Happy New Year! Enter 2009

Winter Solstice

Now

A light appears at a clearing in the forest. Two nights ago, Obama is elected. Last night David Spangler spoke of the election and of the Spirit of Home....the physical space, the energetics of what nurtures us, our planetary home, and our capacity - and responsibility - to extend an open hearted sense of belonging to others, hospitality. From wood, weaving and found objects, Penelope Bourke surrounded the hall with intriguing sculptures on the theme of Homecoming and the Odyssey epic.

Obama's in the Lead - History in the Making

Without TV, I'm following the election on internet and radio. Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin have the world's attention.

Samhain, All Hallow's Eve, Dia de los Muertos, All Saints, All Souls

We move into the season of fruitful darkness. It is time to remember and rekindle the light deep inside. It is time to acknowledge that light in our selves and in each other.

Happy Birthday, Erin !!!

Twenty-six years ago today, a wide-eyed baby girl came into the world. She is now an amazing woman who has taught me so much by sharing time on this planet. Happy Birthday, Erin!

Vote !!!

Reminder from South Whidbey Island, WA.

Home

Island Women's Presence and Teachings

I am grateful for the wisdom of several island women who work in relationship with Nature. You may be interested in their work: Julie Charette Nunn at http://www.crowsdaughter.com/ , Penny Bauer at http://www.bauerstudio.com/, and Mara Grey at http://www.natureweaving.com/. Traveling from Scotland several times a year, Fionntulach, anam cara and carrier of the Ceile De tradition, comes to an island retreat to bring teachings of the order. See http://www.ceilede.do.uk/ .

A favorite writer - a new website

David Abram
Wild Ethics

http://www.wildethics.org/

The royal purples of Michaelmas daisies and ripe plums are banners heralding the new season. Again, a liminal space for me that calls for another shift...

Autumnal Equinox...Harvest Home...

Well, the experiment is what it is... I repeated my experiment from the Spring Equinox hoping that the Autumnal Equinox egg would also stand in fine balance.

I will just have to consider its equilibrium being in place on the horizontal plane. A glorious day, however. Autumnal Equinox.

Reporting on Work

New works for my G-3 semester....part of Packet#1

The Apple Tree Garden at Chinook

I volunteer at Whidbey Institute on south Whidbey Island. I suggested a blog to welcome and educate people about the plant residents and the healing space therein. The gardener's daughter will be designing one quite soon, so there will be a blog for Chinook's Apple Tree Garden. I have been asked to provide images. Recently, I put together three items for the bulletin board as visitors cross the threshhold.

Recovering from a state of self-forgetfulness,

I have caught myself counting the stamens of a flower.

~~~Tufu

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Observe the wonders as they are around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.

~Rumi

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The child awakens to a universe.

The mind of the child to a world of wonder.

Imagination to a world of beauty.

Emotions to a world of intimacy.

It takes a universe to make a child,

both in outer form and inner Spirit.

It takes a universe to educate a child,

a universe to fulfill a child.

Each generation presides over the meeting

of these two in the succeeding generation.

So that the child is fulfilled in the universe

and the universe is fulfilled in the child.

While the stars ring out in the heavens!

~~~Thomas Berry

In Balance! Join the Experiment!

Mark your calendars! Very soon on September 22, 2008, I hope you will consider joining an experiment. It will be the Autumnal Equinox, equal day/night, in the Northern Hemisphere. The Equinox arrives in Pacific Daylight Time at 8:44 a.m. ---- 10:44, CDT; 11:44 EDT; 15:44, UT or GMT. I will be repeating my egg balancing experiment that happened on Spring Equinox in April. There is a window of opportunity, several hours on either side of the exact time. Use a raw egg - not hard boiled. Try this with me and report your results!

Blackberries

The blackberries are ripening just out back, and I spent a few minutes early this morning listening to the very happy birds while I was picking. Our variety is actually the invasive Himalayan blackberry. The oldest stalks are the diameter of small trees. They'll overtake trees and hillsides. The deer feed on them.

The old plum tree is loaded and needs another week to ripen. I gathered one that dropped, and it reminded me why I love to dry them and make jam. I wonder how mashed ones would work for pigment? I see an experiment brewing.

