Celebrate a Blue Moon

When two full moons occur in the same month, the second moon is called a blue moon. A blue moon only occurs approximately every 2.7 years. Some feel its energy 12 times more powerful than a regular full moon. 

The second moon of the month is not truly blue. If the moon appears to have a bluish tinge, this results from the presence of volcanic ash or debris and dust from wild fires. Clouds of water droplets, ice crystals or sand can create a similar effect. 

NASA explains, "Often, when the moon is hanging low, it looks red for the same reason that sunsets are red. The atmosphere is full of aerosols smaller than the ones injected by volcanoes. They scatter blue light while  leaving the red behind." 

The Oxford English Dictionary reveals that the first reference to a blue moon comes from a 1528 proverb. 

If we say the moon is blue. 

We must believe that it is true. 

In the 19th century, the phrase until a blue moon developed meant never. Some referred to a blue moon as an absurdity; like saying made of green cheese. Once in a blue moon today means rarely or now and then.



Move into the mysteries of the moon.

Play with a notion of blue moon. 




View yourself in a different light. 

Experience something you rarely do. Let imagination, a tinge of magic and creativity revitalize the night. Then, find the bunny.

Celebrate with the Marcels and sing along with their rendition of Blue Moon. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0fy1HeJv80

Check out a melancholic version from Chris Isaak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuCZDanw3aE

Rebellion and Creativity

"Sometimes breaking the rules is just extending the rules. Sometimes there are no rules." 

~ Mary Oliver

"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method." - Ishmael from Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

The word, oxymoron (from Greek ὀξύμωρον, "sharp dull") means a contradiction of terms.

Ishmael refers to whale hunting but he also means the art of storytelling. 

Develop ideas about "careful disorderliness." Let opposites collide.

Play by creating a meaningful chaos, planned messiness, directed improvisation. Challenge your fun with playful experiments.

Consider the joy and power of rebellion and creativity. A determination to revolt against the usual may stimulate discoveries in living a an imaginative life. 

Find a personal call of non-violent disobedience.

Rise and overthrow a stale notion, overworked idea, or any status quo you've experienced. Your vitality will soar as you shed numbing habits and traditions. 

Extend the rules. Pursue a rebel's jubilee. 

Live from the inside out!

How do you live from the inside out?

Here's a place to start.

Grow yourself each day. 

Exercise the mind and body.

Add healthy food for fuel.

Spend time alone and with others.

Keep a Positive attitude regardless of the situation.

Permit your emotions to cycle. 

Give. Give. Give.

Express gratitude.

Learn from making mistakes. 

Explore nature's wonders each day. 

LOVE

Help others help themselves.

Discover a spiritual practice. 

Make sleep count. Take naps. 

Let laughter conquer fear and frustration. 

Make FUN the most important discipline of all.

Write rather than worry. Live from the inside out!

Photography's Pull

Photography teaches the rustle of moments. 
                      Seconds capture creativity in action.

What else enlivens from the bubbles and papyrus?

The reflection from a dew globe searches the rose next door. Or, is a butterfly primping?

A stretch into the power of the senses shrinks the need for perfection.

Photography does not require a definite subject or something to say. Rambling clicks attract images.

The process brings a novelty to light or permits a perception into existence. 

In the ordinary, discovery slants, catapults or somersaults perspective.

The tease of unknown intrigues.

Clouds in a puddle form and circulate wonder.

Investigate the Stillpoint

Except for the point, the stillpoint,
There would be no dance
And there is only the dance. - T.S. Eliot

What does the stillpoint mean in daily life? Is it a stop to change direction? Is it a resting place before the next surge of momentum? Can you move from the frenzy of worrying to the place of stillness? Will you bow to your ego and laugh?

For high energy individuals, progress requires intensity.  You also need stillness, a form of meditation and ways to trick sprinter minds into observation and silence.  Then, intuitive juices will feel free to come out and dance.

