Artists live on the edge with a sensitivity, a receptivity to those golden, unexpected moments when inspiration reveals itself.

We cannot force nor make inspiration happen. It arrives as a gift from Spirit, and effortlessly flows into our being. I aspire to live my life from this place. It is the still peace and calm in the eye of the storm while everything else is in chaos around you. Inspiration is at home in peaceful calm where it can rest, and give birth to all things new and possible. It was here I discovered the moon roses.

I strolled one summer evening in our lovely family garden in Virginia where roses grew in abundance.

The moon was full, and still hanging low in the sky. I walked in a receptive, meditative state all around the roses until I was facing a large pink rose in full blossom with the full moon as a backdrop. The rose was perfectly centered in the middle of the moon with stars twinkling around it in the deep indigo night sky. The moment was magical beyond words. I was haunted beautifully with this image for days before I simply had to express it on canvas.

I painted a pink rose with splashes of soft green in it, and placed it in the middle of the moon.

The stars came to life from bits of gold leaf that I sprinkled into the night sky. I studied the finished painting on the easel for days wondering if this was it. Would this little painting stand alone, or would it become part of a series? And if so, what was this painting trying to say, and what more could be said? One early morning while viewing this painting, I journeyed back to an inner vision I had once with an energy healer. I was guided to heal my broken heart with an image that would sustain my healing. The image that came to me was a rose. Now, I saw that I had painted the Anahata chakra, known as the heart chakra. And a series of chakra art was born.

I was filled with the inspiration for my love of roses, the night, the moon and the chakras.

I had worked with a chakra energy healer for many years, and found it to be one of the few healing modalities with which I deeply resonated. So what are chakras? Chakras are the body’s energy centers through which our life force flows. These energy centers are the hub for our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well being and balance. Their energy spins like a wheel from the base of the spine all the way up and out the top of the head. The word chakra is a Sanskrit term that means wheel or circle. Our life force is in constant motion, spinning like a wheel, to keep our energy moving and in balance.

One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves for healing is to embrace and work with the energies of our own chakras.

The chakras are intimately connected to everything going on around us because they reflect energy. In a way, they are our energy filters for either taking in or protecting from the endless energies we experience all the time. We will maintain our balance when we have strong boundaries with clarity about what supports and sustains us. If we are stuck in old repetitive patterns, or we have taken in and held unhealthy energies, we will find ourselves out of balance. Chakra healing provides tremendous relief when we are out of balance. This deep, and fast, work can strengthen our boundaries, provide protection and move old energy so we can bring in the new. Traditional therapy is often limited to healing through the mind that can take a long time, where energy healing can move patterns instantly.

There are seven major chakras in the body though many experts propose more.

I have made a list for you below that defines the chakra colors with their Sanskrit names and descriptive essence.

• Sahasrara chakra- crown- white, pink, gold- divine, pure, love, nurturing, wisdom

• Ajna chakra- third-eye- violet- intuition, meditative, introspection, gentle

• Vishuddha chakra- throat- blue- calm, clear, communication, truth

• Anahata chakra- heart- green- heart, balance, harmony, healing, compassion

• Manipura chakra- solar plexus- yellow- power, emotions, sense of self, vulnerable

• Swadistana chakra- sacral- orange- creative, sexual, excitement, pleasure, joy

• Muladhara chakra- root- red- grounded, security, survival, earth, passion

Though the chakras are unseen, invisible energies, do not under estimate their power and influence.

Just like the moon, though it is visible, it has the power to affect us in ways we may not always understand. If the moon has the power over the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tides, then it most definitely has the power for our moods to come and go. The energy of all life is circular, not linear, as the seasons, the moons, the roses and the chakras reveal to us. To hold the vision of our chakras as beautiful roses illuminated by the moonlight, is to see ourselves as the vibrational light beings that we truly are in these bodies. We are each a garden full of roses that needs to be loved and nurtured so that we may bring our beauty and our gifts into the world in full bloom.