Navel Gazing | The Direction of Intention

Never-In-My-Life [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on June 17, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Never-in-my-life did I imagine that I’d sit on a deck and wile away a day peering through binoculars at a crow’s nest. We cooed and awed at the babies when they showed their beaks or flapped their young wings, the diligent parents flying to and fro to feed the bottomless bellies of their hatchlings.

Never-in-my-life did I imagine that discovering a turtle’s nest, the eggs newly hatched, could inspire the depths of wonderment that we felt. It was such an unusual find that, at first, we had no idea what we were seeing. We pondered what kind of bird nests in the ground and then it hit us. We were witness to an ancient birth rite, turtle eggs cracked open from the inside. With no mother to guide them, feed them or protect them, the newly hatched turtles somehow knew where to go, what to do. They scrambled to the safety of the river, at least that is what I imagined. We were giddy with excitement.

Last night we watched – again – the movie About Time. It remains my favorite movie of all time. Even after multiple viewings I laugh aloud and struggle not to sob along the way. Even knowing what is about to come, I am deliciously caught by surprise. It makes me yearn to go back and do things differently AND to not change a single precious moment. Both/And. Every single time we watch it. Never-in-my-life.

Enjoy life. Morsels. Alan Watts might say, the ever-present now. Last night, while setting up the coffee for the morning, I wondered how many bags of Cameron’s Velvet Moon Espresso Roast I have ground and thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe hundreds. Lately, I’m paying attention to how much I enjoy the evening ritual of closing our day by grinding coffee, the smell and the anticipation. Watching Dogga wind-down by following the chipmunk trail across the yard one last time. Never-in-my-life did I think I would love so extraordinarily so much…ordinary.

Kerri is sitting next to me – her writing interrupted, caught in the hate-stream and disbelief of a conservative’s rhetoric. It brought to mind a quote by Neil Postman, written in another era but prophetically describing our era: “…irrelevance seems to us to be filled with import, and incoherence seems eminently sane.” Entertainment posing as the news-of-the-day. Noise without substance. A manufactured thrill. Contextless content. Like a drug it is meant to keep us hooked. Nothing more, nothing less. Never-in-my-life did I imagine…

Never-in-my-life did I think I would so thoroughly delight in living upside-down, so appreciate my quirky capacity to question, my driving desire to detach from the noise. It is no wonder that I find the reality of the crows nesting so refreshing. The smell of the coffee so grounding. The miracle of turtles emerging from the earth to find the water so utterly hopeful.

read Kerri’s blogpost about ENJOY LIFE MORSELS

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Filed under: Merely A Thought Monday, Navel Gazing, Perspective | Tagged: about time, alan watts, artistry, Cameron's Coffee, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, enjoy life, entertainment, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, morsels, Neil Postman, relevance, rituals, simplicity, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Marking Time [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on May 8, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Marking time. I stood at the large window and looked at the crowd queueing to enter the concert hall. The evening promised a blast from the past, greying seniors reaching back to touch their youth, aging bodies dressed as they might have dressed 30 years ago – and loving it. Remembering. Posing for pictures. Then and now.

It was a birthday experience, a gift. The Queen tribute band – One Vision of Queen with Marc Martel. Close your eyes and you’d think you were present with Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon, Roger Taylor… It was hard not to be catapulted back to 1980. Where were you when you first heard Bohemian Rhapsody? I knew exactly. It was visceral. I remember thinking, “What’s this?”

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see…

As time machines go, this was a great one. All the aging bodies danced and clapped, perhaps with a little less flexibility and grace but no less enthusiasm. Marking-the-time. Gratitude rippled up and down the aisles for this music that defined, informed, enriched and transported. There and back.

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?

read Kerri’s blogpost about QUEEN

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Gratitude, Navel Gazing | Tagged: aging, artistry, birthday present, Bohemian Rhapsody, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Freddie Mercury, Gratitude, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Marc Martel, marking time, memory, One Vision of Queen, Queen, story, studio melange, the melange, time machine, tribute band, youth | Leave a comment »

Word Play [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on February 28, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Do you know what these are called?” she asked.

