Seeing | The Direction of Intention

Let Go Of “It”

Posted on August 22, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

531. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I’ve started drawing again. Each day, every day, I flip the elastic band off my moleskin sketchbook, open to a new page, and draw. Or scribble. I make marks and circles. I draw mostly from my imagination; sometimes I look at things and sketch what I see as a starting point and then rearrange the elements: I compose. I don’t see much difference between drawing from imagination and infusing my imagination into what I see. They are the same action; the direction is slightly different.

I am no longer interested in “capturing” reality – primarily because I don’t think there is a reality beyond what I perceive. In a sense there is nothing to capture. There is only interpretation. There is only imagination. To be clear: what I call reality is what I perceive; there is stuff out there (and you will waste a lot of breath trying to convince me that “it” is separate from me: I will giggle if you tell me that there is an objective reality) and I assign “it” meaning; simply by assigning a word to “it” I have abstracted “it.” If I describe “it” I have interpreted “it.” If I describe “it,” I no longer see “it;” I see the word that I’ve attached to “it.” So, when drawing “it” why not go with the flow – interpret, compose, imagine. Scribble, scribble, play. Sharpen the pencil and repeat.

The word “it” provides a perfect example: use these two little letters in the proper sequence and all the magnificent motion and moving beauty of the universe is frozen – “it” fixes flow in time: I can convince myself that a verb is a noun, a river is a thing, a person is knowable, all because I squeeze the miracle into two tiny symbols and think I know “it.”

Alan suggested that I do a self-portrait. It has been over a decade since my last serious attempt. He said, “Peer into those eyes for a while before starting and then ask yourself, ‘Who is this person?’” He asked me to draw with my heart and not my head. Alan is wily and that is why I love him so. He knows what I believe and why I draw. He caught me in a net of my own making. How can I now look in the mirror and possibly believe that I can “capture” what I see?

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What’s In Your Projector?

Posted on August 9, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

518. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Today at breakfast, Lora was in mid bite when her gaze went far away; she was suddenly lost in thought (I love that phrase because I think it describes the human condition). After several moments she came back into her body and announced, “I just had an epiphany!” She said, “You know the psychology behind projection, projecting onto others what you like or dislike in yourself? Or, how what you dislike in other people is usually something that you need to work on within yourself?”

“Yes…?” I replied. Caution is a good thing when Lora has epiphanies because she is essentially a trickster and I am an easy mark. Dig a tiger pit and I will step into it. Ask me to pull your finger and I will. Easy, easy, easy.

“Well, projecting is the same thing as that age-old phrase: It takes one to know one!” She was delighted with her discovery. “It takes one to know one is a simple way of saying, ‘I’m projecting my crap onto you! Or, I see in you the thing that I don’t like to see in myself; do you see? It takes one to know one!” Satisfied, she finished her bite of breakfast.

I thought that the opposite must also be true. If I see in you something I admire then it must also be available within me. If I can project my shadow on to others and see it in them then I must also be capable of projecting my light and seeing it in you, too.

I suppose the greater question becomes, “what am I projecting?” According to Lora’s epiphany, you’ll know it because you’ll see it.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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Where Are You Looking?

Posted on August 6, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

515. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Lessons come to me in loops; I get the learning, incorporate it into my life, and then it loops away until one day I find myself learning the lesson again. Today, the lesson that looped back is about focus placement. For the past several weeks I’ve been focusing on the struggle. I’ve been seeing a thick muddy swamp that I need to cross.

I’ve wondered why I am so tired lately and incapable of sustaining my intentions. And then this morning a client told me about her greatest learning. She said, “ I’ve learned that I need to put my energy and focus into the light and not into combating the darkness.”

I laughed. I know better and have learned this lesson many times. I will no doubt learn it again several times before my focus no longer slips into the swampy darkness. Today I’m re-learning that I need to put my energy and focus into the light. I have the capacity to see what I want to create instead of focusing on my obstacles. No amount of mud can daunt me when my focus, my energy, my will, my intention are on what I intend to create. In fact, the swamp often disappears when I stop insisting that it is there.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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No Containment Necessary

Posted on August 4, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

513. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Several years ago I wrote these notes to myself. The operative word is “contain” and it is wrapping me on the head again:

It is a necessary movement, when you cease looking for answers in other people you will step into the present and begin living with the question. Let go of the idea that there is an answer! Life lived in pursuit of an outcome will set up a false expectation: try to contain life and you will kill it.

In the movement from answer-seeking to embracing the question, there are stages or levels:

1. The slowing down. When you stop seeking answers in other people, you begin finding your answers within yourself. You have to slow down to hear what’s inside.

2. Change the self-talk. Doubt the validity of the chatter; instead of confusing your self with the chatter, separate from it and develop the capacity to witness it. You are not the chatter. You are not at the mercy of the chatter. You can work with it. You begin to understand that your language has power; you have the capacity to change your language, change your self-talk, and thus, change your world. This is the warrior phase; you will necessarily be at war with yourself while you learn to separate yourself from the inner blather.

