learning | The Direction of Intention

Take Another Step [on KS Friday]

Posted on August 24, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

in transition song box copy

In the past year I’ve been reading books a few pages at a time. Some days I only read a few paragraphs at a time. I’m not reading to get through a book. I’m reading to ponder. It’s become a form of reading meditation.

A few weeks ago, I began a slow read of my own book, The Seer. I published it nearly five years ago and immediately abandoned it. Today I read this: change never comes from the direction of what you know. It is a prerequisite of learning, growth and change to step away from what is known, from what is comfortable. From what feels safe. Learning and change are always in the direction of the unknown.

Kerri’s IN TRANSITION is a musical mantra for stepping into the unknown. As is true of all transitions, it is a yearning in two directions. Yearning for what was. Yearning for what will be. But more than yearning, it is a river of determination. Take another step. And another. And another. Discover.

If you are in transition, as we are, stand still for a moment and listen to the yearning, steep yourself in the simple encouragement of IN TRANSITION.

IN TRANSITION on the album RELEASED FROM THE HEART available on iTunes & CDBaby. The physical CD is available here.

read Kerri’s blog post about IN TRANSITION

www.kerrianddavid.com

in transition/released from the heart ©️ 1995 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Edges, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: change, comfort, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, determination, discovery, growth, In transition, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, meditation, released from the heart, society6.com/kerrisherwood, studio melange, the melange, The Seer, transition, unknown, yearning | Leave a comment »

Savor Good Moments [on KS Friday]

Posted on July 27, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

When you find yourself wondering what it’s all about, play this game: fill in the blank, “In this life I have….” Fill in the blank again and again and again, searching your memory banks for all the magic, mysterious, and miraculous experiences you’ve enjoyed. The good moments.

I like this game because, inevitably, I arrive at the realization that the good moments are the smallest of moments. Although swimming with whales or seeing the northern lights are miraculous, the really good good moments are first kisses, watching your baby sleep, holding hands after the storm passes. Laughing hysterically with friends just because.

Kerri’s composition, Good Moments, is a musical river of small moments, quiet yearning, tender touches, the smell of autumn leaves. Play the game and begin with Good Moments. It will transport you back. It will unlock the door to your memory bank. It will also help you realize that this moment – this very moment – is a very good moment, indeed.

GOOD MOMENTS on the album THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about GOOD MOMENTS

www.kerrianddavid.com

good moments/this part of the journey ©️ 1998 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Gratitude, KS Friday, Story, Uncategorized | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, good moments, Gratitude, inspiration, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, life, memory, music, presence, relationships, small moments, society6.com/kerrisherwood, studio melange, the melange, this part of the journey, truth | Leave a comment »

Make Life Fun [on Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on June 4, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

It used to make me profoundly sad when students would look at me in resistance and fear, saying the double-whammy, “I can’t! I don’t know how!” My next question always remained unvoiced: what have we done to you?

Curiosity is human nature. We are born hard-wired to sail toward scary edges, tinker with inventions, and attempt to grasp the un-graspable. It takes a lot of work to blunt a child’s curiosity. It takes a concerted effort to transform vibrant imagination into fear of reprisal/shaming.

The good news is that curiosity might be contained but it never goes away. Chicken is here to remind us to step out of the cage, pick up the brush and splash the paint just to see what happens. His invitation is to to go do it – whatever it is – precisely because you don’t know how. The path to center leads directly through I Don’t Know How.

www.kerrianddavid.com

read Kerri’s blog post about NOT KNOWING HOW

not knowing how ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: chicken marsala, Chicken Marsala Monday, Chicken nugget, curiosity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, discovery, experimentation, exploring, human nature, imagination, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, society6.com/chickenmarsala | Leave a comment »

Face The Wind [it’s Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on May 28, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Saul taught me to look beyond the obstacle and, instead, place my focus in the field of possibilities. How I experience my life is largely a matter of where I decide to focus, what I choose to see.

Life, I’ve learned (or finally accepted), never stops throwing new things at me – challenges & opportunities. And, when looking in the rear view mirror of my life , I am generally hard-pressed to distinguish between what was a challenge and what was an opportunity. The challenges became opportunities, the opportunities brought a basket of challenges.

The winds of change blow all the time. As Chicken, like Saul, reminds me on this Chicken Marsala Monday, the winds of change are never an obstacle. They are a constant force (called life) moving you, moving all of us, to learn, to grow. They are an invitation to turn our faces into the wind, look to the horizon and appreciate the ride.

