Unsinging Bird

silence .is a looking bird:the turn ing;edge of life (inquiry before snowe.e. cummings

Look up….Look waay Up

Head in the clouds. Feet firmly planted on the earth. This is the optimal creative stance. Why? Groundedness and solid, secure connections provide the safe supports needed for creative exploration and the transformative risks that give life meaning. Dan Siegel writes about cultivating the ability to become grounded in the tripod of mindsight Mindsight is […]

Lion of Amazement

When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through the door full of curiosity, […]

An animal eye

What is animal presence? Why do animals visit in dreams? James Hillman, founder of archetypal psychology wrote that from a depth perspective of the world all things are displays, and imagination and perception, invisible and visible, intuition and sensation do not fall apart when discerned with an animal eye (Animal Presences, Spring, 2008). So what […]

Moon in the Water

“The moon may be dim or bright, round or crescent shaped, This imperfection has been going on since the beginning of time. May we all be blessed with longevity, Though thousand miles apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.” from a poem by Song dynasty poet Su Shi The […]

Looking Back and Looking Forward

“…That’s why we have the Museum, Matty, to remind us of how we came, and why: to start fresh, and begin a new place from what we had learned and carried from the old.” Lois Lowry, Messenger The transitional space between old and new feels like a shifting energetic pause. Time is marked by rituals […]

Slowly looking with the Buddhist “good eye”

Recently I came across the Contemplative Photography movement, which incorporates Buddhist mindfulness practice with Western ways of seeing the world. Contemplative Photography practice is based on holding an intention of learning to look and see through a lens of nonattachment. Through practice, you begin to trust the gaps in discursive thought where clear seeing and […]

Looking into the Open

The Open With their whole gaze animals behold the Open. Only our eyes are as though reversed and set like traps around us, keeping us inside. That there is something out there we know only from the creatures’ countenance. We turn even the young child around, making her look backward at the forms we create, […]

the known unknown

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery Poetry And it was at that age … Poetry arrived in search of me. I don’t know, I don’t know where it came from, from winter or a river. I don’t know how […]

“Ten times a day something happens to me like this – some strengthening throb of amazement – some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.” ― Mary Oliver The most treasured moments are […]