TV Interview: Spotlight on Cocooning Catharsis

PBCJamaica "Spotlight" TV Interview Originally aired January 2014
for the solo photo-Based exhibition Cocooning Catharis at HiQo Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
(Dec 19 - Jan 13th, 2014)


This was thankfully a casual but in depth discussion on the inspiration behind the work, and some of the methods used to make the pieces.  It was a great hang with the crew too.

Select works available at HiQo Gallery






Related links and articles:

Smile Jamaica/TVJ Morning Interview

Petchary Blog Review

Arc Magazine Release

The Gleaner

The Journey Foreseen...

How's this for a send off?!  

After a 3 week run of intense activity of moving out of my apartment (what a job THAT was!), AND prepping for shows, I've had to switch gears immediately into prepping for travel.  I was running around today doing last bits before heading to the airport, which included of course a completion of a creative jaunt... I had to document images of a wheat paste session I did on a side street with my buds last night.

I still had to turn in my cable box and close out my account. Yup...just a couple hours before leaving the country.  I was online at Time Warner on 96th + Broadway with a ticket number that was sure to take at least 30 minutes to come up on the screen.  I took a chance by jumping on a bus heading over to the East side - the opposite side of town - to the little side street where we pasted up our prints.  

While rushing to archive our handy wheatpasting work,  I thought, "maybe I should catch a cab back across  on the main avenue to save on time or I may not make it...".  Within moments of this boggle, this man walks by...looking at me casually yet quite intently.  

As he passed in front of my camera he asked,  "Do you need a cab?" and gestures towards his yellow. I immediately said yes and acknowledged internally the fortuitous timing and his seeming ability to read my mind!   

Now understand people - this NEVER happens in New York city. Not with yellow cabs at least.  Maybe Livery cabs (the black town cars that recently turned that god aweful lime green) once in a while, but not yellows.

Anyway, he was double parked so we had to jet. 

It was a completely silent and peaceful ride to the other side of town. 

As I was getting out he calmly turned to the back and a pro po of nothing he said, 
"You are being watched closely right now....by your grandmother... Yes," he paused to confirm, "... not by your uncles or your cousin who are helping you, but by your grandmother.  You are on the right path. It's not going to be easy, but it will be good.  Very good work. You will be fine, and you will do just fine."

Needless to say I sat there shocked, my jaw dropped...just staring at him...blinking blankly. He was looking at me calmly chewing at his toothpick with a knowing smile only detectable in his eyes.  I began to say "If you knew the momen...", and he cut me off saying, "I know the moment. It is a very good and meaningful moment. You will be fine African daughter."

I balked again but quickly composed myself to ask his name.  "Malik from Mali" he said. "Berette from Sierra Leone" I said, "and thank you Malik for that." We took each other's hand, we smiled, locked one more momentary gaze and then off I went. 

I ran across the street into the Time Warner praying I didn't just screw myself with the timing.  The counter was at #233 and my number was #234.

I went up to the counter ready to pay my final bill, and was told, "You never cashed in on our promotion before canceling your account, so we owe you money.  The credit will be sent in the mail."

What?!! lol

And...when I got to the airport just now, the seeming major issue I had with Air Berlin and their baggage handling fee that I'd griped about just days before on was all cleared up without a hitch.  And I found a new hippie friend from behind the counter to boot!

Wow. That's what you call Bon Voyage Bless Ups - wouldn't you say?!

Floored.  Grateful.  Smiling. Ready.

The Scary Business of New Beginnings...

They say you should do something that scares you everyday… Well, check!!

Moving they say is among the top traumas a person can experience, and prior to a couple weeks ago - this whole business of moving out and giving up everything I own was a great conversation piece that inspired only release and celebration...and zero fear.  Then suddenly one day recently, that all changed.  Everyday since has been an exercise in recalling the meditative and spiritual work of this year - and remembering to breathe.  The challenging asanas I've pushed myself in yoga all year to do, I call on now as practice in the asana of release.  Funny that I find myself clinging so tightly now just as I'm about to let go. 

