Saturday, September 8, 2012
SUNRISE
The dark hues of night soften as colour gently seeps in to the scene. The sun takes a peep as he prepares his playful palette for today. Starting with a golden yellow, becoming a red or a brown or a cloud in grey highlight. The range is immense. Slowly the shift from dark to light. Birds form a chorus and leaves feel the sap rejoice in their veins. Curtains are drawn back, blinds are raised, eyes are rubbed and arms are stretched. A house martin dives for her morning drink. Then fast in flight for the food the sun shows her. The sea takes on todays sheen and ripples reflect the sky and the light. A breeze joins in to shift shadow, shade and dark and light. Sliding over the horizon comes his golden orb. The dark recedes to hidden corners where the warmth never goes. Long shadows form creating contrast and shape. The day is now full lit and the world begins to work. Colour and shade clash and change as beauty appears and flows in form. The sun did rise, life did glow and the day began.
TIME
Never still
Always gone
Yet to come
For ever now
...
Never enough
Tasks not done
More to do
Yes Yes Yes
...
Never No
Empty day
Fills to brim
Overflows
...
Ever moving
Always there
Came and went
For never now
...
Ever enough
All tasks done
No more to do
No No No
...
Ever No
Full day
Fits so snug
And flows and flows
...
...
Dedicated to my busy Cypriot mate and all people with empty diaries and no time to do what they have agreed to do.
Always gone
Yet to come
For ever now
...
Never enough
Tasks not done
More to do
Yes Yes Yes
...
Never No
Empty day
Fills to brim
Overflows
...
Ever moving
Always there
Came and went
For never now
...
Ever enough
All tasks done
No more to do
No No No
...
Ever No
Full day
Fits so snug
And flows and flows
...
...
Dedicated to my busy Cypriot mate and all people with empty diaries and no time to do what they have agreed to do.
Monday, August 27, 2012
BALANCE
I was thinking about how important balance is in our lives. When we have it we are at ease and life flows freely. When we lack it we frantically change things in an attempt to reestablish it. Balance can be thought of as a set of scales. On one scale we load all the pressures and challenges thrown our way each day. On the other scale we load mechanisms to balance us against the weight of life. Hunger on one side, food on the other. Cold on one side, warmth on the other. Stress on one side, calm on the other. Thinking about it this way it is easy to see how difficult it can be to balance these scales. We will over eat to satisfy hunger. We are always putting things on or taking things off in search of the right temperature. We often load more stress on the life scale than we can possibly balance with the counterweight of calm. So if we can reduce the load on the life scale perhaps there is a better chance of having what we want. We know if we eat well, exercise and get the sleep we need we have a better chance of being in balance. We also know it is much easier to feast, flounder and fiesta. Stress is the biggest challenge of all. Not enough money, never see the family, everyone else seems to be doing better than me, I should be doing more with my life, too much work not enough play, I am such a disappointment, no friends, no life, no time. The usual responses of working harder, seeing less of the family, reinforcing judgements of self versus others and more creates a vicious circle. There is something about the way we are designed that encourages us to overdo things in our efforts to find an equilibrium. A thought I am playing with is that by reducing the weight on the life scale there is less counterweight needed and our chances of success thereby increase. The most fundamental measure of your success is how well you are breathing. Breathe well and you are a successful human being. That's it. Everything else is illusion. Big houses, boats, cars, lavish entertainment and girlfriends will not bring you calm and peace in your life. You will have periods of fun and elation but it is not the route to inner contentment and balance. Maybe if you strip away everything and begin with the need for oxygen on the life scale and breathing as the counterweight some insight will arise. I sit here under my Mimosa Tree and breathe and feel calm. Try it. You can then add back layer by layer of stress of your life today and ask 'do I really need it?' If you do then load it up but give thought to how you can balance it. If you conclude you don't need it but have to have it then explore this. Do you? Must you? By the way I am talking to myself in this stream of thought. Like anyone else I have overloaded my life with too much on the life scale in the last year and have not had enough counterweight to achieve balance. So to many things my answer to 'do you?' and 'must you?' is 'no' and 'no'. My challenge now is to remember my answers.
Monday, June 25, 2012
WHO ARE YOU?
