Odyssey

New WordPress blog, adieu Blogger!

2010-12-16T10:04:00.001-06:00

I'm no longer posting here. Please visit my new blog: http://www.benevolentmonarch.com

Wild Wisdom

2010-12-10T10:54:00.003-06:00

Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? Reverb10: Reflect & Manifest

Focus.
Jettison.
Wild Abandon.
And it's all still in process...

Consciously releasing what I don't need, letting go of energy drains, taking the value of my time seriously, and honing, precisely, my creative life.

Liberating!

Community

2010-12-07T10:31:00.000-06:00

Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Reverb10: reflect & manifest)

I continue to discover community through my work as a performing artist and with the people who are supportive of me, supportive of my colleagues -- and each of us, all supportive of each other. Through performance making we are building community and that is super exciting.

The looping reciprocity of energy is what drives creativity... it's what makes the arts possible, what makes the arts relevant. It's not really what the work is, but who I do the work with and my passion for sharing my artistic vision with others... and that is what builds community, slowly, one relationship at a time...

My most intimate community consists of close friends and inspirers I like to exchange yummy energy with on a regular basis.

I've also discovered a new community of brilliant creative folk, by having started my MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College.

I want to continue to cultivate creative, engaging, powerful relationships with inspiring peers...

Be creative

2010-12-06T10:25:00.002-06:00

"Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use?" (Reverb10, reflect & manifest)

Besides these blog posts of late, I'm in the midst of creating some luscious new translations inspired by late 19th and early 20th century French poems, for an upcoming art song program at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. What materials?: My noggin & computer.

I made baguettes from scratch for Thanksgiving. They turned out ok, even if they were a bit too crunch-ay. Flour, water, yeast, elbow grease. It was super fun and now I'm obsessed with perfecting the recipe.

I made an opera with my company. I wrote the libretto and an amazing composer set it to music. Dreamy.

Ingredients:

passion vision vision vision practice practice practice practice practice music words commitment disciple planning laser focus 2 singers a dancer 2 actors a lighting gal a set created by a sculptor costumes from a pacific northwest designer & headpieces inspired by victorian sea fairies paper ribbons plastic wrap fellow artists who believe boundlessly in you friends supporters sharers in the experience before during after and along the way blood sweat tears and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of love...

Divergence Vocal Theater, "Selkie, a sea tale" November 2010

Let go...

2010-12-05T10:36:00.002-06:00

What did I let go of this year? (Reverb10: reflect & manifest)

...The need to "belong"
...Energy vampires

What nourishes me?

...Commitment to my creative vision
...Commitment to nourishing relationships
...Commitment to the value of my time
...Release what I don't need
...Release what I don't need
...Release what I don't need...

Wonder

2010-12-04T09:05:00.008-06:00

Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Reverb10)

What I practice, sometimes with great success and sometimes with seemingly insurmountable challenges:

PresencePresencePresence
Gratitude GratitudeGratitude
PresencePresencePresence

Gratitude GratitudeGratitude

PresencePresencePresence

Gratitude GratitudeGratitude

Compassion. Now that's a hard one for me

ExpansionReleaseLettingGo

Compassion. Yep, that's still hard

ExpansionReleaseLettingGo
Wait, Oh, yeah, breathing. Lots of breathing
Don't forget to breathe

PresencePresencePresence

Gratitude GratitudeGratitude

PresencePresencePresence

Gratitude GratitudeGratitude

PresencePresencePresence

Gratitude GratitudeGratitude

Compassion. Houston's 610 loop road at 530pm teaches this. Still not really getting it

ExpansionReleaseLettingGo

Compassion. Now that's a hard one for me

ExpansionReleaseLettingGo:

The cultivation of wonder...

Just being alive...

2010-12-03T09:38:00.002-06:00

"Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year..." Reverb10

Lofoten Islands archipelago top of our world sun ocean glass waters burst with granite peaks fjords swooooooosh easy through glacier sea ferry rides tangle my hair holding hands salt on my fingertips stretch of Nordic beach my love finds a bracelet of knotted cords with little blue and white heart glass beads I wear for the arctic circle sculptures pop from the landscape in an unexpected pilgrimage discovery of reflective arc wall: its vain mountains and distorted field lost all its leaves from holding winter closecloseclosecloseclose baby sheep another day in May

------------------------------

"Just being alive
"It can really hurt
And these moments given
Are a gift from time"

- Kate Bush

On creativity...

2010-12-02T11:37:00.009-06:00

Daily creative prompts from Reverb10, in reflection of 2010 and manifestation of 2011. I changed today's from:

What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? to:

What do you do each day that contributes to your creativity?:

One word...

2010-12-01T09:00:00.002-06:00

...for 2010...and one for 2011...

Tromsø & beyond...

2010-05-15T15:11:00.007-05:00

Waterfall on Kvaløya

May 14 & 15

Fly. Fly. Fly

Svolvaer to Tromsø on little prop planes.

Tired.

More pics of Monks Walking in the Snow Mountain.

Hungry.

Need shower & big organic salad.

Ran out of coconut Assam tea two days ago. Boo hoo.

I love the word, Lufthavn.

Prop plane rides alone are stunning: snowy mountains reaching out of sea...peaks as far as you can see - jaggedy backs of dragons. Speechless. Pink and yellow smeared sun won't set sky a gradient to open sea and mountain islands floaty float on glassy wave-free ocean.

Tromsø

Tunnels, tunnels, tunnels. Tromsø city tunnels have roundabouts!

Found a dockside deli with loose Assam tea. Score!

Drove more fjords and hiked two waterfalls on Kvaløya near Tromsø…. Bruised sky with scattery raindrops over farms -- horses and fields stretching to wide fjords that lead to sea….came upon a glass artist in the middle of nowhere…

Ready to head home… Dear Volcano, please cooperate! Thanks!

Skulpturlandskap Nordland

2010-05-13T13:42:00.005-05:00

Dan Graham’s Untitled

May 12-13

Been driving the lower part of the archipelago … beautiful very narrow ! winding roads along ocean and mountains

Distant peaks resiting in white against watery horizon

Like clouds on Goddesses’ tabletop…

Found a completely remote cove down a dirt road. Azure waters, rocks to climb, white sand, mountains all around…found a purple star fish to throw back to sea…

There’s an incredible public art program here that marries the wilderness with international artists. Throughout Norway, the landscape is the gallery and it is a bit of a hike and hunt to find the works perched on mountainsides or resting in valleys over looking the sea. We’ve seen several pieces. My favorite is Dan Graham’s Untitled – a large curving wall reflecting the mountains. Spectacular! : check out more info about it here: Skulpturlandskap Nordland/Artscape Nordland

May 11

Lofoten Islands

Spectacular prop plane ride over the archipelago... Enormous snow covered mountains rising out of ocean...

Overnite in Svolvaer. Amazing restaurant Du Verden. Reindeer!

Drove from Svolvaer to Ramburg. Loftr Viking Museum was totally amazing...living history museum....handcrafts: weaving, woodworking, leather works...all recreated near the site of the largest Viking Age long house that's been discovered.

Staying at a beachside Rorbu. Little red cabin. Deelish dinner. Cod, scallops, white white... View over the ocean. Sun clouds on snow top mountain black rock plunging into the sea...

The sun never sets

It rests below the horizon well after 10pm...never dipping too far down, leaving lingering light all night and rising at 2am...

Spring winds twist and howl around our little cabin...

I accidentally used all the hot water showering. Oops...

Tap water is godlike. Glub. Glub. Glub...

........

Glacier Goddess...maker of Heaven...

2010-05-11T02:01:00.010-05:00

May 10, 2010

Changed all our flights around to fly from Bergen into Svolvaer. At airport. Day of flying. Organized photos. In coastal Bodø Lufthavn waiting for the puddle jumper to Svolvaer. Landing in Bodø - snow covered mountains heaving out of ocean. Every place in Norway is more glorious than the last. Two peaks rising from a large mountain look like monks walking single-file, robes covered in snow...

Love the yummy waffle snakes everywhere.

Landed at the top of the world... oh how the Glacier Goddess does leave Heaven in her wake!

.........

May 9

Trees budding. Budding. Budding.

Bare rock tunnels...and when the Norwegians build tunnels, they mean it

Bridges over cobalt azure cerulean aquamarine sunlit and barely clouded waters

Snow squalls hanging on to the mountain tops...

Daffodils Daffodils Daffodils

Snow covered mountain passes

Winding winding round and round roads. Frozen lakes

Peat thatch sod roofs with little trees growing out

Tan bodied black winged birds

White bodied black winged birds

Baby sheeps Old beautifully restored Bonnevilles and the like

Norwegians love hotdogs

Farm houses perched on fjords

.......

May 8

Train to Bergen.

Travel on the fly is fun but juggling an in flux itinerary, even with a travel agent is tricky. And iPhone travel planning is not highly recommended.

Headed to Bergen then on to the Arctic Circle: the Lofoten Islands and Tromse.

Oslo, beautiful. Cool spring weather. Kind of a cross between New England and Amsterdam. Sidewalk cafes everywhere with pillows and blankets for warmzies. Everyone is beautiful. Yum yum seafood.

Old sailing ships in the harbor. Amazing new opera house - built to walk atop of...

Gardens in not yet quite spring bloom.

Super expensivo and the Norwegians have very different concept of "luxury" travel than I do.. Getting used to the Ikea accommodations.

Taking the long train ride to Bergen - 6 hours to the coast - through hills, towns, maybe mountains.

.............

The train was Uh.MAZE.ing.

Glacier lakes.

Kite skiers on the glacier.

Up. Up. Uppity high mountain pass...

Followed a giant version of the Kancamagus to the sea...to Bergen.

Delicious dinner of bream. Why, no waiter. I would not like to try the whale. No, not even peppered and smoked. No, why thank you for bringing a dish of whale carpaccio for free as an amuse-bouche, just "because we're Americans", but no, I will not eat it. "When in Rome" stops for me at whale meat. Sundown well after 10pm... It's 10:21 now and still light out...

Bergen's waterfront has a string of kooky, leaning 17th century dwellings decked out in pastels - housing bars, shops and cafes... Stopped for an eve stroll through the grounds of the old fortress, Bergenhus Castle. Delight!

Things evolve from nothing...

2010-04-25T22:42:00.005-05:00

"What would be really interesting for people to see is how beautiful things grow out of shit . . . . Nobody ever believes [that it happens that way]. Everybody thinks that Beethoven had his string quartets completely in his head, that it somehow appeared there and formed in his head, and all he had to do was write them down . . . What would really be a lesson that everybody should learn is that . . . things come out of nothing. Things evolve out of nothing. The tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest, and then, the most promising seed in the wrong situation turns into nothing. . . .I think this would be important for people to understand because it gives people confidence in their own lives to know that that’s how things work. If you walk around with the idea that there are some people who are so gifted, that they have these wonderful things in their head, but you’re not one of them, you’re just sort of . . . a 'normal' person. [But with this insight], you could have another kind of life. You could say, 'Well, I know that things come from nothing very much and start from unpromising beginnings, and I’m an unpromising beginning -- I could start something." - Brian Eno

Spring in the Garden

2010-04-04T10:24:00.003-05:00

Kyoto iii

2009-12-20T17:13:00.002-06:00

Trip to Nishiki Food Market in downtown Kyoto. So fun! Lots of strange yummies everywhere. Roasted chestnuts (got a bag for munching: warm and buttery), seaweeds, fish, unidentifiable dried berries, and Kyoto specialties of sweets, sweets, sweets, and an amazing array of alien pickled veggies.

Scored some beautiful Touan pottery for gifts. And more amazing pottery by an artisan who was throwing in his shop - his designs are based on an an 12-13 century scroll (The Chōjū- jinbutsu-giga), from to the Kōzan-ji temple in northwest of Kyoto: Wind-in-the-Willows-esque adventures of a rabbit, monkey, cat/tiger, and frog. These characters formed the basis for modern day Manga. Sooooooooo cool!

Also bought the best Gyokuro tea I could find.

Ventured to Tenryu-ji Temple in the Sagano area … lovely, singing, bamboo forest, tons of shops and street treats. Had green tea goo wrapped in a crepe. Nothing is too sweet here...

When we were leaving the temple, an old man who worked there (and was leaving for the evening) was walking in front of us. He turned around and handed us a lovely, wrapped, watercolor of a Tiger with a hand written page, in Japanese, about the auspicious, coming Year of the Tiger! Everyone here is so kind and generous.

Stopped by a shop where a woman was grinding macha tea!

I think our culture would advance by leaps and bounds if we instituted a simple bow for gratitude, salutations, and parting. Wow.

Train ride back to Kyoto city center was JAMMED!

Kyoto ii

2009-12-19T17:44:00.002-06:00

Impossibly thick macha tea with sweets at little yummy shops everywhere - especially liked the rice balls with gooey-ies and powder-ies, cinnamon-ie and nutty...

Gion District rickshaw guys and Maiko/Geiko/Geisha at the temples, in the streets, and with photographers…

Bought some beautiful, old water color repros and one crow block print...

Stumbled upon an AMAZING Shinto wedding in progress at Kodai-ji Temple...

Beautiful, very foreign tasting (!) trad Kyoto lunch box...

Homemade tofu (yuba) everything…

Walk, walk, walk... Feet hurt, back hurts...

Why, yes, yes, you do eat the heads of the shrimp tempura...

Giant Buddha at the tomb of the unknown soldier...

Temples, temples, everywhere…

Bamboo...

Evening...Teppanyaki …. mmmmm …. Kobe beef…..

Walk through the giltzy lights and gazillon clubs and restaurants of modern Gion…

Cold!

Kyoto i

2009-12-18T04:01:00.001-06:00

Our first two days in Kyoto

Temple, temple, temple, temple, temple, temple, temple

Gardens, gardens, gardens, gardens, gardens, gardens, gardens

Rock & sand gardens….

Monks chanting

Plum wine. Sake. Sashimi. Tempura. Soba. Udon

Crows crows crows

Temple kitties

Last bits of autumn red red red orange orange orange yellow

Cold Sunny Breezy

Tofuku-ji-Temple - OMG

Shiatsu massage

Bliss

Two Days in Tokyo

2009-12-17T06:54:00.005-06:00

Mt. Fuji from the train to Kyoto

On the super high speed Shinkansen train, Nozomi, to Kyoto. It leaves every ten minutes! Where are our US bullet trains leaving every 10 minutes?

To pass Mt. Fuji soon.

Spent 2 days in Tokyo staying near The Imperial Palace. Tokyo feels a bit like NYC in another dimension: beautiful, big, clean, efficient, world-class everything - except everyone is Asian and you feel illiterate because reading is a non-option. Of course, we weren’t exactly exploring the city’s underbelly. And no jeans. I think I saw 1 person in jeans in 2 days. And the color is black - very serious stylishly dress. Denim is not the new black here. And neither is brown. Nothing is the new black, because black is not out. And I could not resist snagging a new, down, hooded, long, puffy-coat (whatever they’re called). All the rage.

We took in Asakusa where Old Edo was and the Sensoji Temple. Its awesome market streets were full tiny restaurants, yummy, unidentifiable treat vendors (we had some semi-sweet green tea battered puffs), and stalls full of everything from the chopstick hawker to the Old Man Seaweed Specialist. In front of temple entrances were giant, intoxicating, incense offering braziers. I always feel at home in Buddhist cultures. The offerings of incense, cleansing smudging, taking of holy water, coin offerings tossed over clangy metal bars to awaken spirits - all are completely natural to me. Feels very grounded, connected…

We took a boat ride down the river to the feudal hunting grounds of the Shogun family, Hamarikyu Gardens - a large park full of ancient, expertly pruned conifers (some enormous with wooden supports for their branches), and unbelievably aged wisteria...Gianormous crows swooped, cawing their conversations...D said they were the spirits of the Shogun. I liked that. A lot. Autumn remnants of Japanese maples and other deciduous trees: impossibly fiery red, pumpkin orange, almost hot pink...

