balance | The Direction of Intention

The Warp And Woof [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on September 8, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Among the most toxic false divisions currently being foisted upon us is the idea that we are either exclusively conservative or progressive. We love our traditions AND want a better life for our descendants. Both/And. We are all progressive and conservative. We are more alike than we realize.

No bird flies if it only has a single wing; it needs the balance of a right wing AND a left. That is the genius of our system as it was initially conceived. A government that thrives on the honest debate of opposing points of view. Compromise is key. Compromise is balance and balance affords flight.

We are coming apart at the seams, not because we have divided into liberal or conservative camps but because we’ve lost the capacity for honest debate. It is not opposing points of view that plague us; it is a disbelief in substance, a disqualification of fact. A loss of balance. We do not share common truth. This bird cannot fly.

You’d think our division would be fairly easy to transcend. Shared facts are not so hard to establish. Observed, measurable, testable. Lately, our leaders can’t agree that ice forms when temperatures drop beneath 32 degrees. We are awash in “alternative facts” and purposely irreconcilable narratives. A disqualification of fact is a dedication to lies.

After encouragement from the president, a mob storms the Capitol. Is it an insurrection or peaceful tourists? Both interpretations are out there. Only one is rooted in observable, measurable, testable fact.

There were over 60 court challenges to the 2020 election, each was thrown out for lack of evidence. Yet, to this day we are still forced to swallow the narrative that the election was stolen even though all the evidence, all of the facts, substantiate that the election was free and fair.

A disqualification of fact. A dedication to lies.

A lie thrives on bluster and runs from proof whereas fact is quiet, independent of personal agenda or claim. Our capacity for honest debates is mired in personal agenda and drowning in a bucket of loud lies. We can only hope that someday soon integrity returns to our politics. We can only hope that proof and accountability find their way back in the executive office, the legislative chambers, and the judicial, the court Supremes.

Both Barney and the sweet potato vine he hosts are beautiful in their second chance. Barney was a rescue, a piano on the way to the scrap yard. The sweet potato vine was nearly dead, root-bound, when we intervened and gave it a bigger pot. Now it thrives.

Our nation is on the way to the scrap yard but it is not too late to intervene. It can be beautiful, a dynamic mix, a creative tension of old and new, progressive and conservative, a guardian of tradition that creates a better life for all of our descendants, a rich diverse nation that fulfills the promise upon which it was founded. We need not be lie-bound. We are nation of immigrants capable of creating a container big enough to hold a world of perspectives, strong enough to face the facts, sturdy enough to pursue the truth. We are made strong when we uphold our dedication to honest debate and compromise. Honest debate and the capacity to compromise is not the sole dominion of conservatives or progressives. It requires both.

That is our secret sauce.

A dynamic container capable of holding space for varied cultures and beliefs. A nation that offers a second chance to all newcomers. A energetic crossroads. Balanced weave of conservative and progressive, a nation unified by a deep embrace of a single fundamental truth: that all people are created equal.

read Kerri’s blog about SWEET POTATO BARNEY

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Filed under: Metaphor, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: alternative facts, artistry, balance, Compromise, conservative, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, division, fact, integrity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, progressive, story, studio melange, the melange, truth | 1 Comment »

Cosmos Questions [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on July 2, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Named after the Greek word kosmos (meaning “harmony” or “ordered universe”), cosmos flowers symbolize peace, balance, tranquility, and the harmonious arrangement of the world.” The Everpresent A-EYE

I am having an existential moment. That means that I am swimming around in the notion that there is no meaning or order in the universe and it is up to me to make it for myself. That’s a lot of responsibility! What if I am responsible for my own happiness and I screw it up!

I was not having an existential moment until I looked into the symbolism of the Cosmos – the flower – and bumped into the etymology and meaning of the word “cosmos” which is “the universe viewed as an orderly, complex, and harmonious system.” There’s plenty of science to support the orderly, complex yet harmonious system we know as the universe. I appreciate actual science that begins with a hypothesis, experimentation, observation, test upon test, verification, and drawing conclusions…and knows with each evidence-based conclusion, with each answer, bigger and bigger questions open.

