bodhi leaves

My spiritual journey began studying energy medicine. While visiting Selby Gardens in Sarasota Florida, I was introduced to the Bodhi tree. A placard - explaining that Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree to meditated and find enlightenment - invited guests to do the same. I took the invitation and practiced some energy medicine while looking at the Gulf of Mexico. The session was a refreshing pause and left me enamored with the uniquely pointed tips of the Bodhi leaves. I took several leaves and pressed them in a book for preservation. It took me over a decade to reconnect with, err…find them.

I was crushed to find that one of the beautiful tips had broken off and repaired it using the Japanese technique of Kintsugi ("golden joinery") an art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted in gold. The technique treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

The golden repair made the leaf shine brighter that the rest. I decided to use it to symbolize the divine feminine, mounting it slightly higher and closer to the heavens. The divine masculine is slightly lower and more grounded, and just slightly forward as a reminder to gently lead the feminine and ultimately elevate one another.

The background is made of split bamboo and features a specimen tag to honor my inner scientist.