The homeowner, smiling that someone was appreciating his garden, replied, “I don’t know but they’ve been there since I was a kid.”

She whispered to me, “I know what they’re called but I can’t remember.” And then, as we continued down the road, she abruptly stopped, arms thrust high as if she’d just kicked the winning goal, “Snowdrops! They’re snowdrops!” The celebration of a thought retrieved from a long lost corner of the mind. “Snowdrops,” she smiled and strutted.

Beyond the strut-and-dance of word retrieval, there’s a great opportunity in this time of lost words. I adore the words we invent to replace a missing word. We stray far beyond the boundary of thing-a-ma-gig. Whos-e-what-see is child’s play compared to the sounds that come out of our mouths. They sometimes sound like remedial German: Schodenhammer. They sometimes sound like dinosaurs: Velocimapper. Shakespeare, the greatest of word inventors, reminds us that language is not a fixed thing. I think he’d be delighted by our spontaneous additions to the English language. “Make it rhyme!” he’d cheer!

And then, when a word goes missing and spontaneous-word-invention fails, there are the delicious descriptions. “Dough with things stuffed inside. You know! You cook them!” Ravioli? Pot Sticker? Gyoza? “That thing you fold and put in your pocket. It has money in it. Sometimes. And credit cards.” Oh, yes, even the most mundane word can hide for a while. The green thing with a big pit inside. Poor lost avocado.

Where do these words go? Vacation? I loved the homeowner’s response: I don’t know but they’ve been there since I was a kid.

read Kerri’s blog about SNOWDROPS

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buymeacoffee is a word…well, three words smashed together to make a clever title for a donation site.

Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Language, Navel Gazing | Tagged: aging, aging brain, artistry, child's play, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, description, invention, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, make it up, shakespeare, snowdrops, story, studio melange, the melange, word drop, word loss, word play, words | 1 Comment »

Go Curly [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on December 19, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

Left to its natural state, Kerri’s hair is as curly as curly-ribbon or the curling leaves of this winter grass. It’s gorgeous though someone, somewhere, convinced her that her curls were passé. Her mom and I waged a not-so-secret campaign to stop-the-straightening but we had little to no impact. Every so often Kerri lets loose her curls and always receives raves but they somehow bounce off the image-shield of straight hair.

I have an image of myself. Lately, when I look in the mirror, I see something other than the image that I expect. It’s something to play with! I appreciated the early days of acting school because it demanded a constant change of image. More than once I had to cut off all my hair for a role. There is a power in studying character, realizing that who we are is not a noun but a process. Character – personality – is how-you-do-what-you-do and not “who” you present to the world.

Also, as a teenager I had an image of who I would become. I am surprised to report that I’m not the cross between Leonardo da Vinci and Joseph Campbell that I intended. No amount of straightening the road could alter my wandering (curly) path. I realized, none-too-soon, that to achieve my image I would have had to betray my nature. I am – and always have been – the steward of a “beginner’s mind.”

Kerri has a theory that people do not change, they become more of who they really are. The layers of imagined-self drop off. The core is revealed over a life-time of shedding images. Self-discovery a la paring down.

I grew my hair (again) after moving to Wisconsin. When I met Kerri I was still sporting the short-short hair that my clients expected of me. For some reason, my clogs were acceptable as an outsider invited into the hallowed walls of the corporate arena but long hair was too much. Long hair was a bridge too far. So I cut it. Now, the longer it gets, the more Kerri (and 20) tell me that I look more myself. I’m not sure what that means to them but I agree. It fits my image of me. I always use the opportunity to tell Kerri that when she allows her hair to go curly, she looks more herself, too. After all, her mom and I have not given up our campaign. Although Beaky is on the other side of the veil, I feel her poke me. That’s my cue to lobby Kerri to shed the image-of-straight, to become more of who she really is, and sport those gorgeous naturally curly locks.

(The title track of Kerri’s very popular X-Mas album, The Lights. She’s inserting into her post so I wanted to also drop it into mine. Happy Holidays!)

