I have been thinking of several things lately and they just gelled...I was sort of looking for a signal...it came to me and this was after just a little bit of looking to my side, left and right, and "BANG" there it was...right in front of me...
Let me try to develop this idea and share with you my friend...
We cannot leave this planet without putting something back...that we know by now...maybe it is a company, some products, some art, maybe a child, a family...
I have been looking real hard at this lately...people all over just trying to figure this out, and some just going about it with joy...
I have put several things here on the planet that were not here before me...
And I have this huge need now lately to refine some of these, and keep on producing at better levels if I can.
My own "art" of late has been writing...that is where this book came from....
I have thought of "art" as mostly visual stuff, though I know poetry and creative writing is also "art"...for sure. When I used to paint, it was with the same passion that I now write...so it is the same source...just different form...
And the thing that just hit me, is the missing piece I have been looking for...it is that I have needed a visual piece of what I have been writing about. BINGO...it is that I must now try to capture in visal form what I have been writing about...people who are going through the very experiences of the Four Great Flashes of Life.
Yes, photography! I have always had a knack for capturing the essence of people in my photography...now it is obvious what I must do...capture actual people experiencing the green flash, actual people in love, actual people in sacred moments that are just extraordinary....and actual people experiencing the joy of being and living their life purpose...the ultimate blue flash.
My next project is clear. I had been forming the pieces of this idea for weeks, maybe months, as I have written. Now this evening, in a flash, it gelled and became crystal clear....
I don't think I could have willed this to have happened before I was ready...it had to land like a butterfly, in a special, sweet moment...tonight, just within the last hour...and this will now consume my "art" for some time to come...I know that.
Where does this "stuff"come from? I do know my mother was a poet and an artist. She gave some great memories and some art gifts of hers. But that was influence. My own passion comes from all that I have seen and known...and it comes from out there...a most friendly universe...
...again, no accidents...
I asked for some kind of signal...
An artist once told me that her greatest dream would be to have a week free just to paint. I felt that moment and just wanted to spend some of that week photographing her painting, living her dream. I knew at that moment it felt exactly correct. So, for the last half year, I went about writing about this kind of moment. With my camera in hand, now I am going to find people with this passion and try to capture that feeling so you can see it an maybe feel it even yourself...
...maybe a picture of passion is worth a million words...
...I have a feeling there is passion that neither words nor pictures can ever capture...
...to just know that is enough....
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Eastview in the Evening...Greenflash is Out There
It is 705pm, Saturday evening, Southern California, blue sky evening, very nice breezes...sun still very much on the hills to the East...pool waters warm in front of me...green lawn, roses blooming...you can smell the air...is there anywhere else that I could be that would give me the rush of being happy with my environment...this is my lucky home...it is a place where I feel OK...seeing these hills and the sun at this time of year...it feels so good...summer is here....Memorial Day is tomorrow.
Memorial Day to Americans is the beginning of summer. Summer is a time for many of us when we just really unleash our souls and our energy with our friend Nature!
I look forward in the weeks ahead to showing a friend the big waves that roll, and roll underneath the pier at Oceanside.
The beach picnics at La Jolla.
Sunsets, maybe one good Greenflash a year, but one very good one from these beaches...
All you need is one to see....
....to believe...
Greenflash is there in every evening, like just now...
Memorial Day to Americans is the beginning of summer. Summer is a time for many of us when we just really unleash our souls and our energy with our friend Nature!
I look forward in the weeks ahead to showing a friend the big waves that roll, and roll underneath the pier at Oceanside.
The beach picnics at La Jolla.
Sunsets, maybe one good Greenflash a year, but one very good one from these beaches...
All you need is one to see....
....to believe...
Greenflash is there in every evening, like just now...
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Movement...Whiteflash Visits Pinkflash
My friend Eugene told me how hard it was for him to forget Natalia. He finally gave up. He could not force forgetting her. So he told me he prayed...for an answer to what he should do to forget her, of if he should...if he could...
He just asked for an answer, a signal of some kind...
The next day Eugene was in a professional meeting with a mixed group of men and women contacts from another company thousands of miles from his home, the Netherlands or even Natalia's home Brazil. It was literally on the other side of the planet...that far away...he got his answer...he realized...and here is how he explained it to me...
Natalia had, he said, an incredible quality of movement, a very feminine, natural, slow, deliberate movement...he said it was something like the beauty of a swan in water, or a panther walking so gracefully through the forest. That sounded pretty cool to me! That he noticed something that specific and subtle. He said he had never seen that quality before and it haunted him. As did every memory of her...every detail...
But what happened to him that day on the other side of the planet was amazing to hear...Eugene met a woman about the same age as Natalia, different in every ethnic, and cultural, and physical way, except that she had that movement...the graceful, natural movement...that same thing that Natalia had....
Eugene felt that he had been given an answer...a message from his Creator that he had asked for...remember, he said something like...."any signal"...
Accident? Or, signal? I asked Eugene what he felt the answer was...the message...? This is the interesting part....he could not say...it was not totally clear to him...he was still "sorting it out" he said...but he felt some kind of peace he told me, his friend. That he received a signal was all that he needed....he felt he had been heard...his prayer in the darkness was somehow answered...
