deus ex machina....

I had a bizarre dream last night.....it involved Sting....I will spare you the details...but, the setting was Hawaii....

and Sting was there.....and.....well....bizarre....(I love Sting, but man....this was crazy)


speaking of deus ex machina....or not....or maybe even Ghost in the Machine...

I was prompted to discuss the topic of 'dreams'....which made me really deconstruct....this word, "Dream"....

like...what happens when someone asks you what your "dreams" are?   What are dreams?  What is the purpose of a dream?  What's the purpose of love? for that matter....

because I think they both run on the same fuel.....


love...and dreams....


and while I'm totally making no sense....or a lot of sense.....they both benefit from a little deus ex machina....don't they?

seriously....this is that kind of post....that will be explained later....so let's just enjoy the preview...and the ride...

and I'll set up the next post by saying,

the biggest dream you can have it just....getting in touch with yourself...and loving yourself....being authentic...

being able to express yourself the way you need to...(because once you do this...every 'dream' you have is flowing from the place of the ultimate Dream...and that's a beautiful thing....)


and love?   Love is like....a high performance vehicle....high octane....

if you want to hide it away in a garage....where nobody gets to enjoy it....where you can't take it out for a spin and really open her up...for fear of scratching her...of getting hurt...

then....what's the point?  

love needs to be driven hard and fast....I think.....saving love....because you don't want to be hurt...

hiding your heart because you don't like the pain....

means...you just park it in the garage....and shine it up once in a while....never to actually drive it.

what a waste of a perfectly good prancing pony.

some people are like that....they just hide....away....afraid of really feeling....


it's like Cameron's dad in Ferris Bueller's day off....if you know what I mean.

Ferris knew how to drive a car.....

the more you drive it....and make it work....the more you feel....the more your heart is open to love....and really feeling love....

some people live their whole lives....going 20 mph...in a car that can go....much much faster than that...in a car that can handle the speed....


so....

drive that car....love the road...and the curves....and the whole damn thing.


and I think that's enough to say....until next time...


peace and love...and deus ex machina.......

detox...your soul.

doesn't this look crazy?   it's a clay mask....and it's cooling- yet burning- and gets rid of toxins.....pulls them out of your pores....

sometimes you gotta detox....you know?

YOU KNOW....(of course you do)

you totally do.  sometimes you have to take the toxic people and limit your exposure to them.....

or if you have to be around them...then once in a while...it would be nice to put a clay mask on your soul...and take out the crap that they left there.....ugh.  yuck.

you know....we do so much to ourselves....we take time to drink water....and eat veggies....and work out...and well....physical stuff....and we read books...and entertain our minds.....for mental stuff...

but what do we do to really reach our soul...replenish...revitalize...regenerate....because there can be some real....soul- killing things out there... stuff we do to ourselves...and stuff other people lay on us.

yup.....because a big one is hanging out with toxic people.....you know...the unhappy people who just like to pour their unhappiness out to other people....misery loves company....


but so does....love...

and happiness..... like-  real love and happiness.....loves when real love and happiness is around....


so...yeah......you gotta dig deep and give your soul a squeeze.. :)


maybe it's time to do some detoxifying?     and one of the ways to do this...really....is to be the Kerberos of your....

soul.....

protect it.

love...and peace...and happiness.....and Kerberos....because this week's word of the day (AWAD) is related to Pluto. :)


Bam.


and because this.....reminds me of an under worldly type of moon.....for Pluto.

AND.....Happy Birthday to my daughter, Zoey...who turns 7.  <3

touring contours....

as I get ready for my first art show.....at Rumble House...I look through my work from the last year of painting....

and I am reminded about.....my tour.....of contours...and thanks to a friend...I am able to put into words...

this tour.

I've mentioned before...my delight for well crafted words together...I admire the art of grouping words together to express something....hard to express.  I use paint....but some people can just....put words together in such a way- in makes your heart turn like a windmill....putting emotion into motion...

a gathering of words....that make your brain pour a cocktail of chemicals that produce a beautiful feeling....

it is a beautiful talent.....and when I read words that people take the time to place together in a certain order....that make my heart melt.