Dinner atop the hotel overlooking the lit city and its brightly colored electro signs. Freakishly fresh Asian-Euro fusion…. indescribable tuna tartar, scallop ceviche, mystery fish. Kooky, pimpadelic, lava lampish decor.

Then a walk through the sparkling, uber-shopping district, Ginza. Dizzying spaceship-like convention center; karaoke bars stories high; rows and rows of tiny bars and restaurants tip-top full of people and built-squeezed end-to-end-under the expressway overpass.

Even though I only know a couple of Japanese words and cannot possibly read the language, communication is a non-issue. Actually much easier even than in France where I know plenty French. A little scary navigating the ---

Just passed Mt Fuji, OMG. Amazing. Amazing. Beautiful. Beautiful. Breathtaking. Breathtaking.

--- Tokyo train station with few transliterated signs and 10min to board the train. Whoosh to Kyoto!

TMI alert.

I am a total germaphobe and LOVED the public restrooms where you squat! Very clean and I think we need to get these and do away with the yucky ones we have in the US replete with the recorded sound of running water in the curved door stalls...

And so far, narry a tourist in sight! Weather: sunny, chilly.

The Week of Living Dangerously

2009-12-14T04:54:00.004-06:00

Sunset in the mountains, Batangas, Philippines

Taal Lake & Taal Volcano

Ok, ok, it isn't dangerous. But it is kinda like a movie.

December 7-14

Batangas City, Philippines

This has been a relatively long week away from home, and is the “work” part of our travel before the fun part starts: 11 days in Japan, fly tomorrow. I am crazy excited about that.

Since this is my second long haul trip, I am more used to how sick I get from jet lag (more than I’ll admit) and how long the gosh darn plane ride is (but thank you Singapore Air biz class). We flew Houston--->San Fran--->Hong Kong--->Manila. Then drive a couple hours south to Batangas City. It is a small city on the water with an industrial/shipping economic base (thus the trip here for D’s biz).

I was, not, at all, prepared for the pollution here. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Bangkok in July is pristine comparatively! Jeepney’s and sidecar moto-bike taxis clog the air with leaded particulate. And the traffic is unreal. The city has a Mad Max-Mos Eisley-Year of Living Dangerously feel. Dear Corrupt Philippine Government, Please take care of your wonderful people and beautiful islands. Thanks, Fussy American.

We ventured up the nearby low mountain area to see the Taal Volcano. It is a tiny volcano in large Lake Taal - a crater within a crater. Very cool. Very beautiful. The ride was lovely - cows and goats everywhere, farms, and FRESH MOUNTAIN AIR!

Facebook Bodhisattva

2009-09-15T10:33:00.002-05:00

"It is senseless to blame others or your environment for your miseries. Change begins from the moment you muster the courage to act. When you change, the environment will change. The power to change the world is found nowhere but within our own life."-Daisaku Ikeda (via Bodhisattva Rahki DeShon Marcelous)

Istanbul morning

2009-07-03T03:02:00.001-05:00

The teeny tiny amaza-crazy mosaics in the Hagia Sofia. OMG.

Favorite international spots to date:

Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Bangkok

Hagia Sofia, Istanbul

Wowzie!

Youtube is blocked in Turkey. Weird.

Leaving this afternoon for Amsterdam. Will organize photos on plane.

Sapphire Bosporus...

2009-07-02T00:15:00.000-05:00

Thursday, July 2, 2009. 8:05. Istanbul

Oh, the changing color of the Bosporus! Last eve: sapphire!

Istanbul I

2009-07-01T00:45:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, July 1, 2009. 8:41am. Istanbul

Got in last nite around 5pm. O’s driver picked us up at the airport to whisk us to a biz meeting, then the hotel, and then we all met for dinner on the Bosphorus. Beautiful views of the bridge in changing colored lights. Fab contemporary mezze. The octopus salad was outrageous. Whacky Euro “nite life”…

D is working today. I’m having a little resty (I know a jet lag headache now when I feel it!), workout, and maybe a shop later. Tomorrow: sights!

Turkish tea rocks my socks.

Dubai of the Desert....

2009-06-30T04:07:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, June 30, 2009. 12:59. Dubai, UAE

Dubai Emirates airport lounge. Heard the Call to Prayer here in the airport. V. cool. Glorified layover: checked in to the hotel at 2am last nite and have a 230 flight today to Istanbul. Saw camel riders on the beach from the hotel. Desert haze clutches impressive skyscrapers in a 113 degree F, dry-death-hot grip. Note to Lawrence of Arabia (P. O’Toole and Mr. Lean): Larry would have died from heatstroke out there in a matter of hours...no long treks on foot across the dessert….

Must come back in winter….perhaps...

Hummus, dolmas, etc deelish….

Last Bangkok morning...

2009-06-28T20:51:00.001-05:00

Monday, June 29, 2009. 8:30am. Bangkok

Above: Elephant topiary at the Summer Palace...

Yesterday’s trip to Ayutthaya was spectacular...the giant gold Buddha was amazing and completely overrun with the faithful... lighting candles, making lotus and garland offerings...I was delighted by the giant Ganesha also…and intoxicating incense everywhere...

The whole area was tourist-free and the ruins were completely deserted...

I think the highlight of our trip here has been meeting and spending tea time with Mr. Hong and his family at the antique shop. We stopped by yesterday on our way back and he gave us a large package of chinese tea to take home!

Today will be mostly resty day --- this eve we leave for an overnite stop in Dubai en route to Istanbul...

Tea in Thailand

2009-06-27T19:19:00.000-05:00

Sunday, June 28, 2009. 7:07am Bangkok.

We spent some of yesterday afternoon with Hong, again, in his antique shop drinking tea. He’s my new adopted grandfather!

Surprisingly, the search for Thai silk has been less fruitful that I’d hoped.

Off to Ayutthaya today...

Ah, another nite in Bangkok!

2009-06-26T06:14:00.002-05:00

Friday, June 26, 2009. 6:13pm. Bangkok.

Amazing, amazing Bangkok. The river culture is astounding and the Grand Palace far outshines Versailles (so sorry my Frenchie amis!). Visited the Reclining Buddha today too, and meditatively dropped coins into the long long long line of pots along one wall of the temple. Love the temples and altars everywhere. And the bowls of water with cut lotus blooms next-to for blessing yourself and each other.

So much fun taking the tuk tuks and river boats...

Last eve we spent wandering the locals’ flower market and river back alleys. Piles of veggies in baskets, both mysterious and intoxicating. Roses bound in newspapers, jasmine offering wreaths...huge cut bird of paradise...Stray cats and dogs, altars, Buddhas, scooters, rock music, tattoo stalls…..Stumbled upon a tiny bar of teens drinking some very strong rice-wine like concoction.

Amazing food. Amazing people. Spent the better half of the afternoon today with a lovely family and their passionate patriarch in his colossal antique shop.

HEAVEN!

Now to B-day dinner with D…

Bangkok!

2009-06-25T05:07:00.000-05:00

Thursday, June 25, 2009. 5:03pm. Bangkok Thailand

ZANY boat ride through the canals on super crazy scary skinny boat! YIKES!

Flight

2009-06-25T05:04:00.001-05:00

Stardate: Thursday, June 25, 2009. 1:06 pm - Leaving Brunei Darussalam

Now aboard the Royal Brunei Air 2.5 hour flight from Brunei’s capitol city, Bandar Seri Begawan, to Bangkok. Once onboard, before departure, a Muslim prayer was sung for safe travels. I totally loved that.

Last nite we strolled around Bandar Seri Begawan in the evening...I’d never heard the Muslim Call to Prayer before, and was really, completely, transfixed...so very, very beautiful against the dark and quiet of the small city…

I will not miss the conservatism of my first visit to a (liberal!) Muslim country -- kinda made me want to run around like Joan of Arc…I am strangely relieved to soon disembark in a nice, old-fashioned, hedonistic culture, thankyouverymuch. And I’m looking forward to a deep glass of red wine upon arriving. Brunei is a “dry” country, and though the Empire Hotel was a lovely delight, a glass of wine would have been welcome in watching the crazy-spectacular sunsets. But, having finally discovered the array of available teas, I pretty much kept nice and caffeinated.

We hadn’t really expected to stop in Thailand (had been talking about it)-- we don’t really have an itinerary -- and I’m super exited to see the city.

Not sure if I will maintain my blogging. Before I left, I fancied flexing my travelogue muscles, but find too much pressure in the commitment to post! As we head into Thailand, our activities will surely escalate with the hustle and bustle, leaving less time for writing. However, dealing with photo organizing is a must, regardless of how tired I might be at the end of the day: I still have 10 (of 20) full discs that I have not gone through from our summer trip to France two years ago -- I don’t want to face that, so I’d rather cull and post as we go along.

Hallelujah High Tea!

2009-06-24T04:37:00.002-05:00

Ah...Brunei's Colonial past reached forth and calmed us with most exquisite tea! Hurray!

Brunei

2009-06-23T19:13:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

7:39am (slept til 6, instead of waking at my recent norm of 3am. And happily not obsessed with the itchy certainty of imaginary (I hope!) bugs in the bed, as I was nite before last!)

Morning in Brunei Darussalam. Brunei, Abode of Peace…

We left Labuan yesterday afternoon in a whirlwind, barely making the last ferry (“death machine” scary boat) of the day to Borneo’s Brunei, and with no hotel reservations, though we knew where we wanted to stay. We really did have every intention of calling the hotel before we left Labuan, but the 430 ferry was cancelled and the last ferry out was 330. We made the boat, had no problems getting in at the wildly opulent (in a bit of a Vegas kinda way) Empire Hotel, and witnessed the most amazing sunset I’ve ever seen, sinking over the South China Sea.

Brunei is a sleepy Sultanate on Borneo, somewhat full of expats (which I am beginning to feel a lot like, as nearly the only Anglo anywhere, in our travels so far). Peaceful, perhaps because His Highness has his pleasure with caning and zero tolerance drug death penalties, in a tiny country rich on oil sold to North Korea -- but nonetheless, (relatively) ecologically pristine, tax free, with (for native Bruneis) free education, health care, free land for homes, and interest-free loans. But I digress, I’m not here for the politics!:

The views of the ocean are glorious, the surroundings, tropical rainforest, the absurdly sumptuous buffet last nite saved me from my previous Labuan starvation, and yet, I subsist, in (marginally) The Orient no less, on Lipton tea. Help! Perhaps serious tea awaits at our next port of embarkation!

Adventures today to be determined...

PS. I was previously remiss in telling the tale of the mall pharmacist in Labuan who, after I broke his door, happily sold me all sorts of bandages and meds for my little blistered feeties. Perhaps not much of a tale after all...

PSS. And don’t even get me started on the delightful presence of the bidet! Oh! And the dragon fruit! More on that later!

Note from Labuan...

2009-06-21T02:33:00.006-05:00

Labuan is a sleepy, relatively idyllic, industrial port with a tiny downtown replete with a KFC, merchant market, and a large dollar store-like mall, full of (mostly) junk from China, some traditional medicine folks, massage therapists, salons, travel agents, and a food court. The downtown shops are a ghost-town because all the successful merchants have moved into the mall. Interesting that it seems trade is what is doing in indigenous cultures, taking away their arts and crafts and replacing them with cheap consumer crap. D’s here consulting for a firm that owns a power barge right across the bay from the hotel (I can see it from the window).

I’ve been, well, “challenged” the the food...I think I’ll write a book about weight loss and exposure to SE Asian cuisine!

Trekked through the small town's market in the hot, hot, hot. Skipped the fish-sellers, thankyouverymuch. Scored an awesome multi- string (mostly real!) fresh water pearl lariat necklace and a trad Malaysia outfit.

D’s wrapping up work obligations and thus, we’re moving on soon...

Malay Jet Lag, etc...

2009-06-20T22:17:00.005-05:00

After 23 hours flying and layovers in Moscow, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, we are finally on the small island of Labuan, just off the northern coast of Borneo. Dave is here on business, I, however, am not! This is my first morning here and although sleep was iffy (melatonin is a jet lag life-saver), after a workout and copious amounts of tea, I am feeling pretty darn good. Much exploration to do, more travel plans to make, and pics later!

Phoenix!

2009-05-13T12:36:00.006-05:00

In an attempt to re-create and re-define this blog, I'll be writing a bit about my current creative life as singer and Artistic Director of Divergence Vocal Theater, and the mayhem that ensues. I haven't posted an entry in ages! And of course, tons of cool things have transpired in the interim, including the founding of DVT (and its website) and my brand new, shiny website.

Here's the current dish on Divergence Vocal Theater's spring production, The 10th Muse:

"This past weekend was the second production from new indie performance company, Divergence Vocal Theater. The 10th Muse was a musical, theatrical, poetic meditation on love, heartbreak, and other such manipulations of Eros. Artistic director, Misha Penton, pulled from Berlioz, Gounod, and Boulanger (among others) for music. For text, she appropriated text from Sapho and also 4 poems from neoNuma poet, Jill Alexander Essbaum. Throw in some modern dance choreography by Toni Leago Valle, and you begin to get an idea of how fully packed a one-hour performance from DVT can be...So I can't really do a review of what I saw this past Saturday night. What I want to do instead is talk a bit about one artist's evolution into a force for re-imaging opera for the 21st Century...performance art as much as performing art. It's juxtaposition of ancient and modern art, it's a collection of thoughts on a theme, it is a collection of impressions intended to evoke feelings. An evening with DVT, then, is a feast for the eyes and ears, with video projection, dancers, and highly trained voices and musicians. Mixing in spoken word fragments and poetry ups the intellectual involvement. It seems unlikely that someone would leave a performance without having seen or heard something that stimulated them on some level. If this interdisciplinary approach to performance piques your interest in the least, I recommend you head over to DVT's website and subscribe to their email list. There are sure to be new and exciting things developing in the months to come and you won't want to miss out. Neil Ellis Orts. NeoNuma Arts. March 2009

"A lot of people are doing a lot of things to “save” opera these days – from staging brand-new world premieres the way Houston Grand Opera does almost every season to staging nothing but the oldest, most-proven seat-fillers like Carmen and La Boheme. This new Houston-based troupe led by singer-artistic director Misha Penton finds yet another way, mixing the musical form known as opera with modern dance, poetry and just about anything else that strikes their fancy". - John De Mers, ArtsHouston

"Misha Penton...has created something utterly new on the Houston music and arts scene: fearless, authentic, flawless fusion of old and new opera, dance, instrumental music, technology/multimedia, and literature." - MaryBeth Smith. SomaQuest. March 2009

"And- what a great show. You've created another powerful creative meditation- with music, voice, and dance and words. Really awesome. The poetry was blindingly beautiful...Thank you for being courageous enough to create these special experiences." -- Scott Sawyer. Praxis Collective

I'm Purple!

2008-01-09T13:38:00.000-06:00

Fantastic blog: Purple Women with honest, affirming, positive, and mature posts on the choice of Childfree-ness. Yay!

Quote

2007-12-02T22:36:00.000-06:00

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis

Two favorite passages...

2007-10-31T10:36:00.000-05:00

"In my own life, I went to the water and was forever changed by the eye of the whale in which I saw and entire world. Peace is here, in accepting that smallness of our place in the world, in being as humble as the birds around us. This humble place is where we belong, according to the tribal view. Like the whales in the ocean gazing from the kelp beds and seeing the turning stars at night, when young people look at the clouds, the movement of an ant, the wings of a moth, or the leap of a fish---they are part of it.

But few people think of what is already missing, that there is a hole not only in the world, but also in the universe we used to call infinite, once believing it was without limit. This is true with the gray whales in the Atlantic. Do we now miss them? The Earth is yet an unknown mystery and we have barely begun to understand this." -- Linda Hogan

Brenda Peterson & Linda Hogan. "Sightings The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey".

"Brother leviathan, sister whale, dwellers of the deep,
We greet you in the name of the human people
Who share this planet with you.
We stand in awe of your powerful beauty,
We take delight in your liquid dance,
We rejoice that another spring
has brought you to grace our coastal waters.

May the Creator, whose breath causes all things to be
Keep you on your journey home,
Sustain you through the summers and winters to come.
And make your very existence a song of praise and wonder..."