I speculate that maybe there are movments that we recognize in people and some of these things are so unique to our senses, we may not have the words to explain, but we have the "radar" to pick them up....can people resemble others closely in this world? They say we all have a double or twin out there, somewhere...
Eugene still taks about Natalia. We have no idea if she still thinks of him...maybe Eugene will one day ask for that signal as well...
No accidents, they say...
He just asked for an answer, a signal of some kind...
The next day Eugene was in a professional meeting with a mixed group of men and women contacts from another company thousands of miles from his home, the Netherlands or even Natalia's home Brazil. It was literally on the other side of the planet...that far away...he got his answer...he realized...and here is how he explained it to me...
Natalia had, he said, an incredible quality of movement, a very feminine, natural, slow, deliberate movement...he said it was something like the beauty of a swan in water, or a panther walking so gracefully through the forest. That sounded pretty cool to me! That he noticed something that specific and subtle. He said he had never seen that quality before and it haunted him. As did every memory of her...every detail...
But what happened to him that day on the other side of the planet was amazing to hear...Eugene met a woman about the same age as Natalia, different in every ethnic, and cultural, and physical way, except that she had that movement...the graceful, natural movement...that same thing that Natalia had....
Eugene felt that he had been given an answer...a message from his Creator that he had asked for...remember, he said something like...."any signal"...
Accident? Or, signal? I asked Eugene what he felt the answer was...the message...? This is the interesting part....he could not say...it was not totally clear to him...he was still "sorting it out" he said...but he felt some kind of peace he told me, his friend. That he received a signal was all that he needed....he felt he had been heard...his prayer in the darkness was somehow answered...
I speculate that maybe there are movments that we recognize in people and some of these things are so unique to our senses, we may not have the words to explain, but we have the "radar" to pick them up....can people resemble others closely in this world? They say we all have a double or twin out there, somewhere...
Eugene still taks about Natalia. We have no idea if she still thinks of him...maybe Eugene will one day ask for that signal as well...
No accidents, they say...
Do You Have a Special, Secret Place in Nature....Greenflash Serenity
A friend of many years asked me today if I have one of these....a special, even known only to me...spot or place in nature in the area? A rock, a pathway, a bench, a beach where I can go and soak in the power of the environment....and a place where I can go to send off my most maybe precarious and deepest wishes, hopes, dreams...like a private launch pad for what I want to send to the universe or to someone special out there....
My answer was "No, friend, I do not have one..."
This evening I realized, I need one. I even know where it is...it is a rock on the coast here...I need to go there...
But I also know why it took me this long.
I have been running. You see, I am a cancer survivor. Not a serious cancer thing...it was a long time ago, and I am healthy and feel so young, and yet, I know it gave me a low dose of post traumatic stress that I live with...a low level of anxiety, that I mostly deny...I cannot afford to look at it...there are too many who depend on me...and I depend on me to not give in to that fear....
So, I ran hard, never looking back or never looking back too long to get scared...
Besides, I preach being tough...if you know me, I am like the NFL..."we play injured"...we don't have the luxury of rest or slowing down for a minute...
I know this is all wrong...but running not walking or standing still is my credo...it is what I have beieved all these years to survive...my heroes never quit...they valiantly show by example...they stand out in front and take the first hit...they defend their own and even the weak who are not their own...
But I know I can still run and be the 'Father Lion" defender, the guardian, and still have my rock!
I may even show my friend where it is...after all he showed me I need that rock...
As hard as I run,I can never stop too long, but I will stop at my rock and launch my deepest wishes and hopes and dreams into the cool night air...
...that somewhere across that wide ocean they will land safely and these moments will not be lost...
...they will never be lost, because they are mine, and I know my dreams...but unless I launch them, they will never have anyone more than just me...
...dreams are meant to be launched... into the cool air of evening, where across that broad ocean they have a chance that they may be heard in the fresh morning air...
My answer was "No, friend, I do not have one..."
This evening I realized, I need one. I even know where it is...it is a rock on the coast here...I need to go there...
But I also know why it took me this long.
I have been running. You see, I am a cancer survivor. Not a serious cancer thing...it was a long time ago, and I am healthy and feel so young, and yet, I know it gave me a low dose of post traumatic stress that I live with...a low level of anxiety, that I mostly deny...I cannot afford to look at it...there are too many who depend on me...and I depend on me to not give in to that fear....
So, I ran hard, never looking back or never looking back too long to get scared...
Besides, I preach being tough...if you know me, I am like the NFL..."we play injured"...we don't have the luxury of rest or slowing down for a minute...
I know this is all wrong...but running not walking or standing still is my credo...it is what I have beieved all these years to survive...my heroes never quit...they valiantly show by example...they stand out in front and take the first hit...they defend their own and even the weak who are not their own...
But I know I can still run and be the 'Father Lion" defender, the guardian, and still have my rock!
I may even show my friend where it is...after all he showed me I need that rock...