I heard Rev. Bacon say in an interview with Oprah last week that change is like the tumult in a plane.  Pilots explain that when the craft is about to break through the sound barrier the cockpit shakes the most and the body of the craft is at its most unstable.  I love this.  Kind of like the constricting  trauma of the birth canal before air and light; but this new analogy is serving me right now. I'm breaking through the sound barrier - my apartment is the cockpit, and I'm wanting to grip for security before releasing to the cruising altitude on the other side.   Deep and interesting process to observe on a daily basis.  

I'm now at the 2 week mark and I FEEL my body poised and sharply focused on the task at hand.  There is not a single moment for renegotiation left.  It's do or bust. And I'm doing this most involved work WHILE preparing for immediate travel and 3 exhibitions!  Of course.  Hahaha.  But stoop sales are the biggest 'DO' right now and I don't particularly enjoy them because I feel like I'm in a fish bowl brandishing my panties for the world to stare at!  That said - I've been ushered prior into this process by the presence of friends and family so I could get my feet wet.


But unlike those other days where we've had mini impromptu stoop parties, today I had my first solo stoop sale and it was not only a real physical work out, but a true test of breathing away the histrionics, overcoming the fears and getting necessary work done.  I set this all in motion when I decided to release my life here in New York,  and so I have to go through these logistics - which are hardly as romantic as the reasons or the stories behind them. 
       
So...I didn't have the hand holding today that  my little heart yearned for, but such conditions yield deep spiritual truths about where to hold energy and how to stand in an exposed vulnerable space with your center in tact.  It's not easy watching people assess the worth of your belongings...that for you  are so rich with sentimental value.  But with each breath, I experienced the liberty that this entire move is ushering me towards.  And added to that, I was called and visited by sweet souls all day who delivered gems of deep encouragement for this soul work.  Even the guys in the clothing store across the street watched my stuff for me when I had to walk away or show someone my stuff for sale inside the apartment. It's remarkable how sweetly held I was by strangers and new neighbours and passersby who questioned and then celebrated my reasons for my move. It emboldened my sense of courage to continue, to sit in my fish bowl and get about the business of releasing my things, my emotional attachments, my fears, my ego...

These moments are the practice for when I am untethered and on my way to Sierra Leone at the end of the year.   This is the TRUTH right here.  Wow.  Yemaya. 

Humbled • Scared •  Determined • Grateful. 

Sisyphean Struggles vs Overcoming like a Trojan

This is quite connected to the #MindtheGap philosophy that I am working my way back to. Here is a wonderful and accessible explanation for why we do what we do, and why we despair when it is no longer serving us...

Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work?

Crumbling Culture of the Catholic Church

As a recovering Catholic there are many criticisms that I have of this institution and so serve as reasons why I refer to myself this way.   I actively disengaged myself as a practitioner of this faith around the age of 12 before the completion of my Confirmation  because I couldn't reconcile pressing questions I had about what I saw as dangerous contradictions within the culture of this church.


-I am suspicious of a Church (founded on the principles of Christ) that has a secular and political structure whose function of power is wholly undemocratic, where fundamental decisions of leadership are decided by a College of Cardinals - an elite group free of any pressure of public debate or consequential indictments by the main populace of its congregation.  

-I don't support any entity that bars the ascent of women in leadership roles - undemocratic or not. How can the archaic rigidity of a patriarchal heirarchy have real progressive significance in today's world?

-I'm not inspired by rituals or faithful commitments to a life of fear, sorrow, and apology.  I want to joyfully recognize the gift of life, not feel impelled to constantly apologize for the receipt of it.  Is there not for gratitude in seeing our birth as one of a blessing, rather than in original sin for which we must beg for salvation through presumably therefore no fault of our own?  I don't get that.  It makes our God, or any Universal and unifying law seem meglomaniacal. 