--Episcopal Priest, Jim Friederich's blessing during an at sea "interspecies ritual...improvisation...the blessing of the gray whales who pass every March on their way to Alaska". At the request of the Natural History Museum in Santa Barbara, California. Brenda Peterson & Linda Hogan. "Sightings The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey".

Swallowtail in the garden today....

2007-10-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

poem

2007-08-23T17:03:00.000-05:00

cicadas sing even during these hot afternoons
before the rains rinse their songs
and shake them rattle-clean
i pretend
to want to catch one and cage him like i think the japanese do (ah, they've just now stopped)
that i'd make him happy (locked up)
and he would sing for me
instead
i will listen for evening
i will listen for their vespers

La Fontaine aux Visages...

2007-08-09T21:59:00.000-05:00

I'm still wading thru yards of D's beautiful photos. This one is from Saint Aubin de Trêves, in Anjou, France. Still to come: Cinq Mars, Loches, and more. Never enough castles, I say!... all at at my flickr site...

Lotus bloom tadpole swim

2007-08-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

Cool lotus plant that came home yesterday!

Fontevraud

2007-07-29T12:14:00.000-05:00

Me at Fontevraud Abbey, Anjou, France- taken by my beloved.

Zen Toothbrush, Zen Toothpaste

2007-07-28T14:20:00.000-05:00

Enroute from Paris to Houston. Am in Newark. Whew. Long flights. Ok, so my teeth were fuzzy and I forgot to brush them on the last plane when I had the toothbrush kit thingie, and so I went in search of one. I found one of those little jobbers where the tooth brush is in two parts, and the brush end fits into what we shall call a “handle”. So I go to the bathroom and put it together, and 15 seconds later the freakin’ thing comes in two (cuz it is in two parts, don’t ya know) and the brush falls on the floor. Ah, the Zen of travel.

Gaiman on a Rainy London Day

2007-07-26T14:37:00.000-05:00

I haven’t had a head cold since 2003. No lie. I simply refuse to get them. So, I guess a nearly 5 year streak is pretty good. Dog gone it.

The cabs in London are my favorite. They are very cute and squat and fat, like British pub cat, I imagine, and they have all this great room inside for luggage instead of a trunk.

I spent the rainy, cold, July day nursing my runny nose and reading Neil Gaiman stories in London about London.

A Few Pics

2007-07-26T04:43:00.001-05:00

Rainbow over the Loire

Chenonceaux

Chateau Saumur. Saumer, France

Me with the dolmen in the Grotto of the Fairies. Mettray, France

Roman Aqueduct, near Luynes, France

Road Weary

2007-07-26T04:41:00.000-05:00

Still in London. Am really wiped as evidenced by my newly acquired sniffles and scratchy throat which I am managing to fend off nicely with beaucoup Vit C, zinc suckies, improvised neti, and the Brit government’s generous over-the-counter laws on pharmaceuticals. Great. We schlepped around London a bit yesterday- yes, yes, more old stuff. Far less impressive than Paris. Am I jaded or what? Much I’d like to see in England upon another return- sacred sites, standing stones, chalk drawings, etc….but I am ready to get on a plane- gotta get my head cleared for flight for sure. Dave has a meeting this afternoon and then we are training back to Paris tomorrow.

Burn Out

2007-07-24T12:08:00.001-05:00

Long drive to from Saumur back to Paris to drop the rental car (nightmare) and ride the Eurostar to London. Am bedded down for a spoiled nite in a corporate suite. We are staying in Mayfair right near Hyde Park. The ride from the train station past the parliament building, with only a glimpse of Buckingham Palace, is reminiscent of the buildings of Boston (New England, don’t cha know). I have now morphed into a big homesick, grumpy, ungrateful baby. There. I said it. Yes, yes, everything is old, ya got yer castles, and lots and lots of art, ya got yer Kings and Queens. Got it. Where are my kitties?

I haven't watched any TV is several weeks and Dame Shirley Bassey belting out Pink's 'Get this Party Started' in her top of the charts video on Brit TV is a surreal sight, indeed. Gold Fing-ah...

Tomorrow we explore the environs for a day or so...then back to Paris to catch a flight home. Whew!

Garden of Eden

July 23 2007
Today began slowly, with a quiet breakfast downstairs at the chateau, and then making train travel arrangements at the gare. We stopped and bought our hosts Yolaine and Teri an olive tree in downtown Saumur. We stopped at an amazing savonnerie for fresh made soaps, and then on to the Abbey at Fontevraud. Beautiful and having gone under many series of restorations from it’s origins in the 11th century, including a 19th century prison. Beautifully preserved effigies of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, and Richard the Lionheart from the early 12th century. Amazing. I use that word a lot.

On our way from the Abbey back to Saumur, there were beautiful rain clouds…we chose a very, very country road, full of grapes and sunflowers (is there anything else to life, really? I don’t think so!). The road took us up and over a high crest of a grape vine covered hill overlooking the rainy sky expanse of the Loire Valley…as if that wasn’t enough, a rainbow emerged bridging the winding river—and shimmered into and out of colorful being. Wow...the valley is just full of apple and pear orchards, wheat and hay fields...giant fig trees everywhere...mushrooms and of course, grapes, grapes, grapes...! The roses are just astonishing, and some rows of grape vines have rose bush finials...other fields are bordered in dreamy rose bushes...the old stone walls of churches and chateaux often have climbing varieties in full bloom, maybe 20 feet tall...flowers and roses everywhere in full splendor.

Driving Around in a Painting

2007-07-23T05:00:00.000-05:00

July 22

Back to Saumur

The beautiful 17th century farm and B&B, La Cornilliere, owned by Didier (what a character!: “Oh, my wife, she does not like to send the guests to the provincial restaurants because they are too Frenchy, but I say, ‘When I go to New York, I do not want to eat in a French restaurant!’). The also had pet chickens to the farm… "they are stupid like the aristocracy!" and Catherine where we stayed last nite, had a nearby dolmen, “Grotto aux fees” right around the way in a wheat field. It is surrounded by large trees…amazing…amazing…amazing…

We headed south again back toward Luynes, to discover yet another amazing site: the many arches of a Roman aqueduct stretched across a farmer’s hay fields. Too cool.

We wended our way back to Yolaine’s chateau at Saumur to spend this lazy beautiful July afternoon, just lounging about.

I will have plenty of pics to go through when I get home for the photo journal- several thousand at least!

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July 21, 2007

The day began with sneaking up on Chenonceaux via a back road sans tourists, to come upon the bridge-like castle reflected in the river. Breathtaking.
We then went on to Loches on a hunch due to a flyer we’d seen about a Ren fair there. When we got to the center of the small town, there was a meager looking Ren fair set up in the town square which had been there a good 1000 years (the square not the fair), and with a closer look the artisans and players were revealed to be folks that were preserving the ancient ways of their (our) ancestors: wine, cheese, and preserved meat making, traditional medieval weaving, scabbard and blade making. D got a beautiful small spiral handled knife made my the knife maker at his forge. Wow. What a find. We starting driving out of town, and then quickly saw the enormous castle keep rising from the small town. We parked and explored, probably, the most amazing medieval castle we’ve seen: the fortress of Folques Nerra, King of Anjou, circa 1000-ish AD. Wow. We’d seen the remnants of a Folques Nerra fortress at the beautiful medieval chateau Langeais, as well. This bigger, totally amazing castle in Loches, was also the site in the 1400’s when Jean d’Arc met the dauphin-to-be-king for the second time, after winning the battle of Orleans, and convinced him to ride into France and claim the crown as Charles (whichever number). We explored the keep with its spiral stair towers and historical graffiti that let to the incredible vista of the valley, which surely revealed any approaching marauding army…and of course the dungeons for political prisoners. We tired about before seeing the later church and chateau in the vicinity.

Without a room for the nite, we headed toward Tours (sort of), and stopped in Cormery to call our previous lodging to see if they had a vacancy (on a Saturday nite in high season). Of course, they didn’t, but had a referral, and that place had a referral, and another referral, and so did the next, etc, until we found this AMAZING little place in Mettray. It is gentleman’s farm of the most amazing sort- beautiful little houses surrounding the main estate house- gardens and gardens, surrounded by wheat and sunflower fields. Our room’s door is wreathed in an old grape vine and when we returned from dinner, fresh figs from the garden were on our little breakfast table. Dreamy. The couple who owns it, of course, speak beautiful English and are full of personality—showing us every corner of the property and gardens including the soon to be restored pigeonnere. Love it. Then off to dinner at a wonderful, very local restaurant for homemade treats of all sorts, and of course, local wine, wine, wine.

Tomorrow it is back to Saumur for two days before whisking thru Paris on our way to London for a couple of days, and then back to Paris to catch the plane home.

A Gargoyle-ing We Go!

2007-07-21T03:02:00.000-05:00

I had good intentions of keeping a detailed dairy of our travels, but there is so much to see and do, and the French summer sun doesn't set until nearly 10:30pm so, by the time we return to the hotel, it is time to crash. We've been chateaux-ing a great deal. The ruins of Cinq-Mars de Pile were amazing. It is owned by a little old French man who teaches at a school of architecture in Paris during the week, lives at the chateau at the base of the fascinating towers on the weekends and during summer, tending to the chateau his father bought. We tend to like the ones that are earlier and have had less 19th century restoration- even if they are falling down...the Chateaux at Langeais was stunning too- fairy tale spires...and finding the ones that can only be driven to, avoids the tourists...last night at an overnight in Tours, we stumbled upon the stunning Cathédrale St-Gatien, built between 1239 and 1484..with AMAZING gargoyles a-plenty!
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Earlier:

I keep putting off starting another entry, because there is so much I want to write, and so little time I am willing to spend writing it, with all this beauty around me…Our days have been filled with drives through the Loire valley roads- on the opposite side from the levee- we are near Saumer…and the beautiful towns of Candes St Martin…the champingnon farmers in their troglodytes….the endless eglises, one after the next- each with their own interest- Notre Dame at Treves-Cunault with it’s fortress tower next door and four-faced baptismal font…the stunning “tuffa” towns…flowers, flowers everywhere and fields and field of Van Gogh loved sunflowers. Sunflowers. Sunflowers—L’Helianthe…flowers tall as me all over the place….church after church after church after wonderous church- places of power before Christianity…L’eglise Saint Aubin at Treves with the mud dauber birds that seem to inhabit so many old churches, especially, perhaps holding the spirits of those that have gone before in their soaring flight to and fro the eaves…l’eglise Eusee at the hilltop in Gennes where we walked the churche’s walled outer paths and discovered a small carves stone figurine…I love all the many, many, many carved faces that line the eaves of the churches- funnily looking for replicas in the design, yet knowing each was carved by a stone artisan by hand… and gargoyle rainspouts who wretch and hold their tummies, and make faces- sometimes human, demonic, angelic, monkish, animalia, fantasia…the several Neolithic dolmens we searched and searched for- that simply arrive from a farmer’s fields of sunflowers- where he is happy to allow you to tread lightly on his land to take in the spectacle…the Gallo-Roman amphitheater near genes under excavation with it’s later hermitage and empty sarcophagus of the early monk who came to convert the populous. Plessis Bourré’s Conte de Fées fairy-tale castle with moat included…and miles of island speckled river- sometimes wide, sometimes narrow…the Chateau at Montsorreau with its lovely spires and stone walls rising right out of the water- we could climb inside and see the miles down the Loire and over the valley…the Chateau Saumur high on the town hill, lit at night with it’s spires…seen from the window of the chateau we are staying at- Chateau Verrieres…the bridge crossing the Loire coming into town- and the view of the bank of the river with the town and castle rising from the green, low bank…lavender and sage growing wild wild wild everywhere everywhere…and chestnut trees (the US doesn’t have any)…we’ve been warned by our eloquent hosts to keep the beautiful chateau casement windows closed in our bedroom while our lights are on- for bats will fly into our room! The late July bugless nights are so cool we sleep with the windows open wide to the view of the castle and tall garden trees…Uno, the doggie, begs for treats at our table in at breakfast and sleeps at Dave’s feet when we took tea tonight after dinner in our (long) talk with a couple of Aussie guests.

Loire

2007-07-19T10:24:00.000-05:00

So, I have another long blog entry about the past few days on D's laptop, but I'm at (weird) cyber cafe in France and cannot upload it...lots of incredible everything's, and D is taking a gazillion beatiful pics...Much, much, more later...

Vive La France!

2007-07-14T08:49:00.000-05:00

I might as well start what is surely to be a long post on our 2-plus weeks in France. We've been in Paris about five days, and have discovered the beauty of the New Orleans-esque cimetières. Stumbling upon the Cimetière de Montparnesse and the grave of Camille Saint-Saëns was the first of the solemn, quiet, and shady fun. We visited Cimetière de Passy and both Fauré and Debussy's graves, as well as the Cimetière de Montmarte and Nijinsky's grave...the cimetières are so beautiful and the statuary completely amazing.

We've had some outstanding French food at a couple of quiet restaurants, and the deeeeeelish bread (thankfully baked in the US, aussi!) at the boulangers et pâtisseries. I love how every block has the boulanger, the charuterie et boucherie, the veggie stand, the toiletry shop, etc, etc. The experience of daily shopping has so much more of a community feel than going to a giant supermarket. We even had to find the electricity shop to buy batteries- a tiny little place that sold only electrical things like light bulbs, etc- sort of an Old World Radio Shack...including a young guy behind the counter who wanted to speak English and tell us how he learns it from listening to American music...

Other highlights have included the Palais Garnier, and the out of the way Domaine de Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, which no one seems to know about (yay!)...

Our first night we stayed near the Louvre, and the surreal Coney Island amusement park nearby. I also did not expect our lovely view of Paris from the hotel room to include le Tour Eiffel bursting into a show of Las Vegas sparkles at midnight! Apparently that happens every hour until about 4am! Hahahaha! We've spent the last few night au rive gauche in St Germain in a little hotel with a great view of Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre....and of course a glimpse of the funny ferris wheel near the Louvre in the foreground.

The heart of Parisienne culture seems to be people watching and cafe fare at the extremely smokey brasseries. A delightful unfortunate idea: the clouds and clouds of cigarette smoke are deal-breakers. Pardonnez-moi, mes amis Parisiennes, mais cesser de fumer!

D has a business meeting here in Paris Monday, and that afternoon we rent a car and venture to the Loire Valley to Saumer; and a stay at the lovely Château de Verrières for more explorations...

D has been taking yards of pics...will post lots later...

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Ok, back now from a lovely dinner at a tres cool restaurant non-fumer I found called Giufeli south of the Cimetière de Montparnasse. Very chic and very small and very casual, and the young chef greets you, yum, yum, yum....

Earlier we'd gotten a call from a business associate of D's to join him and his wife on their rooftop flat at the base of le Tour Eiffel for the Bastille Day fireworks. Well, there ya go. And lemme tell ya, the French are très sérieuse about their fireworks. Holy mackerel. I've never seen anything like it. A little pic D took is above from the breathtaking evening. The crowd below spanned the whole of the Champs de Mars...with a light show on the Trocadero. The music was surreal: medleys of West Side Story, the James Bond and Star Wars themes....where was Gloire immortelle?

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Today brought us to both l'église Saint-Gervais and Saint-Paul Saint-Louis...beautiful, tranquil, cool (on such a hot day) and full of incense and quietude. Ah...

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I will upload many pics or a link to Flickr later, but another cool thing is the river boat culture...there are beautiful gardened river boats with tiny cars atop for touring through the intricate river systems no doubt, or just living la vie en rive, je pense. Just like the gypsy river boats in Chocolat!

From Atop the Summer Solstice

2007-06-21T12:11:00.000-05:00

An auspicious day, no doubt, and opening night of Opera Vista, and the premier "Wake..." check out the Houston Chronicle

Here we go...I am doing less today, and just hanging out as the rain comes down...getting ready to soon gear up for the evening...