I’m convinced that, unlike the spiritual traditions of the east, the three great western religions fear the absence of meaning (what happens after I die?) so they’ve constructed a very simple answer (I go to heaven if I’m good and hell if I’m bad). They’ve learned that people are more malleable and easily controlled if their cosmos is organized around fear, particularly the fear of breaking a rule and falling out of favor with an angry old father. Fear is an organizing principle that produces conflict. It is possibly why we have, as Joseph Campbell said, “3 names for the same god so we can’t get along.” This god is a colonist for sure: the shepherds of his flock control by pitting one group against the other. In this vast unknowable universe the shepherds claim the cranky old father chooses favorites. His is an autocracy made complex by his fickle love, contradictory rules and penchant for punishment. Sound familiar?

But that’s not what threw me into my existential crisis.

On our walk through the neighborhood we passed a house with brilliant cosmos. “I love those!” I said. I do. Cosmos may be among my favorite flowers. Kerri took a picture. I was not surprised when I investigated the symbolism of the simple cosmos-flower and found harmony, peace and tranquility. I was surprised to find, at the bottom of my screen, a box with this siren-call: Ask Me Anything.

Anything? A little cocky A-EYE box that promises an answer for anything?

I am suspicious of a little box that promises easy answers just as I am of religions that promise heavenly solutions – just as I have rolled my eyes for a decade at a bloated man in a blue suit who daily trumpets, “Only I can fix it!”

Ask me anything. Only I can fix it.

What if there isn’t an answer? What if it isn’t broken?

I find that it is more meaningful – and helpful – when my gods are silent, like a good parent, who, rather than dosing me with easy answers, helps me to find a better question. It may be frustrating at times but working and searching for my answers helps me grow.

Just so, the best leaders do not elevate themselves with boastful guarantees that they alone have all the answers. The best leaders elevate others. They seek answers with their constituents, answers that open doors to better questions. They welcome debate. They unify and facilitate. They focus energy into a common direction, making life better for all.

I stared at the box: Ask Me Anything?

“Okay,” I thought and smiled. “Two can play this game.” Into the A-EYE box I typed, “What’s your question?”

read Kerri’s blogpost about COSMOS

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Edges, Identity, Uncategorized | Tagged: AI, artistry, balance, cosmos, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, existence, God, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, leadership, peace, religion, story, studio melange, the melange, tranquility | Leave a comment »

A Sap Older Than Memory [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 30, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Look, we don’t love like flowers with only one season behind us; when we love, a sap older than memory rises in our arms.” ~ Rainier Maria Rilke

If I knew then what I know now. The younger version of me had love all wrong. It was something I chased, pursued. Why does it take so long to understand that Love is something I give? It’s what I bring to life rather than something I get from it.

Maybe my younger self tried to squeeze love into a too-small-box. The Greeks understood the word “love” to have 4 different meanings. The young seeker of romantic love, Eros, eventually arrives at the doorstep of Agape, unconditional love. Self-Less. It takes some life experiences, some serious folly and shedding of skin to approach the house of unconditional Agape.

Maybe I didn’t have it wrong after all. Love has age-and-stage progressive revelations. Agape rarely opens its door to the young. “Go out and play!” Agape instructs the young-and-wild-at-heart. Love is an ancient actor that wears many masks.

“Do not divert your love from visible things. But go on loving what is good, simple and ordinary; animals and things and flowers, and keep the balance true.” ~ Rainier Maria Rilke

It rained all day. Not a pitter-patter rain but a raucous downpour. After – or in between the waves – I can’t remember, we went out back to check the garden, to upright the tomatoes. The air was clean and humid-heavy; a paradox. Dogga grew damp from inspecting the grasses. Kerri bent close to the flower to capture the raindrops resting on the purple petals. Superbells. Plum made more plummy.

It was like a light going on or, yes, a door opening. “I” disappeared, “I” burst like a soap bubble, and for a moment there was only this. Agape. Love.

“Trees do not force their sap, nor does the flower push its bloom.” ~ Rainier Maria Rilke

read Kerri’s blogpost about SUPERBELLS

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Filed under: Love, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: agape, artistry, balance, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, eros, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, Rainer Maria Rilke, story, studio melange, the melange, unconditional love | Leave a comment »

Or Will We? [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on March 19, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

And suddenly the winds arrive. The forecast warned us to expect powerful winds early this morning so I was taken aback when I opened the door to an eerie stillness. Dogga trotted outside into a world with nary a whisper of breeze. Three hours later, as we sat down to write, as if someone threw a magic switch, the first burst of wind rattled the windows. The trees moaned.

