ALL ALONE UNIVERSE

Sifting through random drafts and bits of writing, I discover a story of long ago::

All Alone in the Universe

March 17, 1998

Pausing to read, I relive:

Silver rain rinses down out of a leaden sky.  It looks like my painting of Mont-Saint-Michel in the rain-fog of the Normandy coast as it rests on the wall here in my office....The paint has a grey and green look of Saint Patrick's Day in mid March.  I'm walking in the mist of ghosts of the past.

* Come he come say, ride on the night

Sun become day, day shall provide....

She dance for the sun...

Seek for the way, takin' me home....

She callin',

Bring home my name....

Wind in the plains

Dance once for me....

I pause.  The song Sooliamon recently came to my attention in the previous post, March Forward.  What at the odds?

Reading On:

The music brings up images and feelings of ages past as well as present and future time.  I feel a restless sadness wash over me as I sit at the window and wash the rain (notice I typed "wash" the rain instead of "watch" the rain.)  It's probably just the greyness of an Illinois winter washing away...

But it's more than that.  I stand all alone in the universe in Tai Chi class.  It's cool down, standing meditation after form practice.  We stand like marble, all of us lined up and relaxed (most of us appear to be relaxed).  We breathe deeply and naturally and raise our arms in front of us as if to hold a beach ball.  I slip easily into the "empty mind" framework.  I hear a couple of kids bouncing balls in the gym.  The noise fades...and I feel comfortably alone and warm.  I can feel the "nothingness" inside and outside of me.  If I had to put a color to it, it would be painted golden ochre.  I know there are friends on either side of me, yet at the same time, no one is there.  I feel just like my burnt sienna washed canvas called Invisible Planet, the Jupiter like planet is there, but barely.  The brush skimmed the canvas and swirled out a planet without meaning to create it.  The painting stands stark still and I'm not sure where (if anywhere) it is going. 

I check back into Earth again.  "Cool Down" exercises continue to settle and calm energy (qi) circulated during Tai Chi Yang Long Form Practice (88 pattern).  The calming works!  Without the exercises I feel scattered recklessness of a runaway horse.  I come back in tune with the world around me in the gym: the lights, the basketballs bouncing, the shriek of kids playing....

I think about cranes and clouds....I think back to a pastel painting of Chinese Junks....The ships with painted sails of orange and fire rose up out of the charcoal water like Chinese dragons attacking the tiger.  I thought about painting again, in its own time.

Shaking ourselves out of our individual daydreams, we put on winter sweaters, coats, hats and head out, vanishing into the windows of our separate lives....

Tai Chi class is coming around again soon, where I stand all alone in the universe. 

Key Words blog search Angel, Poetry, Mont-Saint-Michel, Creativity

Related Posts:

March Forward

Ghosts of Myself

Healing Hearts

Running Wild in the Universe

A Different Light, Painting Mont-Saint-Michel

Encounters with Michael, The Artist Meets the Archangel

A Firm Foundation

Building Blocks
Universe Shadows of Cranes

Resources:

Music
* Neil Diamond, singer-songwriter,  Sooliamon, African Triology, 3 parts

Irish Folk Songs, Readers' Digest Music, album many years ago

Tai Chi Meditation and Motion
Dr. Paul Lam, taichiforhealtinstitute.org  Programs for all levels, Tai Chi for Arthritis, Back Pain and more to help with specific conditions.  Tai Chi Music, seminars, youtube

Dr. Yang, Jwing-ming, YMAA.com  All levels of practice, Qigong, Tai Chi Martial Arts, Traditional Chinese music via Wind Records

Dahlis Roy: Visionary Artist, Author, and Tai Chi Instructor

Images:
Mont-Saint-Michele, oil painting detail by Dahlis

Stained Glass sparking butterflies, photo by Dahlis

Universe, Shadows of Cranes, oil painting by Dahlis owned by Dr. Paul Lam

MARCH FORWARD

It's March already?  How'd that happen?

Sunsplash


"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold, when it's summer in the light and winter in the shade," Charles Dickens.

Totally agree, a few minutes ago it was snowing, then bright sun arrived and "now" it is cloudy-bright


* "Come he come say
Ride on the night
Sun become day
Day shall provide..."

The light and shade that made your name~

* "Bring home my name...

Wind in the plains, dance once for me...."

And soon full green will return...

Related Posts:
A Strong Clear Vision
Connect the Dots
The Immediate Rabbit
Wander and Ponder


Resources:
Music
* The Best of Neil Diamond, The Millenium Collection, MCA Records CD
Soolaimon, original Uni single, subsidiary of MCA 
Neil Diamond/Tom Catalano Production
Neil Diamond, Songwriting Hall of Fame 1984

Empty Sky, 1969,CD, Elton John, piano, organ, electric piano, harpsichord.  All compositions by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Dick James Music, LTD.  The harpsichord drew me right in.

Divide 2017 new music from Ed Sheeran, a wide variety of musical adventures, Atlantic Music Corp for USA, Warner Music for UK

Dahlis Roy:  Visionary Artist, Author, and Tai Chi Instructor

Images:

Sunsplash, photo by Rob, Los Padres Mountains, California USA

Light through the Window, photo by Dahlis

Fire in the Sky, photo by Rob, California Mountains USA

Golden Beach, detail of oil painting, photo by Dahlis  Sunset/Sunrise?

