Metaphor | The Direction of Intention

The Third Line [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on June 10, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Our first guess, a Yellow Breasted Bunting, was inaccurate. It was an American Goldfinch. Our honest mistake did not short circuit a haiku.

Seven syllables, the second line of a haiku: A Yellow Breasted Bunting. What might be the first line of this haiku? A shock of color? Harbinger alights? An Omen arrives? What reconciliation or insight might this omen-Bunting bring to the third line? The messenger sings? Chirping the future?

An omen arrives/ A Yellow Breasted Bunting/The messenger sings.

All of this ran through my mind after scrubbing out the birdbath, refilling it with fresh water, only to find a few moments later a shock of feathered yellow perched on the rim preparing for a swim. The fourth line of my haiku, if such a thing existed, would be: Gratification. Or “pure bliss”. Or perhaps, “The oracle takes a bath”.

Canary in the coal mine. Their song an early warning system.

Maya Angelou wrote, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”. The song of the caged bird is one of hope in the face of oppression. The song of a bird yearning to be free.

And what is the message of a mistaken Yellow Breasted Bunting/American Goldfinch perched on the rim of a newly refreshed birdbath? A new beginning perhaps? A fresh start? The necessity of chirping from the heart?

Or, perhaps, it wasn’t a messenger at all! Perhaps it was just an American Goldfinch, not an oracle, who simply stopped in to take a cool bath and sing.

American gold/finch, not oracle or seer/Singing just because.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE GOLDFINCH

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Language, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: American Goldfinch, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, freedom, haiku, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, maya angelou, omen, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

The Force of Flowering [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 2, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

If you’ve been following our posts you will have noticed – as we have noticed – that we are lately schizophrenic in our writing. One day we are blistering critics of the abuses of the current administration while the next day we write about the peace and presence of our lives. Utter discontent and sublime contentment all in the same week. I doubt that we are unique in our split personality. I believe we are reflecting the split-personality that is contemporary life in these un-United States. It is my bet that you are as whiplashed by the struggle for equilibrium amidst the daily dose of chaos as we are.

What we write is supposed to come from the image at the top of the post, thoughts inspired by a photograph. Lately, however, what we write depends often upon the circumstance of the moment. For instance, last week we sat down to write and Kerri said, “Before we start I have to read you something.” What she read to me was so upsetting that I wrote a rant about what she shared – and found a way to sense-squeeze it into the photograph.

This morning we laughed at our schizophrenic writing. And, we acknowledged that it is exactly what this autocratic administration desires to create: a populace that is reactive and so under assault that it doesn’t know where to look next.

During COVID we intentionally transformed our backyard into a sanctuary. In an unsafe world we needed a place where we felt at peace. This spring, although we haven’t discussed it, we are doing it again, we are creating a sanctuary, cultivating beauty and quiet, we are creating a space where we can rejuvenate, where we can unplug from the brutality. A space to breathe.

We’ve been watching the peonies bud and are taken by the sheer force of their flowering. You can almost see the pressure building in the bud, ready to burst into blossom. It has become for me a harbinger of hope. It is the same pressure I see gathering in my friends who, like me, have had enough of the chaos and corruption. It is the same energy that fills our conversations when we talk of voting in the fall. It is the pressure-driven transformation changing reactivity into intentional positive action: the reclamation of democracy and decency and sanctuary, a safe and productive home for all.

read Kerri’s blogpost about PEONIES

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Filed under: Metaphor, Perspective, Possibility, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, decency, democracy, force, intentional, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, peony, reactive, sanctuary, story, studio melange, the melange, writers, writers process | Leave a comment »

A Purer Music [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on May 29, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Education in the true sense is helping the individual to be mature and free, to flower greatly in love and goodness.”~ Krishnamurti

I like to think that Barney-the-piano’s flowering-in-love-and-goodness began the day he was moved into our backyard. For decades he was held captive in a dark church basement boiler room. Not only was he forgotten but the dry heat from the boiler destroyed his soundboard and, therefore, destroyed the purpose he believed was created to fulfill. We caught the junk man just in time. Instead of hauling Barney off to be dismantled and discarded, we paid him to bring Barney to our house.

Barney lived into a second purpose. It took a while for him to settle in, to learn that making music was not his exclusive talent or destiny.