You are unique, full of mystery and a work of art continually in progress. You are a story waiting to be told and read with interest by you. Ever changing with a patchy past, an infinite range of possible futures and only the current moment as fact. Whatever you choose you know you are missing something essential about who you are. Like an artist building an image layer on layer. A little more detail here, blend the colour there, cover up a bit that does not fit until the overall impression is good enough. Good enough. Yes. But incomplete, always incomplete.
The challenge is clear. You are always changing. What you were yesterday is different today. What you believe you will be never takes final form. What you are now in the moment is guided by where your attention rests. And yet your mind continues to seek a definitive answer to the question.
Sometimes you think you are great. Sometimes you are like everyone else. When times are tough then you are just not good enough.
Who you are has all the ingredients of the most interesting novel you will ever read. A great novel distills the wisdom of the writer and leads the reader in a sensual dance in a timeless land of wonder. Although much is missing it captures the essential and leaves clues for the enquiring mind to complete its own picture. The words slide off the page in to hungry eyes impatient for the next hint. At the end you breathe out and relax in your chair. In that moment life is perfection.
The novel you are is unique. You are the writer and the reader. Everything is the way you say it is and your interpretation is the only truth there is. Only you can let someone else create it. Only you can decide to write it for someone else. But the pressures are great. So many lives are lived following the rails put in place by parents, partners or teachers. So many lives are lived to tell a story for someone else to read. No matter how strong these forces are the pen is always yours to take hold of and write the novel you want to be.
The great writer has a keen eye. He picks out the essential detail from which the reader constructs her image. The reader fills in the missing information from his own experience. The reader and writer conspiring in the joint creation of the reality they experience. Neither seeing fully the image of the other but both sharing a mood, feeling or an idea as the senses coalesce. A trail of words across a page can leave you angry, happy or sad. So easily are you swayed by the skilled musicians who play your mind.
Imagine you as the reader of what you write. You as the sculptor of your senses creating the landscape of your feelings. Perhaps someone once told you you could do better, work harder of will fail to fulfil your potential. Keep writing this and notice the pain it brings and the yearning for rescue. Perhaps sometimes you are free and write who you are and notice how you soar above the earth in a moment of magic. The great novel of who you are flows from taking hold of your pen and writing the story you want to read. Writing the story that excites your soul and transcends existence.
If you love Proust, Tolstoy and Woolf then read them. If Haydn, Mozart and Chopin move you then listen to them. The page before you is blank. If you love your life then pick up your pen and write it now. Write it and read it to discover and enjoy your story.
That is who you are.
The challenge is clear. You are always changing. What you were yesterday is different today. What you believe you will be never takes final form. What you are now in the moment is guided by where your attention rests. And yet your mind continues to seek a definitive answer to the question.
Sometimes you think you are great. Sometimes you are like everyone else. When times are tough then you are just not good enough.
Who you are has all the ingredients of the most interesting novel you will ever read. A great novel distills the wisdom of the writer and leads the reader in a sensual dance in a timeless land of wonder. Although much is missing it captures the essential and leaves clues for the enquiring mind to complete its own picture. The words slide off the page in to hungry eyes impatient for the next hint. At the end you breathe out and relax in your chair. In that moment life is perfection.
The novel you are is unique. You are the writer and the reader. Everything is the way you say it is and your interpretation is the only truth there is. Only you can let someone else create it. Only you can decide to write it for someone else. But the pressures are great. So many lives are lived following the rails put in place by parents, partners or teachers. So many lives are lived to tell a story for someone else to read. No matter how strong these forces are the pen is always yours to take hold of and write the novel you want to be.
The great writer has a keen eye. He picks out the essential detail from which the reader constructs her image. The reader fills in the missing information from his own experience. The reader and writer conspiring in the joint creation of the reality they experience. Neither seeing fully the image of the other but both sharing a mood, feeling or an idea as the senses coalesce. A trail of words across a page can leave you angry, happy or sad. So easily are you swayed by the skilled musicians who play your mind.
Imagine you as the reader of what you write. You as the sculptor of your senses creating the landscape of your feelings. Perhaps someone once told you you could do better, work harder of will fail to fulfil your potential. Keep writing this and notice the pain it brings and the yearning for rescue. Perhaps sometimes you are free and write who you are and notice how you soar above the earth in a moment of magic. The great novel of who you are flows from taking hold of your pen and writing the story you want to read. Writing the story that excites your soul and transcends existence.