-It just irks me that an entity whose expressed purpose is to lead in faith and serve the poor and thus calls itself a 'church', is actually a sovereign state diplomatically known as the Holy See (which represents Vatican City). Though one of the mere 3 non-member states in the world of nations, the Holy See is an 'Observer' of the United Nations and the European Union, and its jurisdiction is recognized by "other subjects of international law" - with its own police, and military protection - the Pontifical Swiss Guard. 

I find it difficult to reconcile the teachings of Jesus with the preachings of an organization that maintains a complex global administrative heirarchal ministry of clergy through whom followers must seek counsel with them as intermediaries for indulgencies, forgiveness, etc with or from the true CEOs of this corporation - The Trinity.  It's inconsistent for me - as all three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are considered (even after Christendom, and according to hypostasis) mysteriously Omnipresent and thus instantly accessible to all...yes? So why the bureaucratic gates of exclusion?

-I do not like that, unlike most other international institutions with such powerful mass leadership, this Church can harbour alleged criminals of sexual violence and often avoid appropriate modes or warrants for investigations or questioning by authorities, as would be the consequences of any other organization beseiged by undenied charges of child abuse.  That they still have the power to handle legal (civil and criminal) matters internally beyond just elections of their clergy and upkeep of their laws, speaks actually to their immense power. No other independent state in the international body is allowed such control. The few that function this way are referred to as fascist states barred from the international community.  But then - they serve other important pycho-social purposes for keeping us in check, don't they? (See the Investiture Controversy, Simony, the Gregorian Reforms, and Fundamental Law of Vatican City State )

-It's also highly disturbing to me that while being aware of the behavioural dangers of unprotected sex and lack of birth control planning, that this institution still endorses them.  The condemnation of any resistance of such rules as great sins is  dangerously irresponsible in its effect on the poor, and gives the appearance to me, of a power-dependency by the church on the very populations they are credited to aid. It gives the impression that this holy organization thrives only on uncontrolled growth of a psychologically stressed and dependent population so as to remain  purposeful and relevant. 

I know these are harsh charges but they are not at all new or unusual; the merits of these are in the challenges this institution has suffered for centuries, and quite widely in the last decade.  The Church has been emptying out with severe reductions in mass attendance, closures of schools and missionaries; its followers -rather than practicing obediently- have been turning their backs on out-dated and dangerous doctrines; and the conversion rates to the faith have steadily been dropping with most of their 1.2 billion followers being made up of members born into the faith as opposed to choosing it...unlike Islam for instance.  And this doesn't even touch the dirtiest charges of them all...  I mean really, when was the last time you ever heard of an adult searching for spiritual practice saying they're thinking of becoming Catholic...?  People searching for mystical or spiritual meaning and ritual in their lives seem to turn to eastern philosophies and practices these days...

College of Cardinals | Source: Papal Conclave 2013

But - the recent election by the College of Cardinals of Jorge Mario Begoglio of Argentina, now Pope Francis, was a sign from the Cardinal Conclave as being at least politically

thoughtful in how to rescue their influence.  They have made history choosing a new Pope of non-European descent for the first time in Vatican history.  There were many hopes (and bets) that American Cardinal Dolan, African Cardinal Turkson, and a couple other headliners would be chosen.  As a West African, needless to say I would have been quite okay with Turkson being named. And actually - he would not have been the first black Pope - just the newest. The last African to lead the Catholic Church was Pope Gelasius I - 1500 years ago.   Anyway - point being Bergoglio wasn't even on the popular radar as these men were,  which was quite the shock.  But funny that while chatting about this on twitter just moments after the #whitesmoke announcement - there was immediate follow up of excitement over this man and the costume changes!  Older and not so robust eh. He's 76 with only one lung in his chest!  So much for putting a young and healthy guy in there.  Yet he was readily embraced and continues to win the world over with an informal swagger if you will.  