I hold on to them....and treasure them as I do, special treasures discovered on a walk along the beach....unusual shaped shells....bright green seaglass.....I hold on to them.


and so.....

here is my preview...to my show.....

Touring Contours.....

If anyone has any suggestions to put in the show...please let me know....

thanks for hanging with me this year....and giving me a ton of encouragement...support...kind words....

peace...and love....and sharing this ride with me......

ever changing moods....

the lesson today....

change...change...change....  :)    and embrace it....and let go....surrender to it.....because.....

just...because....

I bought this at Ikea for $20, on sale.....and thought...wow....it is framed.  :)  it is a canvas....(basically)....

it is a framed canvas for $20.

bam.

I'm gonna gesso it and do something with it.....and maybe I gesso over that.....and change it up....

and maybe....

I'll even gesso over that.....

because.....

change...

that's why.

sometimes your mood is going to change....daily..hourly...minutely.  :)    and those changes lead to bigger changes...that last....

daily...monthly....yearly......the changes that make you feel yummy....

and because I love Style Council.....and this song makes me smile....

that's what I give...today...

and if you can let go of a bitter mood.... :)  you can let in a sweet mood...and let it all just....flow.....

and my craptastic mood yesterday...vanished into thin air...


daylight turns to moonlight, and I'm at my best,
praising the way it all works, gazing upon the rest;
the cool before the warm, the calm after the storm,
I wish to stay forever, letting this be my food,
but i'm caught up in a whirlwind and my ever changing moods.

bitter turns to sugar....some call a passive tune...
but the day things turn sweet for me...won't be too soon. :)
the hush before the silence, the winds after the blast,
I wish we'd move together, this time the bosses sued,
but we're caught up in the wilderness and an ever changing mood....


teardrops turn to children, who've never had the time...
to commit the sins they pay for through another's evil mind...

the love after the hate, the love we leave too late...
I wish we'd wake up one day, and everyone feel moved
but we're caught up in the dailies and an ever changing mood.


Evil turns to statues, and masses form a line,
but I know which way I'd run to if the choice was mine...





peace...and love....and making changes.....

deleting doubt....and fear

words....

I've said it before....

powerful things....words.  If I could delete one word from everyone's lips.....from everyone's mental lexicon....

I'd delete it....and prevent it from setting foot on anyone's dream-scape.....I'd ban it.....



doubt. (and fear).  

don't.....have ....it.


doubt is the most useless of words.....  nothing can kill a dream faster than this...ridiculous word....

and so so many people use it......they speak it....they feel it...they believe it...they act on it.


time to pick a different word.....


like...

belief.


peace...and love...and believing in dreams.....believing that you have the power to steer your canoe....where you want it to go.  

sprinklers....

I just realized....

another thing that is a great challenge to me.....


ummmmmmm.  placing sprinklers in the optimal spot...at the optimal length and height.....

it's like math....


and I kinda just treat them like I treat gift boxes that I have to wrap....and that is enough said.


there's too much tape where there shouldn't be tape.....


and there's too much water...... where....there shouldn't be water....



peace...and love....and.....accidence....of life.....(word choice intended)



<3  summer.

sweet liberty.....

this is a day early.... :)  I will be celebrating many things tomorrow....mostly just secretly in my heart because....I see what I've accomplished....and mostly...just grinning looking at how much I've grown as an artist....and as a person....and really....the person who will be celebrating all this the most is...me.


and here I am.....on the one year anniversary of my crazy adventure here on google...and a year of my odyssey....and a year of my vision quest....

and I can say...

the view is pretty great....and I've traveled a long way.   I recently saw a friend's picture....a family picture of a trip.....and when I saw it....I immediately thought...

not that I had traveler's envy....but I thought...

wow.  I'm on a pretty cool trip too....I just don't really have a picture for it, like- I don't have a picture posing in front of something, epic...

..and then I thought...


wait....

