Playing Haiku

Another Chicago photo of the L tracks and the street outside the Chicago hostel.

"We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." -Oliver Wendell Holmes

My new Haiku:

Crash, slam, wrinkle, crunch
Aluminum folding in
Trash compactor eats

Artist

The car paints the ground
Tire resting on dirt ridges
Mud caste masterpiece

"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons." - Douglas Adams

Wishing you some time to play, and the heart to enjoy it.

Felissimo’s 500 Colored Pencil Set

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I fell in love with this set of pencils that are also, with their holders, works of art. 500 hundred colors, with names like Drizzly Afternoon, Tea with Milk. And the way they are sold has an interesting twist. You can only subscribe to buy 25 pencils each month for $33. While it is unlikely that I would buy a whole set if it were available,
I am feeling that unmistakeable pull to sign up. It's only $33 a month. Wonderful names, wonderful story. What artist wouldn't want a 500 color pencil set!! Do I need them. I don't thin so. See I don't want to say they aren't a necessity. Ah, such a luscious possibility. Avarice. Maybe this will encourage me to play with the wonderful sets of pencils I already have. It is great fun to touch the "wow" factor seeing this creative product.

Here's an enticing "story" right off the Social Design site:

Your changing story

It's human to have favorites. To be drawn to certain colors, to have others surprise you. We believe the greatest beauty of 500 Colored Pencils is that you don't receive all of them at once, but over the course of 20 months.

It gives you new focus as an artist, working with color families and feeling the precious nature of each pencil. We send 25 pencils a month, crafted to order. (It's not possible for us to send them any faster: that's how long they take to make.)

As you build to 500, the pencils become your story and experience. It's about enjoying an unhurried creative process, and the artist - over time - you become.

Stuff can be so alluring. Now to learn to balance appreciation & need for acquisition.

"The real and important world is the world inside us, not the world outside." David Watson

Thanks to Labs Creazy for creating the free twignature bar that you see on the side of my page for a Twitter link

Another Path - Haiku

Another picture from my Chicago journey, a pathway leading to Lake Michigan.

In my travels on the I have wandered across several sites just for Haiku. So here is my first go at it myself:

The breeze sings softly
The cat's tail wags ever faster
Watching leaves flying

I am grateful that I am willing to try new things, it opens new doors.

"Consciousness is always open to many possibilities because it involves play. It is always an adventure." Julian Jaynes

Chicago Street Sculpture ?

"The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers." - Erich Fromm

Another picture I took in downtown Chicago of something that fascinated me. However, I am clueless as to exactly what it was or where.

Chicago - A Mother Journey

"Our purpose here is to wake up, to begin to remember the powerful and loving beings we really are . . . " Shakti Gawain

The building behind the "L" train tracks is where I stayed in the HI-Chicago - youth/family hostel. I can recommend it as an inexpensive place to stay in a safe area right downtown close to Lake Michigan, and many other attractions. I started to post a straightened version of this photo. But even though it's askew, I like this one better.

It's was an interesting time to start at the hostel as there was a marathon on the weekend following my stay. So the hostel was packed, even more than normal, with athletes from around the globe. I do love being surrounded by a litany of different languages.

I spoke to a woman who used to live in Chicago, and then moved to what she referred to as the deep, deep south. She had come back "home" for a visit. She inquired as to why I had come. When I told her it because my mother had been born there, she responded with "ah, you're on a mother journey." Our conversation ended abruptly as she needed to go out. I never saw her again. I felt like she had been placed in my path to make me aware or affirm that I was in the right place. After riding the "L", and wandering around town, I felt I had a better sense of my mother. The city has a different pace, rhythm, feel than where I grew up in southern California. I enjoyed Chicago, riding the "L", and hope to visit again someday as there was a lot more to experience there.

"We search on our journeys, for a self to be, for other selves to love, for work to do . . ." Frederick Buechner

Mother's Flowers - Mother's Home

"Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love." - Fyodor Dostoyensky

Also, discovered on the film from the old disposable camera, were more wonderful gifts - pictures I took on a trip to Chicago - I think that was 2006. I decided to go to visit the city my mother grew up it. I went to find my mother old house. What I found as close to old address as I could figure was an empty lot overgrown with grass. Thinking of my mother, I looked more closely and felt connected to her as I saw a little grouping of small purple flowers. Perfectly poetic.

Me & Rhonda Britten

Clearing out stuff can have unexpected positive results. I found a disposable camera whose film I had not taken to be developed when I finished shooting two years ago or more. Voila. Found the picture of me with the exceptional Rhonda Britten at the Discover U class she taught here in Seattle.

She is the fierce personal growth facilitator from my favorite (Emmy award winning) daytime reality show Starting Over House, and founder of Fearless Living.

I remember walking up for the picture only to be met with piercing eyes fully attentive, and the words, "I know you, I've seen you before. Tell me what you've done to change your life since I saw you, what was it, about a year and a half ago."

I don't remember my answer as much as being in awe of her memory and how fully present she was. I understand from her website she is doing a tour of U.S. cities which started August 29. I have seen magical changes and insights in people attending her classes - that is her intention - change happens in her presence. See her if you get an opportunity.

"Why would we not meet, not always as dyspeptics, to tell our bad dreams, but sometimes as eupeptics, to congratulate each other on the ever-glorious morning? I do not make an exorbitant demand, surely." Henry David Thoreau

It is a glorious morning, is it not? Now time for sleep and soft dreams.