions of copies, been translated into more than 50 languages, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential spiritual books of the twentieth century.

For many Americans at the time, hearing a Hindu yogi speak about Christ, meditation, and direct experience of the Divine must have sounded just as unexpected as this painting might appear to some today.

And yet that meeting of traditions planted seeds that continue unfolding in our increasingly multi-faith world.

When Yogananda arrived in America in 1920, he first spoke at the International Congress of Religious Liberals — a gathering devoted to exploring the shared spiritual foundations of different traditions.

At a time when few Americans had encountered yoga or meditation, he soon filled auditoriums across the country speaking about a living experience of God and the deeper meaning of Christ’s teachings.

Yogananda believed that all true religions share a common source and lead toward the same ultimate truth: direct experience of God.

According to the spiritual lineage he belonged to, this mission began when the Himalayan master Mahavatar Babaji received a request from Christ that these universal teachings of self-realization be shared more widely in the West.

In other words, the bridge between East and West was intentional from the beginning.

Christ spoke of the kingdom of God within.

Yogananda described that same realization as Christ Consciousness — the awakening to our unity with the Divine.

Different language. Same invitation.

For me, discovering these teachings did not take me away from Jesus.

In many ways, they have brought me closer.

This painting is called Held in the Ray of the Masters (15″ x 30″), and it emerged during the final days of an eight-week spiritual course I had been taking online with my Ananda community, founded by a direct disciple of Yogananda.

As I prepared for the closing ceremony, creating the painting became part of my own integration process — weaving together the questions, insights, inner shifts, and readiness that had unfolded along the way.

The title Held in the Ray of the Masters refers to both the Light and to a spiritual lineage — a stream of wisdom carried forward through teachers who dedicate their lives to helping others realize their connection with the Divine.

In the painting, the central figure rises upward, lifted in a movement of awakening. Her heart is open, receiving this ray of light, wisdom, and the healing OM vibration from two self-realized masters: Jesus and Yogananda.

For me, they represent two teachers who have profoundly shaped my own spiritual journey and who, through their lived example and my growing attunement beyond time and space, continue to show the way.

Sharing this painting during the season leading toward Easter feels especially meaningful.

For Christians, Easter tells the story of resurrection — the victory of divine life over suffering and limitation. Yet beneath the historical story is also a spiritual teaching: that human consciousness can rise into union with God.

In that sense, Christ was not only revealing what he could do. He was showing what is possible for all of us.

The practices Yogananda helped bring to the West — kriya yoga, meditation, devotion, spiritual discipline, and philosophy — are meant to support that same awakening.

Not everyone will resonate with this path, and not everyone will resonate with this painting.

That’s perfectly okay.

There are many ways people come to experience the sacred.

This one simply happens to be part of mine.

May we each follow the inspiration that calls us forward and upward—along whatever ray we are called to follow—toward greater peace on earth and a rising of consciousness for our shared human family.

Om. Peace. Amen

P.S. Held in the Ray of the Masters is available as prints on canvas or paper in your choice of size –  you can order prints here.