Mare Pacificum and The Ent

2006-12-26T15:36:00.000-06:00

Christmas Day, 2007 led D and I on pilgrimage to the coast. The wide, glorious ebb and flow of Charybdis’ belching tides careened and smashed into the craggy cliffs where the mountains cool their toes. The Oregon seaside was white-gray with clouds and the waves: huge. The biggest waves I have ever seen- breaking far out beyond the black today towering coast rocks, folding over the velveteen aqua-seafoam rippled crests, carrying driftwood to the cliff base for smoothing...Glorious Tiamat swirling and stirring her sea to anger.

The sky’s white met the sea-white horizon, hanging a haze over the dripping, cool, but somehow warm(?) day…and the greens! My goodness! The greens! Every evergreen that ever evered seemed to grow here by the ocean….and the sea took great delight in her bonsai art, sweeping conifers into permanant wind blown shapes. And so many greeny green green trees are cloaked in their winter lichen velour wear. A little finch with bright yellow rock-n-roll eye makeup flitted about for her photoshoot.

On the Visit to the Ent

Reluctantly leaving the coast, and tip-top full drunk on Sea Vibe, we headed back toward Portland. And there on route 26, surprisingly was a sign that pointed to the oldest Sitka spruce in the country, who, at 750 had just last week been severely damaged in a vilent storm. We U-turned and pulled off the road, crossed a little bring and there he was…it was as though we’d entered a hushed cathedral- the nearby road noise pushed out by the sanctity of the place, adn no other humans near. His enormous wide base and trunk was nubbled and lichen covered and branches finally spread out near his top. A searing gap had opened in the tree about ¾ of the way up the trunk, cutting a deep spiral gouge, and the platform was littered with bloody, meaty, sawdust-like wood-tissue. Even though the tree and his wooden platform had been roped off due to falling branches (and perhaps a final whole-tree fall), we took our chances, ventured close, caressed, sent love, bowed and honored the spruce in all his grandeur. He was surrounded by his towering, vibrant, full grown children…standing watch, holding vigil for him.

After the Storm

2006-12-16T13:21:00.000-06:00

So I haven't posted in forever... My beloved took these amazing pics in Portland, Oregon- just after that big storm came through this week...Mount Hood and the Port of Portland...

In the Spring We Eat Cucumbers

2006-08-31T10:29:00.000-05:00

We must have beginner's mind, free from possessing anything, a mind that knows everything is in flowing change. Nothing exists but momentarily in its present form and color. One thing flows into another and cannot be grasped. Before the rain stops we hear a bird. Even under the heavy snow we see snowdrops and some new growth. In the East I saw rhubarb already. In Japan in the spring we eat cucumbers. -Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Music is a continual state of becoming - Aaron Copeland

So far, so good this week. Class was fun, and brushing up on this theory stuff is only going to be good medicine. Plus, I have designs (hee hee) on putting up a theory site, basically, just a way to solidify the studies for myself. How nerdy am I?

Rehearsal today with R, harp, cello, etc, and we’ll be open to Gabby Faure visiting.

I'll Have Another Ordinary Sunday, Thank You...

2006-08-27T08:37:00.000-05:00

I am up painfully early, especially for a Sunday, and have been whiling away several hours doing nothing but tea-ing. I was doing some mandatory printing of documents to help out D, and the printer ran out of ink. Thankfully.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed and excited about the mountains of work I have for this autumn: HGO, classes, lessons, coachings, and much fun creating recordings and original music for Toni's performance piece at DiverseWorks.

Very thrilled about this coming week’s recording session with Herr R and gang.

So I get these little Daily Dharma nuggets in my mailbox every morning. The one below, I like because it is the same about the practice of preparing the way for music to happen: I don't practice music, I practice the craft of creating a path for music to visit...

Tricycle's Daily Dharma: August 27, 2006

Awareness cannot be practiced.

Awareness cannot be practiced. There has been some confusion between awareness and mindfulness. They are related, but distinct. Sati, or mindfulness, implies there is action of the mind. We purposely set ourselves to pay attention to our minds. We exert effort. Awareness is different. Awareness is devoid of any action. The mind simply "awares." There is no action here, only a collected and spontaneous awareness that just "sees." Here, mindfulness is the cause, and awareness is the effect. You cannot practice or train the effect. You can only practice something that will cause it. We have to start with mindfulness so that awareness may arise in us.

- Thynn Thynn, in Living Meditation, Living Insight
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Back from the weeklong trip to NY and NE. Tired and, as expected, having difficulties resuming my usual level of practice, discipline, activity. Motivation low.

House is clean. Tea is taken. On to practice.

Grateful is the day...

2006-07-18T21:49:00.000-05:00

Ah, late morning rains finally relieve the pavement of her Texas July heat and serve a sacrament to our garden…

Oh, how I love the sound of the steady summer rains against the street, pattering the bougainvillea leaves outside my window..

Recording day looms, as in tomorrow…I’m feeling pretty darn good about it, actually. Feeling prepared, if only a tad nervous. I’m anxious to get my new system and explore recording onsite myself- very different both technically and musically from my recordings here at home…

Another red-letter day in the project success department for D. We live truly blessed lives…truly…

Summer Sizzle

2006-06-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

The rains step into the morning
with their darkness and
kindness to the garden.

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Y’know, mean people suck. End of story, there. Bitter, mean people suck too. I guess in order to be mean you must be bitter also.

I continue to make gentle headway in dealing with difficult personalities. My tolerance for unacceptable behavior has lowered and my antennae to detect Nasty Types are becoming more fine tuned. I am very easy to work with, and I sometimes allow things to go too far before putting my foot down, but I am getting better at setting boundaries and figuring out what ‘too far’ is before I get there. This is facilitated by my increasing awareness of the creative direction my life is taking, coupled with my ability to manifest my creative work in the world.

Oh, yeah, and after seeing The Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore for President 2008!

Impossible is Nothing*

2006-06-19T15:40:00.000-05:00

Monday, June 12, 2006

Basement time is history acting on us.

Ordinary time is awareness of time-flow.

Conscious time is knowing a present moment, and its extent.

Creative time is the future reaching back, pulling us towards it. – R. Fripp.

Not having a high pressure performance this weekend has helped me to take a good long look at my continued case of nerves. I wrote a blog entry that went unposted about some serious-ass performance anxiety, and how I did, or did not deal with it. Consequently, the incident that created so much anxiety went very well, and I did get the gig, so I must be doing something right. I am poised and graceful and professional, etc, etc, but it certainly does not feel like I am capable of doing my best with nerves shorting out my breath, and wiring me up.

One technique that occurred to my yesterday and that I will employ tonight, is based on acceptance. If acceptance is such a powerful state (golly, I have to find a better word for it, because acceptance, to me, feels like resignation. What about self-compassion? Hmmm….that sounds pretty good). So the idea is this: the anxiety seems to be exacerbated by wanting to change how I am feeling: I should be able to control this! Relax! It is ridiculous to be so nervous! Take deep breaths. You will do fine. This is not a critical situation, etc, etc. My encouraging internal litany goes on and on, and you know what? That fails miserably. So, what if I just observe my body’s reaction to the stress, without trying to employ techniques that attempt to change that physical state? What if I just say, Ok, this is how my body and mind are feeling right now. So what. I am not wholly those parts of me. They are like the ever changing cloud cover that sweeps across the sky- constantly morphing. I will observe, and be compassionate with myself under these stressful circumstances. Sort of like holding the hand of a terrified 2 year old. Just being there is enough. I am hypothesizing that attitude may rob the fight-or-flight state of some of its power. I have not tried it, so we shall see, and since I am my own Life-Lab, I am my own great, evolving, intriguing, exciting, experiment.

Looking forward to the drive to Galveston today.

*From a Nike commercial? I added it to my Oblique Strategies that are ever in my workspace.

Ah, Rilke!

2006-06-02T11:29:00.000-05:00

My life is not this vertical hour
in which you find me in such haste
I am a tree in front of my own background
I am only but one of my many mouths
and the one which is the first to close
I am the silence between two sounds
that only with difficulty grow used to one another
for the tone of death also wishes to be heard
but in the darkness of the interval
they make peace with one another, trembling
and the song remains beautiful

Rainer Maria Rilke

From Gaelin 's blog

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Ah, early summer rainy days. It is pitter-pattering outside the bougainvillea window right now. Gray loomed and has now given way. I just love this wrapped up in the clouds and the wet and the banana leaves dripping late morning feeling.

Working on the recording for T. Made gobs of headway.

Early rising.

Surfing

2006-05-28T21:00:00.000-05:00

How lame is it that I am just now staring Faith straight in the face? I’ve not being able to pinpoint how I lost Faith, or how long I went without It, and now, in seeing Its re-emergence in my life, I have to ask, ‘what is Faith?’ How did It re-emerge, or more likely, how did I miss that it was here all along? Ah, sweet awareness! I am still not sure what Faith is, though I suspect it has something to do with my reclaimed feeling of surfing the Tao.

You won’t hear me prattle about religious faith, cuz that’s not where I’m coming from- though I’d say I’m somewhat of a Zen Buddhist/Taoist/Yogi/Earth Mystic. Enough for ya? It is has been through a vigilant, practical practice of noticing that Faith has re-emerged in my life, or that I have re-emerged to It. Not through prayer or belief. In fact, I am seeing quite clearly that belief and Faith are not the same thing, no siree, Bob. I’ve been down the prayer/belief road and found well nigh nothing there for me- perhaps some inspiration in ritual, which I hold a special place for, but few practical tools for living my life. I needed more structure and practical direction to get the gist of where The Universe was coming from. I’m not saying the prayer thing is of no use, I’m saying either it doesn’t work for me as I understood it, or I did not know what prayer really was about.

Some of my current thoughts on what Prayer is not:

Mumbling some mumbo jumbo in a building with a bunch of other folks where everyone droning on together sounds like a devil worship scene from a 70’s horror flick or a bad made-for-TV version of an Orwell classic.

Prayer is neither wishing, asking, begging, nor entreating (I love when I get to use ‘nor’).

Some of my current thoughts on what Prayer is:

a verb.

a doing.

a noticing and an awakening.

ultimate responsibility and ultimate freedom.

working it out with The Universe.

Being.

Prayer is all the above and none of the above (that’s the zen answer, thankyouverymuch).

Sub ‘Faith’ for ‘Prayer’ above. Same results.

Mirror Me This

2006-05-26T15:56:00.001-05:00

Y’know, I’ve been singing forever. For more than years. And it was not until I’d taken on this particular practise of music, this discipline, that I really found just that: Discipline. A practise that is morphing, affirming, grounding, frustrating, painful, and delightful- a mirror, every day, a mirror held up to Being:
It changes as I do, but I continue anyway.
It shows me brilliance, and I water anyway.
It shows me pain and limitation, and I weed anyway.
It shows me endless fields of undulating potential, and I tend to it anyway.
It is a real, daily discipline of faith and wonder and transformation:

These things, methinks, are the difference between the hobbyist and the aspirant.

One definition of success is that there is no distinction between success & failure - R. Fripp.

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Music doesn't need to be about anything. It simply is, and that is by far enough.

It’s A Matter of Balance*

2006-05-25T09:44:00.000-05:00

The learning never ends, I say. Why would I assume that it does? As I continue to interface with the creative-types I’ve always been involved with, I am now noticing some patterns- the way some people want to suck me into their drama, suck me into their agenda, in their strange unfulfilled need to have me (or someone) see things from their perspective. Maybe it is because I am such an empath, maybe it is because I am keenly aware that one of my physiological trips is trying to find replacements for older siblings- and that often creates a situation where I put myself in subordinate relationships. At least now I am onto all that and I am not just blindly reacting. I am not trying to change someone else, but I am changing.

A decision changes the world - R. Fripp

I have a tendency to want to agree with my friends and associates. I am finding now that it is ok not to agree. It’s ok not to want what they want. Isn’t that funny? So basic. I think this is at least partly because I am now getting clearer and clearer on what I want, and less and less sympathetic to what other people may want to use me for to achieve their aims. It so happens that due to the above, I’ve become extremely good at helping others’ do their thing- and in some ways, I had scarified my own needs on that altar.

I’m guessin’ this is what boundaries are all about. I find it shocking that I’d not seen this before, that I had not known this. It seems so obvious. It does, however, take constant vigilance, confidence, good old fashioned gumption, the sure-footedness of standing my ground, and of course, the biggie: the ability to say no.

*It's a Matter of Balance, Jacob, one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite people, Larry Reidt.

Caterpillar on a Hot tin Roof

2006-04-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

I managed an absurd amount of practice today as well as time for zazen, an hour of yoga, and a lovely M Park workout.

The garden is beautifully out of control, though the sunflowers now have a discouraging itsy-bitsy worm blight that is causing the blooms to barely open. Nature.

We’ve spotted another chrysalis on the cassia and are waiting for the emergence. Yesterday we spotted a big fat cassia caterpillar on a nearby firecracker fern. He was up-side-down and ready to do his chrysalis spinning. This morning, I saw him in lovely form- up-side-down, tail affixed to a fern stem, and head dangling by a silken thread- all systems, go! Well, lo-and-behold, by this afternoon his chrysalis was complete and I’d missed the whole thing! Some awareness!

Creative meetings an much practice ahead this week. All wonderment.

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Saturday, April 15, 2006
I am tired of giving my power over to others. I am tired of having words coming out of other people’s mouths influence how I feel about myself. It is an exhausting, defeating rollercoaster. Words are all well and dandy when they are strung together to create encouragement and praise, but when they are laced with negativity, either couched toward me or others, they bring me down, man. Can words be de-powerized? I don’t know. My instinctive answer is, ‘No’. Words are simply too powerful. They are the raw material for prayer, incantation, vows, poetry, literature and song, as well as the tools for deceit, lies, betrayal.

I am becoming more aware to hear others’ agenda for me in their words (both good intentions and otherwise), or others’ own weight, drama, baggage, failures and shortcomings, that they may want to project onto me, perhaps unwittingly, perhaps not. I cannot accept this. I think I have strongly relied on the praise and affirmation of others and I have sought that (who doesn’t?). If I am to reject negative projections that are created to saddle me with somebody else’s issues, I must also not be fed by the praise, resisting the lure of how praise makes me feel ‘good’. There must be a middle ground where I can accept affirmation, and not seek it out, where I can be impervious (is anyone?) to the negativity that drains my energy and depresses my spirit.

Bayou Bend

2006-04-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday D and I went to Bayou Bend to stroll through the lovely gardens there. He took a number of amazing pics, including this one to the right, and the one below, of these enormous and astounding sycamores. There is a glorious bridge that serves as the entrance to the gardens and house, both of which are easily missed at the end of a nearly hidden road, secreted away from busy Memorial Drive. The bridge traverses the chocolaty and tree shaded bayou, and is an undulating, wooden suspension bridge, that I adore. Beautiful unidentified trees spring from the muddy banks and wrap their shade across the slowly flowing water.

A zen moment overheard in passing, upon our exit across the bridge:
Mum: Isn’t this a cool bridge? Do you like it?
Baby Girl: Why?

It doesn’t get better than that, yes?
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Today we potted a cassia from M’s yard next door since he’s sold the house and it will be demolished soon. We’ll be getting more plants from over there…

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Mistakes are at the centre of learning. – Guitar Craft

Discipline is a vehicle for joy

2006-04-09T11:16:00.000-05:00

I admit to being quiet here for sometime, having suspended a daily diary discipline, though I have been writing nearly daily and continue to work on a larger as yet unidentifiable work based on poetry/lyrics- suspending my desire to define what it may become, and keeping some of that creative meat out of the blog.

As evidenced by these stellar pics, our garden is rockin’. When these Moon pains have passed I plan to launch a bee photo vigil. We have a particularly enormous bumble bee who visits the front garden in the late afternoon. I like to think he is the same bee, and even the same bee from last year- our five o’clock bumblebee. Yesterday I attempted to photo the many honey bees, but the breezes kept the fuzzy purple salvia blooms waving, and it was truly impossible to capture the bees’ delicious and gentle roostings.

"All the universe is one bright pearl," said the Zen Master Dogen. "Even in the black mountain cave of demons, complete freedom is working."