I was struck by this quote from Martin Prechtel:

“I knew that no worthy ritual was done for the experience of the ritual but was carried out to maintain a regular life of work and harvest, raising children and struggle.”

Rituals, like Easter or The Hajj or Diwali are appeals, acts of sacred orientation. They are acknowledgement of our smallness in the face of the vast mystery of this universe. They are meant to renew our connection to the immense, to life. Ultimately, they are the recognition that our actions, each and every day, no matter how small…matter; that we are active participants in the well-being, restoration and continuance of life. We are active creators of our relationship with the mystery.

Rituals are meant to affirm that we are not the overlords but are responsible for the care and feeding of “something bigger than myself.” We are a part of the whole. Nothing more.

Rituals are meant to remind us that we are not passive witnesses to the health of the community or the planet, but that we are stewards, active participants in our own and the community’s well-being: physically, mentally, spiritually. How we walk through life, how we treat each other, how we care for our environment, matters.

The aim is not the performance of the ritual. The aim is how the performance of the ritual intentionally orients us to daily life and to each other.

When the performance of the ritual becomes the point of the ritual it is a sure sign that the greater mythology is dying. Or already dead. And, mythology – a shared story – is the glue that holds a community together. Without it a community fractures.

Rituals need not be religious to be sacred. In the USA, our legal system and how it works is rooted in a ritual dedication to our national communal glue: the law. The Constitution is the sacred document at the center of our legal ritual and is built upon a sacred ideal: no man is above the law.

“In America, the rule of law is king...For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Historians will someday write of the collapse of our ritual of law. They will point to the Immunity decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, someone who swore an oath to protect our Constitution, yet somehow granted a president immunity from the rule of law. He put the whims of a man above the law. The center collapsed.

Today, we witness the dissolution of ours law. A judge ruled and was ignored by a White House that knows the executive branch is immune from law and can, therefore, be law-less.

Last week we saw that congress – our makers of law – had no will to uphold their sacred duty of checks-and-balance to the executive. They signed away their power and with it, our freedoms as protected by their adherence to the Constitution. They meet now for no other reason than to meet – having abdicated their function in the ritual of democracy, having lost their purpose, they now function without meaning. They forgot their role in the ritual renewal of democracy. They now merely pretend that their actions matter.

The ritual collapses. The glue dissolves. It remains to be seen if the people, the ordinary everyday people, the people who, in a democracy, are meant to hold the power, will come together and reclaim our ritual of law from tyranny. Or will we, like the congress and the courts, fear the new king, abdicate our responsibility, remain silent and watch our freedoms circle the drain?

read Kerri’s blog on FLAWED WEDNESDAY

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Filed under: Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Identity | Tagged: artistry, balance, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, government, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, kings, law, lawless, liberty, martin prechtel, mythology, ritual, Sacred, story, studio melange, The Constitution of The United States, the melange, thomas jefferson, Thomas Paine, tyranny | 1 Comment »

A Legacy of Hope [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on January 23, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Tom was concerned with what would become of the ranch after he was gone. His concern was not the land so much as the family legacy. He felt as if he was the last, the keeper of the history. Who might carry the story forward? Who will re-member the steps walked by his ancestors?

I was moved to tears when the Balinese explained to me that, according to their belief, every child born was an ancestor returned. After seven generations, the ancestor comes back wearing the funny new face of the infant descendant. The important point is this: A community makes fundamentally different choices when they understand that the earth they leave behind is the earth that they will also inherit. The ancestor attends to the descendant because the descendant is the ancestor.

Through a translator, the Chinese master-acupuncturist explained to the students that the challenge he perceived in them was that they were rootless. The U.S. culture too easily plows under the sacred to erect a mall. We have very little connection to, understanding of, or respect for the past. He explained that eyes blinded by the shiny-new or obsessed with the algorithm will never access the ancient art of healing a human being. The whole being. With so little concern for what came before there is little awareness or care of the tracks made by marching forward. How is it possible to help balance the health of others when the healer is rootless and unaware of the impact of their actions?

