More breezes - please?

Can you tell where my mind is?

Not much to offer today other than some bizarre eye candy!

These are just three more of my favorite infrared shots (especially the 2nd)

TGIF!

Nosey

Just nosey - that is all!

Tropical breezes ... please?

I am so ready to go back to Hawaii. Sick of the wet, cold, gray and dreary weather. I'm sick of looking outside and seeing my inside - a constant reminder that is difficult to escape.

I want to feel the warm breezes on my face.

I want to feel it on my mind as well.

I want to feel the warm sand between my toes.

I want to feel just as warm in my heart.

Today is just more gray - morphing into gray.

Stripping the color from fantasy.

And I struggle.

Endings & Beginnings

There seems to be a lack of creative juice over the last couple of days – a lot going on in the stew that’s called my mind, but far too fragmented to present here without risk of being committed. So I give you:

an ending…

Sunset from a Washington State ferry after a great day on the Olympic Peninsula


…and a beginning

Next project – Project Storeroom - a neglected space adjacent to the basement and off the greenhouse that requires lots of attention after the discovery of “creatures”. Wasn’t on the original list of projects, but some things just have to be dealt with – woo hoo!

ODD JOBS

In this search for self and right livelihood one of the cathartic processes that are in play is the clearing out of the clutter and organizing the rest. This is not only the physical stuff but the mental stuff. I can only work in a messy environment for so long before I have to call a halt to all activities and clear the desk so-to-speak. In moments of deadline pressure and panic I’ve been known to rake it all into a box to sort later, but a clean space to work in was paramount. I’ve done this on a mental level and have done it with people as well – of the latter I’m not proud.

I was in the middle of sorting through some boxes tonight and was once again reminded of how we collect baggage and sometimes can carry it for long periods; weighing us down and cluttering up our lives. We gather stuff that we think is important at the time and shelve it to gather dust. In the end it just takes up space in our lives, whether it’s in our heads or in our basements. When I’m feeling really stuck with a mental roadblock I’ve found that cleaning up and clearing out my physical space can help loosen the clog of clutter in my head as well.

So I’m opening up a box at a time and marvel at the proliferation of outdated and, often as not, redundant information. Once started I go into auto-pilot mode and hours will pass before I’m past tired and need to give it a rest – such is evidenced by the time that I’m posting this. Right now I’m at a 2:1 ratio of throw away to keep – this is just the rough cut. The energy builds as the pile to toss grows and space grows on the shelves as well.

This same energy is exerted on the books as well and here it is a collaborative effort. Hot Sauce and I long ago established the rules of order regarding book purges. It matters not who starts the process, but it is a solo job followed by another solo effort. The first keeps only what they know they want without regard to whether the other person might want it or not. It is an exercise in which there is no judgment or second guessing. The keepers are set aside and the second person has a go at the pile following the same rules and with out questioning whether the other might have overlooked something. The remainders are then ceremoniously boxed up and either traded or donated. Our purges over the years have routinely yielded around 30% in discards – often as many as 300 books and periodicals.

Space – it’s all about opening up space to allow for the new to come in – the vacuum theory as we call it, It’s difficult to accept new things or ideas properly until there is room to accommodate them.

So what does this have to do with the title you might ask? Well this time I’m digging deeper and perusing files that have been intact for a long time. I ran across a file that I stored a bunch of resume fodder in and found a sub-folder labeled “ODD JOBS”. I’ve been studying the question of what brings happiness and how that also applies to right livelihood. I realize looking through this folder that it has been the “odd jobs” that have brought me the most pleasure. I had to smile when I brought forth this photo. It is from a time when we were reconstructing our house in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains and I started this business as a flexible side income. There was a niche market in the Atlanta area for cleaning very bizarre buildings and objects. That is Atlanta’s High Museum of Art and it was like washing a huge white enamel refrigerator. The crew did the majority of the work from swing stages, but insurance restrictions dictated that I do all of the work that required using rope and rappelling gear. So the speck of a person you see perched there is little ol’ me. I have to admit that I had fun doing this – sure beat being cooped up in a stuffy office and fighting to stay awake during boring meetings. There were some very kooky pieces like the kinetic sculpture in front of the Atlanta School of Art and a 29 story drop on some odd columns of the Hilton. There were many, many more but I think you get the drift.

