What's in a Name

Flotilla, Drozda 2001

18x24 inches

mixed on recycled wood

Several days ago Alyson asking me to address my blog name Merci 33.
Here's what has come to share.

Once upon a time 3 miscreants set me up in an entrapment situation, traumatized me severely and left me for dead. You can connect with the storyline where I created a graphic memoir last summer and posted it here on the blog from June through August. A post can be found here. You can imagine how physically, emotionally and psychically bereft the experience left me. One aspect of my recovery involved working diligently for 16 years to move beyond debilitating Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. I lived in relative solitude for much of that time and devoted every day to inner repair working in studio and garden. It took time to learn to trust that life wouldn't brutally harm me again. I learned, and continue to enlist, unbroken focus; taking active measures to reclaim and rebirth myself, to walk in balance.

Alyson was curious and interested to know where the name Merci33 comes from and if I had ever explained that to my readers. In a follow-up email she went further and suggested that I tell the story of Donna Iona Drozda.

I'll be brief.

I love how the words we use and the way we communicate sends energy out into the world. Pain/pleasure, gain/loss, praise/blame, fame/disgrace. The list goes on and on. Some words help us feel hopeful and uplifted other words suck our lifeforce away and break our spirit.

Since 1991 the Lifecycle department of my studio outreach has been devoted to assisting us in walking in creative balance. The mantra for Lifecycle is paraphrased from Thoreau and states 'To affect the quality of the day is the highest of arts.' For Lifecycle I enlist a variety of well developed tools. I have a love affair with the work of walking through the world in a state of balance.

Merci 33: of course Merci means thank you. Thank you for every blessed moment. And 33 is an auspicious number that relates to 'All is Well'.
Therefore Merci 33 is a code for my life that reminds me 'Thank you. All is well.'

my plates remind me daily

My given name is Donna Jean Drozda. When I was violently attacked I could have been lost to myself for all time. However very quickly an artist/mentor came into my life and her lifestyle served as an example and helped me to immerse in the study of first Raja yoga and when my mind was able to calm a bit Hatha yoga. I was simultaneoulsy introduced to the Tao Te Ching. I have studied these daily for decades.

As part of the ongoing healing process I opened my studio to monthly 'Creativity Salons'. The monthly Salons were like protected circles, a gathering of artists who also shared like-minded souls. A core group of twelve of us engaged in a kind of 'collective creating' using the phases of the moon to circumnavigate the year. For more than five years we invested in the Salon environment where we were free to creatively invent ourselves anew.

We were a very playful group and one of the first things we did was give ourselves permission to choose a 'name for the day'. Instinctively I knew I needed my true  'Artist Name'...my own soul name. A name that belonged to me. What came is Iona. As in I own a Drozda...I own myself. Iona. No one anywhere, under any circumstance, has the power to take me from me. Not ever. It's been tested. It's been proven.

The Fields of Dewachen, Drozda 2001

30x30 inches

Acrylic on canvas

I feel very fortunate that circumstances came together to form a scar tissue that has made me stronger and more flexible as a result of what I have endured. I am a bona fide member of the 'Scar Clan' as outlined in the magnificent book Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

I am well aware that we are each stronger than we can ever possibly imagine. Often it is not until, or unless, we find ourselves faced with a true test of our inner strengths and resources that we discover just how Merci 33 life truly is.

So there you have it Alyson, in short form.

 Thank you so much for stopping by... may you always in all ways:

~Sing the day

I've been discovering wonderful books this past month and adding to my studio collection. I thought to share one with you this week and hope that it offers you a similar level of delight and uplift as I am finding...

if you're looking for a fascinating, buoyant, fiesty and creatively charged read check out: Pronoia is the antidote to Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings by Rob Brezsny...I've been familiar with Brezsny's weekly column in our arts paper for years but recently began to read excerpts from his newly revised edition of this fabulous workbook.

