the depth of our roots….

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look up

When I detect a beauty in any of the recesses of nature, I am reminded by the serene & retired spirit in which it requires to be contemplated, of the inexpressible privacy of life; how silent & unambitious it is. The beauty there in mosses will have to be considered from the holiest, quietest nook…..Henry David Thoreau

we are ensconced in sunshine….rooted….digging….swooning in fragrant air….that sweet crunch of boots on twigs & leaves may be the remedy to many disappointments….holding us gently when we need it most…

just being outside….& yet how often are we inside looking out? this awareness of our awareness is lost indoors..

 Everyone searches desperately for happiness, but the price we must pay for it is generosity. When we are born, we are born among a kind of beauty & richness. Every leaf of a tree is a work of art.  A miracle…the path is difficult. The search for beauty is without end, but it is life-giving……Frederic Back

the within of us is the within of us with feet on earth…..an inevitable extension defining who we really are…rooted within earth….
our sweet holy earth…

the rooster calls….look up….

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a good soul-friend & reminder to look up

The art of being lost is not a matter of merely getting lost, but rather being lost & enthusiastically surrendering to the unlimited potential of it. By trusting your unknowing, your old standards of progress dissolve, becoming eligible for new ones that come not from your mind but from the depths of your soul…..Bill Plotkin

ok, so you’re in the now…really in the now when you’re lost….like suddenly seeing roosters in trees & noticing your shoes don’t match & you really hate the word ‘inappropriate’….

funny thing is….it doesn’t matter anymore…out of the box & into your life….

Fall & Call belong together. As the web of deception & death appears & the golden world fades, the memory of that world, which seemed once so safe & whole, continues to call. Fallen angels, we are still angels. The wound of our fallenness becomes a school of empathy. We learn sympathy & compassion. From the eyes above all, ‘mirrors of the soul,’ we learn to achnowledge the depths of our own interiority. ‘There but by the grace of God go I.’ Art, literature, & music become messengers, intermediaries of the call. This call to ‘metanoia,’ transformation, comes to us in different ways. Yet we must ‘hit bottom’ & vow to change our lives. Such a vow is not made once, but must be renewed with every breath…..Christopher Bamford

drift awhile, drop out, & remember again….

where we cross over….where Mary Poppins lands….

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everyday magic

The outer world is the world of manifestation, the inner world that of imagination. Yet in many respects it is the inner world that makes possible the outer. We do not just reflect the outer world, we create it. In many circumstances we order it-prevent its fall into disorganization, driven by entropy. Yet nature is also highly ordered, by what are ultimately mathematically inevitable patterns & relationships. If a God created the world it is through these laws;  perceiving & manipulating them, we resemble the creator….Christian Wertenbaker

it’s comforting to know that many concepts move in realms outside of science….imagination, time, consciousness….science isn’t big enough…somewhere in between the past & the future our self-awareness ‘occurs’……opening a gap…..seemingly whooshing in the flow of creativity on the wave of imagination….

this ‘everyday magic’ is available at all times…..like carrying an upside-down parasol…..like understanding your purpose….like being excited about growing old….like seeing possibility everywhere…

 Imagination lies at the juncture of death & life,

 absence & presence….Patrick Laude

quenching the thirst of imagination…

 

light in the morning dew is our ancestors light…

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one touch

I remember walking to the meditation hall with others as the bell sounded, feeling as if I were being led out of a wilderness on to an ancient path. Thich Nhat Hahn speaks of waking the bell so that it can call us to our true home. I began to understand that true independence isn’t individuality, which is clinging to self, but falling more deeply into life & into my true humanity. I came to realize that the light of mindfulness was the strongest force in me because unlike other parts & attachments that changed, this light seeemed to be independent of outside circumstances…..what was most abiding….Tracy Cochran

this is the one touch of understanding…..the seed of a long life of descending into wonders…joined & connected to our ancestors…roots of old souls abiding with us…

 rhythms of ancient bells…..

the magic of play….physics & art

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boxes full of secrets

The second law of thermodynamics describes entropy, the fact that any transformation happens at less than 100 percent efficiency, & thus all systems tend to run down. This law requires that a bounce lose oomph over time, like a ball that eventually comes to rest. The work of art defies this law; the more we expend going in, the greater the energy going out. This may be a secret alchemical law of metaphysics. I call the defiant phenomenon ‘the bounce.’ At the heart of every successful work of art is a marvelous small impulse toward more. Our irrepressible yearning can’t resist pushing on; at the moment of completion it says, ‘and…’ Making a world bounces us into beginning the next world….Eric Booth

this is pure play….what all children know….we don’t understand the art or worry about it first….the art itself teaches us…leads us to the knowing…this is how we can make art for a lifetime….

So what remains when the self is forgotten? You realize yourself as the whole phenomenal universe. What is the self that is expressed in self-expression? When the self disappears, the brush paints by itself, the dance dances itself, the poem writes itself. There is no gap….in between. This is not an accident. It is rather the result of personal training, spirtitual development, & insight, which then manifests….John Daido Loori

absorption in art clarifies the dualistic nature of ego…the clarity of soul & intent rather than ego & outcome work it out….awkwardness transforms….

 behind a mask & the mask becomes the expression…

disillusionment, wandering & a way of knowing

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new eyes...

