take another look,

we have no way of knowing
if we see the same color
for blue
we have been conditioned
the sky is blue
the ocean is blue
so anything resembling these hues
is called blue
I don't know if I ever really loved
you might see green
for my blue

Another Look

Let's take more looks.  

Let's look again and again toward ever unfolding possibilities.  Let's 

never pretend we've figured things out forever.  

Let's 

let 

go.  

Let's let people be themselves, free of preconception or 

expectation.  Free from fear.  

Free toward fulness of body, mind, 

heart, 

and soul.  

Let's always look again. 

Jam Session

Me on drums, fiance Rado on accordion, just a small sample from our jam session

harmoไน๊ซ์

kiss talking

TRY THIS:

1. Find someone you can kiss.

2. Decide together something to say.

3. Say it simultaneously, lips touching.

4. Harmonize.

Happy Birthday harmony

This afternoon I had the pleasure of hosting my brother and Ben Solee for lunch. Ben is a cellist/folk musician on tour, and he is playing tonight in Chicago. My brother and I both remembered that it was my dad's birthday today and we all sang in harmony to my dad over the phone while Ben played the the old tune. Happy Birthday Dad!

After a long talk.

Warm Tears.

3 Full Breaths.

lavender wand

I was discussing the purpose and beauty of my homemade lavender wand with Ryan and Jan (mostly magic and aromatherapy), and it soon became apparent that Jan should have this wand since she is always working so hard writing papers, reading, and being a really excellent student (and awesome!) She returned the gift with a 3 breath embrace. It's a pretty intense thing taking 3 breaths with someone, whatever their relationship to you...very spiritual. 

smells green      and pale blue.

1. Shoes

2. Painting

A Sweet Offering

Di una galleta a un profesor de español quien tiene una motocicleta.

I gave a cookie to a spanish teacher who has a motorcycle.

Ys? Yes!

To give something away is a pretty open suggestion.  I hadn't been giving it too much thought until time began besting us in our afternoon/evening out on the town.  We'd been enjoying ourselves immensely, eating a lovely lunch, catching an incredible film, walking while sipping warm beverages, and the sun, trickster that it is, decided to settle in (So Early!) for the evening.

So:  Faced with the impending darkness of a night that has been making itself known earlier, and earlier, and altogether too early to make any sense whatsoever, we decided to quicken our steps in pursuit of something to give away.  

After about an hour in pursuit of the aforementioned something, I settled upon a record I have known, and liked, and loved, and lost:  Joanna Newsom's Ys.  This record is very good.  It is.  Indeed.  And I desired to give it away, to someone, a stranger, who had hopefully never heard of her, or her strangely titled album.  And so we walked about, crossed streets, stood in front of the new Uncle Dan's store in Evanston, and waited.

Moments later, Jen and Chris paid their parking meter and were approached by Jan and I, as innocently as possible, with a short explanation of what we've been doing here at dependent co-arising.  Jen had never heard of Joanna Newsom, so I offered her the album.  

It was a simple enough transaction, verging on the outrageous.  Such actions rarely, perhaps never, take place.  Positive confrontations with strangers who'd like to give you a gift?  No questions asked?  Preposterous!  Perhaps.  But also wonderful, and freeing, and lovely.  

I hope Jen and Chris had/have a good night.  I hope Jen enjoys the album, and if not, no problem.  The act, the experience, was valuable enough.  

If you, Jen or Chris, remember the web-address of this lil' blog, thank you for participating, for receiving a gift, and take care!

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?

Chivos!

Goat Tacos!  Goose Island Bourbon County Stout!  Lychee Liqueur!  Woah!  We definitely indulged a bit in the eating/drinking of the unfamiliar!  And it was great!  

We ate around the table, taking breaks to lend our glitter glue pens, our colored pencils, and our markers to the blank piece of paper that we placed in the center of the table.  Slowly, gradually, colors and shapes began to form, began to converse, overlap, enter, and exit.  The drawing, the eating, the drinking:  all were reminders of the dependent co-arising that is the root of all life and all experience.

Thank you Jan, Michael, and Sara for sharing the evening with me, and thank you everyone, all of you, for giving these actions your daily attention!  

I should have loved you less......The foods of regret.

I seek no adventure. I seek the same pain I have always known. "Red" (with knife) was delicious. "Red" (in coffee cup with knife) was even better. "Grey" water—I remember our night (alone). My stomach is the dish I never wash. I prepare the food with a tongue donning a fluffy hat...speaking French without my consent. I never opened a can I didn't like. Sex Eyes.

Today's project happened for me in two parts:

For Lunch I was determined to go to the health food store and order the weirdest sounding thing on the menu, which for me was a: Royal Jelly, Wheat Germ Oil, Bee Pollen, Protein Powder, Pineapple and Raspberry Smoothie. It's aftertaste was kind of bread-like in a strange way, but delicious nevertheless.

and


For dinner, in the company of our dear friends Ryan and Jan we feasted on goat tacos from a local taqueria. I also tried the latest Goose Island bourbon stout (which I could barely finish) and followed that with lychee cocktails! Insanely good and even better when shared with such good company!