“But what do we do?” It is the ubiquitous question asked by those who reject the malice and indecency that recently swept into power in the USA. The question thrust me back into the single challenge I faced as a DEI consultant: my clients were protected against the very thing that might help them. They wanted a solution – a fix – and saw no value in attending to relationships. The gods of efficiency and effectiveness had no time to waste. Eyes would roll when we suggested that they cease trying to fix problems. They’d panic when we proffered that a to-do list would never create the better culture they envisioned. In fact, it would prevent it. Cultivating “the space between,” paying attention to the quality of the relationships, would bring about the transformation they desired: a culture of mutual support grown from a history of ugly division.

This morning I was struggling to articulate my thought and Kerri stopped my mind-wander with this encapsulation: “What you are trying to say is that It’s not solution-based. It’s process-based.” Yes. Exactly.

“Solution-based” focuses exclusively on what-we-do. It is transactional and, after all, isn’t that the epicenter of what ails us as a nation? If the prevailing philosophy is the-ends-are-worth-the-means, then lying, cheating, grifting, demeaning, debasing, bullying are acceptable behaviors. We are currently witness to the amorality of attainment-of-power-by-any-means. It doesn’t matter who gets hurt or why. No one in power cares about the legacy, the traces left behind. Rootless. Unethical. Out of balance.

“Process-based” is concerned with who-we-are. Together. The opposite of transactional is transformational. Mutual support. Reinforcing connection. Paying attention to the growth of the whole as a means of attending to the growth of the individual. It’s a radically different philosophy in which the ends-are-the-means. Actions matter. Words matter. Choices matter. Roots matter. The legacy, the tracks we leave behind, matters.

And so we ask the question, “But what do we do?” We speak out. We use our voices for good. We begin by looking to the legacy of hope those who came before us left for us to follow. Perhaps we begin by linking arms, focusing on the space between, and continuing a legacy of hope and courage for future generations to follow.

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read Kerri’s blogpost about THE TRACES WE LEAVE

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Possibility, Seeing | Tagged: ancestors, artistry, balance, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, legacy, process, relationship, story, studio melange, the melange, the space between, transaction, transformation | 5 Comments »

Connective Tissue [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on January 21, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

I literally watched the ice crystals blossom on the glass. I was Jack watching multiple bean stalks stretch and reach into the sky. They feathered and connected, the light behind them making the ice-miracle color-lush.

It brought fascia to mind. That is not as arbitrary a thought as it might as first seem. I am reading about fascia. Don’t ask me why. I won’t be able to answer. My reasons are not random, just hard to articulate.

Fascia is the connective tissue of the body. It not only wraps around muscle, organs, and bones, it also embraces every ligament, every joint, every nerve, every artery and vein, every cell of our bodies. Every thing. It is a paradoxical wonder: it is flexible but provides structure, it is soft and loose but provides support. It literally holds our bodies together. It gives us shape. Most amazing of all, it is continuous, a an unbroken tissue-web from the tippy-top of our heads to the farthest molecule of our big toe, from the outermost layer to the innermost core.

When fascia is stressed, it tightens. It grips. It holds down the fort.

It responds to sensory stimuli. It feels. Trauma, physical or psychological, can cause the fascia to lose flexibility; this loss is called “restrictions”. In other words, too much stress makes fascia grip and not let go. The restriction creates an energy eddy that solidifies. A hard spot. A place where toxins congregate.

The good news is that the eddy or restriction can be released – but never through force. Pressure only serves to make the grip tighter. Gentle oppositional touch, fascia yoga, will eventually send the message: you can let go now. Relax. Trust.

I remember watching Koyaanisqasti, the 1982 documentary composed of slow motion and time lapse footage, no spoken words, that explores our relationship with technology and nature. Koyaanisqasti is a Hopi word meaning “life out of balance.” I was awe-struck by the interconnectivity it revealed. We move as one whether we realize it or not. We are not separate from nature or the world in which we live. We are nature. Out of balance with ourselves.

My long lost pal Roger used to say that it is a trick of language that fools us into compartmentalizing our experiences. “When you hurt your toe, it’s not just your toe that is injured; your whole body is injured,” he’d say.

Every “thing” impacts every other “thing”. Separation is an illusion.

The second day. The fascia of the nation is stressed. Hard spots have formed. Our faith in the populace is strained. We tighten our grip. We isolate, circle the wagons and hold down the fort. It is early so we can do little more than shake our heads in disbelief. 77 million of us chose the path of hatred and gross indecency. We fracture. We necessarily emphasize separation, “I am not them.”