Seeing does not come from thinking. It comes from the shock at the moment when, feeling an urgency to know what is true, I suddenly realize that my thinking mind cannot perceive reality. To understand what I really am at this moment, I need sincerity & humility, & an unmasked exposure that I do not know…..Jeanne de Salzmann

we perceive through all senses….our wanderings alight….subdued, passionate, astonished….the edge of a star…the end of a dead-end alley…

this presence…a sort of wabi-sabi clumsiness, questioning, & invisible to challenge……

the nonessential clears like sun on windowpane….like warm puppies after heartache….

For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate observer, it’s an immense pleasure in whatever is seething, moving, evanescent…and infinite….Charles Baudelaire

the art of noticing your heart space 

shedding….spiritual aging…

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detail

The world is more magical, less predictable, more autonomous, less controllable, more varied, less  simple, more infinite, less knowable, more wonderfully troubling than we could have imagined being able to tolerate when we were young…..James Hollis

being in our own skin means being…& this being day after day calls up a profound intimacy with our essential self…the one we actually befriend through time….slowly shedding….

spiritual discernment means feeling every nuance of grief & ego-pain that comes with the shedding….no bypassing…to the beautiful beyond….an aged & weathered wisdom…

youth & the beauty beyond…

The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin…Parker Palmer

fall in love everyday & why being rational is overrated

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the glow

Seeing the ordinary world clearly is a source of raw material & inspiration. Strangely enough, you don’t need to learn how to be artistic. It is as natural as breathing & the beating of your heart. Nevertheless, natural artistry is often inaccessible because it is concealed. A good analogy is the way the sun constantly radiates light even though you can’t always see it. Artistry arises from mind’s natural wakefulness, creativity, & humor when the obstacles are cleared away. Before you can learn to remove the clouds, you need to understand their nature…..A. Karr & M. Wood

this is why we laugh at ourselves, play outside, fall in love everyday, & eat ice cream…

Beyond rational & critical thinking, we need to be called again. This can lead to the discovery of a ‘second naivete,’ which is a return to the joy of our first naivete, but now totally new, inclusive, & mature thinking…..Paul Ricoeur

 return to joy….

where twilight takes you…

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black & white

At the end of my suffering

there was a door.

Hear me out: that which you call death

I remember.

Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.

Then nothing. The weak sun

flickered over the dry surface.

It is terrible to survive

as consciousness

buried in the dark earth.

Then it was over: that which you fear, being

a soul & unable

to speak, ending abuptly, the stiff earth

bending a little. And what I took to be

birds darting in low shrubs.

You who do not remember

passage from the other world

I tell you I could not speak again: whatever

returns from oblivion returns

to find a voice:

from the center of my life came

a great fountain, deep blue

shadows on azure sea water.

Louise Gluck

where is that thin blue line? that hazy place in our lives where we cross over? even more interesting, is when we don’t realize when we’re in it…when things have shifted….suddenly a conversation, an encounter, a glimpse of someone or an instant which you recognize….a cold wind blows over you….

where are you then? do you choose to come back? or do you linger a while….belonging elsewhere just for an instant…..

hang it up…

Each & all, the subjective & objective

Spheres are related

And at the same time independent.

Related & yet working differently,

Though each keeps its own place….

Within light there is darkness,

But do not try to understand that darkness.

Within darkness there is light,

But do not look for the light.

Light & darkness are a pair,

Like the foot before & the foot behind in walking.

Each thing has its own intrinsic value

And is related to everything else in function & position.

Ordinary life fits the absolute as a box & its lid.

The absolute works together with the relative

Like two arrows meeting in midair.

…Shitou Xiquian

behind the intellectualizing of the mystique

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alice discovers paradox

Sometimes the mountain

is hidden from me in veils

of cloud, sometimes

I am hidden from the mountain

in veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue,

when I forget or refuse to go

down to the shore or a few yards

up the road, on a clear day,

to reconfirm

that witnessing presence.

Denise Levertov

the aesthetics of changeling moods & graces show us our sub-conscious pitfalls….whether we want to note them or not…we have to fall down the rabbit hole again & again…

The superimposition of the dream state on the conscious-awake state is something that is very important to all artists. It’s not a rational world; it’s a rationalizing world. It’s one in which we’ve constructed states of reality that are quite complex…..James Turrell 

do we really know how ‘rubber-stamped’ we really are? how labeled our intellect is for us? this is why our imaginations are crucial…they are what truly define us…call us wild…

where does the rabbit hole go?

Free thinker! Do you think you are the only thinker

on this earth in which life blazes inside all things?

Your liberty does what it wishes with the powers it controls, but when you gather to plan, the universe is not there.

Look carefully in an animal at a spirit alive:

every flower is a soul opening out into nature;

a mystery touching love is asleep inside metal.

‘Everything is intelligent.’ (Pythagoras)

And everything moves you.

In that blind wall, look out for the eyes that pierce you:

the substance of creation cannot be separated from a word.

Do not force it to labor in some low phrase!

Often a Holy Thing is living hidden in a dark creature;

and like an eye which is born covered by its lids,

a pure spirit is growing strong under the bark of stones….

Gerard de Nerval