The Elastic Limit

"Anything left to itself will tend toward equilibrium.  (All chemical reactions are equilibrium reactions.)  When man intervenes and disrupts the equilibrium, nature tends to reverse it.  But there is a limit beyond which restoration is not possible.  In metals it is called "the elastic limit," beyond which the distortion is too great and the deformation is permanent.  Any situation in a state of permanent distortion naturally tends toward disruption or rupture.  For example, if one stresses a metal within the elastic limit, it will come back to its original state; beyond the elastic limit it will be permanently deformed and then rupture under a very slight additional force."

- M.C. Richards in Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person

"The distortion is too great and the deformation is permanent."  Ah yes, if we listen to this statement and think about it in terms of our busy and stress-filled lives it is hard to accept.

It seems absolute.  Yet I think there is truth bubbling up here so we should probably pay attention.

Many times at the potter's wheel I have sensed the internal structure of the clay 'give way' and there is little I can do from that point on.  The plasticity is gone and I feel like I have failed...I have pushed too far and I should have known better.  Its elastic limit has been crossed and there is no turning back.  I scrape the clay off the bat and set it aside for another day and perhaps another use.

But in that moment, the clay is of no use on the wheel.

It is good to learn limits and reach our 'edge' and even go beyond that threshold because we learn a good lesson.  We learn about ourselves in a way that is experiential and genuine.  When we have pressed too far and gone beyond our our personal elastic limit whether mental, physical or spiritual it takes time to mend and feel strong and viable again.  The psyche is genius in this regard and we continue on, older and somewhat wiser.

So there is no way around it, we're going to crash from time to time and that is not a bad thing.  Especially if this principle of 'elastic limit' becomes more established in our everyday awareness.  The goal is not to never fail, the goal is to learn balance.  Feeling our way along that threshold of 'limits' and becoming familiar with that frontier can make all the difference in establishing a life in balance as well as making a terrific pot.

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Grounding

"We mold clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that makes the vessel useful."  

- Tao Te Ching

 Linville Gorge, NC 2015

We’ve been talking recently about grounding, that effort we make from time to time to help us prepare for the day or ready to tackle that chunk of work looming before us. 

Sometimes we do this intentionally, sometimes instinctively, but we seem to do this routinely and I think this is natural and good.  As I thought about what I do in order to feel grounded, it came to me that I do some very simple, routine things around the house.  For example, mowing the lawn or chopping firewood count, in my view. Working up a good sweat then leaning against a tree and maybe enjoying a cold beer afterward makes me feel alive, grounded, in my body and ready for that dinner party or that task I’ve been avoiding.  These are simple things, yet I know they help me engage more fully with daily life.

For me, there seems to be a distinction between grounding and centering.  I have not done a thorough study of this (and I don’t intend to), but I think there is something to be said about grounding compared to centering.  First off, I think we need both on a regular basis.  Centering gets a lot of press these days.  We hear a lot about meditation techniques and related practices and this is a good thing.  Yet I want to bring a little more attention to this idea of grounding.

I started to think about what those differences may be.  And I thought, grounding is something one does by oneself, while centering may be done in solitude or with another person or perhaps in a group setting.  I have started to view grounding as Yang (the principle of movement) and centering as Yin (the principle of rest).  As Yin represents the unchanging nature of existence, Yang aligns with change.  This indeed is interesting, as the student within may say.

When I go for a walk outside I can feel the changing terrain under my feet.  This is very grounding for me and it is a solo effort.  With centering meditation, I go within and allow my awareness to rest gently on whatever comes up - not forcing, but allowing. These practices are complementary and we need both.

Is grounding a prerequisite to centering?  What are my grounding / centering practices? What is the goal?  How does my body feel in each scenario?  

These are worthwhile questions we may work with as we make our way through daily life - one grounded step, one centered action at a time. And surely, the answers will appear!

Eagle Rock, NC 2015

sweet dreams

"Images of broken light, which

Dance before me like a million eyes,

They call me on and on across the universe."

- John Lennon

35mm slide, circa 1956

lake george, new york

Friday night, February 5th, I was sorting through a box of 35mm slides which had been misplaced for a number of years.  My father had taken photographs using 35mm slide film throughout the 1950's.  Most images are candid family shots with good composition and rich color saturation.  There are about one hundred slides, and I was looking for one particular image I had seen when I first started sorting.  I wanted to scan and enlarge this image and share with several others.  Once I found that shot, however, I decided not to use it since it was not exactly what I was looking for.  

As I kept looking, the image above caught my interest.  As with most slides, I could not see the overall picture or any detail.  I placed the slide on a light board and took a picture with my phone camera (my stop-gap measure until I can access a good scanner).  As I rotated and cropped the picture, I studied the image.  Within a few seconds I felt a shudder of recognition go through my body.  The following dream had come to me not 48 hours earlier on Thursday morning, February 4th.  I realized in that moment that the slide image, which had come to me after the dream, mirrored the dream in almost every detail.

