sparking imagination
If you do not understand a work of art, just sit with it like you would sit in Nature. Just allow it to trickle through your thoughts and consider that you are growing in something new, and that is good. The artist followed an impulse in an intentional way which has become the discipline of their life. For centuries this has been called a Rule of Life and usually is associated with the way a monastery conducts lif
The starting point of making something is not with the materials, although I do find that playing with materials and tools generates inspiration. It is the non-material inspiration which empowers the process of making. Contemplation of the immaterial, the idea, … Continued
In the labors and burdens of life we at one moment or another sigh, “God.” If we let that sigh extend beyond the moment, we can discover new expanse in our universe, new capacity to rest and be renewed. Focusing … Continued
Usually, after completing an arduous work of art, I experience an emptiness. This is often a period of wandering grappling with questions like “What else can I say? What else can I try? Why write and make art? Who cares?” — remnant thoughts from humanity’s long history of self-focus. Lately I’ve been asking, “Why am I watching tutorials and learning new technology?”
When we look at a painting on the wall, or a sculpture in a park, we are looking at a physical manifestation of the artist. In a sense the artist is present because they deposited some of themselves into the … Continued
Puzzling over the massive delusions rampant in our populace, I have written many pages of analysis counseling the reader to Check What You Believe, but, too many words; words too limited. I am choosing the wisdom of sparse, poetic lines to aid contemplation. Comments help with this one after you read it.
. . . even if race had not been invented as a way of eliminating competition, our view would still be that the emphasis on devoting one’s life to material gain is an incomplete view of humanity.
Sometimes, when saturated with national and global news, we tend to focus on that larger picture and neglect our main responsibility on the microlevel of our personal relationships and local community.
Voting and demonstrating about the larger issues are good and important community responsibilities, but most of our effectiveness is in the place where we live.
Worried about losing? Experiencing loss? Even winners have to lose something in order to win. When loss happens it is the opportunity to glimpse our True Self — who we are without that which we just lost.
We are being destroyed as a nation and as individuals, but we can change the things that are destroying us.