Francis of Assisi | Source: Wikipedia

I remain shocked that given my cyncial feelings toward my childhood faith - I am pleased and hopeful for all ye faithfuls.  He has a history of being a devoted, pious, present, and humble guy who actually lived this way and aptly chose the name Francis after his election in honor of Francis of Assisi (patron saint for the poor and protector of animals - who after living a loud and priviledged life, was inspired by a vision to devote his time to service whilst living in poverty). What does this all mean?  Could it be emotional manipulation.  Could it be a geniunely humble association too though. Honestly I have no idea - but it gave me a nostalgic buzz because St. Francis was my favourite saint as a child. Never mind that my terrible Catholic school days were punctuated by the uber strict guidance of Franciscan nuns - which always somehow felt like a disconnect.  Anyway I just hope this guy makes some decisions that move the Church forward. Can't say I'm surprised that already there has been a little 'dirt' on Pope Francis. But that said,  so far he appears to be giving the Vatican pompous culture a bit of a shake down which is cool to see.  

Pope Francis | Source: AP (via Yahoo)

The world population of those struggling through hardship and in need of faith is larger than it ever has been, and the church needs charisma and new ideas...and perhaps a resurgence of their oldest ideas...you know, the teachings of Christ prior to Christendom.  Will that bring hoards of recovering Catholics back to regular mass?  Not sure about all that - at least for me anyway.  I like to mix my faith and spirituality a bit too much - but I would like to stop calling myself a recovering Catholic.  Nothing can be done about the wretched historical record of this very organised religion, but much can be done to open and illuminate the culture of it's worldwide influence. We'll see.

How to Think...if we're still interested....

It's official - I'm cheating on my boyfriend Albert Einstein with Chris Hedges - hahahaha

It all started with the brilliant, direct, and accessible argument against fundamentalism in I Don't Believe In Atheists, 2008.  Now I own 3 more of his books and follow his writings on Truthdig.  We have few of these minds left people - I highly recommend taking in some of his jottings.

Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning author with 20 years under his belt as a war correspondent for the New York Times,  Christian Science Monitor, and NPR (National Public Radio). This life experience is paired with an MA from the Harvard Divinity School - which I imagine broadens his analytical discourse exponentially.  He dissects all aspects of societies and troubles therein - pulling references from the humanities, science, and a profound facility for assertive reasoning. He minces nothing, spares nothing, and gives it straight - which is not only refreshing but so necessary for those of us who dare listen.  

Reality is more illusion than ever before where we willingly live entrenched in bullshit (aka overdose of mind-numbing distraction and impractical 'positive thinking') to the point of harmful asininity  which seems more now to paralyze our ability to think critically, to speak and act honestly, and to listen to our instincts.  All points he appeals in near desperation.  

I love this man's mind.  Lofty be his brilliance, but his rhetoric is more firmly footed than most of our intellectuals today. 

Here is his latest post on the survival and endurance of culture through and because of The Arts:  How to Think on Truthdig

 

RELATED JOURNEY POSTS:

Why "i•ma•gine | e•volve"  (April 2012)

Perceptions and People (February 2012)

My Lifetime Crush on a Quirky Scientist (January 2012)

The e-Con Highway (November 2010)

Support Post: Michaela DePrince - Salone Orphan Turned Elite Ballerina (ABC News)

this has everything for me  - #MindtheGap when following a dream, DANCE DANCE DANCE, and a story of both from my beloved country Sierra Leone.  Thank you Justin for sharing this! Oh my heart... 

View video interview with ABC here: 

 African Orphan Turned Elite Ballerina | Video - ABC News

Michaela DePrince is featured in the just released documentary "First Position" filmed at the famed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater here in New York City.  I can't wait to see this.  

By the way, another remarkable story of a young phoenix rising from the ashes of Salone's rebel years is world renowned writer Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier who penned his gripping story of survival and evolution in a most heartbreaking, candid, and poetic account: A  Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.   A beautifully moving and unforgettable read folks, seriously.


