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November 2020

The Tweak

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I smell these leaves. Every experience and encounter carries some emotional memory. Some call it baggage but that seems too easy to shrug off or leave behind. That memory is part of the experience. The smell, the warmth of the day, the little sights and sounds.

Today get comfortable with a memory for a moment. How did it smell?

Reflection

A post really on embodied cognition. While I love the lensball in this setting with fall leaves, I had been talking with my brother about how we built leaf forts and how those smelled wondrous. Amazing how smell and sound can take you right back to a place in your life. 
 
#embodiedcognition #senses #memory

Stars upon stars

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We are made of starstuff.
I cannot dream without the motes of night
They are engines of creation
Stars upon stars
Their twinkling inspires
What do they whisper?
A colorful band of adventurers on my journey
Pointing all the ways
Such perfect companions

Sit quiet with the stars tonight.

Reflection

A friend of mine husband died this week. I wrote this for her so she would find some peace maybe. I hope it worked.
 
#mindfulness #contemplation

Flow

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Every airport has a pattern; a way of entering the area to land on a certain runway. And when the airport becomes busy, everything works well. Sometimes for me, routines like this help bring intense times of heightened awareness or flow. It’s something I have to cultivate. I have to be ready.

What routines do you have in place today to encourage flow? Are you ready?

This has become a series caller Planetrails. This pic is a timelapse of the air traffic over Denver November 5, 2020.

Reflection

I’ve been taking a series of photos I call “Planetrails.” Sometimes over DIA, the patterns are apparent. I got to wondering how the patterns in my life really get me in flow sometimes. And I wondered if instead of disruption to create flow whether flow is an offshoot of a working pattern. I’m not in favor of doing something the same way over and over expecting a different outcome. I was more thinking of using my workflow in more intense ways to achieve flow. Can I take what I know and make it better. This goes back to a thought I have often while coding where I spend time looking for answers and clues in Google when I have the skills myself to get it done. It’s a matter of confidence and shirking the “imposter syndrome.”
 
#impostersyndrome #mindfulness #flow

Imagine Differently

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We know that these hills are connected to the Earth but for just a second imagine that they are floating mountains. What are the implications? Everything we think we know would be wrong? Something incredible is possible? Certainly the laws of physics would have to work differently. It becomes a fun and freeing imagining.

Imagine floating mountains today. What does that mean for your creativity?

Reflection

This post was really designed to explore the floating appearance of the mountains in the clouds; how things are not always as they appear. Or in a more fantastic sense, wouldn’t it be neat if these mountains were really floating. I’m not sure we spend enough time in this daydream “what if” mode. I find it energizing and I probably should visit more often.

#mindfulness #neuralplasticity #adjacentpossible

Noting the Small

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When sitting under these trees I was amazed at their fractal nature; from the big to small. Trees to sky. I always have been. I follow the branches out to the smallest leaves. My dad used to ask if I could see the ants. I wish I could for then my explorations could go farther. I’m content to notice the slight quaking of the wind and hearing a slight swoosh of wind.

Today, be still for a moment or two and Listen for the smallest things.

Reflection

Something Annie said during class; about tiny noticing, brought me to this. I think in nature, we are often caught looking at the forest and forgetting the differences in the trees…especially using senses beyond sight. I remember places by the way they sound and smell more than the way they look.

#mindfulness #nature

Around the Bend

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Every trail is an adventure. You can walk 100 steps and the whole world will change, scenes drift, colors shift. Nature affects us in profound ways. The aura of a forest can brighten moods, calm a stressed twenty first century mind. This path is centering.

What’s around that bend? Tell me about the paths you choose this weekend.

Reflection

I have an idea of a series called 100 Steps; to get people to realize that they don’t have to travel far distances for true beauty in nature. A journey of 100 steps can bring you to the perfect place you never knew was so close.

#mindfulness #nature #embodiedcognition

Clearing

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The Sun hit the horizon again from our vantage this morning. It has been rising over Crescent Mountain for about a month now. It now has a clear shot to the winter solstice.

The road will be bumpy but it smooths out. Do you feel it? It’s time to get creating.

Reflection

I like watching changes in nature. Where the Sun will rise, the seasons, the differences in the skies. It helps me remember that time flows and I don’t have unlimited time. I need to keep creating.

#mindfulness #nature #metta #creativity

Paths

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My mind is abuzz this morning with paths. I have to believe everything will turn out perfect and beautiful. Life will unfold as it unfolds. I’ve done my part and it does me no good to fret any more than I can change the paths of the stars, the plains or the birds in the air. I can wonder at their curvy journeys but I have just two feet on my own path and I should focus my heart there.

Are your feet and heart in agreement today?

Reflection

I’m drawn to paths. Where do they lead. How would my life change to follow this or that path. It’s not that I want more choice but I like imagining that I have lots of choices. I just remember that my feet and my heart really need to be going the same direction for me to be happy. A huge metta.

#metta #mindfulness #affirmations

Intensity

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Everything in this photo of the Milky Way is real. It’s been enhanced, intensified as if we had eyes to pick up the faraway light and subtle colors of the nebulae. Intensity gives your workout, meditation or work an added dimension.

Add some intensity to an activity today.

Reflection

When we imagine ourselves differently, it opens up a new way of looking at things. This image was highly processed. I didn’t add anything new but I provided a new way of looking at it that made it more intense and hopefully more memorable.

#mindfulness #embodiedcognition

Fine Threads

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Fine threads bind us. Like a string of spiderweb from beyond. Little bridges from the known to the unknown. I think often of the spans my mind builds to get me from here to there, forwarding kindnesses from my past self to my future self. Pondering an adjacent possible using what I know and transforming it into new perception.
 
What are you working on that will become your adjacent possible? 

Reflection

I remember while taking the photo wondering about that little spider web that bridged the post with the grass. I’m sure the spider didn’t set out to get a better vantage but it did introduce a different though very small hunting area. It’s just one example of the possibilities that open up when we move to a different place, gain a different vantage, connect with someone new.

#mindfulness #senseofself #adjacentpossible

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