Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected
Surprise! It’s not what you expected. How do you respond? Laughter. Disappointment. Curiosity. Do you set it ‘right’? How did you come to have an expectation about this, anyway? Expectations produce emotions. They set you up, mostly for suffering, if you become attached to those expectations. If the discovery that you have harbored some expectation takes you by surprise, but you’re not emotionally invested in it, it can be funny. “Oh, yeah, I guess I wasn’t expecting that. But there it is. How interesting!” Steve’s favorite story about this goes something like this:
A Zen master who had recently had a mini-stroke was invited to perform a traditional ceremony of calligraphy. He had practiced this art for years and participated in the ritual often. He calmly took his place and lifted the long, slender brush. Carefully, he dipped it into the ink and raised it above the thin rice paper. The assembly was silent. His hand was still. Moments passed. Gradually, a wondrous smile spread across the master’s face. He laid the brush aside and beamed. “I’ve forgotten how!” he laughed.
May you know delight in all that unfolds. Peace, my friends.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers
Complexity. Wow. There’s an important concept that we’ve invented to describe our Universe. It’s based in observation and experience. We can feel that our world is complex and give myriad examples. And we often have a reaction to that complexity. Awe. Anxiety. Does simplifying make you feel more comfortable….or uncomfortable? Does digging deeper or looking wider make you feel more anxious or less? Does acknowledging the limitations of your grasp bother you or free you?
I actually feel both. I like to be in control, and I like to be reminded that I’m not in control. I often set out to “fix things” and then realize that they don’t need to be fixed, and so I let them be. “How does it work? Oh, never mind. It’s amazing.” I have seen a few David Copperfield shows, and I laugh at my reaction. I’m not content to be entertained; I want to figure out how he creates those illusions! And then I give up and admit I’m amazed. Visual aides of this complexity concept are always engaging to me because of that dynamic. Here are a few examples: my photo and a link. First, the photo…
Now, the link. This is a Science Project created by two 9th-graders, and it is absolutely outstanding! I may have posted it before, but I don’t hesitate to do it again. Enjoy The Scale of the Universe 2!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit
Habit might be the enemy of Awareness or Mindfulness. Doing things routinely without thinking is a practice that allows our mind to wander into the past or the future or the make believe without really being present. Sometimes, this is just what I want to do! Yes, I admit to blowing up Mah Jong tiles and Free Cell rows when I want to veg out. But if I want to be truly alive, I try to pay attention to each present moment. Thich Nhat Hahn gives a wonderful lesson to Oprah Winfrey on drinking tea mindfully in this clip. Oprah, out of habit, takes a sip of her tea before the meditation even begins. I smile, thinking, “how embarrassing!” and noting that I probably would have done the same thing if I wasn’t careful. Habits can be comforting…and they can lull us to sleep. Do you want to be awake? Do you feel like there will be plenty of time to be dead – later on? I do. Except when I don’t. It takes a lot of psychic energy to be alive! Think about all that’s involved when you do a simple thing like climb up a short flight of stairs. Your weight is shifting, balancing, your muscles are contracting, your toes are gripping, your hand may reach out to the banister, your eyes are measuring the height of each step, you’re breathing with the exertion, and all while trying to remember what you’re going upstairs for! Walking meditation, tea meditation, stairs meditation…it’s all the same practice of mindfulness. This picture adds another aspect: Steve meditation. I see him every day. I want to be mindful of that miracle. He’s alive, different, changing, dynamic, and important. So am I (but I have a long way to go on that one…appreciating myself is the hardest practice for me!).
Weekly Photo Challenge: Eerie
The most eerie place in town is the abandoned poor farm, insane asylum, and tuberculosis sanitorium on the Milwaukee County Grounds. Even more eerie, this place is now in development and the largest chunk of green space we had is now becoming a Technology and Innovation Center (read: big, modern buildings and roads). My blog post and photos of this place can be found HERE. Sample photos:
Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon
Wisconsin horizon
Ever since I was a young girl, I have been enamored of “rolling hills” and farmland. My third grade class studied farm machinery and went out to the plains of Illinois to see a farm. It was nice, but when I caught a glimpse of Kentucky and Iowa on a family trip that summer, I raved about the “rolling hills”. Now I am living up in Wisconsin, where ice age glaciers left deposits across most of the state in landforms known as moraines, kames, drumlins, and eskers. I am in heaven when I venture west from the city of Milwaukee and wind my way around farms nestled between these ancient hills. I am planning to aim toward this horizon more intentionally in the future. Steve & I are hoping to move next year to a more rural village and live a simpler, slower life. May we all reach our desired horizons before the darkness comes!
P.S. to enjoy this horizon in a wider view, just click on the picture!
Weekly Photo Challenge: The Hue of You
I have always identified with autumn colors. My eyes are brown and green, flecked with gold. My hair is a sort of light brown with golden strands that catch the sunlight. I was a true blonde until my late teens when I began to shun the California sun for indoor time with my studies. My sister nicknamed me “Golden Girl”. I have never colored my hair and have only one gray one (which I pluck when it gets more than an inch long!). I love to stroll the green spaces where I live, and I get a little uneasy in a plane when all I see below are dusty expanses. Green is my go-to color. My mother never liked green and made pronouncements about why it was “bad” for a kitchen, for clothing, for just about everything except plants. I grew up revering my parents’ opinions, and learning to develop my own style is something I’ve come into rather late, I think. Sorry, Mom. I WILL wear green and decorate my indoor space with it liberally! This picture reflects a wonderful tapestry of fall colors, with a blue sky for background and a towering church which seems like it is being overtaken by vegetation. This is also me: my monumental Christianity is slowly being eclipsed and colored by a more prominent display of natural life. This is the hue of me:
Holy Hill
When 900 years old you are…
…look this good you will not!!
Star Wars Day at Discovery World museum is this Saturday. I’m the OLDEST female guest service team member; most of my colleagues weren’t even alive when the first movie came out! Yoda is going to be my alter-ego for the day. I’m old, wise, and I know what an introductory adverbial clause is!
Leaf litter
This is the type of untidiness that needs not to be swept into piles and discarded in the gutter or collected in bags or cans. This is the dazzling detritus of Autumn, the fancy foliage of decrepitude; this splendid scattering of scarlet and gold makes sweet decay a glorious fate! Go ahead, Death, be proud! Come, decomposers, you fungi and millipedes, and create symphonies underfoot! Take a shuffling walk about this afternoon and breathe the perfume of change (if you’re not allergic!). Ain’t life (with Death included) grand?!
scillagrace 