You may need to stare at the clouds.

Notice what percolates without forcing.

When working on a writing project don't permit exhaustion or frustration to set in before you take a break. That's not the best time to stop because of its conditioning effect. 

The next time you're in the flow of words. Stop.  
Even if you  believe you will lose the train of throught. Stop. Look around. Move away from the pen or keyboard.  

Permit solitude to arrive in a variety of forms from silence in sounds, an absence of tastes and textures to a bombardment of newness in sensations. A change of direction helps to enable the momentum to arise anew.

You will return to the dance of words revived!

Summer Play

The sea dragon
watches
for words.








Visitors arrive in pairs or threes,
their smiles eager for capture.

The sea performs in blue satin.

Waves whoosh to shore,

crackle into caves.

On torrey pine branches,
cormorants pose like banners.

Grass crisped by summer sun
mingles with musk of daisy
on trails of sandstone dust.

Ask to borrow
wings for one day.

Into the You

I’m going to lead you

into a you you don’t know ... 

Most people want

to go.  - Alice Notley

Where have you not ventured before? 

Do you see a closed door or a curtain?  

Are walls made of stone or brick?  

How will you climb to the edge? 

   Can you see over the side? 
   
   


Does it feel like a well, the sea, or a river?

Where does the flow go - in or out?

Does it loom like a mountain with a desert or flower field approach?

Take chances to discover new venues of you.

Bird Wisdom

"I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen." 

- Terry Tempest Williams  

                                                           

                                                                                                                                      

Did you know:

Coins in Greece had engraved owls to keep a watchful eye on commerce.



The sun is borne aloft by eagles every morning.

In Norse mythology the god Odin has two companions. The Ravens three were sent out every morning to travel and gather news of the world. They returned to his shoulder at dusk.

In Native American myths, the thunderbird was grandson of the sky spirit who created the world. The water spirit tried to rid the world of people by flooding all the land. Then the people traveled to the highest hill and prayed. Thunderbird came to fight the water spirit sending a great bolt of lightning that split open the earth and drained the water spirit saving humankind.

Crows and their raven cousins have held a spot in mythology as symbols of knowledge and power. Associated with the otherworld, war and death, these corvids have accompanied figures such as Apollo and the Celtic goddess Morrigan.


The Nez Perce considered the osprey (sea hawk) as a medicine bird. Seeing an osprey in a dream or vision provided a sign that a man had been granted spiritual power as a healer. 

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time; it is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. - Last words of Crowfoot, Blackfoot chief

What is Right?

Once a yoga teacher had us hold a challenging pose for a long time. Then he asked us to focus on what we were doing right.

It seems rare these days that anyone asks us not to focus on right. The media blitzes us with broken aspects of life and what needs fixing. Has America become a disability culture? Why do we need a disease-based model to describe aspects of our society?  

Do we even have a model of right?

Thomas Armstrong in his new book, Neurodiversity: Discovering the Extraordinary Gifts of Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and Other Brain Differences suggests that instead of calling the above "conditions" dysfunctional, we should view them as aspects of the brain's function. He focuses on the brain as an ecosystem rather than a machine.

Brain differences among individuals become as essential and enriching as differences among plants and animals. He would like to use the concept of neurodiversity to reverse the trend to medicalize and patholgize people who respond differently to life's challenges.

Armstrong says, "Knowing we are all connected to each other just like ecosystems means we need to have a greater tolerance for those who neurological systems are organized differently."

Funding for brain research deals with what's wrong with the left hemisphere of the brain. Armstrong indicates, "Little research, however, exists on an area in the right hemisphere that processes loose word associations and may be the source of poetic inspiration,"

He hopes researchers, teachers and families will assist these "labeled individuals" to discover their places in the web of life rather than to let them exist as outcasts with dysfunctions. They need to learn what they are doing right.

Spend a day acknowledging what's right about your experiences, challenges, and writing!

Write about what you do right!