The Lights is available on iTunes

stream The Lights on iHeart Radio

read Kerri’s blogpost about CURLS

like. share. support. comment. curl. find your nature. or not. it’s all good.

buymeacoffee is an internal image of wildly curly hair meant to bring you at long last to your true nature.

Filed under: Identity, Navel Gazing, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: acceptance, artistry, beginner's mind, change, curly hair, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, hair, identity, image, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mirror, self discovery, self image, story, studio melange, the lights, The Lights A Christmas Album, The Lights by Kerri Sherwood, the melange, wanderer | 3 Comments »

Take A Leap [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on December 1, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

According to the myth, ancient Hawaiians believed that the souls of the dead leapt into the next plane of existence at Ka’ena Point.

The ancient Greeks believed the souls of the dead gathered at a specific spot on the shore of the river Styx and awaited the boatman to ferry them across to the underworld. The leap to the next plane of existence.

And then there are the leaping places for the living. The next phase of existence. Sometimes it is a move to a new city. Sometimes it is a career change. Sometimes it looks like an opportunity. Sometimes it looks like a loss. Sometimes it looks like a crossroads with no good choices. Or, too many good choices. Sometimes it looks like a dream come true. Destiny. And all that is required is a leap.

“Leap” is another way of saying, “Let go.”

Today, of necessity we cleaned out most of our society6 storefronts. We populated these stores when we began our Melange. It was an attempt to monetize our art work. Paintings, cartoons, graphic designs, music compositions. Despite a titanic effort, our designs, art prints and products never flew off the shelf. Over the years our store sites have remained mostly inert, so much so that we simply stopped promoting them. Society6 recently changed their business model and we were forced to face the reality of a foregone conclusion: it didn’t work.

The cutting down and clearing out was surprisingly disheartening.

Over the years our Melange transformed from a business idea into a place for Kerri and me to write. To write purely. We love it. It feeds our souls and keeps us grounded. So, I was taken aback by how much hope I still harbored that our artistry might someday, some way – in this way – financially support us.

And so, a letting go. An unexpected step onto the platform. Another leap. Cuts made matter-of-factly. The creation of space.

In a long-ago-disheartened moment, a younger me asked an older-and-wiser-artist, Doug, when the leaping stopped. His answer: It never stops. You just become better and better at leaping.

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora and iHeart Radio

read Kerri’s blogpost about LEAPING.

like. share. comment. support. leap. leap again. and again.

buymeacoffee is….

Filed under: Art, Creativity, Navel Gazing | Tagged: artistry, choices, crossroads, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, disheartened, dreams, existence, heart, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, leap, leaping place, let go, opportunity, society6.com, soul, story, studio melange, the melange, transform | 1 Comment »

Savor The Words [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on October 16, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

Her delight in finding the stack of Nancy Drew novels, her girlhood favorites, sparked a question. She asked, “What did you read as a kid?” Instantly, I was a deer in the headlights. I muttered something incomprehensible and changed the subject in order to dodge the question.

It’s not that I didn’t remember. The truth is that I wasn’t a reader until I was in my mid 20’s. It’s as if someone threw a switch and I was instantly transformed from dullard to a voracious reader. I generally have two or three books going at the same time, making up for lost reading time.

A few years ago it occurred to me that I was reading like a starving man at a smorgasbord. I was gobbling words without breathing or tasting. So I decided to try an experiment. Read books like they are poetry. Savor a few pages at a time. Consider for a full day what I have read in my few pages. Re-read it if I am unclear. Re-read it if it is gorgeously written.

My experiment is going well. I’m living in the books rather than blowing through them. I delight in the phrases, the way words are put together to invoke images and sounds and tastes. Sometimes a phrase is so beautifully written it makes my eyes water. I feel as if I’ve pulled off the freeway, stepped out of the car, and am walking through a meadow. I see more. I appreciate more.

