The BOOK
The story behind All Is Chosen, organized into four chapters of making: inspiration, paintings, writing, and the craft of assembly.
The Inspiration
I have been interested in spirituality and metaphysics since I was a young girl. “The Twilight Zone” and “One Step Beyond” were TV shows that fascinated me, so much so that I would always have my homework done on the days the shows aired.
Over the decades that followed, through ministry, psychology, and a sustained study of human consciousness, this inquiry matured into a lived understanding rather than a belief system.
It is from this long devotion to listening, integration, and compassion that All Is Chosen emerged. The work that follows is not meant to persuade, but to reveal, an invitation to recognize how personal, world, and universal truths quietly meet within us.
The Painter
This series of eight paintings was begun over ten years ago. The first one I painted was actually the diptych, number SIX. At the time, I didn’t realize it would be “SIX” in this series.
We begin with a thought of the form we want to create. And if we cultivate within ourselves the capacity to become a conduit for the creative source, the true form arises from the unknown.
The Writing
“Resistance obstructs movement only from a lower sphere to a higher. It kicks in when we seek to pursue a calling in the arts, launch an innovative enterprise, or evolve to a higher station morally, ethically, or spiritually.”
~ Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
Which is also how the writing of the text of All Is Chosen began: every day. Sitting down and listening, and then sorting, and then sitting back in the chair to allow just the right word to reveal itself.
In order to create, one has to consistently deal with the ego’s resistance to the unknown. Authenticity is true expression, and if the ego participates at all, it is at the service of authenticity.
The Making
“You urge me to make a new work from the old.”
~ St. Jerome to Pope Damasus I, 382 AD
It became clear to me early on that I was going to need assistance in creating this tome of an artbook. It takes a village.
Goat vellum printing, letterpress-set haikus, handmade paper, linen and leather chemises, a russet leather box with layered gold leaf, and the mastery of many craftspeople brought the work into form.
The Text
Selected passages from All Is Chosen, offered as moments of reflection rather than chapters to complete.
“Each one of us is a combination of influences of many characteristics and traits. Each of us is not simply one of these archetypal roles, but a combination of four, and those four remain the heart of our true essence expression throughout all of our many incarnations.
From the ballast of our four constant archetypes, experienced through the multiple evolutionary cycles of reincarnation, we come to understand every aspect of what it means to be a human being.
We have an identity in form: our bodies and personalities. We have Essence identity
—our true Self—
which is the expression of eternal Source through us.
Freedom from suffering arises when we know ourselves as this immortal essence.”
~ from the “Introduction”
“Choice will occur, either through love or fear…
Are we unconsciously choosing, thus a victim to our own thinking, or are we consciously choosing, thus aware of our thinking, being the conscious creator of our own experience?
True action takes place first in thought.”
~ from the chapter “on Choice”
“Love is the highest Truth.
When we are able to foster love in the life, from love of self, to love of children, to love of nature, then we are much better able to be open to making direct contact, essence contact, with our fellows.
It is through such moments as these that real and true evolutionary progress is made.”
~ from the chapter “on Love”
“It is well known that fear is strong.
Only Love is stronger than fear.
When fear is strong, the creative resources within a person become less available, and sometimes completely inaccessible.
It is possible, however, to relinquish fear, to relinquish control and find one’s peace.”
~ from the chapter “on Fear”
“Each Role in Essence has a positive and negative polarity, or outlook. Each positive or negative outlook has a particular expression that is informed either by love or by fear.
Whatever our roles in essence, each of us has available both the positive and negative expressions of the characteristics of our chosen roles.
With awareness, you can then re-think choice, able to contribute through choosing from the positive polarity of love.
As each of us awakens to our own archetypal roles, our own connection to essence, our individual awakening catalyzes awakening in all who think of us, all who speak of us, and in all whom we contact.
An expanded awakening in human consciousness emerges.”
~ from the chapter “Distinctions”
“So ... why write this book on this subject?
I want to creatively share some of the underpinnings of my successful transformational work with people from all walks of life. Opinions about gender, age, and cultural differences complicate what is useful in assisting people from getting free from suffering and the limitations of the past.
We are all, in truth, in the same boat.
Perceived differences are of the world of transient form. Transient form comes and goes. All that is living dies and returns to dust, or more accurately, returns to the One Substance out of which All Things are formed.”
~ from the chapter “Conclusion”
“This handmade book is the distilled creative expression of a life-long metaphysical study, verified by years of experiences, joys and sorrows, inner battles as well as outer accomplishments. Throughout this study I have also had many comrades in many guises, to all whom I am deeply grateful.
… to you, the reader, my heartfelt love and appreciation.
For without you, so that we walk together, the illumined flame of our birthright would lie in dormant embers.”
~ Onward in Truth, Laura Basha
Continue Exploring
A contemplative gallery of writings, paintings, and symbolic inquiry.
Books
Through poetry, reflection, and lived inquiry, Laura’s books invite a return to what has always been present, a quiet mind, an awakened awareness, and a deeper sense of purpose.
Art Prints
High-quality fine art prints of Laura Basha’s original paintings, created to preserve the depth, symbolism, and contemplative presence of the work.
Videos
Short, contemplative video reflections exploring what it means to be human, listening beyond thought, meeting life’s challenges with presence, and rediscovering peace beneath the noise.
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