I have a whole blog of it.  a blog of my travels....and that's pretty epic.  :)  around....Spring, I felt....that I had reached a summit of some kind....I felt...as I measured how far I'd come....that I had reached....a smoother...plateau....yet...this plateau....was definitely higher than I'd ever been.....and as I gazed up at yet another summit...

it just felt good to hang out....for awhile.......before I set out on the next place....

I thought this appropriate for today.....because the colors...especially remind me of fireworks.....

and here I go.....packing up a bunch of stuff....and smiling at where I have come....and taking steps to the next.....every summit getting more and more .....just....awesomer.  It gives me butterflies to depart from what was before...and

reach for something.....more....

and that's what it's like....being in love with dropping off bags and traveling lighter and lighter....

healing....revealing....dropping fear.....replacing it with love.  Turns out....love is way lighter than fear.

and then.....

as if a full circle reminder.....I gazed over at my daughter's back pack...after I picked them up from camp today....

I tossed the packs in the front seat..... looked over at it...and saw.....


EMBARK.


epic.

peace and love....and a continuing to embrace the freedom...the liberation....I feel like....

I'm in great shape to be:


to be...

to be happy...
to be blissful....
to be expressive....
to be inspiring....

to reach out and help......

to be, love.

so here is to continuing.....on this vision quest.   eff ya.  

connections and chevrons....

the connection....the adjoining.....the beautiful chevron.....

everything is connected.....intimately. 


so, think about that....when you greet the world every day.....and think about what you want the world to give you....


are you giving love back to the world?  or are you just living in fear and putting more fear out there....


what is it that you can give?     giving....is receiving.....the adjoining and connecting....the constant exchange through the intimate connection....

of the chevron.

peace...and love....and chevrons....

Mixolydian mode

it's just that slight difference in scale.....


turns out....I kinda go crazy for this mixolydian mode....and so does Hall and Oates. :) among others....

something that turns something predictable a minor sounding chord....something prepared and set up....and turns into something....unexpected.....


and....

a bit sweeter and happier...

it's the mixolydian mode....that I think really catches my ear and changes things up...that and this....concept of portamento....

I think I finally might have some kind of break through with my little music project.


so yeah, instead of going with a straight up, major scale....the 7th tone is flattened....and it's that thing that we notice....

the noticing of something is what....that contrast....something that stands out....

it's just....in our make up to notice something in contrast to something else...you know?  it's how we learn....compare....

it's how we figure out what we want, sometimes.... it's as simple as a contrastive analysis....

but yeah, the same holds true for most things....it's important for us to notice things....to be able to see something or hear something....means...there's a good chance it differs than other things around it....

hey....you know....nature....bees.....and snakes....and other poisonous dangerous things.....give you something to notice....


there's a thing in Linguistics.....that, if what you are learning in another language is very close to what you know in your own language....it's very difficult to learn....and that things need to be a clear contrast in order to acquire them....

we love contrast.....

and I think this is what the mixolydian mode offers in music....a tonal contrast....one single note different....

and it changes it up....enough...to really stand out...and it just....makes my ears happy....


peace...and love....and solving little mysteries....which lead to bigger mysteries.....

which lead to extensive.....research.....and finding the crazy connection....between....all things, great and small.

I promised you a miracle...

miracles happen.....

that is all.... some people don't believe they do...but...they do.


some people don't believe that anything and everything is possible....


but....

just look at a platypus.

oh....and just because something is adorable....doesn't mean it doesn't have some venom to protect itself.

just sayin...in case you had an itch to be a jerk to a platypus.


enough said.

oh, and the song for today....  I promised you a miracle...by Simple Minds. :) I love this song because of it's boldness....and it's determination and optimism on steroids....and because of it's confidence....

using the word....promise.....making a promise for something as big as a miracle....   it's beautiful.....

with the confidence to believe.....that it will happen.  because...when you believe in a promise....the miracle has already happened.


I promised you a miracle...
believe is a beauty thing, 
promises, promises, 
as golden days break wondering, 
only love she sees, 
he controls on love...
life mirrors a cure, 
everything is possible....
with promises, 
everything is possible....





peace....love....and monotremes and ukuleles.