3.Recover seeing, sensing, feeling. Living in choice, you will have the opportunity to cease fighting within yourself. You will no longer need to turn off your feelings, disconnect from your impulses, or deny your self. No containment necessary.

4. Reorient and align with your nature. Enough said.

5. Stillness is possible. Action in stillness (action without story) is available. Be still. Be rid of containment. Act, not according to your limitations but according to your capacities.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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Follow The Sound

Posted on August 2, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

511. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Inside the Volunteer Park Conservatory in the room just beyond the orchids there is magical piece of art called the Over Lyre. It is the work of Portland, Oregon artist Dan Senn. Suspended just above your head, small wooden dowels and metal disks are suspended from lines of piano wire. A gentle vibration sent through the wires tilts the dowels tapping the disks; it is a chime that soothes and inspires inner quiet.

Lora, Megan and I watched as a young boy, maybe 5 years old came into the conservatory chamber. He was following the sound to discover its source. He was enrapt the moment he stepped into the chamber and saw for the first time the Over Lyre. His stillness (presence) was so…full, that we were enrapt by him. His quiet became our quiet. His parents entered a moment later and were literally stopped in their tracks by the power of his presence. His presence swept us into the present.

We were, all of us adults, moved to tears.

This capacity for awe, this is what makes us human. This desire to follow the sound to the source, to give ourselves over to it, to marvel and be-come the delight, this is the purest form of creating; it unifies us.

How long has it been since you followed the sound and gave yourself over to delight?

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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See Like Merlin

Posted on July 17, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

495. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Every morning for the past five days, the blue-grey heron has fished in the same spot. It is as if he watches for me, too. I imagine him thinking, “That guy walks the same path every morning.” The foghorn is the sound track behind our mutual spying. The fog gives the heron the mystique of appearing from nowhere. “Magic,” I think as he emerges from Avalon. “Merlin in a heron shape.”

And, indeed, each day that the heron served as my portal guardian I have experienced enchantment. One day I called to visit Aboriginal art that brought tears to my eyes and a new vision to my heart. I learned what it truly means to dream. One day I entered the nether world of Chihuly and the museum designed to honor his imagination; it took my breath away with whimsy and color. On another day I met a hundred new people who left the comfortable patterns of their lives to wander the studios of artists. Brave hearts.

On a day I will never forget, I rolled up my pants and walked into the Sound to a sandbar 50 feet from the shore. “So, this is what Merlin sees!” My feet were cold, the fish were safe. “Yes, silly! This is what it feels like.” I heard a voice whisper on the wind and I understood what it is to see like a magician.

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Truly Powerful People (475)

Posted on June 27, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

475.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I just listened to a very interesting interview. Jon Katz has written a book, “Soul of a Dog: Reflection On The Spirits of the Animals At Bedlam Farm” – book about soul and animals. He spoke of a survey taken a generation ago asking people if they believed their animals had souls; 98% of responders said, “no.” Recently, another survey asked the same question and 98% of responders answered “yes.” The doll flipped in a single generation.

Socrates and Plato wrote about the soul and believed that it was unique to humans; at least the human version of soul was something entirely different than the energy expressing through our farm animals, pets and all things wild. Western mythology would have us believe that we can sign away our souls for money, sex and power; that our souls are in constant danger of compromise and require vigilant, austere, restriction.

I think souls like to play. Many eyes in this world see soul in every tree, flower, spoon, and coffee cup: everything has a soul, everything is soul so there is no notion of temptation or need for protection, fear or redemption. Lack of appreciation is the single trip line. Forgetting that you are a part of everything is akin to casting yourself into hell. There is no judge or rulebook or condemnation: separating yourself from the whole is an inside job – you do it to yourself.

I remember watching an interview with Gary Zukov, physicist and author of The Tao of Physics; he was asked, “Where is the soul?” and replied, “Where is it not.” The audience applauded. I appreciated his answer and wondered how many people in that audience recognized themselves as soul-full – or was their applause aspirational: they wanted to experience themselves as an expression of soul. To recognize yourself as soul-full means you first must see everyone and everything as soul-full. I wondered how many of the audience members looked at the cabs (or the cabbies) that whisked them from the studio that day and thought, “I am soul participating with soul.”

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Truly Powerful People (457)

Posted on June 9, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

457.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I’m on the bus with 3 ladies from Wisconsin. They landed in Seattle without a plan and the wrong clothes for the weather we’re having. They came prepared for summer and were not prepared for the cold winds and freezing rain. It has not dampened their spirits. They are on an adventure and the wrong clothes are now part of a big story of stepping off the edge of the farm belt and into a new land called Seattle.