As hard as I run,I can never stop too long, but I will stop at my rock and launch my deepest wishes and hopes and dreams into the cool night air...
...that somewhere across that wide ocean they will land safely and these moments will not be lost...
...they will never be lost, because they are mine, and I know my dreams...but unless I launch them, they will never have anyone more than just me...
...dreams are meant to be launched... into the cool air of evening, where across that broad ocean they have a chance that they may be heard in the fresh morning air...
Monday, May 24, 2010
Pinkflash Tiger...Who Is She?
Many have asked and wondered...the tiger...who is she?
The "tiger" is not a real tiger animal, though they are so rare and needing our care and protection. She is not a golfer!
She is... a lost love.
This is a sad story, and it is a true story. It may someday have an outcome that is not so sad.
Eugene is a Dutch chemist. Married, quite happily after fifteen years. At a conference for chemists in Tokyo, he met Natalia from Brazil. He is 55, she is 27. They were accidentally next to each other at the conference when a small earthquake rattled the hotel and conference center during a professional presentation. Natalia in fear touched Eugene's arm and they talked, during, and again after the meeting. Their relationship grew in the following weeks and months. A few letters and a trail of emails flowed and after many months, both had opened their hearts to each other. They shared their professional lives and facts, then family, then deeper personal challenges each faced in pursuit of dreams...
They met again after nine months. Natalia flew to Holland and spent two days there to see Eugene on her way to a conference in Norway. They shared lunch, afternoon tea, walking the streets and canals of Amsterdam. Natalia shared her true feelings with Eugene that in spite of their ages, one was married, one was not, she was beginning to be deeply moved and Eugene shared the same in words and looks. They exchanged gifts, she a box of personal souvenirs for him from Brazil...he gave her his recent book and a pen with her name engraved...there was a hug at the airport, nothing more physical than that...Eugene has his photos of that day...she has her memory...
Upon her return from Brazil, she received an email from him that he now had developed deep feelings for her...
Natalia sent Eugene a goodbye. She feared she would hurt him, his wife, her family, and very much she feared being hurt herself...she had never felt this way before...she could see no future for them.
Both were in pain for months and both feared breaking the silence with the other because both feared being abandoned from something they felt that had overtaken each and them together....both felt frozen. Neither one could share the story because no one would seem to understand.
Eugene wrote letters he just put away. Natalia tried to forget Eugene. Neither could forget the other. Life for each went on....and on...and on...
And so the story ends here. Eugene wrote about Natalia. One day he saw a tiger at the Berlin zoo. The tiger looked at him, then darted behind the rocks. Eugene tried to find the tiger, but could not. He tried but could not find the tiger anywhere again...
Eugene is a friend of mine. I understand. He told me of the tiger at the zoo. He wanted to tell me what I already knew. The tiger was her....Natalia...
I knew...I have seen this tiger...I have also seen this tiger hide and run into the night...
....this tiger is our lost love....we cannot forget her...
Eugene....me....you....
we are not alone....
The "tiger" is not a real tiger animal, though they are so rare and needing our care and protection. She is not a golfer!
She is... a lost love.
This is a sad story, and it is a true story. It may someday have an outcome that is not so sad.
Eugene is a Dutch chemist. Married, quite happily after fifteen years. At a conference for chemists in Tokyo, he met Natalia from Brazil. He is 55, she is 27. They were accidentally next to each other at the conference when a small earthquake rattled the hotel and conference center during a professional presentation. Natalia in fear touched Eugene's arm and they talked, during, and again after the meeting. Their relationship grew in the following weeks and months. A few letters and a trail of emails flowed and after many months, both had opened their hearts to each other. They shared their professional lives and facts, then family, then deeper personal challenges each faced in pursuit of dreams...
They met again after nine months. Natalia flew to Holland and spent two days there to see Eugene on her way to a conference in Norway. They shared lunch, afternoon tea, walking the streets and canals of Amsterdam. Natalia shared her true feelings with Eugene that in spite of their ages, one was married, one was not, she was beginning to be deeply moved and Eugene shared the same in words and looks. They exchanged gifts, she a box of personal souvenirs for him from Brazil...he gave her his recent book and a pen with her name engraved...there was a hug at the airport, nothing more physical than that...Eugene has his photos of that day...she has her memory...
Upon her return from Brazil, she received an email from him that he now had developed deep feelings for her...
Natalia sent Eugene a goodbye. She feared she would hurt him, his wife, her family, and very much she feared being hurt herself...she had never felt this way before...she could see no future for them.
Both were in pain for months and both feared breaking the silence with the other because both feared being abandoned from something they felt that had overtaken each and them together....both felt frozen. Neither one could share the story because no one would seem to understand.
Eugene wrote letters he just put away. Natalia tried to forget Eugene. Neither could forget the other. Life for each went on....and on...and on...
And so the story ends here. Eugene wrote about Natalia. One day he saw a tiger at the Berlin zoo. The tiger looked at him, then darted behind the rocks. Eugene tried to find the tiger, but could not. He tried but could not find the tiger anywhere again...