Thinking about these endeavors and remembering how I felt doing them has given me a different light in which to preview the next segment of my life. Do I want to jump off buildings again or hang like a spider over some spiny object d’art? No, I think not. Do I want to develop manufacturing processes for some aerospace firm or manage a group of folks who are totally uninspired in their jobs? No, I think not. I do, however, want to be mindful of what I do next; of the investment of time and energy. So I’m clearing my desk and clearing my mind in an effort to focus on what is important and what is relevant. I am choosing to choose the heroic path – the hard path and perhaps in that I can find part of my happiness. The other part … well … another challenge – another day.

In search of the elusive fragments of the soul

What? Has Seamus gone all religious during his absence? Nope! Not a chance. What I refer to is the pieces of us that often go neglected or abandoned altogether. They are our sacred pieces that give us our creative juice, that give us true hope, true vision and bind us together when we become “whole.”

Life changes often bring on the realization that some of these pieces are missing and in the gathering of self knowledge we consequently go about searching for these fragments as well. Such is my current charge and I’m finding myself increasingly busy about the business of me – re-discovery, re-invention and self realization. I’m looking square in the face of that which I know makes me happy, satisfied and actualized as well as the things that I “think” will provide the same results. It is the latter that is the tricky stuff isn’t it? The Jesuit scholar Baltasar Gracián wrote that those who master their lives take a great step forward as persons and manage their affairs as great artists. The truth of this seems obvious, but its application eludes me more oft than not.

I was watching my oldest grandson a few months ago as he busied himself about some impossible task. He doesn’t frustrate easily (unless it has to do with his mom not giving in to one of his “demands”) and he assembled his creation over and over again. At some point he turned and said, “Pop! Look!” and sure enough the cantilevered architecture would have made Frank Lloyd Wright gasp. When he set about his enterprise I thought there was no way this was going to work and I’m not so sure that my adult and linear mind would have allowed its fruition. He had no preconceived notions about it failing, just about its completion. So, like the bumblebee that defies the laws of physics and flies because no one told it that it couldn’t, my grandson simply did it without fear, without judgment and without restraint. Our children should be our heroes.

Lewis Lahr, former chairman of 3M, tells a story in a taped lecture The Care and Feeding of Innovators that Marsha Sinetar paraphrases:
An elementary teacher said to her charges, “Boys and girls, today we’re going to draw a picture of the imagination. Take out your crayons and let your mind run free.” All the students - except one – began drawing. The girl sat thinking, apparently stymied. Finally she announced, “I know what I’ll draw. I’ll draw a picture of God. He was pretty imaginative. After all, He created the world and everything in it.” The horrified teacher said, “Oh, no, dear, you can’t do that. No one knows what God looks like.” The child thought another minute and then exclaimed, “You’ll know what God looks like when I finish my assignment!”

Without fear, without judgment and without restraint – perhaps this is how we should go about gathering our fragments back together and reinventing ourselves in the fashion in which we would like to become accustomed.

Project Stairway

... only on Bloggo
... brought to you in part by Uranus (made only in Space by cadets)

"Where the Hell is my sheetrock!!!???????????"

"GET to work!!!"

"Get TO work!!"

"Get to WORK!"

"What happened to Taylor?"

"Seamus.............





.................................your in!" (fuckin' A!!!!!)

This is where it started...

note: plumb and square does not apply here!

...and this is the result!!!

...with a little flash

...comm center

...the girl has a bed!

"ONLY ON BLOGGO" (Heidi? Lets talk!)

psssstttttttttt......we're back!

(mostly)