Sculpture Rising

i had to do this one virtually...

A Berry Wonderful Walk!

Evanston, IL:  Walk two blocks, turn left.  Walk three blocks, turn right.  Create a sculpture, right in the middle of Northwestern University's campus, among the scavenging squirrels whose mouths and bellies are full of the delectable detritus forgotten by students and faculty alike.  

All of these berries, so common yet so unknown, scattered in the grass next to the sidewalk.  Some minutes spent scavenging squirrel-like, knees bent, fingernails collecting cold dirt.  And then kneeling, again, on the cement, placing each berry upon its surface, purposefully, for peace, for love, for the pleasant surprise it might hopefully be.

Hands red with cold.  An Americano, a White Chocolate Mocha, for warmth.  

Jan and I walking, the sky darkening, streetlights flickering.  

Hearts full of joy, love,

Peace and Possibility.

Night Walk

Walk two blocks (Albion, Arthur), turn left (on Arthur). Walk three blocks (Clark, Ashland, Bosworth), turn right (on Bosworth). Create a sculpture. A sculpture...I am a photographer, not a sculptor. What could I possibly create? Twigs and leaves and maple seeds are all I have to work with.


I don't get out much on my own. Tonight, in fact, I was planning on taking Cadence with me, my little dependent co-ariser, but she had a meltdown and had to stay home. I felt a twinge of guilt, leaving her in a crying heap in Ted's arms.

It's too bad, as that playground sure looked lonely without a kid on my way home. Maybe next time...

 _ _ _

I         ;

I     

      

'being with," unqualified

This, here, now;
you, me, everything;
change, oneness, emptiness;
and all conditioning too;
this, too, shall pass,
until we sense each others' awareness without the filter of conditions.

'being with' is my simple phrase for awareness presence as best as we are possible in this awakening process of dependent co-arising. All brilliantly wise masterful teachers (or the original buddha nature within all/each of us) help us to relinquish our clinging to the formal worldliness & become more deeply present with what is here and now. There is no other real moment of being, and I keep forgetting this fact. Caught up in the illusion of permanence, separateness, and meaning, I am not in control nor accepting of reality and trip into the habit of suffering. From this mentality, I am deluded, I struggle, I worry, I don't let go of my clingings. And, I sure am clinging to pain in body, suffering in mind, and exhaustion of spirit, all of which drain my energy because I am still tripping all over my desires in this life. I somehow have not fully learned dependent co-arising, even if I sorta "get it."

Nevertheless, I practice all the 'being with' in my found path of sufferings and glimpses of presence. Peaceful abiding, whenever possible.

How do you practice dependent co-arising, 'being with,' and/or conscious awareness?