NB.  If you are seeing this in your email reader, you must visit blog to view embedded video. Thanks :)

Related Journey Posts:
-SUPPORT POST: Another Modern Salone Pilgrim (February 2011)
-SUPPORT POST: ArtsLawRoundUp (August 2010)

- My Bliss is Dance...what's yours? (April 2009)

Why "i•ma•gine | e•volve"

Art does for society what sports, physical feats, and various acts of heroism do for us - offering hope, catharsis, and dreams, in showing the spectator the full potential of the human when fear is overcome and the bankrupt notion of limitations is surpassed.

How then could this world ever do without art - when it evidently must be credited as the perpetual newborn release of imagination (womb of creation nurtured by hi[story], feeling, experience, and curiosity) which propels mutation, adaptation, innovation, expression from our hungry hearts, and thus the evolution of our species?

(this is an inspired general response to the constant funding cuts and downsizing of art initiatives worldwide as if deemed unimportant, and a further offer of what my logo tag is about...)

last page from my photo student project book- MMC 2001

Never-ending Search for Sweet Spots

May seem like a random thought ...well I guess it is, but I wanted to save it here with a couple of feel-good videos for future reference:

Be confident in what you want

   so you clearly demand it

But remain humble and innocent in the asking

   so you can graciously receive it.  

We are all we need...

  b a l a n c e  

Mind the Gap

A message for life as a creative:

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

The generous and perfect synchronicity of nature:

NOTE:  If you can't see this you need to visit the actual blog to view the clips

SeBiArt at Bookophilia

Hey guys - super quick post to let you know I have work up at this cool bookstore in Kingston, Bookophilia from now through June.

You know I'm into community/art/edu programs and so I've committed proceeds of all sales to go to two organisations I support in Jamaica.  

One you've heard about here before, Studio 174 is run by Rozi Chung (hey that rhymed!! haha).  It's located on Water Street, downtown Kingston, and the art and educational programs there are provided for free to inner city children in need.  Many of the art workshops are focused on community beautification mural projects that also serve to improve the face of downtown Kingston.  S174 is in partnership with INSCAPE Foundation - an organization providing free clinical psych and art therapies to inner city citizens in stress.  

Rozi Chung(left) with S174 students, and Dr. Tammy Haynes of INSCAPE (far right blue shirt)

S174 studio workshops and exhibition space

I was recently introduced to yet another really great organization on my recent trip to Jamaica.  Run by Roslyn Ellison, Trenchtown Reading Center is now nearly 20 years old.  It's located in the heart of Bob Marley's old home town and has on offer free classes, reading and music sessions, and the most AMAZING library for the children of Trenchtown to enjoy.  

 

TTRC kids

Roslyn Ellison with TTRC kids

Proceeds from sales of my pieces at Bookophilia will go to both Studio 174 and Trenchtown Reading Center.  Please drop by if you are on the island, or pass the word around.  Thanks so much.

RELATED JOURNEY POSTS:

Jamrock Talk, Jamrock Walk (Oct 2011)

BIG PICTURE fun on the Rock (March 2011)

My Lifetime Crush on a Quirky Scientist

My astonishment cannot wane when I think of this person;  resident in one being was such a gifted scientific mind,  further and exponentially expanded by the limitless reach of his heart and love for humanity: Albert Einstein was, is, and will always be the one famous being with whom I wish I could wine, dine, and chat til the wee hours.

I have recently gone back to his writings - eating through one of my favourite books on my shelf, Essays in Humanism  [Philosophical Library, New York, 1950], a compilation of a few essays and letters Einstein wrote between 1933 and 1949.  Not a single word written there is without profound wisdom and beauty, without pure and innocent hope, without earnest urgent concern for the state of  international relations; and so, not a single sentiment therein has lost its relevance in such relations today.  