Eugene is a friend of mine. I understand. He told me of the tiger at the zoo. He wanted to tell me what I already knew. The tiger was her....Natalia...
I knew...I have seen this tiger...I have also seen this tiger hide and run into the night...
....this tiger is our lost love....we cannot forget her...
Eugene....me....you....
we are not alone....
I Missed a Tiger
I missed a tiger...in the night...
She vanished fast in full flight...
She showed such might...
And in her eyes such fright...
To this day, she haunts me so...
I do not know quite where to go
To find her in the night
Where we both met... in fright...
Now I and she are alone...
Whiteflash...my only hope...
We may meet with no home...
And this memory, we must cope......
I missed that tiger... she left so fast,
Knowing she is out there...
The present is full of the past...
Her eyes in me are sure to last...
To see her was not my ask...
To forget her is the impossible task...
She opened her eyes in the night
And thrilled my heart...forever in her grasp...
Tiger, tiger...out there in the night...
Appear, again, stay...do not take to flight...
For you and for me...
.... I hold you tight...
Tiger...
She vanished fast in full flight...
She showed such might...
And in her eyes such fright...
To this day, she haunts me so...
I do not know quite where to go
To find her in the night
Where we both met... in fright...
Now I and she are alone...
Whiteflash...my only hope...
We may meet with no home...
And this memory, we must cope......
I missed that tiger... she left so fast,
Knowing she is out there...
The present is full of the past...
Her eyes in me are sure to last...
To see her was not my ask...
To forget her is the impossible task...
She opened her eyes in the night
And thrilled my heart...forever in her grasp...
Tiger, tiger...out there in the night...
Appear, again, stay...do not take to flight...
For you and for me...
.... I hold you tight...
Tiger...
Saturday, May 22, 2010
I Met a Tiger
I met a tiger in the night
At first, I was full of fright
Held on, resisted flight
Then I saw the flash of White...
She was gone, before I knew
What it meant and what was true...
Long awaited, long in view...
She was gone, before I knew...
Now I stand with her sight in me
Can't let go, can't be free...
Someday, I say, its her I will see...
For today, she lives on ... her sight in me.
Tiger, tiger, come back to me...
At first, I was full of fright
Held on, resisted flight
Then I saw the flash of White...
She was gone, before I knew
What it meant and what was true...
Long awaited, long in view...
She was gone, before I knew...
Now I stand with her sight in me
Can't let go, can't be free...
Someday, I say, its her I will see...
For today, she lives on ... her sight in me.
Tiger, tiger, come back to me...
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Can You Imagine....the Four Great Flashes at One Place and at OneTime!!!
Just try this on....
You are with someone you love...deeply...
They are doing their life-purpose, or you are doing yours...
You are together....
You are in nature, when something happens that is extraordinary...
And you feel it is no accident!
Pink, Blue, Green White-flash all at the same time, same place...in you...
You had asked for this moment...so deep, so hard...
And it was given to you...
Have you ever been there?
For me, that is my very most private place and dream...
Is it just a dream? A mirage?
What I just described exists....now in your mind...in mine...
It awaits you...somewhere out there....
I know...you know, too....
You are with someone you love...deeply...
They are doing their life-purpose, or you are doing yours...
You are together....
You are in nature, when something happens that is extraordinary...
And you feel it is no accident!
Pink, Blue, Green White-flash all at the same time, same place...in you...
You had asked for this moment...so deep, so hard...
And it was given to you...
Have you ever been there?
For me, that is my very most private place and dream...
Is it just a dream? A mirage?
What I just described exists....now in your mind...in mine...
It awaits you...somewhere out there....
I know...you know, too....
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Career Flatline...or Career Silo? The Shape of Life Before Blueflash!
Consider this: your career has shape...actual dimensionality....I mean like depth, bredth, linearity, curvature, peaks and valleys, flatlines....all maybe, if you are one of the lucky ones and you seek it....leading to that moment in your life when you experience the Blueflash...in one short moment the flash of the very idea that will be the central project of your life...
What is a flatline career? Maybe it is a narrow path, with little promise of any peaks or upside..get into a company and you can't get out...you feel trapped...you cannot leave because maybe your whole family depends on you. You feel occupationally brain-dead.
What is a career "silo"? Maybe someone gets so deeply devoted to one passionate thing, they go so deep...the musician who masters the instrument, but who cannot ever get employed to play it...
Then there is the professional culture trap....where you get so deeply committed within one culture, your chances of being global get less and less...you cannot leave your culture because your skills and passions cannot bridge to another place...this is OK if you want to be wedded to that culture, but what if you see yourself as a person who wants to live and work in more than your home culture...you become dependent on your company to treat you as a local or as a cosmopolitan...
Sociologist Wilensky separates out the two categories as profoundly different, and many corporate people eventually track one way or the other....locals are those who never leave where they started from....cosmos are folks who have a need for and are lucky enough to find travel and multiple locations in their careers...
Who determines what?
I have found in watching so many hundreds of students I have known well that people get tracked so often not by their choice but by their company....
It seems to say, "Look before you leap" into a company,let alone a career track. Make sure it feels right.
