writing

the waiting room

It is not that

I avoid mixing

with the world;

but I do better

Playing alone. ~Ryoken (Trans: K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind)

The memory of that moment … the question … the room suddenly dark … a cloud bank covering the sun …

“Why do you ask questions when you know I will lie?”

Were my questions searching for grain of truth that would return my bliss of ignorance?” Yet, how can that be? As I in those moments was like Humpty Dumpty who will never ever be put back together again?

The question, “why ask when you know I will lie” was a darker betrayal to layers of betrayals.

Yet, today I ask, many years later, “Why do others … reporters, bankers, leaders, public officials, the betrayed ask questions when they know the response will be a lie?”

Why do they listen to the lies … film the lies … and then, over and over again share the lies obsessively to justify, rationalize, deny, or sardonically illustrate the untruths?

Yet, a greater question that is increasingly significant to me, “Why am I siting here listening to this public cycle of questions, lies, and rationalizations?”

Could it be that there is an American trauma of loss created by lies that repeatedly search for healing through the media?

Am I driven to search for truths motivated with an unspoken hope that has the power of a mustard seed to build mountains that see beyond the lies and distractions to a democracy is not broken … forever and ever? Or is democracy also like Humpty Dumpty … never ever put back together again?

Yet, to be honest, I must admit … blushingly … I did enjoy the snarky in Jimmy Kimmel Live, Trump Attacks the Pope, Thinks He’s Jesus & Bashes Springsteen in HIs Most Bananas Posing Spree Yet.

I fear any respect for the Presidency of the United States will never ever be put back together again as it is cracked beyond cracked.

lens-artists: looking back to creativity

This week Leya invites lens-artists to “share a link to the old post, and then create a new post on the same subject” Oh how fun!

After viewing the WP listing of a hundred and sixty-seven Lens-Artist’s challenges … no creativity challenge. “Oh! I must have been absent that weekend? What to do? Take a different road to creativity? Will I be forgiven?”

Calling upon the courage needed to search outside Leya’s guidelines, I found, a 2018 post – A photo study: contemplative photography.

Creativity begins as we begin to think differently, move out of our comfort zone, start to use our head over the camera, and go beyond all apparent possibilities.  

iPad f/1.8 1/50 sec ISO 64

Creativity is the ability to make or do something new…the ‘something’ can be an object, a skill, or an action. To be creative, the object, skill, or action cannot simply be bizarre or strange; it cannot be new without also being useful or valued, and not simply be the result of [an] accident. …an important form of creativity is creative thinking, the generation of ideas that are new as well as useful, productive, and appropriate. The second is that creative thinking can be stimulated by teachers’ efforts…

~Lumen Learning

Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

Found object art began to take shape in 1912 when Picasso made his cubist constructions from various scavenged materials, adding such things as matchboxes and newspapers. Dada and surrealist artists then made extensive use of found objects. And now, the art form continues to thrive among mixed-media artists.

…our ordinary vision is limited…our conventional consensus of reality is not the only version of reality…the mind…in its attempt to provide meaning (security), continually rearranges the world to fit individual needs.  The failure to recognize the constructive nature of the mind can be a major obstacle to artistry and creativity.

~Tao of Photography, Gross & Shapiro

Nature gifts us with her ever-changing dynamic paint brush upon the canvas of life

Thank you for visiting

lens-artists: books

Within one of the realms of The Wheel of Suffering, is the animal realm in which a bodhisattva is depicted holding a book representing the need for wisdom that arises through thought, speech, and reflection.

” … I come to a place where I envision myself eagerly standing before bookshelves, my eyes lightly and briefly touching upon one book’s title and then another, feeling their words tickle my thoughts until I surrender to their unspoken promises. Once engaged by the promising nature of a title, it is hope that opens a book jacket and begins another journey through pages.  With the turning of each page, desire seeks the experience of validation within the configuration of a writer’s text. All of this, I believe, is driven by memory traces of how the words of unknown authors enfolded my emotional self …” (cited: B Catherine Koeford, A Meditative Journey with Saldage)

“… you and I in the living room.  You gave me three hard bound books…illustrated books. One about the lives of bees, the other about the Civil War, and lastly…the female reproductive system, “You are a woman now.  You must wash your face twice a day …” 

I was a woman.  Three books. Books freed us to worlds beyond a rural newspaper route.  Books were trips to the library, classical comic books left on my bed, novel reenactments, and later carefully National Geographic cutouts attached to your letters.  

I loved novels. You, nature and science …”  (cited: My Mother Came to Visit, memories of my mother during Covid …”it was a remembered touch that announced her arrival”)

Unseeded and Two Springs – two photo books of personal journeys of healing.

Two Springs: you left,
I remained… two springs

A photo journey…in remembrance of my mother, Elberta.

Unseeded: “The first time I heard the word “unseeded” I felt it resonate with another term saudade, a unique Portuguese word with no immediate English equivalent.

Saudade describes a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist …”

 Ritva has invited lens-artists “to embrace your inner book lover and share your most creative photographic interpretation of anything related to books.”