I called to Emily to share the profound synchronicity.  We sat next to each other looking at the slide image on my tablet.  After a minute or two of conversation I stopped and looked at Emily with what must have been a stunned expression.  We were - at that very moment - in the same setting as depicted in the dream!  Emily was to my right side as we looked through 'a glass' (the computer screen) at the scene on the water.  My parents were facing us from the slide image displayed on the tablet.  The moment was both surreal and sublime as we felt a sense of direct connection between the gross world in which we live and the astral world in which my father may dwell.  Intuitively, I knew that he is here, helping us, communicating with us, supporting us and sending love through time and space in a way which I do not understand yet welcome with all my being.  An unforgettable sweet dream.

dream transcription / february 4, 2016

Reflections on Gary's dream (Emily):

"Here, I want to show you this.  Remember I told you I had that dream about my parents in the water? This is what they looked like (pause, head shakes left and right).  This is that dream.  We were just like this, looking through glass at my parents," as you motioned with your hand to our position side by side, on the bed, gazing at the deep blue hues and loving smiles of two heroic lovers. 

"We are in the dream!"  And you shook your head again.  It felt as though we had stepped into a cosmic vacuum.  All was still in this moment of cosmic embrace.

Listen: Across the Universe

So What

"I saw God in the forest / Teaching Tai Chi to the trees."

- Ben Sollee

So what if there is not one absorbent towel in the kitchen or the thermostat is set to 85 degrees and the television churns constantly while two huge fur-ball cats have full reign of the house.  After two weeks I notice a second-order beauty here in the small things which decorate her soul a full octave above photos of grandchildren and gone relatives.

Quan Yin stirs the soup while clucking laughter rises from everyday surprises in the kitchen.  Hidden flowers and small signs speak of compassion and acceptance on a level not seen elsewhere.  This begins to change me and I realize the holiest person in the ashram is the floor-sweeper.

So please know I heard you when you said, "I miss her words, 'what time will you be home?'"  And I stopped for many minutes while outwardly I went along with my other life when all I wanted was to sit with you and watch for signs of your holy one and hear your story.  Because it will someday become my story, too.

So what, when none of the flatware matches and cats lick the butter?  They're her cats.

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Listen to:

Ben Sollee / Panning for Gold

Star Light, Star Bright

"This is where I watch for meteors," she said softly as they moved together into the late-summer evening.  Stars to infinity were visible and the world seemed upside down as the man leaned back to gaze, trying to still the scene.  Absorbing every detail.

"Do you see any?" he asked without moving.

"Oh, I've seen meteors...and I've seen lots of other things," she whispered, in tune with the moment and the beauty of it all and very aware that her answer would lead to more questions.  He turned with a smile and encouraged her, wanting to hear more.

"I saw a shooting star one night and as I watched, it split apart and two shooting stars continued on for a few seconds.  One of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen," she said, her eyes now closed.  "I was all alone.  I took it as a good sign."

The woman shivered not from the cool night air but from wonder.

"And did it turn out to be good fortune?" he asked, turning closer to her as they stood on the gravel path.  Under the stars.  Breathing together on a timeless summer night.

"Yes, it did," she smiled as she pulled him close at the very instant he leaned in.  "Very good fortune."

"The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it."

 - Bayazid al-Bistami

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Bamboo Love

"Live without thought of dying for dying is not a truth."

- Catherine of Siena

summer bamboo | western north carolina | courtesy Emily

digital | slightly rendered

When it rains this way the bamboo shivers in the garden and the cat heads straight for the stove and the old man leans his body against a barn and stares.  

I dream I am among many people at a party; 

I am with a woman who glows crimson-orange from within.

Crooked bamboo leans on its sister and rests and waits while my body lays with the orange woman who does not speak.  

She hides behind me, moving away as I try to find her.

I wait and do not speak and think only of the color orange and the bamboo.  

Then the orange woman starts to sing psalms and I fall asleep.

Night comes early now and good rain washes the earth.  

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Blue Moon

"When you move into the level of dream consciousness, all the laws of logic change.  There, although you think you are seeing something that is not you, it is actually you that you are seeing, because the dream is simply a manifestation of your own will and energy - you created the dream and yet you are surprised by it.  So the duality there is illusory.  There, subject and object, though apparently separate, are the same." 

Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light, p. 70

august 2015 / western north carolina

digital - slightly rendered

Just by chance (or good fortune), I captured this image early Sunday morning August 1^st just as the full moon was disappearing over the western horizon.  Simply here / just outside the house / standing in the street / as the dogs sniffed.  And everything was quiet and cool and new.  

It is the ‘blue moon’ which appeared the night of July 31^st and everyone watched the heavens for.  

I love how the moon sets a dreamy image against a background of blue morning sky framed by clouds and trees.  That very same day I came across the quote from Joseph Campbell and I thought how beautiful and how appropriate and what a lesson to be learned here as I gaze at the moon and think I’m separate and that the moon and everything is out there.

I then come back around to consider that there really is no separateness...no here, no there...no you, no me...as we continue along our journey homeward.  And that is surely the mystery.

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listen:
Blue Moon