Zen Master Caterpillar

2006-03-31T11:14:00.000-06:00

I am so excited about this. The other day D & I spotted a large yellow with black spots caterpillar, all legs stuck to the underside of a branch on our lovely cassia. I thought he looked very like he was ready to start his transformation. The next day we saw that, indeed, he was beginning his morph. He hung upside-down, tail touching the skinny branch, and head suspended by his silky thread making. This pic if from today, and we’re so sorry we missed taking a before pic. But here he is now- all wrapped up in a cocoon so like the leaves of the cassia, I can hardly believe it. Oh! The Universe it its mad array of wonder and delight! Surely this is just the sort of thing that inspired stories of a Creator who ever so carefully and gently crafts each and every detail of Maya in Its cosmic workshop. The Creator who dabbed with Its brush just that last little brown spot on the tip of my cat’s nose before It sent her down from the celestial expanses to me. And easily, perhaps even more so overflowing with awe, and filled with wonder, is the cold and desolate vacuum of both All and Nothingness.- the random beauty and terror of everything evolving, alone, interdependent and One.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006
I had a dream I was writing or listening to a great poem I was working on…wanted to capture it in the dream, but could not.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.” – Martha Graham

Bats Rock

2006-03-09T21:37:00.000-06:00

Bats rock. D took this cool pic today on our adventure. We went down to the Waugh St Bridge today for the first time to watch the sunset Emergence. Wow! There were, well, gazillions! Beautiful! Ok, so they were a little smelly. When we got there, we walked down and under the bridge accompanied by the sweet chirpy music of thousands of bat voices. Just a few minutes later they started emerging in, well, droves. Delight! And to think this is just minutes from my house! We also noted the presence of several very happy birds of prey who’d come to eat their dinner-time fill.

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Wednesday, March 08, 2006
One little glass of wine last nite and I go to bed with, and wake up with a headache. Ugh. Windy, warm, gray day today.

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Tuesday, March 07, 2006

I seem to continue to feel burned out. It is also my mooncycle which simply amplifies all my anxieties, tiredness, etceteras.

I find myself playing the same worn-out old tape over and over in m head: what am I doing? What should I be doing? Is what I do worth anything? Yadda, yadda, yadda. I generally do not feel this way, but over the last couple of weeks, with the ever so slow onset of my Moon, I seem to have ground to a halt and everywhere I look I see dead ends (not dead people!).

Or is this what is not so affectionately known as a wall?

Must allow this pass….Have returned to daily zazen. Curious, that the onset of these depleted feelings coincided with the lapse in my daily sittings, and the trail-off of my workouts.
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A little garden lesson
Our garden actually looks quite lovely this spring, considering we’ve put far less work into this year than last. D, of course, fusses over watering (gosh knows, I don’t!), and I did plant bunches of bulbs too early. The bulbs are actually now coming up, some are even blooming, and it is all looking rather lush. D, K (and sometimes I) did gobs of work over the last year and a half on the garden and now, lo-and-behold, that is all taking root (ha, ha), in a luxurious greengreen garden…funny, when you actuall plant something and tend to it, it grows! Imagine that!

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Just yet and another and another
Glorious Texas winterwinter day
Sun and skysky forever and everso
The loop at the park
3 miles of umber trail
Crunching and passing easily under my feet
I even notice the biggest of the pines
How did I miss that?
On so many runs
Like our very own Redwood sister in the South
And
Everyone checking everyone out
Mostly unwittingly
Some on purpose
Lots of shirtless muscley-ness
And magazine perfect women bobbing
In their stylish shorts and bra tippy-tops
The crème de la crème
There daily to train to compete
But I am here to keep
My pasta habit from
Causing me to have to buy
A bigger pair of blue jeans
Vanity is a task master

Then I see him walking, determined
Toward the water fountain
Inching toward the bubbler
In ordinary gray shorts and a shirt
{His grown son (I guess)
Walking easily behind him
Earphones tuning out the traffic and I don’t know what all else}
His arms are frozen
Bent at the elbows
Trembling hands
Touching crooked fingers brushing
Each foot shuffling
Forwardforward
Step step step inch step step inch step
Nearer the water
He is not old
But aging faster even as this day passes
Into late sapphire Houston afternoon
Faster under the merciless tutelage
The strict disciplinarian
That is the illness he carries
But he is even more relentless
On this maybe daily walk
Surely not heedless of his trembling chin
Surely not heedless of what I imagine is the pain in his body
Surely not heedless of his locking knees
The paralysis slowly
Slowly everso so slow and slower still still
Still
Freezes his legs
His arms
His hands
His face
But not his heart
Or does it?
But he does walk
Himself
In the sun today

My throat is terribly dry from the cool blue air
I so want a drink
But I pass
Afraid
And wonder what his name is

The Acorn & the Ego

2006-02-27T23:08:00.000-06:00

It just doesn’t get cooler than this: Genesis Video. Very early Genesis: Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and the boys. A rare glimpse at an acorn after the great oak has grown. WOW!
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I feel like I’ve been sitting around waiting for someone to tell me what to do. Giving over control to everyone else in my life, and using excuses to keep myself from taking control of my artistic direction. I’m beginning to have some concrete ideas about that…
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What does the ego-consciousness serve? How can ego-consciousness serve me?

A reminder from an article I found online in Enlightenment Magazine (which, incidentally, I never read):

Was ist "das Ich"?

An interview with James Hollis on Carl Jung
by Amy Edelstein

James Hollis Ph.D. is Executive Director of The Jung Educational Center of Houston, Texas. Hollis trained as a Jungian analyst in Zurich, Switzerland, and is the author of eight books and over forty articles on Jung's work. He has his own active therapy practice and travels around the country lecturing to audiences of students and peers on Jungian theories of human development and what he calls "the meeting point of psyche and soul."

WIE: What, according to Jung, is the ego?

JAMES HOLLIS: The ego as defined by Jung is the central complex of consciousness. When we hear the word "complex" we tend to think of something that's pathological, whereas all a complex really is, is an affectively charged cluster of energy. The complex of the ego begins to form when we first split off from the primal other, which is typically our mother; that is when we separate from the breast. And while that separation is necessary for the formation of the individual, it's also very painful because it's the loss of that early experience of unity and sense of primal belonging.

Jung saw the formation of the ego as essential for consciousness. Consciousness is predicated on the split between subject and object—to become conscious I have to know that of which I am not. I have to have a sense of "that over there" versus "this over here." He also saw the ego as a necessary agency of intentionality, focus and purpose. How is it that you and I arranged to meet at the same time to address the same subject? It was a function of "ego focus" that was critical for this conversation to occur.

The ego, as a complex, is extremely malleable and "invadable." When the ego gets invaded by contents from the unconscious, when it's in the grip of other complexes, it becomes insecure or power-driven, or whatever the case may be. You see, what we often call "ego" is really the ego under a state of possession by one or more of the complexes, such as a money complex, a power complex, a sexual complex or an aggression complex. These complexes are not an individual's core nature, but they do have the power to usurp or possess the ego.

WIE: In Jung's view, is the ego a positive, negative or neutral force in the personality?

JH: As I described earlier, the ego is a necessary formation for the creation of identity, consciousness, intentionality and purpose—all of which are pluses. The ego itself is not a problem. However, when it's in a state of possession by our insecurities, when it's in the grip of our history, it becomes neurotic, so to speak—it gets in the way. So the problem is not the ego; the problem is what happens to the ego. The perfect balance—if we could ever achieve it—would be an open ego state in dialogue with the other parts of the outer and inner world, where we could absorb messages from the culture, but not necessarily be subsumed by them, and we could also dialogue with the unconscious.

WIE: Do these complexes have a will of their own or do we, in the end, choose which complex predominates?

JH: Let's take an example: A person could say, "When I look at my history I see that there are certain patterns there. The only person who has been in every scene in the history of my life has been me, so I am somehow the manufacturer of those patterns. I can blame Western civilization or my parents, if I want to, but I have to recognize that somehow I am doing this." We'd say that that's good work by the ego because it's opening up dialogue with other parts of the psyche.

WIE: Is the ego, according to Jung, equivalent to who or what we refer to when we say "I"?

JH: Generally speaking, "who I think I am" is the ego state. But the problem is "who I think I am" can also be a complex. I could be born a slave and have the identity of a slave. The only time we're in a pure state of ego, I think, is when we're responding strictly reflexively to the moment. In an activity of sports, one is normally not in a complex. One could be at the batter's plate so filled with anxiety that one couldn't swing the bat, but usually in the moment of the ball's flight, one is wholly absorbed and present to the moment. That's a pure ego state.

WIE: Would Jung's pure ego state be equivalent to a condition where we were in touch with reality directly as it is?

JH: Yes, that's right. In that sense it would be not unlike the Zen concept of "no mindedness"—it's just pure being. And yet to function in culture, we need an ego that allows us to structure time and organize our energies in service to certain abstractions like economics or service or whatever.

Jung's concept of the ego evolved over time. Early on he wanted, I think, to privilege the messages of the unconscious and to say that the job of the ego was to serve what the unconscious wanted. Later in his life he modified that and emphasized the need for ethical responsibility. For example, if I dream I'm murdering someone, I don't wake up and murder the person. I say, "What's that about?" That's a proper use of the ego—to serve as a conscious processing of life's experience, neither giving too much authority to the outer world, nor too much to the inner world.

WIE: What was Jung's view on the relationship between conscience and ego?

JH: Well, let me step back and I'll come around to that in a moment. You see, for Jung, the superordinate reality is what he called the "Self"—which is not to be confused with the ego. In the first half of life, our task is to develop an ego, a conscious sense of who we are that's strong enough to leave our parents and go out into the world and say, "Hire me, I can do that job"; "Have a relationship with me, you can trust me"; etcetera. If we fail to develop our ego awareness sufficiently, we remain children. The dialogue in the first half of life is the dialogue with the world: What does the world ask of me? But the second half of life, Jung said, was for the ego to develop a dialogue with the Self. The question then is: What does the Self ask of me?—which is much more of an interior dialogue, and one could say, a religious dialogue. Because the Self may very well wish one to go in a direction that the ego would prefer not to go in—a direction that might lead not to a path of self-aggrandizement but to a path of sacrifice. For example, if the summons of the Self is to be an artist, then chances are you're going to starve in our culture. And yet if that's what the Self is asking and the ego continues to fly off in the other direction, immense internal suffering is going to be the by-product. So ultimately, the ego would have to come to respect what the Self was asking. There would be an ethical and religious responsibility to dialogue with that and still live in the real world. And part of the task of the ego is to cope with the conflict that that could produce.

WIE: What is the Self according to Jung? Is it that which represents or calls us to realize our highest potential as human beings?

JH: The Self would be the wisdom of the organism. The totality of the purposefulness of that which we are, which transcends consciousness.

WIE: You mentioned that in "dialoguing with the Self," one might discover that one's destiny was to become an artist. When Jung refers to this "summons of the Self," it seems that he is referring to that undertaking or role in life for which we are best suited, which utilizes our talents most fully, regardless of what it may be—and that it is not necessarily a summons to the spiritual path.

JH: Well, it would be our true vocation in the sense of the Latin vocatus—to be called. What is it that one is called to be, as a being, as a person?—which has very little to do with ego. History is full of people whose egos could have been well-served by the position they were in, but who felt some other kind of summons and had to leave that secure world in service to meaning or enlargement or depth.

WIE: What would you say would be the goal of Jungian psychology? Would it be to help us realize our highest potential?

JH: Yes. You see, for Jung the central metaphor was "individuation," which is so often confused with ego development. It isn't ego development—it's positioning the ego in relationship to that superordinate reality that we all are. Individuation means becoming that which the gods intended, not what the ego intended. And there can be quite a difference. When one says, "Not my will, but thine," that's the ego dialoguing with the Self. Now, the "Self" is a word like "God"—it is meant to be ambiguous; it's not referring to an entity, it's essentially referring to a mystery.

WIE: How does Jungian therapy help us cultivate the willingness and ability to respond to the call of the Self?

JH: Well, the by-product of not responding to the Self is symptomatology. When the Self is violated, it will show up in our relationships, it will attack the body, it will be in our dreams, it will produce emotional states. In other words, the symptomatology is a measure of the autonomy of the Self because it's saying, "Look, you are off course." And the purpose of therapy, whether it's formal therapy with a therapist or an individual process, is to pay attention to what those symptoms are saying. The Jungian approach to symptomatology is not to suppress but to ask, "What do they mean? Where is the wound and what is the corrective asked?" For example, it's not our goal to remove depression. Depression is really a way of saying some vital dimension of our life is not being lived.

We have some paintings in our institute by the Swiss painter Peter Birkhauser. When he first started out he was a graphic artist. He was very rational and thought modern art was anarchic and valueless. Then, at midlife, he went through a real depression. He went into therapy in Zurich, and his therapist asked him to start painting his dreams. He did, and this led to a whole different realm of creativity and to a different kind of art for which he became rather famous in Switzerland. This was an example of the Self critiquing the narrow range of his ego's understanding of himself. There are paintings in which he shows himself afraid of that creativity. One's called At the Door, where he's anxiously holding the door shut and at the other side of the door is this huge beast. Naturally the ego's going to be afraid to open that door—it's going to be eaten up! But the beast was his own calling, and when he opened the door, he was flooded with energy. So you can see why it's necessary for dialogue with the unconscious as well as with the outer world. And there's a need for the strengthening of the ego, so it can take on this dialogue, but not strengthening it in the fantasy that it will be in control. The proper attitude for the ego is really humility.

WIE: In spiritual traditions the ego is seen as a negative force in the individual; for example, as the force of pride or selfishness. From that perspective, it is entirely paradoxical to imagine the ego cultivating an attitude of humility. Yet it seems that Jung was elucidating two different aspects or stages of ego development—one where the ego, as a self-regulating function, needs to be strengthened in order to help us navigate the challenges of life, and the other, where the ego needs to be humbled in order to allow the individual to discover the deeper and more subtle wisdom inherent in life.

JH: That's correct. Generally speaking, there are two tasks in our development. One is the formation of ego to be strong enough to take life on, to meet it on its own terms. The other is to have the strength to humble the ego and say, "Now what do the gods want of me?" That's a whole different thing.

WIE: Jung spoke in depth about the shadow. What is the shadow in his view, and how is it related to the ego?

JH: Well, the most functional definition of a shadow is: that within myself which makes me uncomfortable about myself. So we would quickly think of typical issues like anger. I would not want to acknowledge my anger because it's unsettling to my self-image. But many times, as in the case of the Swiss painter, our most powerful qualities are also a part of our shadow. So the shadow is anything that would challenge the ego's fantasy of control.

WIE: So the shadow can also include our positive traits or those impulses within us that could lead us into something unknown and potentially even further our growth?

JH: Yes, absolutely. And that's why the shadow is not synonymous with evil. The shadow is omnipresent in our culture—in our indifference to suffering around us, in our own pettiness, and in our own sins of omission as much as commission. But on the other hand, the shadow is often the place where the real creative energies are to be found.

WIE: Would Jung see evil as a complex or force within us? Or would evil be our own egotistic or narcissistic urges taken to an extreme?

JH: Well, those are all possibilities. In Jung's book Answer to Job, he talks about the shadow side of God and says that our entire Western theology has been one-sided. The shadow got split off and sent underground or projected onto the enemy over there. The dark side of divinity is our own opacity toward the dark side within ourselves. Underneath those dualities is a unity of life's energies; it's just that ego—and this is a good example of what ego can do—in feeling uncomfortable with the ambiguity of all of that, tries to split things off: "I'm good. You're bad. Our people are good. Those people across the Hudson are bad." It even tries to create a split in theology. What do you do with evil in monotheism? Well, it gets split off into Satan—the "adversary"—or the devil, which means "the opposite principle." And that split is the ego at work seeking to privilege its own insecurity. I would say that the sign of a healthy ego is its capacity to live with anxiety, ambiguity and ambivalence—triple A's—without trying to always solve them. Because life is anxious, life is ambivalent, life is ambiguous, and that's the reality. And the more we try to solve that or resolve that or split it off, the more we're going to fall into a fundamentalism of some kind—military, political, theological, economic, psychological—and that has the seeds of totalitarianism in it. Much of what I would call fundamentalism is really an anxiety disorder—which they try to solve by black-and-white thinking and projecting onto others. It's very unconscious, and it's very poor ego development. You can see how important it is for the ego to be strong enough to tolerate those tensions. When I can't tolerate them, I'll dump them on you. That's all projection. And projection is that which the ego is just not dealing with.
You can see how we use the term "ego" in so many different ways. And there's a place for the positive ego; it's not always an obstacle in enlightenment. It's responsible for consciousness and for ethical behavior and for dealing with the conflict of opposites.