Check out your exits in case you need to leave. You are never truly "married" to a company, a career pattern, or a culture, without your consent, whether you are conscious of this or not....
Some careers, like medicine, demand complete adherance to a specific series of steps, without exception, without a "time-out", a breather, or the consequences become "fatal"...step out and you are finished...
If you choose that, be aware of it.....you may live in a "free country" but you are not at all a free agent!
Blueflash is neutral. Many medical doctors are extremely happy and have found their life purpose.
The differences in occupational patterns and what they demand of us become huge control factors in our lives....
Blueflash is neutral, remember, it is there for everyone to find, somewhere,sometime, and, more often than not, it finds you!
What is a flatline career? Maybe it is a narrow path, with little promise of any peaks or upside..get into a company and you can't get out...you feel trapped...you cannot leave because maybe your whole family depends on you. You feel occupationally brain-dead.
What is a career "silo"? Maybe someone gets so deeply devoted to one passionate thing, they go so deep...the musician who masters the instrument, but who cannot ever get employed to play it...
Then there is the professional culture trap....where you get so deeply committed within one culture, your chances of being global get less and less...you cannot leave your culture because your skills and passions cannot bridge to another place...this is OK if you want to be wedded to that culture, but what if you see yourself as a person who wants to live and work in more than your home culture...you become dependent on your company to treat you as a local or as a cosmopolitan...
Sociologist Wilensky separates out the two categories as profoundly different, and many corporate people eventually track one way or the other....locals are those who never leave where they started from....cosmos are folks who have a need for and are lucky enough to find travel and multiple locations in their careers...
Who determines what?
I have found in watching so many hundreds of students I have known well that people get tracked so often not by their choice but by their company....
It seems to say, "Look before you leap" into a company,let alone a career track. Make sure it feels right.
Check out your exits in case you need to leave. You are never truly "married" to a company, a career pattern, or a culture, without your consent, whether you are conscious of this or not....
Some careers, like medicine, demand complete adherance to a specific series of steps, without exception, without a "time-out", a breather, or the consequences become "fatal"...step out and you are finished...
If you choose that, be aware of it.....you may live in a "free country" but you are not at all a free agent!
Blueflash is neutral. Many medical doctors are extremely happy and have found their life purpose.
The differences in occupational patterns and what they demand of us become huge control factors in our lives....
Blueflash is neutral, remember, it is there for everyone to find, somewhere,sometime, and, more often than not, it finds you!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Pinkflash...not All Bliss...Unless We Wish
If you consider all the time you have loved and been loved, I mean romance, deep romance, in your life space, I think maybe a huge chunk of it is pain....so its not all bliss. At least from what I have seen myself and what I have heard and seen from others...
Life space? OK, that is your timeline in life, your total time here...age! And in the space or places you have been....that means everywhere you have loved as well as everyone! A little scary? Needn't be...hang on...
So tally them up...all the loves....all the times...all the places...that's it, your love life space! And if you follow...a chunk of it was not always smooth, was it? Some was downright painful...and, of course, most as probably just great...but why? Why the pain?
I decided to try my best in these conversations about the Pinkflash to stay true to life as I know it, but somehow mostly positive. How can that be if some of it was not so positive?
I have come to think, not the easy way, but after long times and trials at it, that it has to do with the way we choose to view our loves and, as well, our losses.
So I will be trying for this side of it...the upside....
Whether we think about this from our daily schedules on the planet, or at 30,000 feet, flying in a jetplane, it is all about our memory and how we hold it. So the loves of our life, the good side of the story, the side we are proud of and makes us happy, and the losses as well, it is our memory we live with....what is today, not what could or should have been. It is sometimes so hard.
Janet Jackson said, "You don't have to hold on to the pain, to hold on to the memory". Let the pain go...hold the best part...that is the part that has the light in our souls...
Pinkflash is forgiving. Remember, when we want it, it escapes, when we are least expecting it, it is right there...
I am convinced that it visits everyone...more than once...and that with all that it is in its full show...it is one of the greatest gifts...
Life space? OK, that is your timeline in life, your total time here...age! And in the space or places you have been....that means everywhere you have loved as well as everyone! A little scary? Needn't be...hang on...
So tally them up...all the loves....all the times...all the places...that's it, your love life space! And if you follow...a chunk of it was not always smooth, was it? Some was downright painful...and, of course, most as probably just great...but why? Why the pain?
I decided to try my best in these conversations about the Pinkflash to stay true to life as I know it, but somehow mostly positive. How can that be if some of it was not so positive?
I have come to think, not the easy way, but after long times and trials at it, that it has to do with the way we choose to view our loves and, as well, our losses.
So I will be trying for this side of it...the upside....
Whether we think about this from our daily schedules on the planet, or at 30,000 feet, flying in a jetplane, it is all about our memory and how we hold it. So the loves of our life, the good side of the story, the side we are proud of and makes us happy, and the losses as well, it is our memory we live with....what is today, not what could or should have been. It is sometimes so hard.
Janet Jackson said, "You don't have to hold on to the pain, to hold on to the memory". Let the pain go...hold the best part...that is the part that has the light in our souls...