It is truly awe-inspiring, and both intellectually and spiritually provocative to read his excited addresses to the United Nations, fellow thinkers and scientists, or to the citizens of the world on matters of technological and scientific progress and developments, and his concerned appeals on the unfortunate misuse of these advancements for the leveraging of power at the expense of us all.  His appeals on how power is divided, how money is spent in politics, how the world is partitioned and guarded more by a system of fear, war, and a race for destructive armaments  - rather, than as a common goal of inspiring, educating, and erecting systems for a paradigm of peace. Insisting on the latter's necessity for a truly secure future as the only way to save us all.  His words on class warfare, discrimination, and prejudice; his unabashedly humble praise of any one who has lived their lives in service of such noble goals of peace, advocacy, inclusion, and equality; this all from the man who helped us understand the Universe by devising the Theory of Relativity! Most operative on all accounts.

A cheesy high school girl though I may seem in saying this - I just love him! 

Foto: Low Density LifeStyle Blog: The Masters of Enlightenment: Albert Einstein

I worked for a short time administratively at the International Rescue Committee - an exposure that connected better my philosophical beliefs to what I have yet to do actively with them.  The IRC was founded at the request of Albert Einstein in 1933 as an American chapter to his already established European based Emergency Relief Association, focused singularly on the rescue and resettlement of displaced Jews.  This was of course a historical fact not missed by me, and fed my determination to be associated with the IRC in any way.  Today the IRC is a non-governmental volunteer organisation singularly focused on work with displaced victims of war, famine, or natural disaster; and providing resettlement assistance to refugees, while offering education in life sustaining practices suitable for their environments - from farming, building, crafting, and cooking methods, to reading, writing, language lessons,and healthy reproductive practices. Their workers are located worldwide in the hottest locations of difficulties, working with large populations of displaced peoples - and they are often on the site of new emergencies before the UN or similarly focused agencies as they have no governmental/political affiliations. 


Now isn't this such a wonderful idea - and one that I think all governments should aim to adopt as quintessential to foreign relations?  Why do I ask this? Because the IRC is a privately funded organization.  No, I'm not going to ask you to donate - I'm #justsayin - it's a wonder that our leaders don't put this same kind of effort into caring for their human family as they do in arming up to kill whole sections of it - as is the central incredulous rhetoric in many of Einstein's essays, speeches, and jottings.    

“What is the situation? The development of technology and of the implements of war has brought about something akin to a shrinking of our planet. Economic interlinking has made the destinies of nations interdependent to a degree far greater than in previous years.” —Albert Einstein, Essays in Humanism, "Towards A World Government"

It seems to me we have lucked out in that we now have a world leader who demonstrates such breadth of intellect and heart.  I have to say the recent State of the Union Address (#SOTO) inspired in me many of the same feelings that Mr. E=mc2 does in his passages.

“If we want to resist the powers which threaten to suppress intellectual and individual freedom we must keep clearly before us what is at stake, and what we owe to that freedom which our ancestors have won for us after hard struggles.” 

—Albert Einstein, Essays in Humanism, “Science and Civilization”

To hear the sound of fair reason, and to witness its fearless and heartfelt demand for it, is something that inspires and governs both my spiritual and social aspirations of how to live a connected, compassionate, and gracious life. Depending on how things go in the next year, or few,  maybe Obama may come close to sharing space on my list of folks I wish I could meet.  He's being watched.  So for now,  Einstein is the only one.  :)

RELATED JOURNEY POST:

Einstein Stuff (Oct 2007)

  

URGENT REPORT ON DARFUR: You too, from where you sit, can act like a humanitarian! (March 2009)

Thank You Steve Jobs - You Changed It All

I have no words of my own.  Gobsmacked... 


"Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it." ~ Barack Obama

from BBC:  Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dies aged 56

More than almost any other business leader, he was indistinguishable from his company, which he co-founded in the 1970s. 

Apple - whose market value is estimated at $351bn (£227bn) - is now the world's most valuable technology company. Only oil giant Exxon Mobil is worth more.

