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Tim E. Turtle and the Spidey Hole Adventure (for Willoree)

2009-07-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

Nasturtium mavis rockmommaoff,

Listless favoriteum magnitudious.

or:

Better one whipporwill in nest,

than ten whipporwont's.

From "The Terra Pin Chronicles"©

This is a good, good story about my new friend Tom Tom.

by Tim E. Turtle, Esq.

"My good, good story it goes like this - I make a good, good poem.

I went to see my friend Tom Tom. I went to see his home.

Hey, that's a good rhyme!"

"I knocked and knocked, but body home? I push open the door."

I yelled: "Tom Tom!", but I didn't heard nothing. But I went in anyway.

"Wait, that not rhymes."

"What do you think rhymes with door?"

"Tom Tom had lots good food to eat, but I couldn't never dare -

do I look like that girl Goldilocks, or even Mr. Bear?

That's a good, good Turtle joke, I think, though it is kind of lowly.

But since your Human, I'll be nice and tell it real, real slowly."

"I remembered Tom Tom liked his Spidey Hole.

So I went down and down the stairs.

And Ow! Good thing that I can roll!"

"But where was Tom Tom?" No where he seen,

So I climbed his desk, and went computer-ing.

Just wanted to help, though I felt like a louse.

He used a keypad, but I used a mouse.

"Tom Tom paints lots of pictures, you see.

Though some of his stuff is sure strange to me!

Don't mean to sound neg-ative, I'm a big fan -

But I think I do better, by wiggling in sand."

"Thought I'd give it a try, though I knew that I shouldn't,

then I knew I should stop, but somehow I just couldn't!"

(If you've ever found yourself in these kind of scenes -

you already know what this Turtle means.)

"I heard a great clomping, Tom runs, he's not lazy. And

when he saw what I'd done, he looked kind of crazy!"

(I drew me a picture of his funny look.

And signed it and had it put into this book.)

"He gave me a look that he calls 'The Snake Eyes'.

He tried to look tough, though it weren't no surprise -

when he started to laugh, and I joined in.

He cracks my shell, that's why he my friend."

Tom Tom exclaimed, "E.'s no great big, deal -

but I'll say this just once, and I mean it for real.

Next time you come calling to my special place,

(and I don't mind telling you straight to your face)

I'd like it a lot if we both work together,

talking makes collab-oration much better!"

"That Tom Tom is funny, he's my special friend.

I think I shall come back and see him again!"

The end. Thank

you.

Love, Tim E. Turtle

From the "Little Empathinc. Reader" Collection ©

"The Wizened Foolish Maidens"

2009-07-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

As a student,there was never much allure for me in the simple fact that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

So that even now, when I stop to smell the roses, I am aware not only of the scent of the bloom, or the slant of the sun rays along the thorned stem, the dew on the petals - but also the amending of the soil, the pruning back in expectation of other seasons, droughts, aphids, my Grandmother in long sleeves. And then also the later to-be recalled memories evoked by the dried arrangement suspended from the rafters of some future attic (whose location I do not yet know).

"The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins", ca. 1803–5

William Blake (British, 1757–1827)

Perhaps that is pecisely why mythology has so much appeal for me..........a format offering more questions in the colorful details than answers. The parables of the New Testament hold the same paradoxical appeal - even as they were most often taught to me as closed-ended morality lessons.

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

The story of the "Wise and Foolish Maidens" told to me from Matthew 25: 1-13 (read here) was taught as a cautionary tale. Warning me to be ever vigilant and mindful of being prepared, the lesson echoed the dire warnings of Civil Defense drills and news reels. The Wise Maidens held their potential in check - waiting, ever waiting for the Groom to arrive. I believed that I too, was expected to tend my lamps and 'trim my wicks', but leave them unlit.

The Foolish Maidens (on the other hand), appear frivolous in their lack of planning - either burning up their reserves (according to some versions) or not bringing fuel at all (according to others). Through their lack of foresight they literally leave themselves in the dark. But this in itself is not what makes these poor Maidens Foolish.

