Category: Change

Shed Your Skin

5/10/2022

Yes.

You are perfect just the way you are

and there's always room for improvement.

It's a human contradiction. But it's true for all living structures on our pretty planet Earth.

The ground is warming up. It's snake season. If I were a snake and my skin had become too stretchy or laden with parasites bugging me, I'd shed my skin. Begone! It might take some effort but molting is probably not that big a deal to a snake. I read that it's more stressful than painful because the snake is vulnerable during the molt. This makes sense.

Being human, I have habits of mind and behavior that obstruct the way of my personal growth. These obstructions really bug me. The more they bug me, the more power they seem to gain. Habits of mind and behavior (worth losing) can loom large and feel almost impossible to drop.

What if, in fact, habits of thought and behavior are as easy to drop as an old sweater? What if we're just giving power to habits so that we can stay safe (in a comfy little rut), or abdicate responsibility (for ourselves), or are so used to feeling powerless that any other way of feeling seems impossible?

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
— Leo Tolstoy

There's a full moon coming up next Monday, the 16th. From what I understand, the full moon is a perfect opportunity to drop what no longer serves us and accept the power to make structural changes in our lives that can allow us to alter the course of our path a bit and feel better. Everyone knows (don't they?) that if we feel better within ourselves, it naturally follows that we can help others feel better, too.

It's the Flower Moon of May. Maybe her light can clarify your situation a bit so that you can see better and help you change your perspective. Change your perspective, change your reality.

What if the greatest journey of your life has yet to begin? Anything is possible. Some journeys are launched with just the tilt of a head. Try looking at yourself a little differently, at life a little differently. Put one foot in front of the other, do the next right thing, and wonder what new magic life might hold in store.

My suggestion is that you mark this full moon by deciding what it is you're going to shed. It's not a bad idea to write out your musings on paper and then write down (with intention) what it is you're deciding to shed. Then let it go. Burn the paper if you have to.

The power of a full moon is usually in session three days before and three days after the apex.

In preparation, you can spend some time collecting items for the trash or give away. It's absolutely true that clearing out physical clutter leads to clearing psychic and emotional clutter.

Make like a snake and shed some skin. Figuratively, of course. It couldn't hurt.

On Paying Attention

2/15/2022

"Attention," a voice began to call, and it was as though an oboe had suddenly become articulate. "Attention," it repeated in the same high, nasal monotone. "Attention."

There are so many distractions throughout the course of any normal day. Squirrel! The 62,000ish thoughts that we think each day! Things To Do! War! Anything and everything associated with our smart phones.

One of my most favorite scenes in Western Lit is when Will Farnaby comes to after being shipwrecked on Aldous Huxley's Island. As Will regains consciousness, he hears voices calling "Attention! Attention!" "Here and now, boys, here and now.", shortly discovering that the voices are trained mynah birds freed by an old rajah to remind the Island dwellers to stay present and pay attention.

"But why did they teach him those things? Why 'Attention'? Why 'Here
and now'?"
"Well ..." She searched for the right words in which to explain the self-evident to this strange imbecile. "That's what you always forget, isn't it? I mean, you forget to pay attention to what's happening. And that's the same as not being here and now."

One of the major reasons that I draw and teach drawing is that it helps me, and others, to practice being present.

You may remember an amusing Harvard study from a couple of decades back describing Inattentional Blindness. In a nutshell, this phenomenon describes what happens when we are so distracted by our thoughts that we miss out on obviously noticeable facts presented before our very eyes and was identified years before Blackberries hit the market.

Even though I've read, watched and listened to almost all of the explanations and warnings of what smart phones do to our brains and experience, I have become addicted and distracted by the damned things, too. I am taking slow steps to address this because I hate how difficult it has become for me to read a book and to contend with a brain that behaves increasingly like a flea.

This is especially annoying after having read and taken to heart works from Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, to Jaron Lanier's 10 Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, to Tristan Harris in The Social Dilemma, and so much more.