I credit the age of information with my new reading practice. I’ve been studying how people engage with their screens, how I have been engaging with my screen. We skim. We jump. We tab hop. There’s so much information demanding our attention, stuffing the nooks and crannies of our minds. Emails, texts, slacks, social streams…

I’m finding my peace, out of the stream and off the info-super-highway, turning paper pages with intention, paying full attention to what is written there, no more than a few pages at a time.

read Kerri’s blog about NANCY DREW

like. share. support. comment. savor. sample. contemplate. replicate. all things we appreciate.

buymeacoffee is an online fictional book repository where you can lose your ever-loving-mind and fall into strange lands where you find yourself supporting the work of artists you appreciate. Ridiculous!

Filed under: Language, Merely A Thought Monday, Navel Gazing, Uncategorized | Tagged: appreciation, appreciation of language, artistry, consider, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, experiment, information age, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Nancy Drew novels, peace, peace of mind, poetry, ponder, reader, savor, savor words, story, studio melange, the melange, young reader | 4 Comments »

See A Gull [on KS Friday]

Posted on August 11, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Haiku

a scavenger bird.

opportunistic, seeker.

see! a gull am I!

The gulls congregate in the Kohls parking lot. We’re not sure why. It seems an unlikely spot for gulls to hang out. Hot pavement. No snacks. Cars coming and going. They camp en masse. Later in the day they exit in full voice and return to the marina. Make sense of that, I dare you!

Susan asked when caring-for-others left the building. I launched into a pedantic monologue that, even to me, sounded like the screech of a gull. Lots of noise, little helpful substance. Or, my diatribe mimicked the adults in a Charlie Brown special. Wah-wah, wah-wah. The sound of a preacher who thinks the path to deeper spirituality is through a map or a dry history lesson. A rule book. A witless shepherd caught lecturing the sheep. (baaaahhhhh)

I wondered what or who I might become if I dedicated myself to knowing nothing. What if I understood to my root that my opinion is just that…an opinion. Not a fact or a truth or blue-ribbon winner at the world-thought-fair. What if life needed no explanation?

What if there is no higher meaning to be found or greater mystery to be solved in the daily seagull pilgrimage to Kohls? What if, rather than seek a rationalization, I gave myself over to the wonder-of-it? What if Joseph Campbell had it right:

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive…”

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes or streaming on Pandora and iHeart Radio

read Kerri’s blogpost about SEAGULLS

share. like. support. comment. or all. thanks either way.

Filed under: Identity, KS Friday, Metaphor, Navel Gazing, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, experience, fact, Joseph Campbell, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meaning, meaning making, opinion, opportunist, seagull, seeker, story, studio melange, the melange, truth, wonder | 1 Comment »

Take Another Look [on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on July 24, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

I am surprised that our favorite go-to trail is the yellow route at Des Plaines. The first time we tried it, years ago, we were swarmed by mosquitoes from beginning to end. We ran-walked, swatting the air the entire way. Kerri stopped to take a photograph and I lost site of her in a mosquito cloud. It was a scene straight from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. We swore we’d never go back.

I have no memory of why we gave it a second try. How long was it after the first very-bad-no-good-mosquito-fest? I can’t remember. I only know that I’m grateful that we challenged our first impression and gave it a second chance. It has become our solace, our reset on a bad day. It is the place where we walk away our troubles and talk through our tribulations.

Over time we’ve learned it. We know its rhythms. We know when and where we are most likely to see deer. We know when the cranes will pass through. We know when the turtles will emerge. And, we now know when to avoid it. It has become a significant part of our story.

As we walked it yesterday, in the hour before the mosquitoes come out, I pondered how many opportunities and rich experiences I’ve missed because of a bad first impression. A useful mantra popped into my head from my days facilitating DEI workshops: have your first thought and work on your second. In other words, doubt what you think. First thoughts, first impressions, are often sandy soil.

A single experience is a very small test sample. Give the trail another hike. Go at dawn or dusk. What’s true in spring is different in fall. The same is true with people. I’m an introvert and generally make a lousy first impression. How fortunate am I that others decided to give me a second chance?

Of course, the fly in the ointment of this thought-train is mosquitoes. I have no need to give them another look!

read Kerri’s blogpost about MOSQUITOS

like it. share it. support it. comment on it. we appreciate it.