No, these Maidens - upon their return from the Home Depot, with vats of replenished oil - had the unmitigated gall to expect entry through the locked gates to the wedding celebration! And it was this audacity that made them Foolish in the eyes of the other celebrants.

A common interpretation of this parable is that the Foolish Maidens (like the rest of us Foolish Humans) can not, nor should not, expect to have their important work done by others.

This is a valuable lesson to implement as we attempt to navigate the darkened passages of time and social order.

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

But I suspect that many of us have burned our lanterns with some abandon:

and oh, such glorious light!

If denied entrance as guests at the gate, let us not despair. Instead let us grab each other by the hands - a community of Wizened Foolish Maidens. And dance until the dawning - illuminated but by the fractured light of

countless fireflies.

Tim E. Turtle (for Willoree)

2009-06-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a good, good story.

Today, as I worked, the noise like a roar -

there were forklifts and hammer drills, deliveries and more:

plasterers, plumbers, and masons by scores!

Above the din, I heard a small voice,

"I'm so very hungry and that cracker looks choice!"

I shared cause my Momma just raised me that way,

and thought, "I shall make a great friend here, to-day."

We finished our repast, and both wiped our faces,

and shared our penchants for finding new places.

We exchanged our names, both him and me:

I was Tom Tom, and he was Tim E.

He scaled the escarpment I'd known as my truck,

and merrily shouted out, "Hey, we're in luck!

I carry my home on my back, don'tcha see,

and your camper top seems to re-semble me!"

I asked him along, though a loner - a rebel.

His response shrilled high in reptilian treble,

"Come out of your shell, there's much fun in store!"

So I stuck out my neck and opened the door.

Assertive, young Tim headed straight for the wheel;

"You work the gas and let's make this rig squeal!"

"Slow down", I implored, which I meant as a joke,

and he cut me a look and I thought I would choke.

I said, "Here's a chill-pill and please, listen to this".

So he took my ipod and looked through the list.

"This hip-hop is cool", (down shifting the cogs).

"Way cool", he replied, "and its not just for frogs!"

We cruised the two lane, and I made conversation - "What's

the E. for?", I asked, and with no hesitation,

he cleared his scaled throat and got down to brass tacks:

"E.'s none of your business. E.'s not your beeswax."

That Tim is sure funny, so you wait and see. Soon you'll be Tim's friend,

just like me!

With love from Tom Tom and Tim E.

From the "Little Empathinc. Reader" Collection ©

"Spatiotemporal Scales"

2009-06-18T12:27:00.001-07:00

"Over Head Starts Here" 2006

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

"My soul was as big as the universe and frolicked with glee in a boundless sea"
Jill Bolte Taylor, PHD My Stroke of Insight

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

“This being so,” asked the Earl of the River, “may I take heaven and earth as the standard for what is large,
and the tip of a downy hair as the standard for what is small?”

"Releasing Occlusions" 2009
From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

“No,” said the Overlord of the North Sea. “Things are limitless in their capacities, incessant in their occurrences,
inconstant in their portions, uncertain in their
beginning and ending.

"Our Guernica" (detail, "Spaceboy Aghast")© 2006
Interactive Mural (currently located at Sanctuary Bar, Charlotte, NC)
Visual dialogue between artists Tom Schulz and Isaac Schulz.

For this reason, great knowledge observes things
at a relative distance;
hence it does not belittle what is small or make much of what is big, knowing that their capacities are limitless.”
Chuang Chou, ~300 B.C.

"Constellations" (installation view) 2003
Modular cement units, acid stain, 110 fiber optic lines
The Clay Center, Dexter School Brookline, MA

In his book "The Ways of Seeing", John Berger writes that, "Soon after we can see, we are aware that we can also be seen. The eye of the other combines with our own eye to make it fully credible that we are part of the visible world."