If you love Proust, Tolstoy and Woolf then read them. If Haydn, Mozart and Chopin move you then listen to them. The page before you is blank. If you love your life then pick up your pen and write it now. Write it and read it to discover and enjoy your story.
That is who you are.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
MASTERPIECE
I am on a wonderful journey of discovery under the tuition of an inspirational art teacher ,in Gata de Gorgos (Spain), called Julia. I grew up believing I could not draw or paint. Along the way I am sure this view was reinforced by others but most of all by myself. Julia is taking me step by step along a path that has already shown me I can do far more than I ever thought possible. I have a drawing I am proud of and am now making progress with an oil painting. Already I am looking at the world around me in new ways and it has got me reflecting about the process of producing a masterpiece.
A simple but profound instruction from Julia was 'don't draw what you see but draw what is there'. It didn't mean anything at first. First I put a grid in place and then drew lines in relation to where they were on a grid of the picture I was working on. Once the lightly drawn outline was in place I added in the dark areas. All the time paying no attention to the overall picture but focussing on small areas of detail and reproducing them as best I could. The fun bit was adding a mid tone all over the picture. Just rub the pencil over the paper until it is all mid tone. I could now work on the lighter tones by rubbing out and the mid tones by enhancing. Gradually a picture began to emerge and as I stood back from the detail and took a look I was astonished at the result.
I am now working on an oil painting and the process is similar. Outline, lights and darks, blend the boundaries, lights and darks, always focus on the detail I am working on and then stand back and see the effect. I will not produce a masterpiece but already I am producing something that is pleasing for me. The pleasure is in the process of painting, seeing the world afresh and achieving a result beyond any expectations I had before meeting Julia. In my early learnings of the process of painting it makes me think aboutI the patience and commitment to produce a work that moves the soul.
At a dinner party a guest is reputed to have said to Proust of a page in 'In Search of Lost Time' that 'you must have been in heaven the day you wrote that page' to which he replied 'madame that page took over a year to write and included many moments of torture along the way.' Julia says that in every picture she paints she can always see what more she could do and how she could improve next time. These are the seeds of a masterpiece as the artist puts something on the canvas, looks at it, works on it, stands back, reworks it, lets the mood emerge, does some more, leaves it for a while, maybe longer, thinks about it, forgets it, comes back to it fast and slow. Go right in to the detail, work on it and stand back to see the effect. Emotions reach peaks and troughs and a battle to start again or throw it all away is constantly being fought. Eventually something emerges that seems to make sense and brings an inner calm and a smile is allowed. It is satisfying and good enough to say 'it is done.' Very occasionally in a lifetime there is somewhere something that is produced that is accepted as a masterpiece. Acceptance comes as it touches many souls and the viewer transcends prior understanding of the way the world is. It seems to me that as long as there are new eyes looking there will always be a fresh way to see 'what is there.'
A simple but profound instruction from Julia was 'don't draw what you see but draw what is there'. It didn't mean anything at first. First I put a grid in place and then drew lines in relation to where they were on a grid of the picture I was working on. Once the lightly drawn outline was in place I added in the dark areas. All the time paying no attention to the overall picture but focussing on small areas of detail and reproducing them as best I could. The fun bit was adding a mid tone all over the picture. Just rub the pencil over the paper until it is all mid tone. I could now work on the lighter tones by rubbing out and the mid tones by enhancing. Gradually a picture began to emerge and as I stood back from the detail and took a look I was astonished at the result.
I am now working on an oil painting and the process is similar. Outline, lights and darks, blend the boundaries, lights and darks, always focus on the detail I am working on and then stand back and see the effect. I will not produce a masterpiece but already I am producing something that is pleasing for me. The pleasure is in the process of painting, seeing the world afresh and achieving a result beyond any expectations I had before meeting Julia. In my early learnings of the process of painting it makes me think aboutI the patience and commitment to produce a work that moves the soul.
