This picture was painted long ago, in the early 80’s, when my husband and I were newly married. We lived in Surf City, North Carolina, on Topsail Island (one of the barrier islands on NC’s Atlantic coast). We rented a small place, hardly more than a fishing hut, which was on the intracoastal waterway. One morning I saw a great blue heron near our dock, silhouetted against the sunrise colors on the water behind it. I was so struck by the image that I got out my watercolors and did my best to capture what I had seen.

Original Heron 1981

I had completely forgotten about this painting. In the meantime (this is about 16 years later), I had started my practice and needed to come up with an emblem or logo. My office is near the shores of Lake Champlain, and so I painted a logo for Rising Sun Healing Center using the mountains, lake, and sunset — with a heron silhouetted a sunrise sky.

Rising Sun Heron 1999

When I finally remembered the first painting and luckily was able to find it, I was amazed to see the two images together. As if the heron had really taken root in my subconscious, emerging over a decade later to be a part of my healing arts work.

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A few years ago, I came across a beautiful stained glass piece in a shop in Woodstock, Vermont. It was my heron! So now a heron presides over my work with clients on a daily basis.

Stained Glass Heron in my office

I’m not sure why I am so drawn to the heron and why it seems such a satisfying image for my practice. I’ve read that the heron is Master of Two Realms, master of water (subconscious and emotions) and of air (conscious mind and thought). So maybe there is something about the heron that is like my work: the heron is always wading in the waters of the subconscious, looking deeply — and pulling up fish from that deeper realm into the air of conscious awareness.

On to the next page…