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

But this viewpoint leaves us with significant boundary value problems. For while it is prudent, perhaps even necessary to work under the assumption that the visible world is seen in the same format to the one as it is to the other, it has not proven to be a particularly effective strategy for being, nor for being in community. It allows that we operate out of a perceived commonality, and that this system of correlating factors - known as truth, known as laws, known as reality and civilization - functions in a mechanically determinable fashion. Tidy.
I'm wondering if we could extend this visual concept of seeing, and of being seen. In my more gracious moments, I am able to imagine that each cell of my body is the manifestation of countless intersections of starlight. Each junction becomes the moment that absorbs the rushing towards of the light as well as the rushing away.
I like this image.
This is what I receive from you. It is what I have to give. Incandescence.
Fractal fireflies bound together in the magnificent exhibition of our reciprocating light.

"Illuminate Yon Woods Primeval"

2009-06-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

Across the expanse of yard and fence:

asphalt, gravel, concrete. A nursing home.

A star wrestles past the lamp post like an oversight.

Here, emergency lights illuminate a chromium bumper.

There, a street signal changes to green.

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

A helicopter searches for a lone assailant,

two klieg lights herald a cross-town club.

One hundred tons of shattered meteors

commence their sylphidine dusting.

Countless tiny footprints will be unrecognizable by sun rise.

"Dance of the Mohawk"© (detail) 2006

Study for Great Hall Installation Arkell Museum

Canajahorie, NY

Dusk cues the fireflies to saunter on stage.

One at a time and also in pairs -

stitching together a luminescent scrim that portends tomorrow's mapping.

They will all be asleep by nine.

"Systems Analysis"

Willoree Photos/Modified 2008

Glow worms echo patterns from the Maidenhairs.

Creating rhizomorphs of time in the loam.

Spatial systems of some resolve,

they'd lead a billion Lovells home.

From the "Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

We join along in our technoluminescence.

We twitter, we flickr, we flash.

Our expressions are wired into grid-type meshes;

fractal fireflies.

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

"Calling for Response"

2009-06-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Emmanuel Levinas considered that when we looked into the face of the Other, we were looking into the face of God.

I'm thinking, this evening, that by turning our gaze on any Other is to turn our gaze upon God. Be it human or not, any state of Being may be considered Other, including our own shadow, our own core, our own Mystery - that which we are often so slow to explore.

Willoree November 2008

On the other hand, Theodor Adorno said that we may only know ourselves by knowing our fractured selves.

While I am no stranger to fractures - broken bones, divorce, death, fire, storms of many natures, and all sorts of pestilence, much of which has been by my hands alone, regardless of how I would prefer to view it in the moment.

Or now, in this moment, for that matter.

Bronxscape - Photovoltaic array 2009

Parsons School of Design

Roof top "oasis" at a home for assisted living. A gathering space for those individuals that have 'aged' out of foster care.

Perhaps, as is most often the case, we may come to perceive our intersections with Otherness in an Other way. As an extension of osmosis - a free exchange that interacts with both our interior and exterior extensions of our selves. A format of being that is not without boundaries. Rather, it exists as a method of respect -enacted.

From the "Spidey Hole Series - Fractal Fireflies Subset"

To see the world as marvelous is to acknowledge a praxis of participation. A healing practice that goes beyond the beginning and the end. That hears the tree falling in the forrest. That acts in thankfulness, not in the seeking of reward. For reward, like the right of way, is granted, not taken.

Carrie and Isaac, NYC 2009

On the event of Carries graduation (MArch, Parsons)

First Corinthians:13(KJV), says, "for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.

The human body is up to 78% percent water. Today, in Charlotte, NC, the humidity level was 65%. In this state of saturation, let us flow into and around one another.

Let us respond when called.

Go where we are sent.

Make few, if any assumptions.

And question everything.

Question everything.

"Aqueous Motif" 2008

Acid and polymer on concrete

" The Go-Between"

2009-05-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

“The go-between wears out a thousand sandals."
Japanese Proverb

—

From The Inter-Faith Prayer Painting Series / Derivations

“When before the beauty of a sunset or of a mountain, you pause and exclaim Ah!, you are participating in divinity.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth, quoting The Upanishads

"BronXscape 2008 Parsons The Design Workshop

"No, I have seen the mirage tremble, seen how thin

The veil stretched over apparent time and space

To make the habitable Earth, the enclosed garden."