Filed under: Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor, Navel Gazing, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, assumptions, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, des plaines river trail, doubt, first impression, Gratitude, introvert, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mosquitoes, second chances, second look, story, studio melange, the melange | 3 Comments »

Play With Life [on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on July 12, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

On my list of things to think about: raindrops are water held together by surface tension. The elements of air and water at play. And then, as if that were not enough, there’s refraction!

Now you know why I’m such a bore at parties. While everyone else discusses recipes or the antics of their children, I’m captured by the drip of water on the houseplant. Talk to me at your own risk.

It’s a question of attractions. Water molecules like hanging out with other water molecules more than they like hanging out with air molecules. Like seeks like. The liquid contracts. An inward force of attraction creates a surface tension at the crossroads with air. Don’t worry. Beyond the metaphor I don’t really understand it, either.

In my next life I’m going to be either a gospel singer or a physicist. If a physicist, I’ll still be an outrageous bore at parties but at least I’ll understand the forces behind what I’m seeing. If a gospel singer, I’ll be great fun at parties and I won’t for a moment think of the forces at play. I’ll sing with the power of unquestioned faith.

Our backyard is a sanctuary. The birds love it. The chipmunks race along the fence line. The bunnies eat the grass and lead Dogga on wild-bunny-chases. The pond gurgles. The plants thrive. All are interfaces of forces. Water and air. Life playing with life.

It gives me plenty of fodder to think about. And, plenty to love.

read Kerri’s blogpost about H OSTA

like it. share it. support it. comment on it. we appreciate it. truly.

Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Gratitude, Navel Gazing | Tagged: air, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, elements, faith, forces, froces, interface, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life force, love, physics, play, raindrops, refraction, sanctuary, story, studio melange, surface tension, the melange, water element | 1 Comment »

Appreciate The Glee [on KS Friday]

Posted on April 28, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

My “word-of-the-day” is bedight. Adorned. It seems most appropriate that this adverb popped in my box on this day of Forsythia. The trail was bedight in Forsythia. A sudden explosion of vibrant yellow.

I always look forward to the first Forsythia sighting. It’s the day Kerri dances in delight, chanting, “They’re back! They’re back!” Her relationship with Forsythia reaches into her childhood and has deep love-roots. My association is more recent: it’s the flower that makes Kerri dance. She runs to the vibrant petals to take a close-up. I stand back and appreciate the glee.

Dogga acts as if we are Forsythia. When we return home from errands – even if we’ve only been gone a few minutes – he jumps vertically at the backdoor, so excited is he to see us. Sometimes I like to go on errands just so I can come home to such a glorious welcome. Who doesn’t want to be greeted with out-of-control enthusiasm!

Yesterday, after a particularly arduous slog through the day, Kerri sat on my lap and declared, “We are successful at nothing!” We burst into laughter. Zero. Nil. Nada. Zip. Bupkis. Nought. Naught. And Zilch. And, into that vast nothing, we pour our good laughter and heart until our nada-cup runneth over.

She did not say that we are unsuccessful. Our particular form of success, apparently, is no-thing. Like Glee. Or enthusiasm. Or music. Or beauty. They are hard to wrap your fingers around. They are even harder to assign concrete monetary value. What is our work worth? What – exactly – is our work? Beyond no-thing?

Yesterday I asked Arnie the to ponder the same question I’ve asked many of my wise-eyes pals: why would people support us? Financially? Beyond caring for us or liking us (trust me, we are wildly abundant in love and friendship), why would someone – anyone who doesn’t know us – support our work? What do we bring of value to the community? For us it’s confusing. Approximately 1,500,000 people listen to Kerri’s music every year through streaming services and she receives nearly-nada. Our blogs and cartoon have reached people in over 80 countries. We love to write together. We love to share what we create. Is there concrete value to what we offer? No-thing? If so, what is it called? What could it be? What shape is graspable? We are sitting on the mountain so we cannot see it. What are we missing?

Mostly, we hope to bedight the life-trail – yours and ours – with the vibrant yellow that lives beyond words and evokes spontaneous dancing. Mostly, if it doesn’t make you dance, we hope it helps you stand back and, like me, appreciate the glee.