"wherever I go, here I am'
On Monday, I accompanied my dear spirit-brother M. to Santa Fe! We got home last night (Wednesday) around 1am, having put over 1100 miles on his trusty trooper of a car, having experienced awe-inspiring (and awe-ful and inspiring) natural and manmade beauty through all our senses, having experienced non-beautiful aspects of nature and man also, and having recognized that this, too, is part of the beauty that is existence.
This lady pictured, in her Egyptian-esque skirt, is a ponderosa-tall witness on the side of the highway through Malpais National Monument. Always watching, if we care to notice.
My primary role for this trip was as witness to M. as he checked out the school program and the place that might be--that, turns out, surely will be--host to the next stage in his unfolding. However, I had also to witness myself witnessing, and to see myself, normally a singleton, in constant company for three days.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Thursday, 28 May 2015.
Posted in Blogging, WholeHealth, Mindfulness
four ways to "seek and ye shall find"
My previous post on questions was lyrical and didn't go into practicalities. I notice that interviewees on podcasts and telesummits, etc., respond "Good question," almost reflexively, to every question asked, so that "good question" is about as bleached of meaning as other fillers and time-buyers like "I mean," "you know," "like."
But the truth is, formulating a good question is part of seeing what you believe. A good question, in a sense, creates a possible world in which its answer exists. "Seek, and ye shall find" means "the types of questions you ask, and the way you ask them, will impact the quality and specificity--and even the fact-icity--of the answer." A question is a key to a lock, is a heat-seeking missile, is a ladder to a glass ceiling.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Saturday, 23 May 2015.
Posted in WholeHealth, Mindfulness
"the role of the artist is to ask questions"
I've been thinking and writing about practice, transition, and inward listening, at the same time looking for my own place as a contributor, a listener, an artist.
I'm drawing a lot of blanks. Or is it just that I'm surrounded with blank canvases, fields and arenas and spheres of potential?
That is a question. But asking it doesn't make me an artist all by itself. Have I been around the block too many times to say "I have to start somewhere"? I don't think so. That we begin again and begin again and always begin again holds the status of "belief" for me as little else does.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Wednesday, 20 May 2015.
Posted in Literary Citizenship, Mindfulness