Kathleen Raine Three Poems on Illusion

UPenn SAS Music Building Renovation 2009

"We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with an other."

Thomas Merton - Author, Trappist Monk

From the Spidey-Hole Series - Bloated Geometries

For the first time in my life I saw the horizon as a curved line. It was accentuated by a thin seam of dark blue light—our atmosphere. Obviously this was not the ocean of air I had been told it was so many times in my life. I was terrified by its fragile appearance.

Ulf Merbold - ESA Astronaut (Germany)

"Bench Seat"© Jack Matney Courtyard 2008

Multicolored cast concrete, acid stains, shattered tempered glass.

I wonder when we began to define our lives as a parenthetical expression: a life lived between the confines of life and death.

Beginning and Ending. I would prefer that the "in between" that we define as life would be more expansive.

In my thinking (and please understand that I neither exclude, nor diminish your thinking),

we as individuals, and as a people, would embrace the possibilities that surround the one and the other, the Life and the Death.

I'm thinking that the 'thin space' could become the 'broad space'.

Dimensions once brought asunder; married in a new union.

"Which Frightened Both the Heroes So"

2009-05-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

Eric Charles White wrote in 1987:

Kairos is an ancient Greek word that means "the right moment'" or "the opportune."

"Nebulous Grid" 2009

From the Spidey Hole - Bloated Geometry Series

"The map is a significant cultural document. The native mapmaker employed an indigenous graphic system of circles, lines, and alternating scales to portray his knowledge of the physical and social geography of nearly a quarter of the continent."

Another America: Native American Maps and the History of Our Land Mark Warhus 1997

"Loaded: the Weisiger Chapel Project" 2009

".........it's so friggin endless it's like poems endless everywhere and no one knows why bettern old Buddha you know where he says it's like "There are immeasurable star misty aeons of universes more numerous than the sands in all the galaxies, multiplied by a billion lightyears of multiplication, in fact if I were to go on you'd be scared and couldn't comprehend and you'd despair so much you'd drop dead," that's what he said in one of those sutras - Macrocosms and microcosms and chillicosms and microbes and finally you got all those marvelous books a man aint even got time to read em all...."

Big Sur Jack Kerouac 1962

"Leaning Psalm" 2009

Weisiger Chapel Project Hospice, Charlotte NC

"........which frightened both the heroes so,

they quite forgot their quarrel."

Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee

"Expulsion From the Grid" 2009

From the Spidey Hole Series

I operate my busy-ness primarily from Chronos time: deadlines, appointments, schedules. I'm pretty good at that. Daytimers help. As do your calls and reminders (thank you very much). But my life is more based in Kairos time. My personal narrative mapped out in a survey of bruises and good-byes. Aches and hellos. Healings and salutations. My days are a palimpsest of heavings and liftings and measurements and wishing. My nights are filled with wandering around back into the day, bringing forth images more dense than any laurel thicket. The blinds are opened; the blinds are closed. I mark my territory with lemon juice, and read the directions by holding the image to the light.

How does your time work, human?

"The Words of My Roaring"

2009-05-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

"To the Chief Musician"

"Motif Motif" Study for Weisiger Chapel 2009

"The straight warp of necessity, not to be swerved from its ultimate course - its every alternating vibration, indeed, only tending to that; free will still free to ply her shuttle between given threads; and chance, though restrained in its play within the right lines of necessity, and sideways in its motions modified by free will, though thus prescribed to by both, chance by turns rules either, and has the last featuring blow at events."

Hermann Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale 1851

Pew End Detail Weisiger Chapel 2009

"Roll away the stone

Don't leave me here all alone

Resurrect me and protect me

Don't leave me laying here

What will they do in two thousand years?"