Pinkflash is forgiving. Remember, when we want it, it escapes, when we are least expecting it, it is right there...
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Morning Dew, Rainbows, and Concrete....What Is "Nature"?
One of my favorite artists in the world plays with this dichotomy....organic versus inorganic. So what is the essence of life, if it sits in an inorganic bird's nest of steel, concrete, mesh-wire, and glass?
I was sitting this evening at a Major League Baseball game. The evening air was cool, and a bit moist. The breeze was soft. The whole scene of 40, 000 people, blended with this carpet of beautiful green grass below...the colors, the sounds...
Yes, I was into a moment of total relaxation enjoying this all, and it was really relaxing. I focused on some tranquil thoughts far away, and all the ballpark and movement, and noise and color just played as a nice background movement of music...while I was enjoying my thoughts of being somewhere else for those minutes...
I was sitting in a hard plastic seat, on piles and piles of concrete floors, supported by concrete and steel support beams..not like on a comfy wood bench by the sea...but it was like being in nature...
There is a set of places in natural surroundings we tend to call "nature"...for sure, and these we do need to see, smell, hear the sounds in, and if there is water, some of us take a plunge....we get a real big dose of that natural moment....with a flash component that is the surprise part...the "flash" can be the wake-up call that allows us to realize the moment as one of the Greenflash moments in our lives....it can be a rainbow, a thunderclap next to where we are standing on a mountain, it can be sighting a rare animal in the deep forest....or maybe a beautiful tranquil moment sitting in Section 309, Row 27, Seat 3 during an evening game at a concrete and steel stadium!
Tonight just reminded me we can create micro nature environments in our psyche and in our mind....
The tranquility that produces new thoughts and insights and just the "WOW!" factor can and often does happen in concrete buildings, in stadiums, in micro nature places where we feel comfortable...
We are stronger if we can, BUT, we cannot forget the real thing.....when nature's force just decides to have a show! And we are the audience...
Can the cross country flyer find the Greenflash on a flight from Chicago to New York? If he can relax and tune out much of the flight stuff, he my be able to tune to the right stuff....noise-cancelling headphones, the right music....focus on a memory...
Moments in nature can be sought on rooftops....in ballparks, in streets, and at 30, 000 feet...
Greenflash cannot be willed.....it has a fickle nature......we can get almost totally there, but there needs to be a flash element, something that makes us say, "OK, there it was....there it was..."
It is what we all should teach our children about....
....and when it hits with huge intensity moments, we know we just received a special gift!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Pink Flash Lives Forever!
This is one for the ages....
I once had a good friend who shared much of life with me. He was married twice. Both wives died of cancer. I knew him through these times, good and bad. I knew his wives. I shared his grief.
He once told me that even though they had left him in death, he felt their love in his life every day, every minute. He told me how he could see their faces, he had this mental picture of each...their smile, their fresh beauty, the light in their eyes...he carried his love and what he said was their love every step of his life...
I thought often to myself it kept him going.
He is now gone. He died an I am left with these thoughts which I share with you, my reader.
What I am about to say, I have no proof, not a single shred of evidence, but my own instinct that I think this is true...
So, here it is...what if even when he was alive, his lost loves were not just a flicker of light shining in his heart, but what if that love was a flicker of light in them too...an eternal love shining back at him, something he told me he felt...something that is out there in the night?
What if love never dies? What if it still goes on? So, now he is gone, too. But I still feel the love he shared with me, that love he kept alive in him. I knew each of his lost wives, I saw their love...I could not see that it would be easily forgotten, but now, I cannot forget, for my friend, for myself, and beyond...
So, I ask you, my reader,...
What if love never dies...
After the cries...
When we are alone in the night,
It is still forever in sight...
In the long universe of the memory we have here,
Love is not lost in its flight...
Across the blue skies of morning...
Into the warm air of the long night...
I once had a good friend who shared much of life with me. He was married twice. Both wives died of cancer. I knew him through these times, good and bad. I knew his wives. I shared his grief.
He once told me that even though they had left him in death, he felt their love in his life every day, every minute. He told me how he could see their faces, he had this mental picture of each...their smile, their fresh beauty, the light in their eyes...he carried his love and what he said was their love every step of his life...
I thought often to myself it kept him going.
He is now gone. He died an I am left with these thoughts which I share with you, my reader.
What I am about to say, I have no proof, not a single shred of evidence, but my own instinct that I think this is true...
So, here it is...what if even when he was alive, his lost loves were not just a flicker of light shining in his heart, but what if that love was a flicker of light in them too...an eternal love shining back at him, something he told me he felt...something that is out there in the night?
What if love never dies? What if it still goes on? So, now he is gone, too. But I still feel the love he shared with me, that love he kept alive in him. I knew each of his lost wives, I saw their love...I could not see that it would be easily forgotten, but now, I cannot forget, for my friend, for myself, and beyond...
So, I ask you, my reader,...
What if love never dies...
After the cries...
When we are alone in the night,
It is still forever in sight...
In the long universe of the memory we have here,
Love is not lost in its flight...
