BeautyDialogues

Seed Pod

When I don't write anything for a while it's usually not because there's nothing going on. Rather, perhaps because there is SO much going on ... I often feel like this seed pod, ripening and ripening until I'm ready to birth a thought into the world.

Creative Emergence

There is an external order to my web design work that usually begins with some some variant on the following:

1. Understanding the project thoroughly - things like its purpose and perceived audience, the vision or message it is meant to convey, special needs, budget and time-line, its relation to other parts of a campaign, desired scope or impact, how much control the client wants or needs, what their tech skills and interests are, etc. etc.


2. Honing in and clarifying the structural elements that will be needed - what are the navigation links and how should they line up, technical format, key concepts/words, naming conventions, a rough idea of content, etc. etc.


3. Exploring my client's aesthetic preferences; embodying their pre-dispositions, their likes and dislikes, and coming to shared agreements on "look and feel"

These are all elements that I can share with my client, they are what I say "out loud". But lately I've begun to become aware of another, subtler process that is happening internally, right alongside these external steps. As soon as I start gathering the data in step one, if I pay attention I notice that I'm listening more deeply for the things that are not being said: hopes, competing needs, dreams, aversions and aesthetic quirks, what they want the result to "feel" like, etc. etc. and often without my knowing when or how, a process of incubation begins.

Much of the time I'm only half-aware of what is happening, but inevitably, in its own pace, what I can know with my external senses begins to dance with my intuition and the as-yet unknown. The creativity that flows in my underground streams starts to converge and sooner or later images and sense impressions begin to take form.

I learn about them in my dreams or when I sit down to work on a design and something wholly unexpected emerges. Or, I find I'm always thinking of the project on some level and sometimes I catch a reflection of my thoughts or a disguised version of what I'm silently looking for.

As I become more aware of this process, I'm able to move with it more fully. When that happens my work feels lighter and more "fun" while the results get better and more satisfying.

What about you? Do you have an internal work process that runs parallel with your external routine? What's it like? Are you aware of it? How does it make itself known?

Our Luminous Ground

You may remember a project I mentioned in a post written last October, on the Powers of Place - well, I'm pleased to say I'm now the point person for creating the online communications for the whole project - stay tuned for more about that - but for now I'm excited to announce the launch of Our Luminous Ground.

Our Luminous Ground is a spin-off from the main project and it's been a joint effort coming from myself, Ria Baeck, Sheryl Erickson, and Karen Speerstra (a celebrated writer who has been the main author of this blog).

Luminous Ground is a WONDERFUL journey into the pattern language of sacred lanscapes all over the earth and I want to invite you who find the earth sacred and/or have something to share about your own experience with power spots around the world to come check it out, subscribe, and contribute.

Winter Solstice

It's a little late, but I just found this poem by Rebecca Parker in my in-box (which shows how behind in my correspondence I am), and it was so lovely I wanted to share it.

WINTER SOLSTICE
by Rebecca Parker

Perhaps
for a
moment
the typewriters will
stop clicking,
the wheels stop
rolling
the computers desist
from computing,
and a hush will fall
over the city.

For an instant, in
the stillness,
the chiming of the
celestial spheres will be heard
as earth hangs
poised
in the crystalline
darkness, and then
gracefully
tilts.

Let there be a
season
when holiness is
heard, and
the splendor of
living is revealed.

Stunned to stillness
by beauty
we remember who we
are and why we are here.

There are
inexplicable mysteries.

We are not
alone.

In the universe there
moves a Wild One
whose gestures alter
earth's axis
toward
love.

In the immense
darkness
everything spins with
joy.

The cosmos enfolds
us.

We are caught in a
web of stars,
cradled in a swaying
embrace,
rocked by the holy
night,
babes of the
universe.

Let this be the
time
we wake to
life,
like spring wakes, in
the moment
of winter
solstice.