Leon Russell 1970

Motif and Actuality - the Concrete and the Abstract

"Eli, Eli, lama sabach'thani"

"Clarifying Arrangement"

Copper and Stainless Steel Armature, Cement, Black Walnut. Metallic Paints and Reactive Patinas 2009

To be forsaken is to place oneself in the position of opportunity (if we keep our heads about ourselves). Each new threshold may only be crossed when the old world is left behind with abandon.

But fear not,

for we shall (each of us) be recognized by those willing to see us.

I would never insinuate that such a passage is without its own specific trials and traumas, but still I maintain that such is the fodder of many a great narrative.

"Leave Them Alone, and They'll Come Home"

2009-04-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

"......yet it indicates that what we seek is not a final but an open-ended order, capable of continuous further development."

Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City

"Still, life." 2009

"Normal science can be determined in part by the direct inspection of paradigms, a process that is often aided by but does not depend upon the formulation of rules and assumptions. Indeed, the existence of a paradigm need not even imply that any set of rules exists"

Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Detail, Weisiger Chapel Project 2009

Laser Etched Acrylic, LED lighting, 23rd Psalm KJV

Every image, every structure, every relationship, requires framing

Pew detail, Weisiger Chapel Project 2009

Laminated Black Walnut

"Discerning Patterns in Chaos"

2009-04-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

"Stern Taskmaster" 2009

From the "Laughing it up in the Spidey-Hole" Series

__________________________________________

A more severe,

More harassing master would extemporize
Subtler, more urgent proof that the theory
Of poetry is the theory of life,

As it is, in the intricate evasions of as,
In things seen and unseen, created from nothingness,
The heavens, the hells, the worlds, the longed-for lands.

Wallace Stevens, from An Ordinary Evening in New Haven, 1950

"Configuring the Situatrium" (detail) 2009

My memories are like the bear that went over the mountain.
Can't no longer see the bear, but I'm pretty sure it is there
(maybe the bear, and maybe the mountain).
I went over a mountain once. Just to see what I could see.
It was a place called Punkin'town.
I took the road home, picking up a ride all the way to Wayne Hooper's store.
Wayne road his riding mower at night because of his allergies.
His single headlight penetrated my curtain-less home,
bouncing along the fine line of ceiling and wall.

"Intersections and the Event of Carrie's Birthday"

2009-04-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

"I love this hour

when the tide is just turning

there will be an end

to the longing and yearning

If I can stand up

To angels and men

I'll never get swallowed

In darkness again"

"Anywhere on this Road"

Lhasa De Sela "The Living Road"

"Study for the Holy Grate (warm)" Weisiger Chapel Project 2009

"Many beautiful patterns are sitting in every simple subgrid, just waiting to be pulled out. the subgrids themselves are rarely shown in traditional art. They are considered part of the underlying structure of reality, with the cosmos overlaid ("cosmos" "means adornment")"

Sacred Geometry Miranda Lundy 2001

"Slightly Over Cast" 2009

From the "Spidey-Hole Series"

"is that kinda like math as a flexible art instead of an absolute? two points of focus simultaneously incorporated?"

Carrie Schulz 3/31/09

"Study for the Holy Grate (cool)" Weisiger Chapel Project 2009

There is a front moving through this evening. Blackberry winter.

The turtle carries it's mountain home into each new locale, regarding not the season.

Octagons adorn the edifice, corbeled each appendage.

"Some Things are Better Left Unsaid"

2009-04-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

What would you call destiny? What would you choose in Life? Is it possible that you get to configure your very own specific reality? If so, thanks for inviting me along.

Chipboard, chip on my shoulder, Chip Bird, Chip Forinash. Chip and Dale. Chippendale's. Chip off the old Block,

chip shot,

A chip in nine, saves..............time.

Time.

"Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on top of the stairs and blew with trumpets , saying, Jehu is King."

2 Kings 9:13

"My Donnas" 2009

36. and as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.

Luke 19:36

"Technology: is a Burning Bush" 2009

What if the occurrences of our lives were prophesied? Would we strain to learn the narrative, or stumble along, improvising? Either way, my friends. Just that we have our eyes open.