I was one of the last people I know to have purchased a smart phone. I put in a considerable amount of time at the MIT Media Lab, was an early blogger, and have taught online since 2011 so, obviously, I'm not a Luddite. I just found cell phone behavior to be highly annoying and the idea of carrying around a distracting device that removed people from their live environment and connections to be outright ignorant.

Then one day, I got lost. I was driving to a friend's new farm in the country, took a long wrong turn and had no idea where I was or how to find my way. The only place I could spot to pull over for directions was a dilapidated, rusting trailer at the end of a rutted, muddy drive. I did pull onto that property and was spared knocking on the door because the person living there came out to ask what I wanted. Directions. Directions that he did not know and could not give.

That's the moment I finally decided to buy an iPhone and I had one within the week. I wanted it for the GPS and emergencies. It's been a blessing and a curse and, frankly, a lot of little fun along the way. I love it. I hate it. And like any addiction, I want to use it, I don't want it to use me.

If you are suffering attention issues because, perhaps, of your smart phone, I highly recommend that you listen to Ezra Klein's interview with Johann Hari, the author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again.

The podcast interview is interesting and enlightening but I've got the audiobook queued up to listen to next. Here's the New York Times review of the book from early this month. That's worth a read if you're on the fence.

I'm going for a walk now to see what I can pay attention to in the woods. Then I'm going to sit down to do a daily drawing, right after I check my phone.

"“The sensation of being alive in the early 21st century consisted of the sense that our ability to pay attention — to focus — was cracking and breaking,” writes Johann Hari in his new book, “Stolen Focus.” Later he says, “It felt like our civilization had been covered with itching powder and we spent our time twitching and twerking our minds, unable to simply give attention to things that matter.”

"Attention is the most precious resource we have — it’s the window through which we experience our lives. And for many of us, that window is fogging.

"The knee-jerk response is to blame ourselves. If our attention is waning, it’s because we’re too distractible. But if there’s a single thesis of “Stolen Focus,” it’s that we have a lot less control over our attention than we like to believe — and not just because the apps on our smartphones are cunningly designed." —Ezra Klein

How About a Fresh Start?

2/1/2022

"It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious."
— Henry David Thoreau.

Need a Fresh Start? Today is your day!

First of all, in the big astronomical/astrological picture, today marks the New Moon in Aquarius. Always a good time for new intentions, even more so than usual today. Mercury stations direct on the 3rd. A good time to start picking up the pieces and your pace from everything you may have recently been reviewing, reconsidering.

Down here on Earth, we are half way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. In my ancestral tradition, today is the festival of Imbolc, in some circles known as Saint Brigid's Day, which (among other things) many consider the precursor to Groundhog Day. Starting next year, a combo of the two will be an annual public holiday in Ireland.

Spring is getting closer every day.

But wait, there's more.

Today is the Lunar New Year on which Losar is celebrated, the Tibetan New Year (which goes way, way back to a winter incense burning custom of the Bon tradition). And, it's the Chinese New Year, one of the most important celebrations in China. Here's a good BBC article about the Chinese New Year: What is it and how is it celebrated?

And... we're back to astrology!

In the Chinese tradition, we now enter the Year of the (Water) Tiger. I was born in the year of the (Wood) Horse so, as the Horse and Tiger are 100% compatible, it could be a good year ahead for me! (Last year, I was only 20% compatible with the Ox.)

How about you? Do you know your Chinese Horoscope animal? If not, you can look that up on a fun calculator here.

In honor of this Chinese New Year, I've pulled out an old drawing of Zolushka (Cinderella), an Amur (Siberian) Tiger who was released into the wild after rehabilitation. Watch Zolushka being released and a glimpse of her first two cubs (now, she has four!).

If there were ever a good day to begin or to begin again, this is it.

Take advantage of this new moon to consider what you'd really like to unfold this year, set your intentions, and celebrate this fresh start.

龙腾虎跃 — May you soar like a dragon and leap like a tiger!

Bonus! I just remembered this from one of my most favorite albums, Paul Anka's Rock Swings.
Listen: The Eye of the Tiger.

