Marya Mann : Blog : From Ashes To AWE To Ukraine

From Ashes to AWE to Ukraine

Aloha Kakou! Love to us All!

“It feels warm because everyone feels like family,” said an Altadena fire survivor standing near the ash pile that had once been her kitchen. Cradling an infant in her arms among the charred remains, what stood out for her in the stillness of devastation was gratitude and hope: the nobility of strangers and neighbors who rushed into harm’s way to help. It illuminated her.

Friendly angels in the City of Angels helping families to cope with the catastrophe gave her an overwhelming sense of reverence for life, a connection to the sublime – awe.

Hearing her words astonished me because it echoed what an ArtWavEs (AWE) student said at a recent Peace Arts painting event. We hear it often – “It feels like family!”

Does painting peace inspire awe that inspires the connection? Or does the connection inspire awe? It goes both ways. All ways. What matters is that when we don’t let life harden our hearts heart, we can rejoice and feel awe in the ordinary things.

DISASTER-AWE AND DELIGHT-AWE

Disaster-awe and delight-awe – at two ends of the continuum of feeling – wake us up and teach us resilience, no matter how badly our hearts are broken.

As we begin a new calendar year, our ArtWavEs community is reaching out with hope to families and children displaced by the awful Los Angeles wildfires. This inferno affects us all, shaking up, chilling, and then re-warming our hearts with new winds of compassion, confidence, care, and insights for skillful change.

Children will be affected by the traumas of the California firestorm for their entire lifetimes, just as the children of Ukraine are physically and emotionally wounded forever by living in a war zone and the children of Hawaii suffer because of food insecurity and homelessness. Everyone can heal, and it takes time.

Knowing our California neighbors are rightfully grieving and angry, I want to share this story about children painting Peace Flags for their peers in Ukraine.

Because this story is about persistence, and the energy that comes from awe – the profound state of awe as well as the AWE that stands for the ArtWavEs peace painting program where we are lighting pathways for children to activate and use the healing and regenerative powers of awe.

Full disclosure about disaster-awe: I too have lost everything, in a different way, but enough to know that pain like loss and pleasure sets up the conditions for awe. Five members of my family died early. I hurt until there was no more hurt left, and in the gaping hole that only awe could fill, I learned that I could live and thrive with so little.

When we feel there’s nothing left but the breath and this moment, we surrender to the gift of life itself. I thought I needed so much, but life, simple life, and connection, these are the greatest gifts I remember.

Awe is the sweet spot in that supreme movement, a hub on a wheel in the heart that carries us through grief and into the light that comes from the darkness. Night and day are two sides of the same wholeness.
Awe tends to only reach us at the extremes, but we can cultivate wonder and plant seeds of peace and awe during ordinary times too.

AWE RENEWS US – “EVERYONE FEELS LIKE FAMILY”

At a Peace Arts event in Kailua Kona, with his smile almost wider than his face, the Hawaiian 9-year-old lifted his gaze and showed me his painting.

“I feel really proud. It’s good isn’t it?”

“It IS good,” I assured him. AWE holds space for peace artists to spread their wings and share the quantum magic of intention, imagination, and peace painting. By drawing his desire, he envisioned the loving world he wants, and in that moment, he felt awe. The lightning bolt of picturing what he loves electrified his creativity.

Being able to express himself, using his paintbrush as a magic wand, he offered his novel view of peaceful living by portraying a safe, clean, peaceful, and fun scene at the beach with friends.

Afterward, I asked how he felt. His eyebrows lifted as he said, “It’s great! Everyone feels like family.”

Awe is so good for us, especially in recovering from painful and traumatic events. What we’ve learned in 14 years of delivering food and art services to at-risk and traumatized children in three states and now Ukraine, is that there is hope among the ashes, and it often begins with awe.