At a dinner party a guest is reputed to have said to Proust of a page in 'In Search of Lost Time' that 'you must have been in heaven the day you wrote that page' to which he replied 'madame that page took over a year to write and included many moments of torture along the way.' Julia says that in every picture she paints she can always see what more she could do and how she could improve next time. These are the seeds of a masterpiece as the artist puts something on the canvas, looks at it, works on it, stands back, reworks it, lets the mood emerge, does some more, leaves it for a while, maybe longer, thinks about it, forgets it, comes back to it fast and slow. Go right in to the detail, work on it and stand back to see the effect. Emotions reach peaks and troughs and a battle to start again or throw it all away is constantly being fought. Eventually something emerges that seems to make sense and brings an inner calm and a smile is allowed. It is satisfying and good enough to say 'it is done.' Very occasionally in a lifetime there is somewhere something that is produced that is accepted as a masterpiece. Acceptance comes as it touches many souls and the viewer transcends prior understanding of the way the world is. It seems to me that as long as there are new eyes looking there will always be a fresh way to see 'what is there.'
Saturday, May 19, 2012
OLIVE BLOSSOM IN MAY
You never hear people say 'let's go and see the Olive blossom.' Cherry blossom in Kyoto or almond and citrus in Valencia are always a bigger draw. But look more closely and a treat is in store. From a distance the blossom blends in to the leaves. Close up it is a delicate white petal with a soft yellow centre. It sheds its petals to the ground like confetti for a pixie wedding. Now you are close take a longer look at this amazing tree. Some say if you eat olives every day you will live forever. Some say olive trees never die. The olive tree of Vouves is known to be at least 2000 years old and may be more than 4000. At this grand old age, or perhaps its middle age, it still produces olive some ambling time after its May blossom. It is 4.6 metres wide and 12.5 metres measured round its waist. Take a look at an olive tree next time you are near one. You will see character, personality and a knowing presence that says 'I've seen a thing or two.'
Some people around you are like the olive tree. You don't see them as the eye is distracted by the captivating colours of cherry or the nose is hooked by the scent of citrus. But look again and make them a friend and you will live a life enriched that may possibly last forever.
Some people around you are like the olive tree. You don't see them as the eye is distracted by the captivating colours of cherry or the nose is hooked by the scent of citrus. But look again and make them a friend and you will live a life enriched that may possibly last forever.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
THE DECEPTIVE IGNORANCE OF BLISS
One of the wonders of human experience is that it could all be an elaborate illusion. We know that people walk out of a room more slowly after hearing words referring to old age than they do after words around youth. School people in logic and science and the only true meaning that follows comes from rational explanation and objective analysis. We are both locked in the the mould our learning has created for us and unaware of our given shape. Many are happily ignorant of how they have been cast and live the reality they are in as if it is the only one that exists. Is this ignorance a blessing or a curse?
A friend referred to the comforts of materialism and consumerism masking the existential anxiety we are all experiencing. Striving for more, a bigger house/car/boat/church...,and living with plenty in some way overcoming the questions of who we are and why we are here. Her phrasing gets you thinking and sends you deeper and deeper in to enquiry about the hard work and stress of the world today. One possibility is that sufficient food to keep you alive today and no attachment to thoughts of greed and desire is all you need for a perfect life. This is currently rejected in favour of working harder and harder to amass more for the self in the expectation that one day we can have enough. Then we will be able to relax, enjoy our life and reap the benefits of all that hard work.
Ignorance is bliss has perhaps never had such twisted meaning. I am like many and worked hard to gather comforts and material possessions around me. I am now learning from special friends that there might be simpler truths for contentment and finding the enquiry in to them rewarding.
Share a comment with what this evokes for you.
A friend referred to the comforts of materialism and consumerism masking the existential anxiety we are all experiencing. Striving for more, a bigger house/car/boat/church...,and living with plenty in some way overcoming the questions of who we are and why we are here. Her phrasing gets you thinking and sends you deeper and deeper in to enquiry about the hard work and stress of the world today. One possibility is that sufficient food to keep you alive today and no attachment to thoughts of greed and desire is all you need for a perfect life. This is currently rejected in favour of working harder and harder to amass more for the self in the expectation that one day we can have enough. Then we will be able to relax, enjoy our life and reap the benefits of all that hard work.
Ignorance is bliss has perhaps never had such twisted meaning. I am like many and worked hard to gather comforts and material possessions around me. I am now learning from special friends that there might be simpler truths for contentment and finding the enquiry in to them rewarding.
Share a comment with what this evokes for you.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
THE MEANING OF LIFE
Human Beings are the only animal that has the capability to work out what things mean. In addition to all the sensory and stimulus response mechanisms of plants and animals we have cognition. Cognition is a powerful additional layer enabling us to evaluate information, work out 'what it means' and make choices to take care of ourselves. In evolutionary terms it is the latest addition to a developing set of self preservation apparatus. It is inevitable that such apparatus will one day ask the question 'what is the meaning of life?'