As he lost his keys to weather, as his veneer curled and fell away, he became a refuge, a safe spot for birds and squirrels and chipmunks. The critters rest on his lid, build nests in his sound box. Each day the birds mingle on Barney and sing. Although he himself is not making the music, he knows that the sanctuary he provides gives the birds reason to sing. He inspires a purer music.

We have watched Barney flower-in-love-and-goodness. We have had the good fortune to witness his transformation, no longer resisting the forces of nature but moving in harmony with them. He is free and most certainly mature, no longer bound by a too-narrow definition, no longer invested in how he looks or what others might think of him. He is content. The dark times no longer define him nor does he bother to hold onto those memories. They get in the way of the birdsong. They distract him from enjoying the moment. He knows that distractions of the past interrupt his other newfound purpose: teaching us, his students, the power of letting go of all that we cannot control.

Kerri’s music is available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about BARNEY

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Filed under: Gratitude, KS Friday, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education, goodness, grateful on as it is, Gratitude, Jiddhu Krishnamurti, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, music, purpose, story, studio melange, the melange, transformation | Leave a comment »

The Daisy Path [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on May 25, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Sometimes life gives you a second chance. My second chance met me at an airport. She was holding a daisy so that I would recognize her. Wouldn’t it be lovely if every time life opened a heart-door, a second chance, “the right path”, it was marked with a daisy so that we would recognize it? I saw the daisy. We skipped out of the airport.

That day was thirteen years ago. The daisy has lived on the dashboard of LittleBabyScion since the day she held it at the airport. She held it when we skipped to the car. She put it on the dashboard for the drive from the airport where it remains to this day. It is now a very fragile shadow of a daisy but no less of a talisman. It heals. It inspires. It connects. It reminds us how very lucky we are.

The quote at the bottom of my 1440 newsletter today was from Martha Washington: “The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” The daisy on the dashboard is both a thread that binds us to our origin story and a gratitude-marker reminding us each and every day that we have nothing to complain about, that his big ole universe extended an abundance to us that few people ever enjoy. We do not take that gift lightly. Our circumstance over these 13 years may have been rocky but our happiness continues to grow greater and greater because we never take the daisy-path for granted.

My sister-in-law once commented that Kerri and I work hard to keep the magic alive and it is true. We work hard but we also know a secret about the magic: the harder we work the easier it becomes. Cultivating wonder is a feedback loop; wonder cultivates us in return. Wonder is the hallmark of the daisy path and I am more than astounded that one day, thirteen years ago, I stepped off a plane and met my destiny holding a daisy.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THIRTEEN

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Filed under: Gratitude, Love, Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: abundance, artistry, daisy, daisy path, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, destiny, disposition, happiness, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, magic, second chances, story, studio melange, talisman, the melange, wonder | 1 Comment »

Ideal Stewards [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on May 22, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

To me it is perfect that wild geranium grows at the foot of Barney-the-piano. The “wild” in wild geranium refers to something that grows without human intervention. Barney has aged without our intervention so I hope he feels wild in his decline. We find him beautiful in his absence of human intervention. Ours is to witness and appreciate. The wild geranium serve as the ideal stewards for Barney’s reclamation of his wild.

Isn’t it ironic that human intervention in nature has been so extreme that we are now in the throes of existential climate change – and the only thing to be done is to intervene on our intervention. Do two interventions cancel each other? It’s possible that our intervention on our intervention is too late and will eventually restore the wild to the planet.

We had a “wild geranium” conversation with 20. It wasn’t about geraniums. It was about human intervention on humanity. How might we protect ourselves from the ills of human intervention wrought upon our fellow humans? How might we protect ourselves from the ick of humans that bomb a girl’s school or round up into concentration camps other humans because of the color of their skin? It is fundamentally inhuman so we cannot claim it is wild. It is certainly is not tame. Perhaps shameful?

Wouldn’t it be wild if we, like the wild geranium, could figure out how to be ideal stewards with and for each other?

Kerri’s albums is available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about WILD GERANIUM

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Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor | Tagged: artistry, climate change, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, human intervention, intervention, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, nature, pulling weeds kerri sherwood on itunes, stewards, story, studio melange, tame, the melange, wild | 1 Comment »

Certain Distinctions [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on May 20, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

There are certain distinctions that, although simple, reveal all you need to know. For instance, we sprinkle birdseed on the top of Barney-the-piano because we enjoy watching the birds. On the other hand, my maga-neighbor maintains a bird bath near a feeder, positioned low to the ground, to lure birds as bait for his cat. I am disgusted by his cruelty. He is disgusted by my empathy.