"You Drop Through That Transparent Air"

2009-04-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

"D'ye mark him, flask?" whispered Stubb; "the chick that's in him pecks the shell. T'will soon be out"

Herman Melville, "Moby-Dick or The Whale"

"I Dreamed I was a Turtle" 2006

4 " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."

23rd Psalm KJV

"Riding the Elevator" 2008

From the 1850 Codex Series

Far from the marvelous lies the hopes that only the mundane may harbor. We build bridges from the known to the unknown and watch them sway in the breeze of our uncertainty. Cross, my friend - sweet, my illusions.

"Speaking in Complete Sentience"

2009-03-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

"This is the origin of sentience - the evolution of conscious beings who have the capacity to experience pain and pleasure...........the human quest for knowledge and understanding of one's existence stems from a profound aspiration to seek happiness and overcome suffering"

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "The Universe in a Single Atom"

"Shut Up Suzy" 2008

From the Spidey-Hole Series / Bloated Geometries Section

"Accessing the World" 2006

Each encounter becomes, then an intersection. Time, being a human invention, provides only incremental and isolated snippets of particular realities. Our choices revolve around our abilities to break beyond these habits of being.

"Feeling Repulsive"

2009-03-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

"Guidance may also occur at unexpected times to address a question you did not know you were carrying in your heart."

Lauren Artress "The Sacred Path Companion"

"From the Spidey Hole Series" 2009

"Loop gravity, in contrast, is able to trace what took place at the singularity. Loop-based scenarios, though admittedly simplified, are founded on general principles and avoid introducing new ad hoc assumptions."

Martin Bojowald Scientific American October 2008

"Holy Grate" (study) Weisiger Chapel Project 2009

"Assuming Space is a Continuum"

2009-03-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

"The universal behavior of a class of complex systems would be likely to display organized complexity itself"

The Theory of Theories

I have suffered under the illusion that we met at a particular time and stretched that time out in a line, so that we remain thinned in the effort. As if we were to stop and examine who we have become, our past would crash into us -propelled by its own inexorable momentum.

More likely that our life is a series of moments held together by countless threads of connectivity. Looking back, we see forward.

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change"

Alfred North Whitehead

Above: "assuming space is a continuum", 2008 from the "Spidey-Hole Series"

"Icons and Allergens."

2009-03-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung, the grass has ris. Please visit grownmannow.com and find out why that is.

Thank you for your indulgence.

"Allergens" 2009

"Spidey-hole Series

An allergy refers to an exaggerated reaction by our immune system in response to bodily contact with certain foreign substances. It is exaggerated because these foreign substances are usually seen by the body as harmless and no response occurs in non-allergic people.

"Working Spaces"

2009-03-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

"When the way comes to an end, then change - having changed, you pass through."

I Ching

New labyrinth painting viewed through the beginnings of the "Holy Grate" for the Weisiger Chapel .

Last project in the Spidey Hole Projects

"Creativity is any act, idea, or product that changes an existing domain, or that transforms and existing domain into a new one"

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

A well out-fitted workshop may often be mistaken for a garage.

Poured concrete in form and fence shadow. Critical altar components. Visit the projects section at Empathinc.com for preliminary details. Thank you for your continued interest.

"Sure: Go Ahead and Blame the Universe"

2009-03-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

I walked bare footed across the asphalt as an act of penance. I had no understanding of the word of the doing except that I had full understanding of the doing of the doing. Some kids are like that. I was that kind of kid. I mounted my bicycle with a vengeance and peddled standing up so that I could experience the pumping. Some kids think that makes you go really, really fast. I was one of those kids. I watched the front tire turn round and round and wondered how I could even stay connected to the road by one ever-shifting, tiny slip of rubber.

Maybe I didn't.

Maybe you didn't.

Maybe we are bumping about in some void, practicing to hold tight to butterfly handle bars.

And the streamers off the plastic grips?

Those are comets.

Sure: go ahead and blame the universe.

