Betty Davies | Artist

Betty Davies

Phone: +61 427 824 608

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25.01.2022 Run my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings. Run like hell my dear, from anyone likely to put a sharp knife into the sacred, tender vision of your beautiful heart. Hafiz

25.01.2022 Go placidly amid the noise and the haste Speak your truth quietly and clearly And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, ... whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. Max Ehrman in Desiderata

25.01.2022 O cold the black-frost night. The walls draw in to the warmth and the old roof cracks its joints; the slung kettle hisses a leak on the fire. ... Hardly to be believed that summer will turn up again some day in a wave of rambler-roses, thrust it's hot face in here to tell another yarn- a story old Dan can spin into a blanket against the winter. Seventy years of stories he clutches round his bones. Seventy years are hived in him like old honey. Judith Wright

25.01.2022 Thou' much is taken, much abides; and thou' We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal Temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will... To strive to seek, to find, and not to yield. Alfred Tennyson.

25.01.2022 I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees,... Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazedand gazedbut little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. William Wordsworth.

22.01.2022 "That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe". John Berger. John Peter Berger was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to the BBC series of the same name, is often used as a university text.

20.01.2022 The heart sings - A lullaby To good natured things, As there they lie; Innocent and weary deep inside;... Worn out by the rushing tide Of madness that has nearly drowned the day; The clever malice that has had its way, The bitterness and poison from above..... Rest your wings dear little dove, The heart still sings to you of love. Leunig. See more

19.01.2022 When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily.... I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often. Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, Stay awhile. The light flows from their branches. And they call again, It’s simple, they say, and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine. Mary Oliver. See more

16.01.2022 I built my house by the sea. Not on the sands, mind you, not on the shifting sand. And I built it of rock. A strong house... by a strong sea And we got well acquainted, the sea and I. Good neighbours. Not that we spoke much. We met in silences, respectful, keeping our distance but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand. Always the fence of sand our barrier, always the sand between. And then one day (and I still don't know how it happened) The sea came. Without warning. Without welcome even. Not sudden and swift, but a shifting across the sand like wine, less like the flow of water than the flow of blood. Slow, but flowing like an open wound. And I thought of flight, and I thought of drowning, and I thought of death. But while I thought, the sea crept higher till it reached my door. And I knew that there was neither flight nor death nor drowning. That when the sea comes calling you stop being good neighbours, Well acquainted, friendly from a distance neighbours. And you give your house for a coral castle And you learn to breathe under water. Carol Bialock.

12.01.2022 Did you tackle that trouble that came your way With a resolute heart and cheerful? Or did you hide your face from the light of day With a craven soul and fearful.... Oh, a trouble’s a ton, or trouble’s an ounce’ Or trouble is what you make it, And it isn’t the fact that you’re hurt that counts, But only how did you take it? You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what’s that! Come up with a smiling face, It’s nothing against you to fall down flat, But to lie there ~ that’s disgrace. The harder you’re thrown, why the higher you bounce Be proud of your blackened eye! It isn’t the fact that you’re licked that counts; It’s how did you fight ~ and why? And though you be done to death, what then? If you battled the best you could, If you played your part in the world of men, Why, the Critic will call it good. Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce, And whether he’s slow or spry, It isn’t the fact that you’re dead that counts, But only how did you die? Edmund Vance Cooke.

12.01.2022 "Don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs most, is more people who come alive." - Howard Thurman

12.01.2022 To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. Mary Oliver

11.01.2022 I found this lovely man fascinating, not because he was religious, but because he was a seeker who wished to ‘go beyond and into’ as one might say. Fr Bede Williams, a Benedictine monk, who spent the last 38 years of his life in India, in attempt to integrate his Catholic training with the Eastern philosophy. He was a man in search of that which is fundamental to all religions: the search for the absolute and that which transcends all human limitations. It is said of him... that he was a mystic in touch with absolute love and beauty. He was a fan of Wordsworth, mainly due to the fact that Wordsworth saw God in nature. And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still A lover of the meadows and the woods And mountains; and of all that we behold From this green earth; of all the mighty world Of eye, and ear,both what they half create, And what perceive; well pleased to recognise In nature and the language of the sense The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being. Wordsworth.

10.01.2022 A poem about trees by Herman Hesse ‘For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves...Continue reading

09.01.2022 Some wisdom from Leonard Cohen "The feeling of having had some mandate to fulfil....and being unable to fulfil it....and coming to understand that the real mandate was not to fulfil it....that the deeper courage was to stand guiltless in the predicament in which you find yourself."

09.01.2022 The title of a book that a friend had recently mentioned had, for several days, been repeating itself inside of my head, like some sort of mantra. Surprised By Joy, by C S Lewis. Surprised By Joy..... And by chance I had also been reading another little book on the subject of 'addiction to awe', the suggestion being that it might serve the reader well to give it a go. I confess to being one such addict myself, and in addition to that, I am a serial daydreamer, possibly as a... way of extracting myself, albeit partially, from the starkness of our man made 'reality'. Most recently I had come reeling out of our holiday apartment and onto the beach, deeply disturbed by the morning's barrage of ugly media news that had lodged itself deep inside of me. And on that beach I came upon a tiny rock pool, teeming with countless tiny creatures living in peace with the world and with each other, and calling me to Awe. And it distressed me to find myself unable to reconcile the two starkly contrasting realities......and so I confess to shedding the odd tear into that little pool of Awe. I have discovered that I cannot do outrage for very long at all now. Perhaps it is a second stage of life thing, because otherwise, where now the warrior/activist spirit of former years??? And I am left to ponder whether the better thing is to be at peace with my most recent state of being, and leave my baton for the next generation.....or perhaps to accept the probability that mine is no longer of relevance, as the batons of this generation seem to me to be so foreign to that one that I have mislaid somewhere along the way...

08.01.2022 I haven’t told Stan yet, but I think I have fallen in love with Timothy Spall. The man, that is as distinct from the actor. Two different people, of course, and the difference never ceases to fascinate me. Timothy Spall says about himself, as Actor.... My job as a character actor is the make me fit the character, to serve the character. To present this human being who turns up in a piece of film or entertainment that’s going, you know, exist as if it might exist after the film is finished and it existed before the film has started. It’s my job to manipulate feelings. And about Timothy Spall, the man. I was always insecure about the way I looked Why would that be, I wonder? To me, he is drop dead gorgeous.

08.01.2022 ON CHILDREN Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you,... And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let our bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. Kahlil Gibran

07.01.2022 Praying It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few... small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak Mary Oliver See more

05.01.2022 In the garden I tend to drop my thoughts here and there. To the flowers I whisper the secrets I keep, and the hopes I breathe. I know they are there to eavesdrop for the angels. Dodinsky

03.01.2022 Defeat, my Defeat, my bold companion, You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences, And none but you shall speak to me of the beating of wings, And urging of seas, And of mountains that burn in the night,... And you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul. Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage, You and I shall laugh together with the storm, And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us, And we shall stand in the sun with a will, And we shall be dangerous. Kahlil Gibran

02.01.2022 I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Henry David Thoreau.

02.01.2022 Grandma would like to have a little boast

01.01.2022 I have been acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain and back in rain. I have out-walked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane.... I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet When far away in interrupted cry Came over houses from another street. But not to call me back or say goodbye; And further still at an unearthly height, One luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right I have been acquainted with the night. Robert Frost

01.01.2022 Under the anger, under the fear, under the despair, under the broken heartedness, there is a radiance that has never been harmed, that has never been lost, that is the truth of who one is. Gangaji