They’re asking me for tips: where to go to buy wool socks, what to do at the Market, how to best get around. Note: they purposefully did not rent a car because they wanted to navigate the city, to ask questions, to bump into people, to get lost; their plan was to step out of easy and into relationship. “People are so friendly here!” they exclaim. I am stunned at their brilliance and realize that the 3 ladies from Wisconsin are actually Midwestern-Buddha-ladies-in-training. They are not from the big city so talking to strangers is, in their rulebook, polite, so they are talking with everyone. The culture of the bus transforms as the usual stone-faced crowd opens and giggles with the Buddha trio.

We hear a harrowing tale of the drunk man that sat at their table the previous evening. “We were having margaritas!” they declare, “But he was too young for us!” and giggle riotously. “But we did ask if we could borrow his car.” They smiled knowingly as the nearest Buddha to me leaned close and whispered, “We didn’t want him to drive home in that condition. Plus, we thought we could stop by the store for supplies on the way.” Then, she winked.

“Do you have a plan for the day?” another rider asks, wanting to join the fun. “NO!” The Buddha trio chime in chorus. “We want to see what the day holds.” Buddha number one affirmed. “We’ll know our plan when the day is done!” added Buddha number two. Buddha number three smiled and announced to the bus: “Isn’t this great!”

Filed under: Perspective, Seeing, Surprises, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: adventure, Buddha, relationship | 2 Comments »

Truly Powerful People (449)

Posted on June 1, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

449.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

My great aunt Dorothy was wise. She lived a simple life in the mountains above Central City, Colorado when it was still a mining town – long before the casino conversion turned it into an amusement park. Dorothy pieced together a living with my great uncle Del. They moved through their days with the sturdy simplicity of two people content to be right where they were – alive and grateful for every day. Their aspiration was to walk the hills, appreciate the seasons, and learn the deep quiet of the mountain. In turn the mountain evoked the deep quiet from within them.

For some reason they welcomed their rowdy nieces and nephews; we’d stay for weeks at a time. We shattered their quiet and complicated their simplicity and they loved us for it. Dorothy cooked hearty meals on a wood burning caste iron stove in a house that felt as if it might slide down the ravine at any moment. She collected blue glass, kept the hummingbird feeders well supplied, and made sure Poncho, their ancient dog, was in the sunniest spot.

Once, she took me on a hike. We followed a path through an aspen grove and crossed a field into a stand of pine trees. On the far side of the pines stood the remains of two-story house. Trees grew through the floor and branches reached out the windows; it was as if the trees were wearing the house for a coat or a Halloween costume. We peeked inside and tried to imagine people living there. I’d never before seen the earth reclaim a house. As if she read my mind, Dorothy said, “You never really own anything, do you. It’s all on loan.” Her eyes sparkled as she poked the rotted floorboards with a stick before stepping on them. “Isn’t it beautiful,” she sighed admiring the dilapidation. When I wrinkled my brow she laughed and said, “I suppose you have to know you are on loan before you can really see the beauty.”

Filed under: Seeing, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: beauty, seeing, simplicity | 4 Comments »

Truly Powerful People (434)

Posted on May 17, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

434.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

“The studio is an extension of the sandbox and the kindergarten playroom. It has a dynamic unlike any office or factory. It’s a room at the service of a dreamer on her way to becoming a master.” Robert Genn

The indomitable Patricia sent this quote to me. I love it. If you get the chance to see what comes out of her studio you will know that the quote describes her perfectly. She is a master though will deny it emphatically (the sign of a true master).

My first nickname for her was The Accomplishment Hog because she accomplished everything and left nothing for the rest of us to achieve. Had I been wiser at the time I would not have demanded to share in the accomplishment pie; I did not know the true meaning of freedom until I lost it beneath a pile of accomplishments. When I finally learned that my identity had nothing to do with the stuff that I’ve done (or not done or will do) I found myself skipping more, whistling, and doing things because I just wanted to do them.

I cannot find an accurate antonym for accomplishment but I suspect it might look something like “learning,” or “play.” Because I complained that she was hoarding the accomplishments Patricia sent me a large cardboard cutout in the shape of a dancing hog; it wore a party hat and had a noisemaker. I added Accomplishment Taunt-ress to my growing list of nicknames for her. The dancing Accomplishment Hog was the centerpiece of my house for months. I giggled every time I passed the Hog and said, “Oh, yeah, watch this!” One day with wrinkled a brow Lora asked, “Can the pig go somewhere else?”

I believe Patricia and I are both attempting to measure our lives, not by what we achieve, but by the depth and breadth of our experiences. She is my ally in a world gone accomplishment crazy. She walks on her mountain and lets the wild look deep into her eyes. She knows the truth behind the totem, the worth of the seed. She helps me remember to see.

When I told her that I loved the quote she responded, “Given that we both have sandboxes, I figured out that we are actually getting younger.” Yes. The key to perpetual youth: find a sandbox and play, play, play your way to mastery.

Filed under: Heroes, Seeing, Truly Powerful People | 4 Comments »

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