SUPERHEROES gifts and products

bags and more

read Kerri’s blog post on The Wind Never Stops Blowing You

www.kerrianddavid.com

the wind never stops blowing you/designs ©️ 2016/2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Uncategorized | Tagged: chicken marsala, Chicken Marsala Monday, Chicken nugget, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, growing, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, life, life force, obstacle, opportunity, possibility, relationship, resistance, society6.com/chickenmarsala, tai chi, we-space | Leave a comment »

Find Your Poetry Tree [on Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on May 14, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

I stood before a school board and found myself defending daydreaming. I’d piloted an experiential learning program in the district and the board wanted to ensure my students would be “nose-to-the-grindstone” every moment of every day.

Learning (a creative process) has nothing to do with grindstones. Constant activity, rote exercises and busy-work-for-the-sake-of-busy-work may give the appearance of learning but that’s about it. People learn when in the pursuit of something real and my students were making movies, writing plays or starting businesses. Staring out of the window, I explained, was not only valuable but necessary. I wasn’t making excuses. I had brain science and learning theory to back me up.

There are very good reasons that most “aha moments” happen in the shower, while driving, or, like my students, staring out a window. Inner-space and quiet are necessary ingredients for insight. A good gaze out the window is, in actuality, an inward look, it’s a mental walkabout, a mind-stroll that allows a noisy brain to take a breath and let the logjam of thoughts to relax and flow.

Quinn used to tell me to cultivate my serendipity. He meant that I should open myself to insight, to make myself available to surprises and possibilities, to the utter magic of “where did that idea come from?” Opening yourself requires a good window or, like Chicken, a special poetry tree. On this Chicken Marsala Monday, get your nose off the grindstone, find your poetry tree, and allow the insights to find you.

POETRY TREE gifts and reminders

Read Kerri’s blog post about FIND YOUR POETRY TREE

www.kerrianddavid.com

find your poetry tree ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

find your poetry tree designs/products ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: aha moments, chicken marsala, Chicken nugget, creativity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, daydreaming, flow, inner peace, inner space, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, mental noise, monkey mind, poetry, poetry tree, serendipity, society6.com/chickenmarsala, studio melange, the melange, window staring | Leave a comment »

Teach [It’s Flawed Cartoon Wednesday]

Posted on May 2, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A teachable moment on Flawed Cartoon Wednesday from studio melange

This one is for all the teachers I know and love. They’ve made it their life’s work to seek the teachable moment and they are masterful at finding it. Everywhere.

On this Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, studio mélange pays homage to the elusive yet ever-present teachable moment.

TEACHABLE MOMENT gifts & products

read Kerri’s blog post on TEACHABLE MOMENTS

www.kerrianddavid.com

teachable moment cartoon & designs ©️ 2016/2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Education, Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education cartoons, flawed cartoon, Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, school, society6.com/flawedcartoon, studio melange, teachable, teachable moments, teachers, teaching, the melange | Leave a comment »

Move! [It’s Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on May 1, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Some simple encouragement from studio melange on Two Artists Tuesday

Here’s one of my few guiding principles: knowing “how” to do something always comes after the fact. No one knows how. Truly. If you wait to start until you know ‘how’ you will wait forever. Just start. Make a choice and move. It’s a great gift to make a choice and let your choice be wrong. To make a mistake and adjust according to what you experience. That’s called learning. Sometimes, it’s true, the best choice is to sit still. Sometimes the best choice is to stop trying to figure it out. Try anything. Move.

From studio mélange on this Two Artists Tuesday, give yourself permission to play. That’s also called learning. Experiment. At the end of the day, after all the experiences and adjustments, after all the movement, we’ll ask you how you did it.

MOVE gifts & reminders

read Kerri’s blog post about MOVE

www.kerrianddavid.com

move/move designs & products ©️ 2016/2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Energy, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: adjust, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, experiment, how, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, make mistakes, move, society6.com/twoartists, studio melange, the melange, try | Leave a comment »

KS Friday

Posted on March 16, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

a musical t.g.i.f. lift from studio melange!