This is an irreconcilable difference. It is also a good shorthand metaphor for the contrast between maga and woke.

I visit this contrast every day as I try to understand the news-of-the-day. There can be no other explanation for the horrors of ICE, for the protection of the Epstein Class, for the bombing of fishing boats, for the dismantling of USAID, the incessant lies, the tax breaks for billionaires at the expense of Medicaid, SNAP and affordable healthcare…than this: cruelty is the republican drug. Like my neighbor who snickers every time his cat kills a bird, this confederacy of dunces gets a high with every atrocity.

And, to be clear, they are disgusted by democratic-woke-empathy just as we are disgusted by their maga-cruelty.

Here’s the problem: democracies are by their nature and definition empathetic. A government of, by and for the people is predicated upon the care and concern of elected leaders for their constituents. Service to the betterment of others. A capitalist republic such as ours cannot last when cruelty is in the driver’s seat. It collapses when elected leaders prioritize personal gain above the needs of the people they were elected to serve.

Autocracies, by definition, thrive upon the exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few. No brutality is too malicious. They applaud the “double-tap,” they cheer their leader’s swagger-brag that”A whole civilization will die tonight.” They protect the pedophiles and turn their backs on the victims.

It’s an irreconcilable difference. If you remain confused about what you believe. all you need do is ask yourself, “What is my reason for feeding the birds?” And then vote for what you believe.

read Kerri’s blogpost about BIRDS

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Metaphor, Perspective, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, autocracy, cruelty, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, empathy, GOP, government, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, republicans, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

See Number Five [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on May 4, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

How do I start this post?

Choice #1: Although it is a platitude, it is never-the-less accurate: where you place your focus grows. I have come to believe that one of the few choices we actually have is where we place our focus. (yawn).

Choice #2: Among my many flaws is a hyper-focus. Kerri just rolled her eyes. Okay, I can be…obsessive. Once I start a project it is nigh-on-impossible for me NOT to think about it. Shortly after we moved in together, we were carrying a desk from the upstairs to the basement. The doorbell interrupted our task and we left the desk standing on its end. After our visitor left I started for the stairs and Kerri said, “Let’s leave it until later.” I writhed all night and into the next day…

Choice #3: Combine choice #1 and choice #2 and call myself out on my hypocrisy. Do I have a choice of where I place my focus or not? Am I obsessive, meaning that I have no control over my focus OR am I the zen master I imagine myself to be and masterfully place my focus on the flow? The desk be damned! It will happen when it happens!

Choice #4: On social media I can be whoever I want to be! It is, after all one big viewfinder! I may not be able to control my focus but I can place your focus on my zen master identity and lead you to believe all manner of positive things about me! I can retract my story about moving the desk! I need never betray my obsessive focus dilemma. In my concocted self, I can claim to move through life obstacle-free!

Choice #5: The impact of a glass of wine on obsession.

Choice #6: The great truth of my collaboration with Kerri, my wife, my 24/7 companion, my creative copilot, is that I can’t get away with anything. If you happen to swallow my blather, if you fail to recognize that I am an obsessive gasbag fixated on moving a desk, she will set you straight. She will put your poor abused-and-confused focus placement aright! About me, she will mutter, “…teaching what he most needs to learn…”

Choice #7: If I was a magician I’d be a master of deception.

Choice #8: See #5.

read Kerri’s blog about THE VIEWFINDER

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Filed under: Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor | Tagged: artistry, choice, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, deception, focus, focus placement, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, obsession, story, studio melange, the melange, viewfinder | 1 Comment »

As Old As Aesop [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on April 30, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Isn’t it funny,” she said, “that we trust what comes out of the government of Pakistan more than we trust what comes out of our own government.”

Habitual lying destroys credibility. It is the point of Aesop’s fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. It’s a story as old as, well, Aesop, who walked the earth and told stories in the 6th century BCE.

