BeautyDialogues

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.

Beth's Beauty

My talented friend and colleague Beth Alexander (who also designs and makes exquisite jewelry) made this lovely mandala to help celebrate the season... Beautiful, isn't it!?

Snow and Pattern Language

I've been in Eugene Oregon for the last week or so, answering an invitation by the extraordinary Tree Bressen who'd asked me to join her and a dozen others to explore the idea of pattern language in group process arts. Given my work with the World Cafe, which is based on the pattern language of its seven design principles, and the pattern language project I'm involved in with the Power of Place Collaborative, the invitation was definitely intriguing.

My personal interest in the subject goes beyond the specifics of group process arts, in that I'm looking for a pattern language for catalyzing collective transformation online. I'd hoped we would touch on that as well, given the presence of the inspired visionary Tom Atlee and the 3-4 other folks who also work online - John Abbe, Kaliya Hamlin, Bill Aal & John Kelly. Obviously I didn't read the invitation closely enough, since that didn't happen, but I wasn't disappointed (and I haven't given up on the idea of a pattern language for collective transformation either).

As it turned out, the idea of actually coming up with a pattern language for the process arts was far too ambitious for even a full week together, but it was well worth our time to learn what we did about the process of co-evolving the beginnings of a pattern language for this field. There is ongoing work being done to collaboratively evolve the project and share it with others, so stay tuned for more.

One of the most exciting parts of the journey, however, was the snowstorm that came in with me - four inches the night I arrived - and stayed the whole week, turning the roads into an ice rink and the scenery into a winter wonderland. The snow-covered lawns and trees were exquisite, so pristine and lovely in the mornings and glistening with drama in the evenings next to the Christmas lights of the houses. All this snow was a totally unexpected and unusual occurrence for the Oregonians, and an especially delightful treat for this California girl.

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

Wordle Art

Have you used Wordle yet? Created by Johnathan Feinberg in his spare time while working for IBM Research, Wordle takes words (that you either generate specifically or draw from pages with RSS feeds), and creates these word art images.

You can customize them in all sorts of cool ways - this is my first one, taken from this blog's front page a few weeks ago:

Go on - I know you want to! Make one yourself...

She's Breathing

The altogether wonderful Chris Corrigan found this exquisite video and posted it on his ParkingLot site. Thanks, Chris!