In our shared suffering, we connect deeply. A deeply healing frequency of peace, an emotional heaven, a bliss field, the spacious, unexpected instant of satori comes out of the blue. But we can support a context for awe to arise. By feeling so connected to the All-That-Is, to the beauty beneath the pain, to our own creative spirit, everyone feels like family. We are amazed. Everyone is amazing! Eureka!

Two kinds of amazement – one from the West Coast devastation and the other from an ArtWavEs (AWE) Peace Painter’s pleasure – become as one in the ah-ha moment – the lightning strike that awakens a vastness and magnificence inside the experience.

AWE INSPIRES A DEEP CONNECTION LIFE

Every soulful moment and action invites us to embrace the living and the dying, the awe of devastation and the awe of renewal.

Sharing space, hauling things, offering food, transport, and giving literally the shirts off their backs to her family, the strangers and friends who showed up for the Altadena mother left her awe-struck.

Both kinds of awe – disaster-awe and delight-awe — water the soil of our inner life for the miracles of life to grow. Even in the midst of despair.

DISASTER-AWE: LESSONS OF AWE FROM SUFFERING

It’s awful right now — the heat, The loss. The suffering. I couldn’t breathe or see anything,” said fire survivors.

On many days, we tend to take for granted the miracle of the body, being alive, and noticing how our senses and feelings are. We don’t always pause to appreciate water, memory, invention, and our changing perspectives about the continuum of change, death and dying, rejuvenation, and the spaciousness we feel in spirit.

What pierces our complacency may be a death in the family, a loss of job or health, or fear for the future. Or it may be a disaster that brings us back to the bliss of awe.

When we emerge from complex calamities, certain elements can evoke awe: Nature, resilience, stories, and renewal.

1. The Sheer Power of Nature—whether in the form of a towering fire, a volcanic eruption, a fierce hurricane, or a massive earthquake—can be awe-inspiring, reminding us of the immense forces at play in our world.

2 — Human Resilience – when communities come together, share, rebuild, and support one another in the aftermath of a disaster — reminds us of the strength and suppleness of the human spirit, which can inspire awe.

3 – Inspiring Stories of Bravery, Kindness, and Persistence emerging during and after disasters. We feel awe from the capacity for good in humanity.

4 — Environmental Changes — Natural deaths, unnatural disasters, and unexpected changes in the environment, while initially horrible and ruinous, can create new, inspiring landscapes over time.

The intense mix of anxiety, reverence, and respect for Nature and the human response to disasters waters the soil of the inner body, moisturizing places we have become hard. Crying cleanses the soul. That realization alone can elicit a sense of awe, even after deep loss and destruction.

DELIGHT-AWE: LESSONS OF AWE FROM JOY AND CREATIVITY

This is a time when chaos and disillusionment and disinformation are rampant. Once unquestioned beliefs can no longer guide us. Fortunately, persistence through the difficult times, centered in your true nature and honoring Nature, opens us to the other kind of awe-inducing experience – the heightened shift in consciousness that comes from wonder and delight.

Our ArtWavEs board, creative council, and volunteers have been busy navigating the obstacles to a simple vision of sharing AWE (ArtWavEs) Peace Flags to the war- weary children of Ukraine. The power of awe carried us through some significant tight spots and steep climb, through bright moments and magical surprises as we rushed to complete the two-year project

Schoolchildren, artists, and families in Hawaii, Illinois, and Utah hand-painted 32 silk flags and banners which were packaged together last month with art supplies and instructional videos and are now on their way to Ukraine for a travelling exhibit!

These globe-trotting flags are an epic milestone in AWE’s 12-year journey of mentoring thousands of students, children, and families to create peace flags to create world peace.

Through kindness, creativity, and peace painting, we are constructing a powerful antidote to the traumas of war, violence, and other disasters. Through some times of despair when we questioned everything, we persisted.

AWE IS MAGIC FOR CHILDREN OF TRAUMA

In 2023, we began planning and producing a new series of workshops and classes for children to learn the arts of kindness, mindful movement, and silk painting at Kealakehe Elementary School.