Our current unfolding fable begs the question, “What happens when the wolf and the lying boy are one and the same?” Like the fern in our garden the story is unfurling right before our eyes. What moral lesson might Aesop have spun into our developing fable? This lying boy/wolf is certainly feasting freely upon the sheep, all the while crying, “Wolf!” – as if he himself was under attack from every quarter. Has the point all along been to blunt the villagers’ response to genuine urgent warnings? To so completely break down communal trust that the people refuse to believe what they see with their own eyes?

Of course, Aesop has a caution, a moral reminder prepared for our rescue: abuse of trust always backfires. It’s a consequence as predictable and as old as, well, Aesop. The lying boy/gluttonous wolf will have his reckoning. Yet, the villagers will suffer the greater loss. No sheep. Broken trust. A fractured community wondering how to put the pieces back together again.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE FERN

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Identity, Metaphor, Story | Tagged: Aesop, Aesop's Fables, artistry, authoritarian, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, gaslighting, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lies, story, studio melange, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the melange, trust, truth | 1 Comment »

What The Hell Are We Doing? [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on April 29, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Sometimes it pays to look up. Cutting the tall grasses, cleaning and preparing the flower beds, I was hyper-focused on the task at hand. A distant rumble caught my attention so I looked up from what I was doing. Dark dragons were flying around in the sky. They breathed lightning, a flash followed by thunder. I dropped the metal clippers and headed inside. I thought it best to finish my task another day.

Once seen, the dragons in the sky were obvious. The lightning they breathed was unmistakable and dangerous. The action I took – dropping the lightning rod clippers and exiting the scene – seemed prudent. Easy and clear choices.

This morning I heard a distant rumble and I peeked at the news. The danger to our nation is obvious. A single delusional man, a retribution dragon encased in sycophants. A convicted felon, found civilly liable for rape. Does anyone really believe that he does not figure prominently in the Epstein Files? The Supremes granted him absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for all official acts and one wonders why grift falls under the umbrella of official acts. Is insurrection an official act? Is obstruction of justice an official act? Is threatening an entire civilization with annihilation an official act? Is falling asleep on the job or slurring speech or incoherence covered under the umbrella? They’re not crimes but would certainly be grounds for removal from any other job.

One wonders when the republicans will stop pretending that the sky is blue when they can see – as we do – that it is filled with a dangerous swirling delusional dragon? Will they drop their clippers in time or will they continue to hold tight to their metal rod and wave it at the lightning-filled-sky? You’d think they’d have the good sense to head for the door. You’d think that they might consider that the lightning they tease could be – will be – the death of us all. One wonders what must be lost, what lightning must strike, what line must be crossed, before they ask themselves, “What the hell are we doing?”

read Kerri’s blogpost about STORM CLOUDS

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Filed under: Metaphor, Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: absolute immunity, artistry, choices, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Epstein Class, Epstein files, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, republicans, retribution, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

The Blink Of An Eye [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on April 27, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“What the head makes cloudy/ The heart makes very clear” ~ Don Henley, In A New York Minute

“It’s as if last week never happened,” she said. We’d prepared for weeks for the trip and in a flash, in a New York minute, we were back home. “So much happened but now it seems like I dreamed it.”

We stayed in the same place that we stayed during our previous trip six months ago. Climbing the stairs into the small apartment it felt as if only a few days had passed. “Weird!” I said and she nodded. “It’s like we never left.”

Our recent undertaking has necessitated some serious life review. We’ve reached back decades to find details, we’ve driven the streets and neighborhoods where she rode her bike as a kid, we’ve stood in places that she stood nearly fifty years ago. “Has it changed?” I ask.

She shakes her head, “The trees are bigger.”

It’s a marvelous thing to have fifty years of life to revisit. It is a marvelous thing to be able to reach across decades and touch innocence. Sometimes this task has seemed nearly impossible. Sometimes fifty years of time, fifty years of life, seems like a flash. The blink of an eye. A New York minute.

We stood on the beach. It was an unseasonably hot day. The last time we stood on this beach we needed extra layers. The wind was brisk. This day there was no breeze. We were slightly disoriented because it had been months yet felt as if we’d stood on this beach yesterday. “Something is different,” I said. She agreed. “What is it?” I asked. What’s different?”

“It’s mine, again,” she said. “After so long. It’s mine.”

read Kerri’s blog about A NEW YORK MINUTE