Collaboration with Snail ala Studio Libertiny

Well, I was inspired by Thomaz Libertiny and his bee colony. I wanted to do a collaboration with someone from the animal kingdom. Here on Whidbey there are multitudes of slugs and snails. I remembered last winter waking up to glistening trails all over my livingroom rug. Several snails had been at work while I was asleep after escaping from the planter I brought in from the yard. So for a collaborative project: "Ah, perhaps a glistening design on velvet," I thought. The snail agreed to come in if I brought the leaves. I placed a velvet square in a glass pie plate and nestled the leaf with snail inside. By morning there was a glistening path on the velvet which made me notice the lint. Where oh where is the snail? He had climbed out of the pie pan and glued himself onto the lens of my glasses on the counter. OK, so it is 2-Dimensional, not 3-D like the honeycomb vases. But I like the potential of how I might enhance the shimmer pattern. It is a Work-in-progress, and snail has been returned to its garden home for more green leaves. Is this art or a diversion from writing a gazillion job applications?!

I'm thinking of the lesson of the snail and being placed in a new situation not to our choosing. We can just make our path --- make it glistening --- and stay true to ourselves. No hurry. We carry all we need with us, a pureness of being. Those who do not understand may call it slime, but it is evidence of a true path. We may have to make our way across the darkness, but we can get to the other side. We climb out of the dark unknown and maybe into another unknown, but anchor ourselves to tools of seeing. We trust all the while that we will be returned with care to our home.

Studio L I B E R T I N Y

Studio L I B E R T I N Y

Artist/Designer Thomaz Libertiny offers a framework and collaborates with hundreds of bees who produce an honeycomb amphora. I love the idea of collaborating with the natural world, though I'm not sure the bees had a choice to be there or not. As the process was repeated, each successive project revealed variations on the design.

Families Gather for Kim John Payne

I sat with Kate in the Middle School Auditorium on this cool, rainy, Pacific Northwest evening.

South Whidbey Island parents turned out to hear consultant Kim John Payne this evening. He brought a gentle, genuine tone to navigating some of the challenges with our young ones. After a historical overview noting how the pendulum swings over the decades for parenting fads, Kim demonstrated with humor.......and always respect..........how to shift the dynamics that lead to challenging behaviors.

Kim invited a simulated discussion with Adam, a Waldorf father/parent coordinator, to model how to manage a child's typical bid for attention while parents are conversing. He demonstrated how to stay invested in the conversation while signaling "stop" to the child, then breaking eye contact and giving a clear message that a choice for "a NOW " answer will always be "NOW without the W." Clever...make them think! But clearly, the cues would be taught at an earlier time, because "in our family we don't interrupt." Teach teamwork as part of family values. Kim John Payne designed a three-fold model that involved teaching to willing, feeling and thinking capacities of our young ones.

Check out his site: www.thechildtoday.com. I'll be adding more...................

Working Definitions

Grace:

*Seemingly effortless beauty, care, form

*Honor, Refinement

*Gentleness freely given

*Divine love

Meridian:

*Zenith, highest point

*Channel through which energy flows

*A Great Circle encompassing wholeness

*Highest point of development

G-3 Residency

Taking a Ferry to School

See that land mass across the Puget Sound? That's the Olympic Peninsula, home of a couple of temperate rainforests, beaches that touch the Pacific, and Port Townsend. A cluster of us gather to work on an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts with the west coast cohort of Vermont's Goddard College. The residency is held at Centrum campus on the grounds of old Ft. Worden.

I take the Keystone ferry from west Whidbey Island to Pt. Townsend. Upon arrival the last February, eagles were circling our quarters. We live in the old non-commissioned officers houses. There was a full moon. Deer were grazing on the green between our residences and where classes are held. Faculty, students and guest artists offer seminars during the eight days. The planetary weather will provide a lunar eclipse and full moon as we settle in for the week of classes, set up the "Considered Spaces" gallery, and begin designing study plans. I think of it as a school for nomads or a theatre. You arrive and set up, and then you strike the set and go home to work all semester.

Each semester has a focus. We have completed Person, Place and Practice. We have just wrapped up Liminal Spaces. Now we begin Sustainability and Social Justice: Our Presence in the World. I need to get back to packing!

Changing Patterns

Seems to be a shift calling for a new formation. I will watch for the Perseids meteor shower after 2am on the 12th. Shooting stars are always a wonderful show, encouraging us to move in new ways or into new territory. Here's to the spiral of life!