Artist as Magician

8/24/2021

Now, listen. Not every artist is prone to be a magician. I am not going to even try to define what constitutes an artist. But I will say this much.

Magic is all about transformation. Whether we're talking about turning a base metal into gold, climbing through a wardrobe into an alternate reality, or pulling a rabbit out of a hat, magic is about changing the nature of reality.

Artists are always tinkering with reality. Representational painting is about working a two dimensional surface to appear as three dimensions. Music does not actually exist in three dimensions. Composers translate something they "hear" into symbols on a page that are then interpreted by musicians who interpret those musical ideas into vibrations of sound. Novelists and screenwriters make up worlds left and right, crammed with characters in places who have relationships and histories. Architects imagine structures and spaces then pull together materials and build. Voila! Where there was a meadow now stands a building.

All of this is work is transformational. All of this is a form of magic. And all of it demands some level of a shift in consciousness.

The comics writer, Alan Moore beautifully draws up the idea of the Artist as Magician. Here's an excerpt.

"Magic, in its earliest form, is often referred to as "The Art." I believe that this is completely literal. I believe that magic is art and art, whether that be writing, music, sculpture, or any other form, is literally magic.

"Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words, or images to achieve changes in consciousness. The very language of magic seems to be talking as much about writing or art as it is about supernatural events. A Grymoire for example, a book of spells, is just a fancy way of saying grammar. Indeed, to cast a spell is simply to spell, to manipulate words, to change peoples consciousness, and I believe this is why an artist or writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world that you are likely to see to a shaman.

"I believe that all culture must have arisen from cults. Originally, all the facets of our culture, whether they be in the arts or sciences were the province of the shaman. The fact that, in present times, this magical power has degenerated to the level of cheap entertainment and manipulation is, I think, a tragedy.

"At the moment, the people who are using shamanism and magic to shape our culture are advertisers. Rather than trying to wake people up, their shamanism is used as an opiate to tranquilize people, to make people more manipulable. Through their magic box of television, and by their magic words, their jingles can cause everybody in the country to be thinking the same words and have the same banal thoughts, all at exactly the same moment."

More than ever, at this very moment, we need artists of all stripes to consider their transformational skills and role in our culture and how they're going to use those skills and play their parts.

Exploring this very consideration is what I'm after with my Creative Wayfinding course. If you are an artist or creative (whatever you call yourself) and this resonates with you, click here and let me hear from you.

The Lion's Gate Portal

8/8/2021

Leo
Watercolor and pencil by Suzanne McDermott

The other night, I walked out to get some air and screen relief. I watched Venus rise above the high school, directly under the paws of the Leo constellation. Just now, when I checked my astronomy app, Leo appears to be walking on a path of Venus, Mars, and Mercury, directly into the Sun. It looks like Sirius is on a trajectory to become part of that pathway for a little while at some point tomorrow, August 8th.

I am posting my weekly words a little early because we're about to pass through what’s called the Lion's Gate Portal which, this year, happens to coincide directly with the New Moon on August 8th.

While I was growing up, we called this time of year the Dog Days, the hottest, most miserable time of summer. That term can be traced to ancient Greece describing the same and also the time of year when Sirius (aka the Dog Star because it’s part of the Canis Major constellation) rises and is visible above the horizon in the morning at dawn, just before sunrise.

The ancient Egyptians also honored Sirius and this time of year as it was when the Nile overflowed and flooded the Delta.

These days, many astrologers and New Age writers refer to the period of July 28 to August 12, as the Lion’s Gate Portal, culminating on the 8th of August. I couldn’t tell you when this trend started but personally, I can buy into the idea that this is a special moment in time. Especially this year. Especially in conjunction with the New Moon.

Without getting into a cosmic mashup of theories about energetic resonance, the basic idea of the Lion’s Gate Portal, is that this is a time of increased cosmic energy flowing between the spiritual and physical realms, between heaven and earth.