"Sure: Go Ahead and Blame the Universe"

2009 From the Inter-Faith Prayer Series

"All of life moves in cycles; the whole universe is cyclic. Just as the earth moves around the sun in a regular cycle, all of Nature moves in a cyclic pattern. The seasons move in a circle: spring, summer, autumn, winter, then spring again and so forth. From the seed comes the tree, the tree again provides seeds, and the seeds grow into trees. It is a circle"

Ammachi

"Over Inflated Ego"

2009-03-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

"When two texts, or two assertions, perhaps two ideas, are in contradiction, be ready to reconcile them rather than cancel one by the other: regard them as two different facets, or two successive stages of the same reality, a reality convincingly human, just because it is complex"

Marguerite Yourcenar

Over Inflated Ego 2009

From the "Laughing in the Spidey-Hole Series"

How does one act authentically with an umbilical cord connected directly to the "habits" of being?

"The Muscle of Attention"

2009-03-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

Isaac Schulz Visits the Spidey-Hole 2009

"And then see the difference between the right cheek and the left cheek. On the left there is darkness, a heaviness of the features, inner calm, and the most complete indifference of expression. On the right, on the contrary, the light of the eye and the orbit shines right across the whole cheek, and the features appear lengthened and their relief modified. What a marvelous transformation of facial expression! It is the awakening of the spirit."

The Mechanism of Human Facial Expression G.B. Duchenne de Boulogne (1806-1875)

Edited and Translated by R. Andrew Cuthbertson

"Order in Space"

2009-03-01T16:05:00.000-08:00

"This chart illustrates the inter-relationship of the five Platonic solids.

The figures in the upper line (A, B, C, D, E) predominate in the inter-relationships."

Order in Space Keith Critchlow, 1969

"Order in Space / May 7, 2003" (detail) 2009

How many of us are frightened by the very things that we ask for? Could we be muddy in the asking? Has it become better to seek than it is to find? Does the finding require a new paradigm of acceptance? I wonder how it is that we - in every moment - are face to face with our own happiness, and blind ourselves so often to it's abundant availability, just because it is beyond the pale of our expectations.

"Maybe It's Not The Bus Driver; Maybe It's The Bus."

2009-02-19T17:51:00.000-08:00

Everyone I talk to these days responds to a problem by saying, "It is what it is." My understanding is that this phrase is some incantation that untethers the difficulty and allows it to drift away.

Well, that is causing a lot of trouble in space, Will Robinson.

It is said that the old map is useless in the new land.

As individuals we have the choice to make our own maps.

Anyone need a crayon? A marker, perhaps? A hatchet to blaze a trail?

TROUBLE IN SPACE 2008

From the "Spidey-Hole" series.

"The idea that something must be so because Newton or Einstein (or ________fill in the blank here) said so is simply not scientific (or ________fill in the blank here). So an inquiry has to proceed from a state of openness with respect to the question at issue and to what the answer may be, a state of mind which I think of as healthy skepticism. This kind of openness can make individuals receptive to fresh insights and new discoveries; and when it is combined with the natural human quest for understanding, this stance can lead to a profound expanding of our horizons."

"The Universe in a Single Atom" The Dalai Lama 2005

"Unfettered Love"

2009-02-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Tied up, let loose, controlled and yelling from the top of the highest mountain: love is unfettered and alive, bound by the beauty, a many splendid thing, a religion, the difference between right and wrong, unforgettable, made, red, and tainted. Love is sent, groovy, addictive, eternal, and an automatic battlefield. Love is celebrated, cherished, done; said and taken. Love is easy, endless and fallen. Fallow, fast, feared and felt. Forbidden, got and had. Love is higher and believed. Love is hated. Love is known and said. Love is love. Love is loved. Love is born, held and made.

Love is not. Love is only. Love is falling.

Jesus loves me. Love ain't like that. Love is an addiction.

Love is first sight.

Love moves, cuts, and comes quickly. Explodes, hurts, heals, is alive, and is a lonely place without you.

Love bound, and set free.

Love.