WIE: Many Western psychologists have criticized Eastern spiritual traditions for their "ego negative" views. They fear that the Eastern emphasis on taming, subduing or destroying the ego could hinder healthy ego development in ourselves and jeopardize our normal maturation as individuals. What do you think about this discrepancy of views?

JH: Frankly I think a lot of it is just terminological confusion of ego with egotism. Even Jung's concept of individuation has been misunderstood as a form of egotism, when in fact it's about humility and submission to one's calling as a person. And that's far from egotism.

WIE: Jung's view of our highest potential as human beings seems to include more of a spiritual dimension than Freud's view did.

JH: Absolutely. The Self is really, in the generic sense of the term, a religious encounter. In fact Jung says, "Every genuine encounter with the Self is experienced as a defeat for the ego"—because the ego's fantasy of control or comfort is overthrown by what the Self wants.

Yesterday, Today, and The Day after Next

2006-02-26T12:09:00.000-06:00

Yesterday
Tea and morningtime.

Tidying and workout. Energy seems to be returning. D is going to help me chart my moods so I can actually see how they graph out….interesting little project.

Listened to some of The Met broadcast of Samson et Dalilah. Well, interesting. Something, undoubtedly missing with no visual. Woofy voices, to me, anyway.

Interesting intermission interview with Rufus Wainwright. He’s being commissioned by the Met to create a new opera. In the coming seasons, the Met is trying to broaden their audience with new works, collaborations with theater and dance artists, multimedia access, etc…hmmm….

Day before Yesterday
Tea, morning, low energy. Feeling overwhelmed. Not at the peak of the roller-coaster, as it were…

With other plans creating waves, I feel like I am losing sight of how much joy I get out of the process. Funny, I’ve been hooked on that goofy Olympic Ice show that’s an analysis of the previous night’s skates. It is my little Olympic guilty pleasure- I LOVE Mary Carillo, Jamie Sale, David Peltier, Scott Hamilton, and everyone’s favorite skating curmudgeon, Dick Button. Scott Hamilton said something great:, ‘It’s about the process, be open to the result, but it’s all about the process…’ Yeah, Scott!

Butterfly Bandit

2006-02-23T14:06:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I am sure I am the only person ever to get a kiss from a butterfly on my birthday! Maybe I am the only person to ever be kissed by a butterfly, ever! We went to one of my favorite places, Houston’s Butterfly Center at the Museum of Natural Science. I can’t get enough of that place. The first part of the exhibit has gleefully delightful creepy-crawlies of all sorts that must be oohed, aaahed and eeeewed at appropriately. There are particularly enormous, beautiful katydids whose leaf bodies must have taken Gaia quite a while to fashion so very perfectly. A budding 7 year old zoologist was adamant that I admire the neon blue scorpion with the requisite level of admiration. A glass enclosed wall houses rows of suspended cocoons from which the butterflies emerge, allow their wings to dry, and are then transported by their human caretakers to the enormous-several story-jungle paradise-glass butterfly-ary, complete with a hefty orange and green sagacious Iguana Lord. Once inside the lofty home of the Iguana Lord, all manner of unidentifiable tropical plants shoot to the far off ceiling, and of course lots and lots of equally unidentifiable butterflies flitter and flutter and perch and float, feasting on large plates of exotic fruits supplied by their human friends. One such friend walked the stone paths with a colossal Owl Butterfly happily sitting, wings closed, right-smack on top of her head. A milliner’s inspiration!

As we headed up the spiraling stone stairs that corkscrew the outer edge of the butterfly-ary, I am startled to notice that a large Rice Paper Butterfly (one of my very favorites!), has landed, wings wide, on the lacy edge of my maroon camisole. In other words, right at my breast! So I am standing there thrilled, amazed, delighted! Looking down, I see he walks a few butterfly-y steps upward, further onto my skin - and tickly, tickle, tickle!- his little black feets are quite spiny! To my complete astonishment, he flit-flit-flutters right up to my mouth to have a little kissy, and in my surprise, I pssssspht! And away he flies, having stolen a kiss!

Hooray! The Kissing Butterfly Bandit has struck again!

Every other day of the week is fine, yeah...

2006-02-20T20:19:00.000-06:00

Tea, etc. emails, performance space research. Cold and gray. Impending run at M Park.

Practice.

I hate ice dancing.

Run @ M Park & Workout

The Oblique Strategy cards continue to come up as Water and Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency. What lessons those are. As if that isn’t enough, and somehow I am always meant to push myself past the limit, when I’v learned (repeatedly) that doesn’t produce any results. Slow, consistent practice takes the cake.

I’ve noticed some cool nuggets of training advice from watching the Olympics. The athletes’ training regime is so inspiring and impressive - and how they really back off from pushing themselves leading up their event. They’re not there to train, they’re there to compete. This has led me further along with the development of an idea of mine: the 80% Rule. What I am aiming to cultivate is to have an excellent performance at about 80% of what I call the Shower Factor. The Shower Factor is how absolutely awesome a performance in the shower is- in other words, some of my best singing is in rehearsal. No surprise there. The trick is to develop skill to such a point that under the stress of performance/audition that my 80% totally rocks. Then if I am able pull more out, great- but that 80% is better than excellent. I think I am seeing this in the Olympics. The athletes that show up and give 110% end up crashing and burning (this is all very separate from Olympic Spirit and 'heart'). A great example is the Russian figure skater Evgeny Plushenko. He nailed the Gold, big time. And the guy was not pushing himself. I don’t mean that he didn’t do his best, but under all the pressure, he was a simmering battleship. His Olympic ‘best’ was just another day on the ice, and I am banking that his Olympic performance was below what he does on normal practice days. He had room to fail and still kick everyone else’s butt. See my point?

………………………………………..
Here’s a recording I was working on sometime ago, and frankly, it is unfinished, yet complete at the same time. I have other ideas for work to do on it, including adding the missing flute, and am not really even sure how I feel about it. I have lots of other ideas, and I plan to continue recording, but am so happily wrapped up in the completely different world of classical singing that I am not making the time right now for new recordings. So, I am putting it out in the world- here it is: Afternoon.mp3. Lyrics:

days drift by and i'm sure
there are others who've known
and breathed open their wings

earth spins beads of the stars
springing lives from her dust
cast us back into her curves

days drift by and i'm sure
there are others like me
who've breathed open their wings

take the time you and I have passed
a thousand afternoons
when eastern skies
dropped down their hands
and reached for us

breathe open your wings
reach for us

ripen your destiny
sharpen your dream

take the time you and I have passed
a thousand afternoons

Sunday Best

2006-02-19T12:08:00.000-06:00

Cold wintry day unwinding
Backyard yawns
In the loosed morning light
Wet wet grasses of our little jungle
Strung lights sleeping now
Camellias gardenias azaleas sunflower bloom
Don’t their petals need sweaters on such a day?
On the garage roof
2 doves nestle at the edge
After my love has fed them

Hike Who?

2006-02-17T11:11:00.000-06:00

Tea, etc. The new Valentine Matching Cat Cup has a strange perfume-y smell from the store that I am having a difficult time removing…hmmmfph…

……………………………………………….
Sheet gray skyopaque
A new sunflower pops up
Birds sing on the roof
…………………………………………………………………
Kitchen table sits
Meow silhouette waiting
For night grasshoppers
…………………………………………………………………………..
Valentine rosies
And posies in vase with reeds
Fading this morning
…………………………………………………………………………………………

Thursday, February 16, 2006
Great coaching . Looking at recital piece prospects.

Good thoughts to MB&C….

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Tea and small morning.

Fab meeting. Much to do.

Solstice Cat Cup Set debut!

Oh! That was the guy from the beginning of the movie!

2006-02-14T08:20:00.000-06:00

I am simply PMS-ing. That had not occurred to me before!

Valentine’s Day plans ahead!

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……………………………….

Part of the whole zen-ness of things is to allow what to be to be and not identify who I am with what I think or feel. Yes, my thoughts and feelings are part of me, but are not me.
Giving myself permission to feel how I am feeling without judgment.

……………………………………………
Fairie Oracle card today: The Fawn.

Oblique Strategy: Water. Just able to do that. Ah! Is enough!

……………………………………………………………..

An ordinary Tuesday or
Not so with roses and grassy reeds and some other flower
Pinker than red, I don’t know what
Pistil and stamen hummingbird waiting
And oh! My only very favorite chocolates- the deep dark dark cherry sippy sips
And the coolest of coolness rest of the earthenware catcup tea set
Doesn’t get better than that to match the Solstice present catcup tea tea tea and iron trivets, too!
And me, really quite pissy and grumpy grouchkins for half the afternoon at least
But I did get you the cutiest-cutsie ILOVEYOU elephant with red heart ear insides
And don’t forget Love Potion #9
Hear Heart Hear Heart Hear Heart Hear Heart Hear Heart
And then the park so bluebluebluey-blue
That sky out there in Texas February is like glass glass glass azure I’ve never seen
Both opaque and translucent simultaneous freshness breathing in the afternoon cobalt
And then, well, the rest of the lovely lusciolicious afternoon...then…shall we say…

Angry Yucky Me

2006-02-13T21:23:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I’m breaking my own rules. I am not posting the poetry I wrote yesterday during my Solipsistic Self-Pity Sunday.

So here is what I know: I was not loved unconditionally by my rearers. Boo-hoo for me. Join the big ole club. Thus, I am always trying to gain some kind of approval, prove myself, achieve whatever, etc. even though, I swear, I swear, I swear, I tell myself I am not.

How to get out of this dead-end loop?

Angry me is getting comforted. Looking forward to V-day tomorrow. I decided to post the poems after all. Go figure.

Good workout. Still taking a much needed practice break. Reflection. Re-evaluation.

And I am loving the Olympics!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Expecting too much from
Me, and me and me, and me
And You, and all those everyone else’s whoevers
And from whatever I find or seem to find myself in
Never enough from a barely surrogate tribe
I have surrounded myself
With everything not-enoughs
And can never be, be, be
Big enoughs
Or bright enoughs
And time is too closely guarded by whoever it is that keeps it
Cuz it clearly ain’t me

…….

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

You have dismissed me
Diminished my voice
My thoughts
Denied my being
It has never been
Clearly
Enough
To be
Me
Always having to produce something other than what simply is
For whose? Enjoyment? Do you really get enjoyment seeing me
Struggle like so many soul birds in mesh
To win attentions and empty accolades
Of dozens of years
To prove what to you? To who? To me?
Having been programmed and brainwashed to think
I was so deserving I didn’t have to do a thing
And then in realizing the lateness of it all quite and very capably within my reach
(with a dozen or so years more of time that I maybe don’t have)
Despite that, and perhaps because of it
I’ll always be much much more than you can take on
And I can go so much farther and far deeper and higher and wider and brighter and beautier than you would ever expect, or could ever do yourself and so there.
Ever guess
Standing there in your fucking suburban kitchen
Did you not realize (ha. like there is a spark of awareness there behind those I loathe to admit brown eyes we share, forchristsake)
That this would all simply make me think
Everything you think
And do
And are and represent is
Meaningless and nothingness-
Just as you treat me?
And guess what?
I am incensed that you even think I am part of whatever
Catholic brood you’ve emerged from
With their blank stares and unthinking fall-in-line take it for granted that I am like you all
Which, by the way, I am not
If you haven’t noticed
And sucking off my bright power will not make you like me, no matter how hard you try
Plus, dead people only decay into a rotting stink if they are not properly burned

Heaven's Little Lies

2006-02-11T22:12:00.000-06:00

It’s funny that I can feel defeated by myself. Hoodwinked, as it were. Convinced I’ve been all zen-blissed out and living the Suzy-Process Oriented high life….and then having reality slam me down like an unexpected ski fall on a piece-o-cake run. What I thought was a piece-o-cake run.
Perception is indeed a master of deception. I’ve been quite proud of thinking I’ve been all in the moment. So proud of myself that I was keeping my eye on the ball, doing what the moment required, blah, blah, blah. Pride ought to have been the red flag there, buddy. What I think I am ready for and what the reality of what I am ready for is quiet different. Maybe that is just another of perception’s slippery slopes. I simply cannot tell.
Is this a gift of waking up? Getting comfortable with uncertainty must surely be part of the puzzle. I also have had a more emotional stake in my endeavors than I am willing to admit. Another little lie from heaven that I am very happy to believe.
Learning is not linear. Ah…
……………………………………………………………….
Run @ M Park with D. Gorgeous, glorious cold, sunny Texas winter day.
……………………………………………………………………………..
Deelish dinner treat at MB’s with C.
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Feels good to be taking time off….and a little thing we call Olympic Gold!

Stormy Weather

2006-02-10T18:13:00.000-06:00

Miracle of miracles: I actually slept. Tea time, and prep for task ahead today. Stressed. Nervous. Ugh. I do not like this feeling. Can I cultivate equanimity even when I am uncomfortable? Surely. Bummed that the Olympic coverage has not yet started this morning. Dealing with prepping my music, primping, and blasting some U2 and Green Day.

........................................................

Wine and pasta at Empire with my darling. Ah,...comfort.

Stormy out...

Nap.

Had a long stressful day and week. Don’t really want to write about it. Feeling like just writing: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…disheartened. Lost.

Pissed that freakin NBC is the only one covering the Olympics and am sure their coverage will be as lame as ever.

Yesterday- Thursday, February 09, 2006
I have difficulty maintining my routine and usual steadiness in the face of stress. Stressy, stressy day. Listening to the new U2. Great coaching and A. happened to show up and we did some really, really helpful dramatic and movemenet stuff with my arias.

Crucible

2006-02-08T20:08:00.001-06:00

Tea, morning prattle, etc.

Practice. Run@M Park. Practice. Weights.

Feeling fabulous. Ready. Intense. Strangely in the right place at the right time….content to be where I am doing what I’m doing without much concern with what may come of it all.

Zazen.

I had a Chinese Medical Doctor tell me once I had a lot of wood and was low on fire. This translates to having lots of raw creative material and little ability to ignite in. Over the past few years I feel like I have really cultivated the focus and disciple to finally see the ignition of my potential. I did not realize how much intense energy this would take. I did not realize it is a mind-set that permeates my whole life. It is a way of life, a way of being. As Robert Fripp says, How we hold our pick is how we organize our life and In tuning a note we are tuning ourselves. If feels to me, that it is all about being more me. Discovering who I am, what I am about. Being more human.

And they don’t call it discipline for nothin’. I imagine the serious reaction that has to happen just to create a spark that will then grow into a flame that burns wood (potentially!) or fuel, that can warm your home, cook your food…power a city. I’m goin’ for powerin’ a city! (was that my outside voice?)

Have you ever used a magnifying glass to ignite paper? It is a pretty intense process to focus that big ole star, Sol. No wonder it took us so long to discover fire!

Ah, crucible. That is the word. The crucible of discipline. Through repetition the magic if forces to rise. And rise it does.

I just saw Paul McCartney on the Grammies (which I never watch, cuz I hate the manufactured-ness of it. Rant. Rant.). Anyway, sweet honey in the rock- is Paul cool or what? He played Helter-Skelter with his way cool band. And that, my friend, is what we call rock and roll. That and the fact that U2 is still making music means there is, indeed, hope in the world.

Never react: respond.