My Life is Ace

I've been working with amazing musician and intuitive Shaina Noll on a number of projects, including her blog which will be launched in the new year. Among her many talents, Shaina offers Tarot readings over the phone and after an incredible reading she did for me earlier this year, I wanted more.

When we first started working together Shaina had sent me one of her Life Path Profiles to introduce me to this part of her work, and my profile said that this year is a very important one for me, a once in a lifetime opportunity. Since it is about to be over (on my birthday - January 31st - make a note! :-), I wanted to see whether there was anything I should be doing to take full advantage of this unique moment in time.

Our session only lasted half an hour, but it seemed timeless and I felt I had received everything I needed. The two cards I drew - one for what I had already gained in this powerful year, and the other for what opportunities might still lie before me, were absolutely perfect and Shaina's interpretation answered my questions completely.

The first card I drew was the Ace of Cups. Aces represent a pinnacle of development in the specific area of their suit, in this case cups, which represents love and relationship. If you've ever seen this card, you'll know that its archetypal image of a fountain of water overflowing the bounds of an elegant chalice is a joyful sight to behold. And it spoke so beautifully to this last year, in which I have been granted so many of my heart's desires.

Here are my notes from this part of the reading with Shaina:
The Ace of Cups has to do with deep love and appreciation of yourself. It fills your heart with the sense of self-esteem, self-honoring. Aces are the tools of the Magician card, and as such what one expresses in the world can become a blessing to others (this is my deepest wish fulfilled). In terms of the question, cups being the suit of love, drawing the ace would say that the core blessing has to do with my capacity to be a channel for a clear and loving energy. This is something that I have now and will be enriched over time.

The next card, answering my question "What's the core opportunity from now through the end of this cycle?" was the Ace of Swords. The Ace of Swords is a powerful-looking card with a mighty sword held directly upwards, cutting through a layer of clouds into a crown of brilliant light. The suit of swords corresponds to mind, and in my case its potential for achievement would most likely be in the sphere of writing and communication.

Here are my notes from this part of the reading:
Inspired Communication penetrating the clouds into the realm of spirit. The capacity is to be an inspired channel for the clearest possible energy. This ace is a card of the mind, and offers the opportunity to open my capacity for language even wider. To open my mind to a realm of communication that is more significant than any I have achieved before. It suggests an element of ease, where things just come naturally. It augurs a time when I can ask for support & guidance from Spirit, and receive it directly.

There was more, about the family of cards that support these two and how they work, but the gist was that these two aces offer an increased capacity for a clear heart and open mind to come together and communicate in a unique and powerful way.

This made me very excited, because I am going to be working on a series of videos for the World Café throughout this next month. Video is a medium I have little experience in but a strong intuition about, so I can't wait to see what comes out of me!

But mostly I wanted to share this because I think Shaina is amazing and I wanted you to know about her, in case you too would like to explore one of these incredible readings with her. (If that sounds like something you or someone you love would like, use this address to contact her: insights@shainanoll.com)

Speaking of Flowers

The delicacy of the flowers on this datura entranced me on a recent beauty walk ... so incredibly ephemeral, they were shriveled & gone the next morning.

 

 

Mindful Wandering

One of my favorite thinkers/bloggers out there, Dave Pollard, recently shared his association between "slow blogging" as defined by Barbara Ganley and what his friend Chris Lott calls "mindful wandering". Here's an excerpt from Dave's post:

"The idea is to see blogging, which is really just a new way of recording your thoughts in a diary, as a meditative practice, taking the time to ponder the meaning of what you're reading, thinking and writing, letting your mind meander in thoughtful and creative ways to "make sense" of it."

The photo above was taken by FireHawk Hulin of his wife Pele Rouge and I, taking a break from an informal writing retreat we set up with each other to do just that.

It was exquisite, and I can't imagine anything better than to spend more time exactly like this... Walking, looking with fresh eyes at what is around me; seeing the juxtapositions of line and light and color and following them with my camera - like a dream or a story without words.

