This appeared to me in a meditation. The vision began with only a single pink rose. Its petals felt unnaturally compressed and restricted.

The external petals began to breathe. They pulled away to the right and left, separated from the stem, and developed into lungs of the same color. The heart and trachea grew only as the breath continued in and out.

I’ll share with you part of the nearly instantaneous “translation” that I received that I had to unpack later:

Petals bloom from a single stem, drawing their energy from the central channel of a family line, a karmic line. Each carries the resonance, the shape of that line. Adherence to the energy of the line, when it is compressed, maintains the same form as the others. This results in very little room for the breath to expand, and not enough breath for the voice to generate.

The lungs drape around the heart like great petals. Through the lungs and the breath, the blood of the heart is purified and returned to circulate through the body renewing the whole being.

It is the creative breath—the exhale and the inhale—that enables a clearing of the line and the development of one’s own heart and voice. Small at first, it strengthens with each breath in and out.

Art is how the heart breathes. By using our voices, releasing, and renewing through our creative work, we heal ourselves and the line.