2006-02-07T22:08:00.000-06:00

"Earth appears as one entity. It is unique, it is one planet. And you realized that this one planet is the only thing we have." "You see it very well that thin, thin, thin layer just above the surface, that is the atmosphere of the Earth, and that is it. A few 10 -12 km thick, and that is it. Below that is life, and above that is nothing. It is a vacuum." - Julie Payette, Chief Canadian Astronaut, orbiting the earth in the Space Shuttle Discovery, May 27 to June 6, 1999

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Didn’t sleep at all last nite with D out of town. Ugh. I hate that. He’ll be home today! Yay! So I am feeling really tired and groggy to say the least.

Morning tea time and emails. Blog reading. The Brad/Nishijima/Mike soap opera continues on Mike’s blog, sadly. Oh, well, that’s what I get for spending the time reading these posts instead of doing something much more constructive!

Cyber Transition
My website looks great except it does not reflect at at what I am doing now. I have not been painting and I have been far more excited and embroiled by music-making, yet have neither enough classical music info about myself to put up, nor more sound clips of new recordings (I love when I get to use that neither/nor thing!). I have neither made it a priority to finish a recording I have been working on, nor carved out time to record new material (there it is again! Hee!). I have been spending so much time singing and practicing, I’ve not made the time for other musical things. Must think on that…

Took a nap, and am feeling better. Practice. Practice. Zazen.

Goddamnit. I let Meowsie out today because she was totally begging to get out and no sooner did she zip out the back door, than she is over at Michael’s behind the garage fighting with Fat-Cat-No-Tail. I hear them yowling and run over there armed with my trusty spray bottle. So I’m squirting them and they run behind the garage back to our yard and I run back over and continue the ineffective squirt bottle bombing. Ok, so I leave them to it. Whatever. Back to cleaning the kitchen. Next thing I know I hear the horrible I Am a Hunter growling in the kitchen and there is Meowsie with a very limp mockingbird in her mouth. I chase her out and with the help of Michael, chase her down and get her back inside, sans bird. Y’know, I feel terrible if I keep her inside and I know full well the impact house cats have on bird populations and I feel just awful about that, too. Spring has sprung and we must keep her doors more…

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Gayatri Mantra

Om bhur bhuvah svaha
tat savitur varenyam
bargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyo yonah prachodayat

Let us honor the unity of Divine Spirit
that pervades all realms of existance:
the earth, the atmosphere and the heavens.

May That most brilliant Divine Light
protect us, sustain us
and illuminate our consciousness

that we might realize
our inherent goodness,
our inborn divinity
and our unity with All That Is.

By this knowledge may our actions be inspired.

Om - Sound as the basis of creation, Brahman Unity of all that is visible and invisible
Bhur - The gross: earth, existence, physical body
Bhuvah - The subtle: atmosphere, prana, subtle body
Svaha - The causal: heaven, Atman, the soul, causal body
Tat - That: Brahman (The Ultimate Reality is simply referred to as "That" because it defies description through speech or language.)
Savitur - The protector, Savitri, equated with the luminous, life-giving energy of the sun
Varenyum - Supreme Consciousness that inspires adoration
Bhargo - Goodness, radiance, luster, illumination, destroyer of ignorance
Devasya - Divine radiance or grace
Dhimahi - Meditation or knowledge of the Absolute
Dhiyo - Buddhi, intellect
Yonah - Our actions
Prachodayat - Inspire

From the site of a teacher I have studied with- Discovery Yoga

Eon Flux

2006-02-06T22:48:00.000-06:00

Relinquishing all views,

He preached the wonderful Universe,

Using compassionate means;

I bow to him: Gautama

The order of these four lines would thus have followed the four philosophies, i.e., (1) views, (2) Universe, (3) practical everyday conduct, (4) action itself/the ineffable. – both from Mike’s blog.
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Tea, feeling run down and tired, disheartened. Much to do…

Zazen.

Practice. Explorations of in flux. Breathe, body, sound…

Excellent coaching…singing going great!

Endless shopping spree for just the right thing to wear on Friday. Got it! Whew.

Workout.
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The Road To Graceland

by Robert Fripp

Music is a process of uniting the world of qualities and the world of existences, of blending the world of silence and the world of sound.

In this sense, music is a way of transformation.

What we do is inseparable from how and why we do what we do.

So, the transformation of sound is inseparable from a transformation of self.

For example, we attract silence by being silent.

In our culture, this generally requires practice.

Practice is a way of transforming the quality of our functioning, that is, a transformation of what we do.

We move from making unnecessary efforts, the exertions of force, to making necessary efforts: the direction of effortlessness.

In this the prime maxim is: honor necessity, honor sufficiency.

II

When we consider our functioning as a musician, that is, what we do in order to be a musician, we find we are considering more than just the operation of our hands.

The musician has three instruments: the hands, the head and the heart, and each has its own discipline.

So, the musician has three disciplines: the disciplines of the hands, the head and the heart.

Ultimately, these are one discipline: discipline.

Discipline is the capacity to make a commitment in time.

If the musician is able to make a commitment in time, to guarantee that they will honor this commitment regardless of convenience, comfort, situation and inclination of the moment, they are on the way to becoming
effectual.

An effectual musician is a trained, responsive and reliable instrument at the service of music.

III

So, practice addresses:

1. The nature of our functioning; that is, of our hands, head and heart.

2. The co-ordination of our functioning; that is our hands with head, our
hands with heart, our heart with head, and in a perfect world, all three
together in a rare, unlikely, but possible harmony.

3. The quality of our functioning.

IV

It is absurd to believe that practising our instrument is separate from the rest of our life.

If we change our practice, we change our lives.

Practice is not just what we do with our hands, nor just how we do what we do, nor why we do what we do.

Practice is how we are.

V

A practice of any value will be three things:

1. A way of developing a relationship with the instrument;

2. A way of developing a relationship with music;

3. A way of developing a relationship with ourselves.

So, the techniques of our musical craft are in three fields: of playing the instrument, of music and of being a person.

I cannot play guitar without having a relationship with myself, or with music.

I cannot, as a guitarist, play music without having a relationship with myself and my guitar.

And, by applying myself to the guitar and to music, I discover myself within the application.

VI

A technique simulates what it represents, and prepares a space for the technique to become what it represents.

For example, the manner in which I live my life is my way of practising to be alive.

There is no distance between how I live my life and how I practice being alive.

VII

Once a quality is within our experience, we recognise its return and may allow its action to take place upon us.

But how and why it is present, or comes to visit, is rather harder to describe.

If this quality is present with us, description becomes easier: we describe the world in which we live.

If we live in the way of craft, the craft lives in us; as we describe this way, the craft reveals itself through us.

Any true way will be able to describe itself through its craftspeople.

VIII

The quality we bring to one small part of our life is the quality we bring to all the small parts of our life.

All the small parts of our life is our life.

If we are able to make one small act of quality, it will spread throughout the larger act of living.

This is in the nature of a quality - a quality is ungovernable by size and by the rules of quantity: a quality is ungovernable my number.

So, one small act of quality is as big as one big act of quality.

An act of quality carries intention, commitment and presence, and is never accidental.

IX

Once we have an experience of making an effort of this kind, we may apply this quality of effort in the other areas of our life.

The rule is: better to be present with a bad note than absent from a good note.

When our note is true, we are surprised to find that it sounds very much like silence, only a little louder.

X

If music is quality organised in sound, the musician has three approaches towards it: through sound, through organisation, or through quality.

The apprentice will approach the sound, the craftsperson will approach the organisation of sound, and the master musician approaches music through its quality.

That is, the master musician works from silence, organises the silence, and places sound between the silence.

XI

Where we are going is how we get there.
If where we are going is how we get there, we are where we are going.
If we are where we are going, we have nowhere to go.
If we have nowhere to go, may we be where we are.

XII

Music is a benevolent presence constantly and readily available to all.
May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse.

Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman

2006-02-05T22:16:00.001-06:00

I pay homage to Gautama

To him who out of compassion

Taught the true Dharma

As the relinquishing of all views. - Nagarjuna

"Right here is the peak of the mystic mountain." "Just this is it." How will you bring forth this Buddha that you are and manifest it in the world? You must approach everything with beginner's mind, with an open mind, the mind that is questioning and looking and listening and hearing and seeing and feeling and smelling without prejudgment, without preconception, without fixed views. Open. Ready to see what is right here. Open. Ready to see "What is this?" and ready to let it flower, ready to let it bloom in the world. When I first had zazen instruction, Katagiri Roshi said, "We sit to settle the self on the self and let the flower of the life force bloom." That's intimacy: to settle the self on the self. Then this Buddha can bloom in all it's particularity, as you being totally you. Suzuki Roshi used to say, "When you are you, Zen is Zen." But what is this? Who is this? Will the authentic "you" please come forward and bloom? How will we open up this authentic "you" in the midst of all the accumulated fixed views that we carry about? We just have to notice them and let them go, and let them go, and let them go, and let them go, and let them go. Dongshan (J.: Tozan) visited his teacher Yunyan (J.: Ungan) and his teacher said, "What have you been studying?" "I haven't even been studying." "Well, what have you been practicing?" "I haven't even been practicing the four noble truths." "Are you joyful yet?" Joy is one of the stages of a bodhisattva. Dongshan said, "It would not be right to say that I'm not joyful ...it's as if I've found a pearl in a pile of shit." And that's what it's like, you know. There's all this stuff that we drag around with us, but the pearl is right there. What we need to do is free the pearl and let it gleam.

In her poem "When Death Comes," Mary Oliver has a few lines that say, "When it's over, I want to say I have been a bride married to amazement, I've been a bridegroom taking the world into my arms." This is beginner's mind: "I've been a bride married to amazement." Just how amazing the world is, how amazing our life is. How amazing that the sun comes up in the morning, or that the wisteria blooms in the spring. "A bride married to amazement, a bridegroom taking the world into my arms." Can you live your life with that kind of wholeheartedness, with that kind of thoroughness? This is the beginner's mind that Suzuki Roshi is pointing to, is encouraging us to cultivate. He is encouraging us to see where we are stuck with fixed views, and see if we can, as Uchiyama Roshi says, "open the hand of thought" and let the fixed view go. This is our effort. This is our work. Just to be here, ready to meet whatever is next without expectation or prejudice or preconceptions. Just "What is it?" "What is this, I wonder?"

So please, cultivate your beginner's mind. Be willing to not be an expert. Be willing to not know. Not knowing is nearest. Not knowing is most intimate. Fayan was going on pilgrimage. Dizang said, "Where are you going?" Fayan said, "Around on pilgrimage." Dizang said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?" Fayan said: "I don't know." Dizang said, "Not knowing is most intimate." - From this great article by Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman.

A whirlwind day dealing with D’s near dead Sony Vaio, and his purchase of a new one. Yay!

Veggie Soup in Crockpot:
Butternut Squash
Potatoes
Lima beans
Peas
Carrots
Spinach
Kale
Onion
Thyme
Marjoram
Olive Oil
Veggie stock

Me and the Big Universe

2006-02-04T18:55:00.001-06:00

Tea, run at M Park. D @ Volleyball. Practice. Zazen.

Amazing beautiful day.

A reminder: The Universe always keeps Its end of the bargain. Riding the waves of energy in my life reveal this so splendidly…It’s as though the Universe has finally shown up- but! It is me that is actually and finally participating in the Co-Creation of my life. I am waking up, and the Universe has simply been doing Its thing all along- waiting patiently for me.

Nice chat with MB today…Life is not so much what you make of it, methink…Life is how you look at it, and then you’ll see It looking back at you…

D and I opting for time at home tonite…rest from a physically active day, and down-time for a busy week ahead…

Spokes of the Wheel

2006-02-03T22:17:00.000-06:00

Tea, re-thinking house arrangement. It always feels right to re-arrange things once in a while. Shake up energy.

Another crazy glorious Texas Winter Day.

Surprise visit by Ms Jenny Pet sitter extraordinary as she walked one of her 'clients' who lives nearby.

Overcooked split pea in the crockpot. Doggone-it.

Workout. Practice. Zazen. Practice.

Business plan and bio work, brainstorming for a meeting with A about new opera company.

Feeling very I am in the right place on the right path doing the right thing, big time. Relief. Funny that I should/should have distrusted the Universe in Its ability to do Its thing, if I, indeed, commit to do mine. Hmmmm....

The phrase Beyond Intention came up on Mike's blog today. Beyond intention, inherent in all things, immanent, in the very fiber of the very un-ground of all being. In being who I am does that spring from intention? I think not. It is the uncovering of Isness. A re-discovery of what already is there. The acorn is the oak, the uncarved marble is the dynamic sculpture.

Like MB has said: Let the song sing you...

Listening: Peter Gabriel: Up

Meeting with A. Interesting exchange. Focused on what needs attention right now. New company is one spoke on my wheel. Have some writing and fleshing out of ideas to do, mission statement, business plan…refusing to get caught up in the standard concerns of the ‘singing profession’. I am more intersted in staying focused on making music, learning new rep, improving my musicianship, focus on networking, etc…riding the wave…

Mia Bella evening dine with my love- yum!

At the still point of the turning world

2006-02-02T22:07:00.000-06:00

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity. – TS Elliot

Today is Imolc (or Candlemas). It is a festival of lights marking the first milking of the ewes and honoring Bridget, Goddess of fire and smiths, of poets and healers. She is a symbol of birth and growth…The light of the New Year brought forth at the Winter Solstice grows and the days begin to lengthen again…

Split pea soup all day in the most magnifiscent crock pot!

I like the image MB gave me yesterday of breath simply being and I am stepping into the stream of it like into a jump rope game or, I think, onto a conveyor belt or escalator or, or like the little wave on the ocean who doesn’t know he’s water- oh! I am of it and in it an on it…I eat it and drink it and dream it and am it….

I had a headache last nite that I woke up with today and is still with me. Ugh.

Great coaching again today. I am pretty much singing the heck out of everything. Cool beans. Headache gone. That often happens if I sing…if I have a headache it will go away with the symathetic vibrations or something. I am feeling better.

Mr Possum Feets did eat all the over-ripeez that were left out.

Run at M Park with D. Lusicious day!

Lovely garden firepit evening with peppermint tea….mmmm…..starry orion night. Keeping the fires in celebration of Imolc.

The freakin’ plasma is up and all is well. It looks big but not as ridiculous as I thought…

More fruits left out for Mr Possum Feets!

Fruits & Peppermint

2006-02-01T21:58:00.000-06:00

Tea, practice. Warm stormy looking day.

Kurt Vonnegut rocks. That’s all I have to say about that.

The house is still a shambles from the process of wall mounting the Plasma Behemoth. Ugh.

Vox lesson! Fabulous. Always learning more about my voice and myself…

Workout.

Zazen.

Overripe fruits left out for Mr Possum Feets. We shall see if he has partaken upon the morning!

Glorious peppermint licorice tea!

Zen & the Art of Wall Mounting a Plasma TV

2006-01-31T22:08:00.000-06:00

Tea, practice, GORGEOUS day! I can barely contain myself!

The repalcement TV came today. Jeeze is that thing big. We couldn’t get the size we’d had before Rita blew it up- or I should say we blew it up watching Rita. Isn’t that a hoot? We watched a hurricane that hit us on TV. Pathetic. The size and opulence of these plasmas is embarassing. We don’t’ even watch that much TV. But it looks so cool. How lame am I? So much for Zen, eh? Back to the zafu! Back to the zafu! Speaking of opulence, we started tentatively looking at new homes in the Heights. Jiminy Crickets, could they be building them bigger? Almost 4000 sq feet standard. Gak. Who needs that much room? Not us 2. When it is time, right house will appear for us.

Coaching rocked today. I love Mozart!

Power walk with D at M Park. Delight!

Practice.

Evening…ahhh…

Yesterday's Wondrous Ordinary Day

2006-01-31T11:55:00.000-06:00

Another glorious Texas winter day today. I wish this house didn’t have a roof.

Tea, practice, tea, practice, tea, zazen, putsing in the garden, practice, practice, workout. Dave and I both working away at what we do. Awed by the intoxication of the mundane.