And yet, we…The whole body is injured.

Perhaps the fascia has some lessons to teach us about how we might deal with the trauma to our national body: the election of indecency, the elevation of a confederacy of dunces. It certainly provides clues for how we – those of us who did not vote for hatred – might regain a healthy equilibrium. Gentle touch. Send the message to one another, “I am here.” Not only are we more than opposition; we are the carriers of the spark of the ideal of democracy. We are the movement forward. Even though an abomination currently sits at the resolute desk, we are the connective tissue, the shape givers of our nation and of the future.

read Kerri’s blogpost about ICE

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Filed under: Identity, Metaphor, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, balance, connection, connective tissue, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, division, equilibrium, faith, fascia, health, interconnectivity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Koyannisqatsi, stewards, story, studio melange, the melange, trust, unity | 1 Comment »

Voices Of Clarity [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on November 14, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

“A society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must know, and he must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven.” ~ James Baldwin (via The Marginalian)

We picked our window of time perfectly. We needed to walk, to get out of the house and breathe yet it had rained much of the morning. Antsy, we took a chance when there was a small break in the weather and headed for the trail.

We walked slowly. We kept an eye on the sky. We watched the next band of storm clouds roll in. It was beautiful. It was ominous. The rain came a few moments after we completed our loop, just as we were getting into the car. We laughed at our good fortune.

Some people take photographs to record events. Kerri, like all artists, takes photographs to feed her spirit. She sees beauty and the photo is way to connect or harmonize with the beauty. It is akin to a hummingbird drinking nectar. I watched her take photos of the coming storm. There was a fierceness in her posture. There was joy in the face of the tumultuous clouds. As I watched I remembered a conversation I had with Brad about the reason artists create. There is a precise moment for the child-artist that a spark lights a soul-fire. In my moment I desperately wanted to see clearly what was happening behind peoples’ eyes; behind my own eyes.

“Tyrants always fear art because tyrants want to mystify while art tends to clarify.”~ Iris Murdoch (via The Marginalia)

Later I looked at her photograph of the rolling storm and thought it a perfect image for our times. The storm is coming. Lydia wrote a comment musing about the surprise rise in prices the maga-faithful (and the rest of us) will experience when the people who pick our crops are deported. I responded darkly that the artists and intellectuals will pick the crops from their place at the corporate farm detention camp. Despots always have to eliminate voices of reason, voices of criticism and opposition. Voices of clarity.

Today, now, more than ever, I want to understand what-on-earth is happening behind peoples’ eyes. As I understand it, this is exactly the time, when chaos and deception rule the day, that artists get-crackin’ to clarify.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE COMING STORM

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Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Edges, Perspective | Tagged: art, artistry, balance, chaos, clarify, clarity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, instability, Iris Murdoch, James Baldwin, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, stability, story, studio melange, The Marginalian, the melange, tyrants | 1 Comment »

Wine Shadow [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on April 18, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

And with no warning, Cat Stevens was suddenly holding a concert in my head: Oh, I’m being followed by a wine-shadow, wine-shadow, wine-shadow. A leapin’ and hoppin’ on a wine-shadow, wine-shadow, wine-shadow…

Carl Jung wrote that “Everyone carries a shadow,…” I suspect Carl chose his verb carefully. Rather than being followed by it, everyone carries their shadow. The absolute weight of weightlessness. The next part of his thought goes like this: “…and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” The moral of his story: get to know your shadow.

I had a long talk with a high priest in Bali. He explained that, according to their belief, they see no need to run from the dark as we do. They strive to make peace with the dark. Keep in mind that their construct is not built upon the hard rock of heaven-or-hell. For them, there is dark energy and light energy. The two dance and balance each other. They are necessary to each other. Our work, he suggested, is to walk between them, hold them both as meaningful and sacred. Getting to know the shadow is about having a relationship with the light.

“Don’t sit down!” she said, jumping up, camera in hand.

“What? What?” I asked looking around. She rarely jumps up like that. Only in the presence of bees.

She pointed enthusiastically at my chair. “Shadow! Shadow!” she whispered, as if her voice would scare the shadow away. She focused her camera on the weighty-weightless.