Our goal was to encourage sharing in our students, so they would often make one silk painting for themselves and one painting for gifting to those in need, learning empathy and generosity. Ultimately, they learned to affirm their capacity to envision the world they want, the one that feels the best in their bones, a peaceful place.

They gained a sense of agency and success in spreading peace in the world.

One unique trait of the Kealakehe School project, where we trained 130 fifth graders, was that there were so many houseless and home-insecure students that they had no homes to keep their own flags, but – and this brings tears to my eyes – they chose to work on art solely for the purpose of helping the Ukrainians.

Finally, the flags were completed and displayed at Kealekehe Elementary School, the New Thought Center, Kailapa Community Center, and at the Ka’u Wellness Festival while we searched for Ukrainian partners to receive the flags. Susan Minor and Maureen Langberg wrote to international children’s support groups and friends of friends. Janett Jewell, a public school teacher who worked with us, found a school in Kharkiv. We reached out, found a contact. Then Russia hit the Ukrainian city with guided bombs, killing at least three people and injuring dozens.

The bombs were indiscriminate — an apartment building, a bakery, a stadium. With hearts hurting for those hurt by the combat, we pressed on. Finding a suitable in-country partner was proving to be more difficult than we had imagined. While continuing to teach workshops in Hawaii, we persisted.

Opening up our outreach to not just Ukrainians, but anyone who might know anyone, led nowhere. Until, after an 18-month quest with highs and lows, we wondered if our goal was out of reach. We felt despair that our utopian goal of peace through peace flags was wishful fantasy.

With identified contacts at schools and spaces in Ukraine being bombed or evacuated before we could send the flags, hopelessness started to nibble at our toes. But we persisted.

Finally, we found the ideal ally in a PEACE 1st activist from Redding, California. Moved by the AWE Peace Flag vision, she came up with a larger vision and even more awesome magic!

Having worked in Ukraine for many years, Rev. Barbara Leger of the Golden Path of Peace and founder of the Temenos Center for Spiritual Living in Ukraine, suggested a tour of spaces inside the country.

And so, the collection was assembled. We drew up authentication certificates, washed and ironed, and bought special acid free tissue paper that repels hungry insects to wrap the tasty silks. Finally, the vessels of Aloha and Peace were prepared.

Then, the video shooting, a Love Letter to Ukraine, was made to introduce the Peace Arts mission. Koakane Green join me (Marya) to talk about the meaning of Aloha, Alo and ha, facing the beautiful reality that we share the same breath. We are one family of humanity. One ohana with all the planet, our Mother Earth.

At last, the collection of 16 Peace Flags and 16 Peace Banners were sent to Dr. Leger and from her to Ukraine for a travelling exhibit at spiritual centers in the country. Our growing network of ArtWavEs painters focuses on healing our personal, collective, and climate traumas through AWE — intentional creativity, kindness, and mindful arts.

Packed inside as a secret surprise for children and sponsors who receive the shipment in-country: there are 16 additional unpainted silks for aspiring peace artists: With fiber paints, brushes, pallets, and painting supplies for painting 14 new flags and 2 new banners, including instructions, we trust they will be inspired to express their expectation and affirmation of peace!

Through your support, you are helping to make their worlds – and the larger world – brighter and better. We thank you wholeheartedly. We trust that you, our friends, donors, prayer-keepers, sponsors, and volunteers, are feeling the AWE!

ArtWavEs graduates, young and old, go forward as initiates in the Peace Arts movement. In further training, they will learn the traits of the Earthkeeper and be welcomed into a global peace arts community focused on Climate Healing and Creativity.

Peace Artists know the quantum magic of sensing, feeling, intending, imagining, visualizing, thinking, and moving as Peace. Intentional creativity helps us to thrive on every bumpy road. As our personal, environmental, social, and planetary atmosphere is challenged by fear, stress, and trauma, the creative urge at the heart of healing needs to rise also, to meet the task.