For 24 hours I’ve been simmering black beans in the crockpot. In case you didn’t know, black beans take FORVER to cook no matter how long they’ve been soaked. But they are like buttah, now!

“…Buddhism is just the real world, which can open just relying upon the practice. Without practicing Zazen there is no Buddhism. At the same time, however, if there were the practice of Zazen, we can easily open the the World of Buddhism at once, and this is the benevolence of Gautama Buddha. Therefore Master Dogen proclaimed…"This Rule of the Universe is abundantly present in each human being, but if we do not practice it, it does not manifest, and if we do not experience it, it cannot be realized. When we let go, it has already filled the hands; how could it be defined as one or many? When we speak, it fills the mouth; it has no restriction in any direction." - Gudo NISHIJIMA

Possum Spot

2006-01-29T23:33:00.000-06:00

I love Sundays
IloveIloveIloveIlovey Sundays
And especially today’s I can’t believe I am up so darn early to see this unusual fog morning
With my love still slumbering quietly away from impatient daybreak cats
And I am visiting the possum spot
The curved white stone ridge of a garden bed

Backing up to the ch-chainy chain-liked (I meant linked) fence we share with Harry & Allan

Filled with I don’t know whatallwhat plants- but for sure crepe a myrtle (that doesn’t bloomy bloom bloom so well in the shade back here) and that really really coolcool sitting on its sideways side big terra cotta pot brimming with begonias
Where we left out last night a he enjoyed it! Red red grapefruit
And he even ate a few grape tomatoes (or just squooshed them with his little possumy feets)
Though I imagine a night Christmas possum

(cuz he wuz the Christmas eve late night we spotted him possum)

Like himself likes the yummy overripenness sweetest sweet sweety-pie fruits we leave for him best
Especially bananas
Those are gone on a foggy morning like today
Peel and all

At the Corner of Fourth and Walnut

2006-01-26T20:48:00.000-06:00

Watchful musical
Whooshing - the potter crafts
ever so beautiful imperfect
warbled edges
earth and water
spinning unspinning
holding and emptying
fire

then coolness

from clay to tea

…………………………………………………

I’m certainly no philosopher, have no interest in being a conversationalist, nor a debater, and have even less interest in making a point about anything, proving my point, nor defending my stance, but I have been reading so much tripe (and not so much tripe) about enlightenment lately, I just have to say: There is no such thing as enlightenment. There. That is my .02 cents. And if that parrots’ Brad Warner’s words, than so be it. It also happens to be my experience. All the words that are enlisted to explicate enlightenment are of no use. You either have the experience of being in the world lock-stock-and-barrel, or you don’t. And it does take practice to develop awareness, and to not walk around asleep all the time. Justin’s Ordinary Extraordinary blog has a nice entry today: ‘So we end up with a picture of all these creatures walking around an entirely physical universe, but with little subjective bubble-worlds in their heads (or above them or somewhere else or nowhere at all).’

It is utterly ridiculous that the non-dualitic teachings of Buddhism would set up a have-and have-not situation. I suppose there-in lies the lovely paradox and the power of the philosophy: we are all enlightened and yet we are not because we don’t know we are! Hee! Hee!

I’ll let someone else who knows what they are doing express this far, far better. My pal G sent me the excerpt from Thomas Merton, and it about says it all:

"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. Not that I question the reality of my vocation, or of my monastic life: but the conception of "separation from the world" that we have in the monastery too easily presents itself as a complete illusion .... [W]e are in the same world as everybody else, the world of the bomb, the world of race hatred, the world of technology, the world of mass media, big business, revolution, and all the rest .... This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud .... To think that for sixteen or seventeen years I have been taking seriously this pure illusion that is implicit in so much of our monastic thinking .... I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun."

-Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander 1966
……………………..

Have discovered the delight of kale. Who woulda thunk?
Navy bean soup all day in the crockpot.
………………………………

Oblique Strategy of the week: What to increase? What to reduce? What to maintain?

…………………………………………………………………..
Practice. Still taking it easy vocally, but things seem to be generally fine.

Coaching went really great today. No vox problems and some movement fun. Herr R loved the lyrics I showed him for our budding opera idea. Found out Ms RA just bought a house that has a room with fab acoustics large enough for chamber concerts! Hooray!

………………..
Power Walk at M Park w/D. Brisk and dusky- There are some wondrous early spring trees blooming!

................................
Pale, pale, scarce and palest gradients of azure
Almost purpling deep line of clouds dropping

Her curtain just shy of the city trees
Cottony dreadlocks twirled entwining the very very only only only !

Tiny slenderlings of indigo-ing down
Increments creeping from one barely blueness to the next
And where they break before the leaves, all illuminated light and and and ! White pinkpink peeks and dazzles
Last moments sighing over the day
Sleepy Sun has kept longer hours than I

Shampoo

2006-01-24T23:18:00.000-06:00

Tea and reading.
Starting my day with tea (obviously!) & reading...

Beautiful, glorious sunny cool day.
…………………
Zazen
……………………………….
Practice. More off-voice work and surprisingly fun and productive movement work.
………………………………
Having someone else shampoo your hair is another one of life’s most splendid pleasures! Dee-lish!

Reverse Sky

2006-01-23T23:07:00.000-06:00

Sky filled luminescent greys
Bruised afternoon moments
Tied together
One instant borne on the next
Each moment breathing open fissures in the day’s clouds-
Today’s clouds
All light and coldness
Wet and creaming across what I cannot see above
Holding Earth in cupped hands
Molding grey clay opaque
Smooth
Careful watchful keeping this little planet from the Sun
All day
And several

I am sure of it
Jets

Are well above the tender hands of my day
Basking and streaming glossy
In exalted cerulean
Aloft high and fast
Sunward

…………………………………………………………….

Zazen

……………………………………………………………………………
In an I have to mode of doing. Uninspired, yet in need of watering my practice, so I am keeping a mental list of I have to stuff to be sure it is accomplished today, and that I least maintain a watering level of involvement in my work..

………………………………..
Silent practicing. Fairly torturous. Trusting that I am, indeed, getting something out of it. Am working on a lot of fun movement things.
……………………………………………………………….

Workout. Ah…

…………………………………………………………….
I feel that I have duly attended to watering and my I have to-ing.

Oblique Strategy: Reverse

That is a total hoot since I, quite literally, have had to slow down and back-up in many many ways over the last week. I can see now why Eno & Shmidt's Oblique Strategies can sometime be used as an oracle. :)

Presence

What needs to be attended to and that which is head-on in front of me is always in the now if I allow myself to be with it and not on the 10,000 other past-future things monkey-jumping through my mind.

Haiku Kitty

2006-01-22T22:56:00.000-06:00

Like my cat who jumps
So surely to the window
Intent on the day

……………………………………………………………………………

She sees what I cannot
Her being only doing
No hesitating
Eyes commitment
Spring all

rightness

lightness

speed and wisdom

Her striking swiftness unhurries
She is all here
All now
Only Is
Zen Master Kitty

.......................................................
I realize I’ve lost balance and didn’t know it. I had not taken the time to honor the intensity of the trip up North, and to allow myself to process that experience. In my attempt to, essentially, nullify the whole thing and return to what I think of as my normal life, I’ve over-done everything. And created yet another set of unbalanced circumstance that have manifested physically.

Yesterday

2006-01-22T11:10:00.000-06:00

Keeping a daily journal of noticings over these past few weeks has been powerful and transformational. It puts me squarely in front of my day-to-day minutia, and thus, nose to nose with my reactions to the ever-morphing landscape of life. When I read back over a week’s postings, I feel very disconnected emotionally from most of my writing, almost as though I am reading the thoughts and experiences of a stranger. If I do not identify with these emotional fluctuations in hindsight, why, then do I cling so to them when they are happening?

I am surprisingly inspired when reading over this past week’s posts.

2 Intentions for Journaling:

Reflection: Use some weekend time to re-read my posts.

Acceptance: No editing. I have not, since I began a daily practice of recording my noticings, edited any content. What I find important to write down, stays in print, and I don’t allow myself to delete it later because I don’t like it, am shocked by it, think it’s silly, etc.
……………………………

A Little listening practice and a very little singing. My voice is still tired. Must take a day or two off. As soon as I got back from that trip I was like a bat out of hell and just sang way too much :( poop. Lost balance.

……………………………………………………….

Zazen

……………………..

Hmmm….it occurs to me that I may actually be burned out. Hmmm…

Another Day

2006-01-20T21:30:00.000-06:00

The sound of the stream is his long, broad tongue;
The mountain, his immaculate body.
These evening's eighty-four thousand verses –
How will I tell them tomorrow? – Dogen Zenji

………………………………………………………………..
Geeze. What a funk I am in.
And I had a hair appointment today and couldn’t make it cuz I forgot the car was in the shop and D in Mexico for the day.

Did a lot of practicing, probably too much. Must break. I think taking that long 10 break put me into a feast or famine mode which I must relax and snap out of.

Zazen
……………………………………………..

Oblique Strategy:

Always the first steps

Don’t I know it!

Ugh

2006-01-19T22:59:00.000-06:00

Morning:
Lovely tea. Baby Cat is soooooo needy. He wants love, love, love, love, love. I woke up at about 5am and could not get back to sleep. That rarely happens, but ugh, this will be a long day.

Revising and organizing my ever-morphing To the Universe letter.

Afternoon:
Zazen

Coaching with Herr R

Evening:
Very tired. Over-sang. Discouraged. Depleted. Feeling weirdly physically unwell.

Bubble bath. Ok, no go on bubble bath, even after I actually cleaned the tub (good gracious!). The tub does not appear to hold water, and I am just too tired to even care, and have refused my dearest’s assistance in the matter. Plans for a run today scrapped. 6pm: pajamas on.

Cinnamon, ginger and honey tea, made from scratch by boiling fresh ginger and a cinnamon stick. Soothing and splendid...

Swing Wide the Door

2006-01-18T21:46:00.000-06:00

Morning:
Tea, reading.

Afternoon:
Short Practice & listening practice.

I love how learning a new song is like unlocking a portal to a new Universe, solving a riddle that opens the gate, placing the last piece to a mysterious puzzle- and a new world opens.
First the aperture is only ajar, and I can barely see light peeking through, and as I am able to swing wider the opening, all manner of treasures and delights are at my disposal: all for me to explore, choose among, taste, touch, wear, languish in, hold, let go…

…………………………………………………………………………
Zazen

Vox lesson- most excellent!

Run@Memorial Park with new sneaks. Glorious Day.

On a day like today it is so easy to be all Zen-Blissed out. No emotional challenges. No personal trials. Only beautiful blue sky all windy sunny cloudlessness-ah….I am both me and you, and the sky and wind, and running trail and the water fountain, and the doggies there; and I am at the top of the mountain solitude looking down, I am both what is high and what is low and I can see ‘for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles…’

Being this when I most need it, though, I cannot do- yet.

Evening:
Dave@V-ball

Practice

Zazen

Practice

Well, it sure looks like a heavy practice day, but hasn’t felt like it. I did a lot of listening and some more solving-unlocking of yet another new song. But the neighbor upstairs, who is never, never home, has decided to inhabit her abode this evening, and I can’t very well sing under her without surely driving her nuts. I do hope she is not planning to make a habit of actually living in her apartment.

Veggie Stew in the crockpot.

Watering is Enough

2006-01-17T21:00:00.000-06:00

Morning:
Cold, sunny, windy, beautiful. Smells like snow. Tea, cleaning. Reading one of my faves: the comic book Zen Speaks: Shouts of Nothingness by Tsai Chih Chung & translated by Brian Bruya

Afternoon:

Zazen

Practice

Oblique Strategy: Water
Good, cuz that is about all I feel capable of doing today: Trust that:

Watering is Enough
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Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire! IMAX! Yay!

Rainy Day

2006-01-16T21:42:00.000-06:00

Morning:
Balmy, gray day…sky pregnant with rain, but not a drop yet. I love the morning light on cloudy storm days.

Feeling a little tired and disheartened.

Though I am not Christian, I was delighted to find an interview with a favorite writer of mine, theologian Matthew Fox, as well as his own 95 Theses he nailed to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany last May.

Zazen

Afternoon:
Oblique Strategy for today: Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency

Practice.
.............................................................

How to artistically and creatively radically invent/re-invent myself? What would that mean? How to operate both within the traditional marketplace of the music industry and yet be radically innovative in my approach to both the creative side of my work as well as the professional aspect of my art?
With blooming skills, how to inventing a niche or myself. What is that niche? Where is it?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I am noticing how quickly my inner landscape morphs and changes: minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, etc….New awareness of how I identify with my emotional experience and how I am both and neither my emotional life/thoughts…

Deelish La Fendee lunch.

Practice.

Peppermint & licorice tea.

Evening:
D @V-ball. Yoga for me.
Beautiful pitter-pattering rainy nite, windy, balmy, and even a little thundery. Ah….

Reminder: practice pausing.

French translating.

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On an Ordinary Sunday

2006-01-15T20:03:00.000-06:00

Morning:
Weird dreams of monks from watching Cadfael last nite.
Pu-erh tea is an acquired taste. I shall try from time to time. Lovely red color. Very earthy…back to Golden Yunnan in Solstice Cat Cup. Ah….delight!

Zazen.

Afternoon:
Run with D @Memorial Park.
White tea. Quiet Sunday.

I still feel fairly run down and like I am in the process of recovering physically, mentally, and emotionally from that grueling trip.

..........................................................

If I am a little part of the Universe that the Big Universe is employing to experience Itself, than how can I better serve the Universe in Its experience?

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Late lunch miso experiment an success!:

Sweet White Miso Basil Sauce*:
For a small amount of sauce:
Near equal amounts of tahini & sweet white miso (1 large tablespoon each, a little more miso than tahini, I’d say)
Spring water to thin to desired consistency
Couple squirts of lemon juice
Handful of fresh chopped basil
Heat til smooth and melty

Delish on veggies, in wraps, on pasta! Yeah!

*Based on a recipe from the South River Miso Company

Evening:
Hooray! New running shoes!

Quiet eve at home with my Love and kitties, and a delightful glass of La Crema Pino. Earth rocks.

Odyssey

New WordPress blog, adieu Blogger!

Wild Wisdom

Community

Be creative

Let go...

Wonder

Just being alive...

On creativity...

One word...

Tromsø & beyond...

Skulpturlandskap Nordland

Glacier Goddess...maker of Heaven...

Things evolve from nothing...

Spring in the Garden

Kyoto iii

Kyoto ii

Kyoto i

Two Days in Tokyo

The Week of Living Dangerously

Facebook Bodhisattva

Istanbul morning

Sapphire Bosporus...

Istanbul I

Dubai of the Desert....

Last Bangkok morning...

Tea in Thailand

Ah, another nite in Bangkok!

Bangkok!

Flight

Hallelujah High Tea!

Brunei

Note from Labuan...

Malay Jet Lag, etc...

Phoenix!

I'm Purple!

Quote

Two favorite passages...

Swallowtail in the garden today....

poem

La Fontaine aux Visages...

Lotus bloom tadpole swim

Fontevraud

Zen Toothbrush, Zen Toothpaste

Gaiman on a Rainy London Day

A Few Pics

Road Weary

Burn Out

Driving Around in a Painting

A Gargoyle-ing We Go!

Loire

Vive La France!

From Atop the Summer Solstice

Mare Pacificum and The Ent

After the Storm

In the Spring We Eat Cucumbers

I'll Have Another Ordinary Sunday, Thank You...

Grateful is the day...

Summer Sizzle

Impossible is Nothing*

Ah, Rilke!

Surfing

Mirror Me This

It’s A Matter of Balance*

Caterpillar on a Hot tin Roof

Bayou Bend

Discipline is a vehicle for joy

Zen Master Caterpillar

Bats Rock

The Acorn & the Ego

Yesterday, Today, and The Day after Next

Butterfly Bandit

Every other day of the week is fine, yeah...

Sunday Best

Hike Who?

Oh! That was the guy from the *beginning* of the movie!

Angry Yucky Me

Heaven's Little Lies

Stormy Weather

Crucible

Oh! That was the guy from the beginning of the movie!