If the stars transmit energy, and of course they do, then it stands to reason that, because we’re all traveling through space in various configurations, on occasion, Earth will find itself in a certain proximity to massively energetic stars that can’t help but have noteworthy effect on Earth’s systems which happens to include us, the human beings. Some of us humans are more sensitive than others. It’s only logical that some of us, especially those of us who are aware of these astrological moments, might take advantage of and be affected by the same.

There’s no getting around the significance of this simultaneous New Moon which is already a time of darkness, star gazing, and quiet, providing perfect opportunities for new intentions and fresh starts. This New Moon is in Leo, and Leo is ruled by fire and connected with the heart, with courage.

There’s also a numerological significance to his event. August 8th is the 8th day of the 8th month. That’s a double 8 which represents spiritual enlightenment and intelligence. It’s also the number of constellations in the sky.

And, as it happens, August 8th is the 220th day of the year! In numerology, 22 is the master number of the builder, bringing together the spiritual and the material.

There it is again. The connection of the sublime and the material.

I am spending the 8th communing with nature, meditating, and entering a new phase of my life. How about you?

You can listen to my long-time fave, Gregory Scott's take on this New Moon, and another regular fave, Molly McCord's New Moon and Lion's Gate Portal.

I've jettisoned my old list and have started a new mailing list for this phase of my life and work. You can sign up here to receive at least monthly mailings.

Riding the Waves of Change

8/3/2021

"I watch the choppy, shining sea
as I walk beside the sliding waves.
On the sand, in the sun, at the shore
breathing hazy air, bright white and brave

filled with liquid, brisk, exquisite sounds
I am found, content and most secure
where everything is moving
and the sand is shifting evermore."

--Suzanne McDermott, from Mine for Good, 1995

Mine for Good is a little love song to the Garden State, to the sea shore, and to embracing change. I wrote it while walking along Cape May beach after a big October storm. The place was littered with huge knobbed and channeled whelk shells, some of which I am looking at right now.

Any coastline is a space of constant change. Water alters land. Remains are deposited and retrieved. Life and death and mysteries abound. Colors shift in the blink of an eye. Wind slaps waves and splatters sea foam. Salt evaporates. Sand gets into everything. Ghost crabs skitter and steal. Birds fish. Rays flap. One day the surface of the sea is still and silky. The next day, churning and explosive. Although the level of drama depends on the sea in question, there is never a dull moment along any coastline.

The world at large has started to feel like a long, dramatic coastline. So many of our individual lives have shifted or are shifting in ways we may never have imagined. But the fact is that the world has always been in a process of constant change, as have our individual lives.

Leaves fall, snow drifts down, winds whip up, new green shoots appear, and summer comes in. Coastlines have always been shifting. Our bodies, minds, and orientation in space and time are different moment by moment. Change is decidedly more dramatic now thanks in large part to anthropogenic climate change. Try as some people might, there's no getting around that fact. But that's not the only cause for the drama.

At some point, we got it into our heads that life is stable, that we can rely on facts and material assurances. This may have been true for some, or even for many for a while. But it isn't true anymore. In fact, it's often not clear what is true anymore.

If we've made up our minds that life should be stable, well, that makes facing change that much more alarming and difficult to navigate. If we cling to some illusion of normalcy, we're resisting change and actually clinging to the past which doesn't exist anymore.

Contending with change involves accepting considerable uncertainty. We like to think that we can control an awful lot of our experience and uncertainty is a control freak's nightmare.

I think that there are two keys to riding the waves of change. One is to recognize that we can only control ourselves. The other is to practice being present, here and now. Easier said than done. Interestingly enough, these are also the two keys to surfing.

And what do you know, going within and learning to know ourselves so that we can control ourselves, and being here now are the keys to a fully realized human life.

"Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In other words, if we're going to be more cheerful in the future, it's because of our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now." —Pema Chodron

Shed Your Skin

On Paying Attention

How About a Fresh Start?

Artist as Magician

The Lion's Gate Portal

Riding the Waves of Change

Donations welcome

Categories

Archives