As the face of Apple, Jobs represented its dedication to high-end technology and fashionable design. 

And inside the company he exerted a level of influence unheard of in most businesses.

Credit Where It's Due

I got an email today that I had to share here:




    Why is it that a Black Man can create a tiny piece called a filament (electric light - Lewis Latimer) that allows people to see in the dark?   

But can't be seen fit to lead a country to the true light.

Why is it  that a Black Man can create an instrument (clock - Benjamin Banneker) that  all people use to tell time? 

But people don't think it is time for him to run a country.


Why is it that a Black Man can design a place for the high authorities to meet in and a place for the president to live in  (The Capital and the White House Phillip Reid (a slave) and Pierre L'Enfant)? 
      
But not good enough to lead these meetings or live in himself.

Why is it that a Black Man was brilliant enough to do the first open heart surgery (Dr. Dan iel Hale Williams) and show the world how to get and preserve plasma (Dr. Charles Drew)? 

But not good enough to put a program in place where everyone can afford this surgery.

Why is it that a Black Man was creative enough to design an instrument (traffic light - Garrett Morgan) to bring multiple people (traffic) to a halt? 

But not seen creative enough to design a plan to bring all this unnecessary and worthless fighting between countries, to an end.

Why is it that a Black Man could create the soles (shoes - Jan Matzeliger) that people walk on every day? 
But not seen good enough to fill the shoes of a bad president.

Why is it that a Black Man was smart enough and brave enough to teach himself (Fredrick Douglas and Thomas Fuller - both  slaves) and others how to read, write and/or calculate math? 

But not seen smart enough and bold enough to calculate a platform to be President to a country that sure needs another first by us.

So you see my Brothers and Sisters, what I am saying is, let us not forgot our past which led us to our present and can definitely be the backbone to our future.  We were good enough, smart enough, creative enough, and bold enough then, so let us all give Obama the chance to show that we are still these things and more.  We all are as strong as our weakest link, so do not be that weak link that denies our people that chance to show we still can OVERCOME AND BE THE FIRST!   
THE PRESIDENT OF THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA !       

LET US ALL CONTINUE PRAYING THAT THIS PRESIDENT WILL ADHERE TO AND BE LED BY FAITH.   PASS THIS ON!       =


 

Nacho Duato's "Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness"

I don't know if I would go so far as to say Nacho Duato is my favourite choreographer...ever...but, he's so very close to being so.

His movement and interpretation of music is so specific yet loose, so perfect yet such a celebration of emotional erratic flaws of the soul. The shapes from the relationships he creates with dancers is a rare beauty to behold; it's heart-stopping; it's heartbreaking.

OWN Your Skin NOW

At last it feels right
No more struggle or fight
Evolving into me
Expanding beyond the deep


The meditation for the past few months, or years, well, my lifetime, is to actualize 'self', which creates such fulfilling connections with others, to keep opening and expanding the heart so as to lead the body with love. 


It is so important to learn how to be ourselves, and not a premeditated, planned out version of this...; and in being who we really are - being the beautiful imperfect beings that we are in every moment of 'now', will inevitably lead to the perfect expression of our essential selves, our inner most beauty, the core light that shines unobstructed and thus brighter from this 'letting'. 


It has taken (and is taking) a lot of time, focus, daring, and fight, ...constant conscious pushing... to grow into me, to grow into myself, to grow into my skin; to stop struggling with the fit as if it belonged to someone else or should belong to someone else, to evolve beyond an old idea that the fit was wrong or would never be a good enough, or worse - that it sometimes felt so itchy that I wanted to rip it off and cast it away. But alas, it is the perfect fit. We settle down don't we (?), and then every crevasse fills in snugly.  

Sweet exhale: Growing into self.  Growing into me. 


Mind the Gap note for today and always...
Be Yourself.  Everyone else is taken.
~Oscar Wilde