'Woman & Child'

'Woman & Child'
So what happens if you just take a piece of paper, some pastels and the basic idea that there is a figure in there waiting to emerge? This piece went through several stages from rough outline to something Madonna & child like, to ghostly, to tribal. It's probably still not finished and I didn't like it at all after the first session on it. But having done some more work I think she and her child have something - life and death? Maybe there is a bit of Munch influence in there?

5 Rhythms of Life

I came across 5 rhythms dance about 10 years ago but I have been dancing it regularly for the last couple of years. It has had a big effect on my life.

The 5 Rhythms are:
1) Flow
2) Staccato
3) Chaos
4) Lyrical
5) Stillness

I consider them to be 5 archetypes of life. At any moment we can be in one of those rhythms. We can be fully in a particular rhythm or stuck in a particular rhythm. Either way, with awareness, attention and intention we can dance on and through.

Today I'm wanting to flow more. But I'm slightly staccato, i.e. a touch edgy and uncertain. Things are not going quite to plan. But I'm with it and doing a few creative things - making collages, adding to my scrap-book, playing with images.

Life as a dance is an old metaphor, but a good one. It's good because dance is all about energy movement, expression of form, creation of meaningful form. And what is life if it is not about energy movement, expression of form and emergence of new forms?

Blog Manifesto

This blog is an attempt to explore the whole idea of being a creative part of the evolutionary process. I'm assuming, and do believe, that evolution is a creative process. I believe that evolution is neither mechanical or totally random - it is is an open ended creative unfolding. There is direction but not a predestined one. I believe that evolution is complex, messy, can go down blind alleys, and can go backwards. But I believe that there is an inherent urge (call it God, Eros or the Bodhicitta whatever you like) in the universe. I think we are both an expression of that urge and also co-creators of the emerging forms that the creative impulse gives rise to. I believe the past does create the conditions for the future and has an influence on what happens next. I also believe that the present can be the ground for totally new manifestations. Of course the present is the only place where new energy can arise. So we are in a dance of already set conditions and also at the same time in a position of profound potential for new shapes and structures. There is something in the universe that wants to be forever new. There is something in the universe that clings to the old and the familiar. This is the evolutionary tension that we emerge out of, live within and move on from. To fully take on the implications of the evolutionary nature of things is both a challenge and a liberation. It is a challenge because it is complex and potentially overwhelming. It is liberating because the principle of evolution points to the reality of things, how things really are. And the source of most of our suffering is due to a profound disharmony with how things are, a misalignment of how we think things are and how things really are. And it is liberating because life loves to be fully alive, fully expressive, fully flowing and open to new possibility.