Chessie Walks Her Timeline, photo by Paul

BIRTHDAYS UNLIMITED

* What If?  We could celebrate all of our birthdays, all of the time?

What can a butterfly mean?  Transformation, rebirth, wonder, dawn of a new day, intuition, going within, and best yet, breakthrough and hope!  Can it be a birthday wish?  Intent?  Reflection?

* "What If we could celebrate all the birthdays we ever had?  And by that I mean including the birthdays that happened a few hundred thousand years ago...what if we realized that most of the people in our lives today are souls we have known and have learned from and with, over and over," Shirley MacLaine

Time:  bent, folded, curved?

Celebrating Simultaneous Time all the Time

Family and Pets, "past and present," birthdays included~

Birthdays Are Forever!

Blog Search Key Words:  Butterfly, Creativity

Resources:
* Shirley MacLaine, What If, Out on a Limb, The Camino, and other books.  Shirley is an award winning actress, dancer, and spiritual teacher.  Quotes from p 255, What If

PBS.org USA,
The Origami Revolution, folding forms in art, nature, and technology (2017)

Africa, documentary by Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. (2017)  My favorites scenes include rock carvings that resemble butterflies 140,000 years ago, plus tomb paintings, murals and mosaics from ancient times.

Finding Your Roots, trace ancestries with Henry Lewis Gates Jr. DNA and other evidence bring surprises.  L.L. Cool J. and Sean Combes (2016) and other well known people find more about who they are. 

Ancestry.com find more about you.

Music: 
Radical Face, Ben Cooper, Roots, Branches, Leaves.

Third Man Theme, music from The Third Man, Movie1949

Dahlis Roy:  Visionary Artist, Author, and Tai Chi Instructor

Images:
Cards by Linda

Butterfly
Flower Blooming

SECOND HAND

Total Eclipse of the Clock



"I need a second hand!"

"Oh, you mean a watch with a second hand?" 

" I have two.  I'll get one."

Let's "see," 

I don't think there are a lot of watches anymore that have second hands?

Are there watches anymore?  Who wears them?  When I put a watch on, it stops running.

The phone (or wrist watch/phone) carries the time and everything else.  Digital seconds tick away on the stove timers, microwaves, and equipment everywhere. 

Second Hand

Is a great idea to donate usable items to others.  I also love items loaned or given by friends from charity shops or personal collections.  Energy is Present.

Pets

"We got a second hand Tomcat at the Lighthouse Attic."  Tom's owner met us outside the store.  Tom looked so forlorn yet he let us hold him.  He was one year old at the time and had many previous homes, but we knew he was a keeper.  Now Tom is fifteen!

Tom Terrific

 

Second Hands, Second Chances are everywhere.

* "My melted chocolate will be done in 11 seconds!  Set that timer!"

Key Words blog search Time, Tom, Cats, Chocolate

Related Posts:

Escape Artists

Fully Present

Magic Numbers

Resources:

Chocolate

* Alton Brown, Good Eats, Food Network.  All things chocolate:  Turn on the Dark, The Art of Darkness parts 1-2-3, Fudge Factor.  "Fold the whipped cream gently into the chocolate mixture."

Origami Revolution (2017), PBS, folding paper, fold forms in nature and more, "solid geometry."  

Dahlis Roy: Visionary Artist, Author, and Tai Chi Instructor

Photos by Dahlis

Total Eclipse of the Clock

Tom Watchful

TALE OF TWO KITTIES

Cat Tree Time Share

Orange Claims Ownership

Until Ruff Takes Over

Orange is a reptilian muscular athlete:  full speed ahead.


Ruff likes to hang out of both sides of the cat tree. 

Ruff is now three times the size of his best buddy, Orange.  They enjoy grooming each other with an occasional hiss.

Ruff carries his feathery tail high up over his back, like a Norwegian Elk Hound.

"Ruff Has Plumage" 

Periscope....Orange

Tail from the Dark Side~ 

Telltale Tail 

"I want to be the dominant cat...."



* Enter Yon and Mu, in comic book form, to bring up close and personal a "Tale of Two Kitties." 

Yon is quite like Orange, short haired and over active, with that mixed look of wonder and anxiety in his eyes.  Mu is an adorable Norwegian Forest Cat, wide eyed, gentle, and observant.



What could our pets tell us about their personal stories?


Related Posts:  Key Words:  Orange, Ruff, Cats

Resources:

* Yon and Mu. Junji Ito's Cat Diary...."Junji Ito presents a series of hissterical [sic] tales chronicling his real-life trials of becoming a [reluctant] cat owner....Yon, a ghastly looking family cat and Mu, an adorable Norwegian Forest cat," use their persuasive "odd cuteness" to win hearts of readers everywhere and cat owners applaud with a yes and smile. 

"The most striking appeal of Junji Ito's work is his artwork."  Junji's drawings nail the tale of two feline friends and their humans.  Kodansha Comics

The Aristocats, Walt Disney Productions, Full Length Feature Animation


Dahlis Roy:  Visionary Artist, Author, and Tai Chi Instructor

Photos by Dahlis
Orange Claims Ownership
Ruff Takes Over
Ruff Has Plumage
Periscope Orange
Tail from the Dark Side
Telltale Tale