Awe through AWE is one of the beloved gifts we can share, and it brings peace to my eyes. Our mission at ArtWavEs is to transmute conflict and despair into peace art and awe – and we believe that’s not only awesome – it’s magic.

Helping each other, we feel good. “It feels good because everyone feels like family.” When all is said and done it is truly a beautiful world.

INSPIRING AWE: A FEW TIPS

Inspiring awe in someone who is feeling depressed or angry (even if that someone is yourself) can be challenging.

Give people time and space to grieve or suffer in their own timing. We’ve all been there, experiencing the challenge of loss! But small, thoughtful actions can make a difference. Here are some simple and free ways to spark a sense of wonder and awe that may be perfect in helping us to feel better when the time is right. Reconnecting after the injuries and losses of life can do wonders!

1. Nature walks. If you can’t walk in Nature, imagine it. Close your eyes and imagine your favorite spots in Nature, a beach, forest, or garden. Savor details like colors, specific kinds of flowers, the smells around you, the sounds of water, or birds, the feel of sunshine on your face and the path under your bare feet.

2. Find the stars. On a clear night, find a place away from city lights and gaze at the stars. The vastness of the universe can put things into perspective and evoke a sense of awe. Again, if sky sight is impossible, imagine what you’ve seen and sketch in inventive details. These visual movements exercise the parts of the brain that produce awe-inspiring molecules.

3. Art, Music, and Dance. Draw, paint, play the drums or your thighs, fingerpaint, braid a friend’s hair, dance at all hours and in all ways. Share a powerful piece of art or music with them. You don’t need to DO anything. Listen deeply. You have the ability to touch the soul and inspire deep emotions by your simple presence.

4. Sunrises and Sunsets. Enough said. The colors, majesty, and tranquility — awesome!

5. Gratitude Lists. Write down everything you appreciate – a cup of tea, a good nap, a friend’s voice, your own voice. Be thankful for mindful breathing and feeling the miracle that is your body. Reflecting on positive experiences, like NOT having toothache, can help shift your mindset.

6. Mindful Breathing. Worth repeating!

7. Acts of Kindness. Done for self, others, and groups inspire feelings of awe in humanity’s capacity for goodness.

8. Documentaries or Books. Seek out amazing discoveries about Nature, human achievements, and incredible things can ignite awe.

9. Personal Stories. Share personal stories or experiences that have inspired awe in you. Personal connections can help us all to be more vulnerable, powerful, and relatable.

Enjoy helping others to be happy. Sometimes the smallest gesture can make the biggest impact. It’s the act of showing you care and bringing a bit of wonder into their life that can start to shift their perspective, and yours!

Why? Because it feels great! “It feels like family!”

Much love from our Creative Council and ArtWavEs Ohana,
Marya Mann, Susan Minor, and Lara Printz

PS: HELP FOR LOS ANGELES FRIENDS

The recent wildfires in Los Angeles have been devastating, with thousands of families losing their homes and belongings. It’s heart-wrenching to see such destruction, but there are ways to help and inspire hope in those affected.
Organizations like California Wildfire Relief, the American Red Cross (https://www.msn.com/en-us/public-safety-and-emergencies/natural-disasters/here-s-how-you-can-help-victims-of-the-los-angeles-fires/ar-BB1raSX6), and Direct Relief (https://abc7.com/post/socal-wildfires-how-can-help/15779040/) are providing critical support to those impacted.

They offer everything from financial assistance to essential supplies and shelter. Even small acts of kindness, like donating to these organizations or volunteering your time, can make a significant difference.

In times of such immense loss showing compassion and support can help families find a glimmer of hope and awe in the resilience of their community.

Pacific ArtWavEs, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization since 2015
www.PacificArtWavEs.org

If you are called to support ArtWavEs, please visit us at: ArtWavEs Nourish Children of Peace — https://www.gofundme.com/f/bn2wcd-children-for-peace