Across the blue skies of morning...
Into the warm air of the long night...
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
All the World's My View....from 30, 000 Feet!
Frank White, Harvard Professor, wrote the famous book The Overview Effect. He documents how those who have been in space are permannently changed in their view of the world. There is a permanent shift that he detects in their speeches and writings. They are never the same.
I believe jet travel may be addictive. The few seconds of G forces on takeoff may release endorphins in the brain, creating a pleasurable "champaign effect". As I approach a million miles with United, I certainly enjoy jet travel more with each flight.
But there is something else operating, and it is the whole basis for much of this writing. I also believe that when we are at altitudes such as 30, 000 feet, just as a nice round number of high flight, we are at a precious place and time and speed over the earth to reflect, to think over our lives, and gain insights that enrich our lives.
At this height over earth, we are 30, 000 feet closer to the heavens...
We don't see borders below, and even sometimes, we see the great arc of light on the horizon...
We often sit next to the most fascinating people and we have the time to enjoy and savor the exchange of new ideas...
And we are not driving the ship! Someone else is doing that for us....just like life on the surface!
We get all the new stirrings of thoughts and insights about the four flashes of life...nature, our world of love and romance, our spiritual life and our life-work and destiny....
So, I think we don't need to go to space exactly and I think Frank White is correct...we get this in jets at 30, 000 feet...
We are landing now, but stay with me on this great ship of friends...we will be taking off again soon for more insights at 30, 000 feet!
I believe jet travel may be addictive. The few seconds of G forces on takeoff may release endorphins in the brain, creating a pleasurable "champaign effect". As I approach a million miles with United, I certainly enjoy jet travel more with each flight.
But there is something else operating, and it is the whole basis for much of this writing. I also believe that when we are at altitudes such as 30, 000 feet, just as a nice round number of high flight, we are at a precious place and time and speed over the earth to reflect, to think over our lives, and gain insights that enrich our lives.
At this height over earth, we are 30, 000 feet closer to the heavens...
We don't see borders below, and even sometimes, we see the great arc of light on the horizon...
We often sit next to the most fascinating people and we have the time to enjoy and savor the exchange of new ideas...
And we are not driving the ship! Someone else is doing that for us....just like life on the surface!
We get all the new stirrings of thoughts and insights about the four flashes of life...nature, our world of love and romance, our spiritual life and our life-work and destiny....
So, I think we don't need to go to space exactly and I think Frank White is correct...we get this in jets at 30, 000 feet...
We are landing now, but stay with me on this great ship of friends...we will be taking off again soon for more insights at 30, 000 feet!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Dear Mom
Dear Mom,
You (and Dad) created me..
You housed my soul...
Until it was freed...
To live, cry, fear, succeed, and take its toll...
When there were no fans...
You cheered me on...
...when there were victories...
...you stayed up till dawn...
Now, that you are gone...
I still hear your call..
From the kitchen...
...come down for dinner before you go play ball...
Mothers' Day is for many..
..like you who stood so strong and free..
...in the silence, now...
...you are still there for me.
Happy Mothers Day for All!
You (and Dad) created me..
You housed my soul...
Until it was freed...
To live, cry, fear, succeed, and take its toll...
When there were no fans...
You cheered me on...
...when there were victories...
...you stayed up till dawn...
Now, that you are gone...
I still hear your call..
From the kitchen...
...come down for dinner before you go play ball...
Mothers' Day is for many..
..like you who stood so strong and free..
...in the silence, now...
...you are still there for me.
Happy Mothers Day for All!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Whiteflash Leads Me to a Blueflash Star!
Yes, a friend of this blog and someone who knows our students through a French cafe connection was there in the setting, and she helped considerably. But it was pure Whiteflash that delivered this one...
Several nights ago I watched the last twenty minutes of a documentary on TV about the Liberty Tree and how Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars saved that famous, historic tree's wood to make a series of heritage one of a kind guitars from its precious old wood...tulip poplar. He took a big risk, invested and when the first finished specimen was ready, his team assembled and Bob played...you could hear the immense sound, the decision was right.
Bob Taylor from 17 years old had the vision of a guitar company, now it is over 35 years old, one of California's great companies, one of the best guitar makers in the world.
I had been looking and searching for someone who could be our Commencement speaker, each year that is my job, and I often go down to the wire, putting my full faith in the idea that someone will appear who is perfect for us and our student graduates, and it usually happens.
I was watching that show on TV, BY ACCIDENT, haha!!! The thought hit me to invite Bob Taylor. The next morning, I made a visit to his company, met Bob, and he agreed. It will be a great day for all!
Someone asked me if I got the idea through my blog friend, who happens to work for Bob's company? The true answer is no, this individual helped me to meet Bob, and has been very supportive, but it had to do with my accidentally seeing the TV documentary about the Liberty Tree guitars and how Bob had the vision to make them.
No accidents....one more time...
....it will be a great day for all!
Several nights ago I watched the last twenty minutes of a documentary on TV about the Liberty Tree and how Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars saved that famous, historic tree's wood to make a series of heritage one of a kind guitars from its precious old wood...tulip poplar. He took a big risk, invested and when the first finished specimen was ready, his team assembled and Bob played...you could hear the immense sound, the decision was right.
