“But all experience of beauty is experience of cosmic wholeness, of harmony. Beauty is microcosmic intuition of macrocosmic reality.”
~ Matthew Fox
Archive for Human Nature – Page 15
I was on Zaadz – an
interactive platform dedicated to fostering collective spiritual
conversation – last night and found myself wondering about the value of these forums…
Zaadz is an innovative idea, the only public forum of its size and popularity (they’ve had a lot of media support from friends at What is Enlightenment magazine and their colleagues at Ken Wilbur’s Integral Institute). They are dedicated to ideological principles I share and have a spiritual (rather than religious) viewpoint. These alone make it worthy of my support.
If that isn’t enough, I found a wonderful new ‘design’ discussion group
there, where I was turned on to this inspiring video by industrial designer Ross Lovegrove. The video (taped at the 2006 TED conference – I’d LOVE to attend TED
one year, but haven’t yet managed to pony up the $4,400 it takes to do
so) is brilliant; absolutely inspiring and informative. Another Zaadz design post turned me on to a design blog I really liked, too, one that will excite me creatively and help inform my work in solid, practical ways.
Ideological solidarity and these kinds of creative ‘finds’ should be ample justification for my participation on forums like Zaadz, and there would be no question here if I had more ‘free’ time in my life, but as it is I’m afraid I often don’t give myself that time. This, even though I work alone and know that this kind interaction with others offers essential creative/intellectual stimulation. I clearly benefit from my engagement with these forums (including the wonderful array of relevant blogs) – why don’t I make more time for the unexpected discoveries and opportunities for conversation & connection available to me out here in cyberspace?
Perhaps because there are just SO MANY of them, and I tend to be so gluttonous in my absorbtion of information and ideas that I don’t have any sense of sobriety once I get started.
What about you? Do any of you reading this blog participate in one or more online conversations somewhere (this is a trick question since if
you respond, you are part of an online conversation! :-)? If do, how do you make the time and necessary distinctions, and what do you find truly valuable in the experience?
Every day while taking my morning walk I am reminded of a plan I once hatched to print up a small pad of paper with a gorgeous image or two & the words ‘In Gratitude’ printed on it…
My plan was to carry it with me so I can leave notes on the doorsteps
of people whose homes &/or gardens have filled me with pleasure,
thanking them for the attention and effort they have spent making their
part of the world a little more beautiful (of course I was planning to
discretely add my url at the bottom, in case they had the urge to
spread their beauty out a little further into the world and might need
my help in doing so – I’m not ENTIRELY immune to the need for marketing
myself).
I’m afraid I haven’t manifested my bright idea yet, but in the
meantime I thought I’d publicly express my gratitude
here, this morning.
This house enchanted me from the first time I saw it… the brightly colored simple mural, the luscious green drapes, the whole thing almost obscured from one angle by arches of overgrown vines, tall trees and a rambling porch.
One inhabitant of this house often leaves for work around the time I take my walks so one morning I just stepped up and told him how beautiful I thought his home was, and how good I felt as I walked by each day. He beamed in response, like he was surprised anyone had noticed, and thanked me warmly, leaving me feeling doubly blessed by his generous good nature.
The other day I happened to approach the house from the other direction, and discovered a whole new perspective. Each window on the side of the house displays a slightly different colored drape, each of the hues equally gorgeous… rich deep luscious colors that make you just KNOW the people inside are creative and interesting folks, happy to be part of the day’s inspiration to those around them.
I spent part of this Labor Day weekend in Reno with good friends, sharing a lovely afternoon swimming in the Truckee River in downtown Reno (it’s true!) and hiking in the Sierra’s Lake Basin area.
I also managed a few minutes alone with their beautiful daughter who is off to college this year. She showed me a couple of short films she made from clips & stills she’d taken with her digital camera on trips to Paris and Ashland Oregon.
I was absolutely stunned by her creative ‘eye’, inspired by her
initiative and impressed by the wizards at Apple who had the vision to
package creative tools of this caliber along with their computers…
iMovie rocks!
I’m very excited by the creativity I see coming out of this new
generation, and just felt like expressing my gratitude to all that
nurtures their flowering. I pledge my assistance as a part of this
support network for all my young friends and family. For that matter, I pledge my support for the flowering of creativity in all of us! May it be so!
weDialogue
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