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered, just in case she was right. I’ve ruined a shot or two in the past by using my outdoor voice. I didn’t want to get “the look” if I caused the shadow to flee before she could snap the picture.

It was during her photoshoot that Cat Stevens popped in. And Carl Jung, not wanting to be out-sung, offered his quote.

“I look forward to getting to know this shadow,” I said.

“What?” she whispered, aiming and re-aiming.

“Never mind,” I smiled.

“Did it take long to find me?
I asked the faithful light
Oh, did it take long to find me?
And are you gonna stay the night?” [Moonshadow, Cat Stevens]

Pray Now (John’s Secret), 48″x24″ acrylic on canvas

read Kerri’s blogpost about WINE SHADOW

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Identity, Metaphor | Tagged: artistry, balance, Bali, Carl Jung, CAt Stevens, conscious, consciousness, dark, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, energy, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, light, meaning, meaningful, middle way, moonshadow, Sacred, shadow, shadows, story, studio melange, the melange, wine, wine shadow | 2 Comments »

Balance [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on March 6, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

It looks like Persephone is back from the underworld. Or at least she is on her way. Demeter, her mother, goddess of all things that grow in nature, is starting to celebrate.

Persephone is early and, although Demeter, like all mothers, is over-the-moon with excitement with the early return of her daughter, the rest of us should be wondering “What’s up?” When those fickle gods change pattern this dramatically there’s good reason to wonder when the storm will arrive. Balance is off; things are about to tilt.

This morning I opened the back door to let the Dogga out and was completely captivated by the bird song. The full chorus was singing and they were glorious. In truth, the full chorus has been singing the sun up every morning for the past several weeks. Spring arrived in February. I am often awake when the first bird, the early soloist, takes the stage. I wonder if they know. Listening to the birds, looking at my untouched snow shovel resting by the back door, I thought about my dear friend in Reno who wrote, “We never get this much snow…”

Balance. Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds, the fruit of the underworld, so a bargain was struck: for each seed consumed she must spend a month in the underworld. Six months in the underworld. And, six months in the light with her mother, the earth celebrating their reunion. Six and six. This year, the bargain must have collapsed since we are three and nine. What about the other three seeds?

What about the balance?

read Kerri’s blogpost about GREEN SHOOTS

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Metaphor, Story | Tagged: artistry, balance, birdsong, celebration, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Demeter, greek mythology, hades, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, light, mythology, Persephone, seasons, story, studio melange, the melange, underworld | 1 Comment »

Control The Burn [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on December 4, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

Controlled burn. A fire set intentionally to maintain the health of the forest. It’s an interesting concept. A useful metaphor: what does a controlled burn look like when you are the forest? What are the invasive species growing uncontrollably in your mind? Your body? Your spirit? What overgrowth is choking out the light?

“Organizations are like people,” the younger version of me was fond of saying. “The path to health for an organization is the same as it is for you and me.” My business partner and I were hired for many reasons: leadership questions, change processes, diversity…but beneath the surface reason was always a deeper question: the health of the organization was awry. There was a dis-ease that looked like leadership issues or my personal favorite organizational illness indicator: change management initiatives.

What is balanced activity? A good diet (eating bad information is akin to gobbling bad food)? What is the value of laughter (holding it all lightly)? Above all, the single magic pill capable of healing every ill: attend to the relationships. Process (kindness) should never take a backseat to productivity. People are not widgets or replaceable bulbs. There will be plenty for all if the essentials are respected.

The hard part, especially when there’s pain, is to admit that the only way forward is to stop, turn around, and take a good honest look at what you are doing and why you are doing it. Politics and profit are great creators of darkness, fabulous justifiers of abuse. An alcoholic has to admit their problem before they can address it. The same is true for an organization (or a nation).

Taking an honest look is akin to starting a controlled burn. Opening space. Welcoming light. The destruction of an illusion is a literal eye-opener.

It’s not so very hard. What is true for individuals is true for organizations is true for nations. It’s simple to talk about. It’s hard to do. I learned this too: no one willingly stops and turns to take a good honest look until the darkness becomes…too dark. Until the only path forward is to pop the illusion. Often that begins by stopping to light a fire – first to see and assess the darkness – and then controlling the burn.

read Kerri’s blogpost about CONTROLLED BURNS

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