The back liner notes read:
"888 Tricks for becoming a wildly disciplined, fiercely tender, ironically sincere, scrupulously curious, aggressively sensitive, blasphemously reverent, lyrically logical, lustfully compassionate Master of Rowdy Bliss."

Utne Reader says "This wild, wise, and subversive book is a must read for those who want to live a more imaginative and free life...Rob Brezsny is a Culture Hero.

From page 8: You need regular doses of unreasonable beauty, sublime anomalies, beguiling ephemera, and inexplicable joys.

And on page 85: Tweakable Pronoia Therapy/experiments and exercises in becoming a radically curious, wildly disciplined, ironically sincere Master of Uproar.

There's terrific graphics from modern and ancient arts and cultures smattered throughout so it's also a treat to thumb through randomly.

May your day sing ~

Walkin' the Wheel for 2009

I've been living and working with the cycles of the moon since 1989. Each year during the first lunation I post an article on the energy of the coming year with my friends David and Sandra at Zodiac Arts. Below is the first paragraph for 2009 plus the information for this first lunation...

2009: THE YEAR TO PATIENTLY OPEN TO RECEIVE

Welcome to 2009 and to our collective opportunity to: patiently open to receive. As we walk through this year we are invited to work with our passion and sense of belonging particularly as these qualities spring from our urge to create.

The creative and sexual urge spring from the same zone within the chakra system. Each of these desires helps us to manifest, in their unique ways, a depth of love through devotion, commitment and dedication. We all start life as creative/sexual beings. The ways in which we channel this combined energy will show itself this year. The goal, of course, is to open these centers, one by one, until we are fully functioning and able to contribute to the better world we yearn to see. To connect readers with excellent information on this topic of opened and healed chakras I suggest the book Awakening in Time by Jacquelyn Small. Her book would be a perfect companion for the year.

First Lunation: December 27, 2008 - January 25, 2009:

I of myself can do nothing. It is the Spirit within who expresses and manifests as true success in my life. -- John Randolph Price



Happy New Year! The quality of this moon cycle is that of relinquishing our hold. The Universal Year #29/11 tests us by providing the chance to practice a patient surrender. That yielding allows us a return to our original state. It's a huge concept but 'In the beginning' there was innocence and no need to feel separate and alone.


During this cycle focus upon belonging to your Self. This won't happen through wishful thinking it happens through a rigorous personality review. It comes about by being patient enough to weigh your strengths and relinquish your weaknesses. The reason for this focus is to 'flip' the way you've been pushing yourself.


Now is the time to prepare for an infusion of connection to Inner Self-direction. Be quiet and listen so as to determine your values and establish priorities. This first moon has a lot to do with endurance. It isn't possible to develop, much less give birth to, a new level of Being without endurance. This cycle is really showing us a natural process. The seed cannot sprout without letting go of its hard casing. The baby cannot grow without the right timing. During this moon cycle play is as important as any other responsibility you can think of. All year we are being asked to entertain a light heart and here at the start is a perfect opportunity to practice daily by being with that which you enjoy.


KEYWORDS for attuning to this cycle: abundant, art, attractive, baby, beauty, choose to act wisely, day, humor, innocent, optimistic, passion, playful, poetry, self expression



KEYWORDS that take your energy away: betrayal, exaggeration, fear, hurtful words, inconsiderate scattered, intolerant, jealous, self-centered, superficial, whining



HOMEWORK: Since the year is readying us by placing a spot light on a healthy sense of self through our creative/sexual passion this is a good cycle for beginning a prosperity program. Why? 1. So often we work at a job that robs us of our creativity. 2. Humans have been known to project sexual energy onto someone who they imagine will provide for them. Keeping in mind the acronym for money mentioned in the article above, you may want to select a prosperity program to follow through the year. There are many excellent ones; I'll offer John Randolph Price, The Abundance Book.Lifecycle Forecast 2008 © Donna Iona Drozda

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