Great Art

A great painting I find to be very much like a great song; both sounds and images pulled fom the infinite. Beauty can be found in the relationships and harmonies between notes the way a dynamic painting flows smoothly from form to form. Great content, whether musical or visual, does well to also hilight it's counterparts: the empty spaces between notes or figures that you can recognize to be a portrayal of the infinite. A great artist can lead you through this infinite portal and through a range of new and perhaps unconcievable emotion. My favorite artists are those who can shake you around, and really make you think a bit before sending you off on your way again. 

Love Yourself

You treat yourself the same way you're going to be treated. It may sound kind of trite but it's true and I think this statement even precedes the "golden rule": "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Fill your own cup and it's only natural that it will spill over to others.

I almost didn't add this but I think I have to just to balance the equation. Loving yourself is not to be confused with narcissism which I consider to be the opposite. Narcissists look at the world in terms of "I never have enough" and so they don't actually give themselves love. The narcissist focuses on a lack around them and is self-concerned.

My first stay in AZ this year

A night in the desert

The terrain lays vast and speechless

Only after the sun has danced through the motions

Of it's rich descent through the western sky

And the moon dreams down upon me with favor

Familiar smells, sensations, take a whirl at

Dragging me into a past

Or egging me on towards a future

Yet I awake to the present moment

Where pain and beauty find their meeting place

Aware and ever present in each other's company

For a moment I find still peace

And the saguaro, strong and wise

Doesn't need eyes to see this

Chuang Tzu

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly...
Suddenly I awoke...
Now, I do not know whether I was then
a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly
dreaming that I am a man.

Chuang Tzu (c.360 BC - c. 275 BC)