I’m beginning to believe that high atop the list of human fears-that-lead-to-foibles is the fear of ambiguity (I seem to be writing a lot lately about ambiguity). We want our world to be clear cut, black and white. We want the line between right and wrong to be definitive across all circumstances. We want a ‘normal’ that is one-size-fits-all. We want our word and our book and our laws and our rules and our values and our virtues and our morals to be simple and straightforward and, most important, to be defined by how I define them, not how YOU define them. We want to know what to do. We want to know where we are going. We want to know why we are here. What. Where. Why. Quinn used to call these the BIG three.

We hardly ever know what to do. We choose a path based on what we know at the moment. Choices that are based on ideals, imaginings and sometimes a gut feeling. And, where are we going? Where are you going? Do you know with certainty where this day will take you? Can you possibly know why you are here? What if there is not merely one purpose or one reason? What if that “knowledge” is something you can only see clearly when looking back on your life?

Ambiguity makes space for grace to enter. ‘Not knowing’ is the path that leads to all growth and discovery. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people because no one is all good or all bad. Isn’t it often true that the things that seemed like obstacles in our lives one day down the road began to appear as great blessings?

It’s probably comfortable to think that this messy life is only black and white. But a comfortable thought is all it is. On this melange KS Friday, take a moment and step into the ambiguity known as music. Let Kerri’s gorgeous piece, It’s Not Black & White, buoy you on a river of grace to the space between rules and lists, the subtle-spirited place where life is lived & experienced and quite simply refuses to be boxed in the fear of artificial certainty.

IT’S NOT BLACK & WHITE from the album RIGHT NOW (track 11) itunes

IT’S NOT BLACK & WHITE from RIGHT NOW (track 4) on CDBaby

PURCHASE THE PHYSICAL CD. RIGHT NOW

read Kerri’s thoughts about IT’S NOT BLACK & WHITE

NEW! KS DESIGNS

life: it’s not black and white [merchandise]

kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: ambiguity, black and white, blessings, certainty, choice, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, discovery, fear, grace, It's not black and white, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, KS Friday, learning, normal, not knowing, obstacles, purpose, right and wrong, Right Now by kerri sherwood, society6.com/kerrisherwood, the melange | Leave a comment »

Chicken Marsala Monday

Posted on February 26, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

If blocking your creative arteries is the goal then there is no better illusion to consume than trying to be perfect. Eating the idea that you can be free of flaws or experience mastery without mistakes is guaranteed to clog your capacity to move. Notions of perfection turn the imagination toward the fear-monsters and breeds an especially severe inner critic. Perfection is like the Medusa, give her your gaze and she’ll turn you to stone.

Imagination, creativity, learning, growing,…are words of movement. They are experiences of free flow. If investments like perfection crimp flow, then granting simple graces like trial and error, or “seeing what happens” will inevitably open the channel. Creative flow, like profound learning or wild imagination happens when inner-judges retire; it happens when nature is allowed to take its course. Nature is movement. Falling down is a necessary form of movement. Perfection is about appearances. Learning is about process.

From studio melange on this Chicken Marsala Monday comes this simple reminder. Try. Remove failure from the gallery of options. Get on the bike and ride. Expect to fall down. It’s the only way to learn how to stand up.

FALLING DOWN IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF LEARNING merchandise

kerrianddavid.com

check out Kerri’s thought’s on this Chicken Marsala Monday

Filed under: Art, Chicken Marsala Monday, Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: artist, artistry, chicken marsala, Chicken Marsala Monday, creative flow, creativity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education, failure, falling down, flow, grace, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, movement, natural process, perfection, process, society6.com/chickenmarsala | Leave a comment »

Chicken Marsala Monday

Posted on February 19, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

High atop the list of obstacles we erect on our creative life path is this: I don’t know how…. As a coach, I heard it daily from clients. As a consultant, I heard it regularly from business leaders and educators (the pronoun changed: we don’t know how…) Artists regularly lock up in the face of a monstrous HOW?

When I was a young erector of massive obstacles in my path, Quinn would smile and say to me, “Nobody knows how. Just start.” I thought he was being flippant with encouragement but lived my way into recognizing that his advice was not only sound but it was sage.

Knowing how to do something is never a prerequisite for action. It is, however, a really good excuse to prevent action.

Knowing how comes second. Always. It comes after the fact, after the experience of trying and adjusting and learning. It comes at the end of the day, looking back. That’s when “how” becomes visible. Today’s Chicken Nugget via the studio melange is timeless and simple advice. It would make Quinn smile: sometimes the best thing to do is start.