It's such a pleasure to let my thoughts wander over the things I've seen or read or heard recently and listen for the patterns I sense emerging between them; to what is becoming clearer, or where new questions are surfacing. I crave conversation about these things with other thinking, aware, sensitive people, and I love the experience, the artful practice, of composing something tangible - a blog post, a story or poem, a finished photograph, a video or slideshow - from these elements.

I recently advised one of my clients to make reflective writing part of her daily practice, even if what she writes doesn't always make it to a blog post. Simply to take an hour every morning, or every evening, and contemplate what has meaning in this moment, or reflect on what carried energy in this day.

I can't wait to see what comes of this from and for her.
Hmmmm. Maybe it's time I listened to my own advice. :-)

Hozho

"The Navaho word hozho, translated into English as “beauty,” also means harmony, wholeness, goodness.

One story that suggests the dynamic way that beauty comes alive between us concerns a contemporary Navajo weaver. “A man ordered a rug of an especially complex pattern on two separate occasions from the same weaver. Both rugs came out perfectly and the weaver remarked to her brother that there must have been something special about the owner. It was understood that the outcome of the rugs was dependent not on the weaver’s skill and ability but upon the hozho in the owners life. The hozho of his life evoked the beauty in the rugs.

In the Navaho world view, beauty exists not simply in the object, or in the artist who made the object; it is expressed in relationships."

- J. Ruth Gendler, Notes on the Need for Beauty

End Times

The other day, in the midst of this period of major change and disruption in the world, I happened to be listening to a audio tape by Michael Meade. He was talking about the “end of times”, which he says we as a species have felt as imminent for two hundred years at least.

That’s not to say, he hastens to clarify, that we don’t need to do absolutely everything that we can to address the challenges of our time - both cultural and environmental - but that we also need to access “eternal time” or that still small place inside us that stays constant through upsets large and small.

Meade's long-term perspective served to jolt me out of my overwhelm for a minute - and his call to center ourselves in what's permanent and unchanging is certainly an apt reminder in these times that threaten to drown us in the sheer chaos of change and uncertainty. The poet William Yeats described this moment, which has obviously come before, in the lines of his famous The Second Coming:

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

In the wake of massive challenges in our economic, political and environmental spheres, there are many life-style choices that need to be made right now - crucial choices about consumption and political representation and the fundamental will to care for ourselves and others - that will determine the ways we impact each other, create our futures and decide the fate of our species (among others).

Many of those choices, however, are not only important responses to the pressing issues of our time but choices that define what it means for each of us to be human and live a conscious life - a life of sanity and humanity. These are crucial decisions to make no matter what condition the external world is in.

Finding that “timeless” center of “right relationship” for myself, & making the daily choices that align me with it is what helps me avoid the panic & despair that the daily news would otherwise trigger in my fearful psyche.

One last thing - as Maturana and others have said so well, language - what we speak into the world with our words, our images, our voices and our movement - is of seminal importance. When we are awake and consciously languaging the lives and futures we want to bring forward into the world, for ourselves and for all beings, that is what manifests between us.

So I write this to bring an awareness of that unchanging moment and suggest that we collectively use this knowledge as our True North, our guiding star as we go forward in these days of light and shadow. That we look to what is possible and to what is being born; that we keep our eyes on "that rough beast" (or to use today's metaphor, the imaginal cells that are at this very moment forming into a butterfly) as it emerges in our midst, rather than lose ourselves in the eddies of despair and lament over what is sick and dying.

We choose our future; we speak it and imagine it in each moment of our everyday lives. Together we can make it whole and beautiful. May it be so.

Blink

I came across this image and quote when I was searching Flickr for suitable presentation illustrations. It's by someone from Italy, called Mlle Mathilde, and reminded me why I love Flickr:

"In every minute there are nearly 60 blinks. So if I could never close my eyes I would have a lot of seconds more to see the beauty."