BeautyDialogues

Michael Katz

I get a LOT of e-newsletters but there are only a few I actually read. This small list includes Jeevan's BK Communique, which I wrote about the other day, but another comes from Blue Penguin Development's Michael Katz, who coincidentally helps people learn how to write these things.

Michael really understands the secret of a great e-letter, which is - in a nutshell - to claim your reader's immediate attention by focusing on what THEY want to know, rather than what you want to tell them.

Cultivating a distinctive personal style that's aligned with your purpose, as Michael does, is also important to e-marketing success. Plus he's absolutely hilarious, which never hurts.

Michael has been a guide to me for many years now, and if you're thinking of starting an e-letter of any kind (and imho keeping in regular contact with your audience is essential to any successful communications strategy), I can't recommend anyone better to study and learn from.

Commitment

The essence of my Summer Solstice celebration, as I have come to know it, is to take a few days every year at this time to be immersed in nature – both inner and outer, to acknowledge the gifts I've received in the last cycle of the sun, and to contemplate what's mine to give back as I go forward into the next cycle.

I do this in community, within a circle held by the good folks at Resonance, supported by those at Pathfinders & Heartland.  A circle with beauty at the center, always - this one an evolving work of art created by the translucent Sue Blondell:

At its core my Summer Solstice ritual is a commitment ceremony, and I want to share these words from Ken Carey's Return of the Bird Tribes that convey the strength a clear commitment can give:

"Creation does not take place
where there is a scattering and dissipation of energies.
Creation requires a gathering together and focusing
of your power within a circle of commitment —
like a seed, an egg, a womb or a marriage.

Consider wisely the ways in which you would
use your power and then around those ways
draw the sacred circle of commitment.

In the warm atmosphere of that circle, the power
of love builds like a storm above the wet summer
prairie until suddenly the circle can hold no more
and explodes in the conception of the new.

This fire is more powerful than any one of you."

And so I speak my commitment for this next year into the circle of this larger community, that holds me too:

In this next cycle of the sun I commit to hold myself lightly and speak my truth with confidence; to joyfully take leaps of faith when they are called for; and to continue to hone and refine the craft that carries our voices out into the world and nurtures connection and love between us.

If you too held the time of Summer Solstice in such a way, what would be your commitment for this next cycle of the sun?

Happy Solstice!

It's Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere today, the sun comes full circle and begins its cycle anew. I'm off celebrating among redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains, enjoying my yearly ritual with friends old and new.

I'll no doubt have lots of stories to share when I return, but I wanted to have something here to greet you on this day. So I found this great photo on Flickr (God, I love Flickr!), taken by "Simon & Vicki": Greeting the dawn at last year's Solstice celebration in the great circles of Stonehenge.

Lovely, isn't it?

American Beauty Dialogue

I was watching American Beauty last night and found myself once again mesmerized by that perfect scene where the young videographer-next-door shows his new love the "most beautiful thing" he's ever seen... footage of a plastic bag whirling in the wind, dancing with a pile of leaves.

Apparently it was this very image, which he experienced in real life, that inspired Alan Ball to write the screenplay, and Ball's words, Rick telling Janey about shooting the scene, carry the sensation:

"It was one of those days, when it's a minute away from snowing. And there was this electricity in the air. You could almost hear it. And this bag was just ... dancing ... with me. Like a little kid, begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That was the day when I realized that there was this ... entire life ... behind things. And this incredibly benevolent force who wanted me to know that there was no reason to be afraid. Ever.

Sometimes there is so much ... beauty ... in the world. It's like I can't take it. And my heart is just going to cave in."

The sensibility that went on to provide us with five seasons of Six Feet Under (probably one of the most profound treatises on death American popular culture has ever produced) ends his debut film script with an echo of this moment in a voice-over from Janey's dead father Lester, who's just been shot:

"I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me. But it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me, like rain. And I can't feel anything but gratitude."

I'm struck by the experience Ball describes twice in his film - of expanding with emotion, almost to the point of collapse - juxtaposed with this ephemeral image, which is repeated in the dying father's visual sequence as well.

It's like he's trying to make visible, audible, the sheer, unpredictable, and almost-impossible-to-bear beauty at the very heart of life.

Coping with Email

The always brilliant Beth Kanter posted about one of my own life issues in Beth's Blog - the challenge of coping with a significant amount of email input without becoming overwhelmed.

In it, she includes links to some excellent resources and articles - from Saturday's New York Times, and one early warning from Wired in 2004, offering the option of declaring "email bankruptcy".

I shared some of my own "slow work" solutions to the question in Beth's post's comments field, but/and I continue to be very curious about how other people manage. I want to learn more about this whole phenomenon, and how we are collectively holding it through the cultural changes we're going through, brought on by these relatively new communication technologies.

How about you? How are you coping with the increased demand/opportunities for connection and responsiveness that email brings? Is it even a problem for you?

How does this question appear when we look at it through a beauty-lens ... ?

Food

On my morning walks lately I've noticed more and more vegetables showing up amongst the flowers in my neighbors' gardens.

One neighbor, Grover, has been a leader in this movement for many many years with a whole front garden full of peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, beans, squash, onions, potatoes, kale and chard in constant rotation throughout the year. But now his influence appears to be spreading.

Right across the street from him, folks have built raised beds in the narrow strip of ground between sidewalk and street and planted corn and tomatoes in them. And they're just one example of the front-yard vegetable gardens popping up all over the area.

Whether it's an instinctive response to the rising gas prices or the beginning of a zeitgeist shift back to basics, it feels real good to have food in the neighborhood.

My Friend Fletcher

My friend Fletcher (has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) started blogging again after several months of hiatus (or neglect, take your pick); check out the new Fletcher's Blog. Fletcher's a digital artist with a keen eye for the bizarre and the wonderful and I think you'll enjoy his work, especially if you're partial to street photography and astute political commentary.

Here's one of my favorites from his Carnaval photo shoot:

Welcome to the Beauty Dialogues!

This is a space to celebrate beauty - not just the beauty of form, but also those patterns of essential wholeness that go beyond the visible.

Wholeness dissolves the illusion that life and work are separate. So, while this is a "professional" blog in that I design online communications for a living and often write about design, communications & technology, it's also a "personal" blog about everything I see looking through a beauty-lens. Welcome!