Bob Taylor from 17 years old had the vision of a guitar company, now it is over 35 years old, one of California's great companies, one of the best guitar makers in the world.
I had been looking and searching for someone who could be our Commencement speaker, each year that is my job, and I often go down to the wire, putting my full faith in the idea that someone will appear who is perfect for us and our student graduates, and it usually happens.
I was watching that show on TV, BY ACCIDENT, haha!!! The thought hit me to invite Bob Taylor. The next morning, I made a visit to his company, met Bob, and he agreed. It will be a great day for all!
Someone asked me if I got the idea through my blog friend, who happens to work for Bob's company? The true answer is no, this individual helped me to meet Bob, and has been very supportive, but it had to do with my accidentally seeing the TV documentary about the Liberty Tree guitars and how Bob had the vision to make them.
No accidents....one more time...
....it will be a great day for all!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Tough Searching Means Toughness at Your Core...
I have known young professionals who were so tough that they could win the SuperBowl or the World's Cup...if theirs was a sport....their sport was business and starting their career professionally....they are so tough...they are ageless...I mean young in their 20's or old...er...
They are male and female. My favorite in my recent life is a younger woman, so highly professionally accomplished, she just has immense power...because she is clear at her core what matters to her about her professional goals, her professional stature, she is a formidable force....so the tough ones are the ones who can be like El Wood, and take on Congress! We lack a few of those on Wall Street just now...
In all that I have written about the fact that the biggest gifts come to you and you cannot reach and touch them.....I am NOT suggesting that we be lazy, or relaxed or asleep!
I have referred to my team as NFL ready...that means "playing injured"...what does that mean?
It means we are tough, at our inner core, not lazy or entitled by birth, Daddy, Mommy, or wealth, or family.
We are soooo tough...we are professional...we measure every word...we watch intently what others are doing...on their own and to us....we do not take abuse...actively or passively.
When I am teaching, if students abuse the classroom and chit-chat, they either respect me and their fellow students or they leave at once...that is tough...
Students should not take placation or mediocrity from their peers...if they do, they are weak and not individuals, not leaders...they are more interested in being popular and seen as stirring up their party, not serious at all as professional students...this is a close call by professors, I know...
...I just know I demand toughness....
Life demands toughness.
Flashes will come to those who are rigorously tough on themselves and those whom they love...
......for the folks who just expect life to be this big gift-giving parent or government, or someone with money...they are not yet tough....enough....
Tough enough is what it takes to survive, yet alone thrive, yet alone live for flashes...
I think the Four Flashes of Life I write about come to those who have achieved "toughness" at their core, not children of parents, or parents themselves who have everything nicely worked out...every detail picked off and played out....
The "tough" inherit the full life, the pursuit of happiness....
Soooo, if you think you are not yet tough enough....at whatever age....you are probably right....you need less comfort, less what you are used to, less of someone taking care of you...you may or may not know what this means if you slip into someone's comfort and your own....
If this angers you, you are surely not tough at all!
If this worries you,....good, we are on the path for a better life.............
They are male and female. My favorite in my recent life is a younger woman, so highly professionally accomplished, she just has immense power...because she is clear at her core what matters to her about her professional goals, her professional stature, she is a formidable force....so the tough ones are the ones who can be like El Wood, and take on Congress! We lack a few of those on Wall Street just now...
In all that I have written about the fact that the biggest gifts come to you and you cannot reach and touch them.....I am NOT suggesting that we be lazy, or relaxed or asleep!
I have referred to my team as NFL ready...that means "playing injured"...what does that mean?
It means we are tough, at our inner core, not lazy or entitled by birth, Daddy, Mommy, or wealth, or family.
We are soooo tough...we are professional...we measure every word...we watch intently what others are doing...on their own and to us....we do not take abuse...actively or passively.
When I am teaching, if students abuse the classroom and chit-chat, they either respect me and their fellow students or they leave at once...that is tough...
Students should not take placation or mediocrity from their peers...if they do, they are weak and not individuals, not leaders...they are more interested in being popular and seen as stirring up their party, not serious at all as professional students...this is a close call by professors, I know...
...I just know I demand toughness....
Life demands toughness.
Flashes will come to those who are rigorously tough on themselves and those whom they love...
......for the folks who just expect life to be this big gift-giving parent or government, or someone with money...they are not yet tough....enough....
Tough enough is what it takes to survive, yet alone thrive, yet alone live for flashes...
I think the Four Flashes of Life I write about come to those who have achieved "toughness" at their core, not children of parents, or parents themselves who have everything nicely worked out...every detail picked off and played out....
The "tough" inherit the full life, the pursuit of happiness....
Soooo, if you think you are not yet tough enough....at whatever age....you are probably right....you need less comfort, less what you are used to, less of someone taking care of you...you may or may not know what this means if you slip into someone's comfort and your own....
If this angers you, you are surely not tough at all!
If this worries you,....good, we are on the path for a better life.............
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