If you look at a tree over time it grows out of a seed, changes through the seasons, lives its life and the ages and dies. It is nourished by the sun, wind and rain and produces offspring to follow in its path. The tree never asks about the meaning of life. It came in to being, existed in a state of being and then was gone.
'What is the meaning of life' is a question that arises from a meaning making machine. The meaning making machine was put there to improve the chances of survival of its host. By making meaning many great advantages accrue to humans over competing life forms. Agriculture, farming, cooking, building and culture are some examples. Once you give humans this device it does not stop there but goes on to seek to make meaning of everything. It extends itself in to art, literature, music, mathematics and so on. You know from your own mind that it never stops trying to make meaning.
Everyone will reach their own conclusions on this recurring question. I overheard two wealthy men talking the other day. In their conversation about exotic holidays and new bigger homes one of them says 'I am becoming depressed again as life seems to lack meaning for me.' At the unfair end of the social scale there are people making a similar statement about their life. Everyone living in this frantic world will have their version of this statement at some point in their life.
My own conclusion to the question is that life just 'is'. Rather than chase the endless circular philosophers quest for understanding I align myself with the tree and let all the meaning making thoughts drift off me in to the wind. Life just 'is'.
If you look at a tree over time it grows out of a seed, changes through the seasons, lives its life and the ages and dies. It is nourished by the sun, wind and rain and produces offspring to follow in its path. The tree never asks about the meaning of life. It came in to being, existed in a state of being and then was gone.
'What is the meaning of life' is a question that arises from a meaning making machine. The meaning making machine was put there to improve the chances of survival of its host. By making meaning many great advantages accrue to humans over competing life forms. Agriculture, farming, cooking, building and culture are some examples. Once you give humans this device it does not stop there but goes on to seek to make meaning of everything. It extends itself in to art, literature, music, mathematics and so on. You know from your own mind that it never stops trying to make meaning.
Everyone will reach their own conclusions on this recurring question. I overheard two wealthy men talking the other day. In their conversation about exotic holidays and new bigger homes one of them says 'I am becoming depressed again as life seems to lack meaning for me.' At the unfair end of the social scale there are people making a similar statement about their life. Everyone living in this frantic world will have their version of this statement at some point in their life.
My own conclusion to the question is that life just 'is'. Rather than chase the endless circular philosophers quest for understanding I align myself with the tree and let all the meaning making thoughts drift off me in to the wind. Life just 'is'.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
IN THE SHADE OF THE MIMOSA TREE
I am sitting here in the shade of The Mimosa Tree.
There is a gentle breeze, like soft silk, brushing against my cheek. I am calm, at ease and drawing deeply on my breath. As I exhale I relax further in to my contentment. I have left the shouldistic world behind and float in the lightness of being. The air is warm from the sun and cool from the shade. My thoughts are heavy and keen in their efforts to protect me and now soft and weightless as I release them in to the breeze.
The leaves of the tree rustle. Whispering hints on the true secrets of living. Motionless but for the dance of leaf and branch with breeze. The Mimosa Tree knows how to be in flow with the world. I can feel it all around me as I dispel another thought in to the air.
There is an army of ideas charging on my peace. A regiment set up to 'do more', a battalion marching on 'goals' and a platoon set about 'watching my back.' For this moment I ignore them all, sit still and slowly breath out.
I am sitting here in the shade of The Mimosa Tree.
There is a gentle breeze, like soft silk, brushing against my cheek. I am calm, at ease and drawing deeply on my breath. As I exhale I relax further in to my contentment. I have left the shouldistic world behind and float in the lightness of being. The air is warm from the sun and cool from the shade. My thoughts are heavy and keen in their efforts to protect me and now soft and weightless as I release them in to the breeze.
The leaves of the tree rustle. Whispering hints on the true secrets of living. Motionless but for the dance of leaf and branch with breeze. The Mimosa Tree knows how to be in flow with the world. I can feel it all around me as I dispel another thought in to the air.
There is an army of ideas charging on my peace. A regiment set up to 'do more', a battalion marching on 'goals' and a platoon set about 'watching my back.' For this moment I ignore them all, sit still and slowly breath out.
I am sitting here in the shade of The Mimosa Tree.
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