Thursday 26th March 2009Yoga
A nice practice in the Gallery this morning which finished with an 8 minute Headstand (I counted 60 breaths – 7.5 breaths a minute/8 seconds per breath). But who’s counting.
A nice practice in the Gallery this morning which finished with an 8 minute Headstand (I counted 60 breaths – 7.5 breaths a minute/8 seconds per breath). But who’s counting.
And what does it matter anyway….
Acquaintances
The art exhibitions where Renate and I practice change every 4 weeks. Being an artist, Renate is more sensitive to the artwork and the atmosphere of each exhibition than I am.
For the next 3 weeks we are surrounded by giant photographic images of women in heavy makeup; most of the works are quite compelling and in-your-face, not my taste in art but certainly very powerful.
For the next 3 weeks we are surrounded by giant photographic images of women in heavy makeup; most of the works are quite compelling and in-your-face, not my taste in art but certainly very powerful.
I much prefer Louise F’s paintings (above).
Louise and her partner Stephen C. are coming to my place (with Renate and David) for dinner next weekend. As a self confessed recluse, I am adamant that this will be my first and last dinner party, ever.
My home is a private sanctuary where I feel safely hidden away from people so the only person with visiting rights is my boyfriend. Friends and acquaintances understand and respect my need for this privacy.
My home is a private sanctuary where I feel safely hidden away from people so the only person with visiting rights is my boyfriend. Friends and acquaintances understand and respect my need for this privacy.
My home is actually a one quarter of a run-down old mansion. The mansion's divided into two upstairs apartments and two downstairs. I'm on the ground.I have two enormous rooms, one is my bedroom and the other is the ballroom. Then there's a tiny little kitchen and an even tinier little bathroom built off the kitchen which has the oldest old-style claw-foot bath I've ever come across. The ceilings are 18' high (5.5metres) throughout which creates a wonderful sense of spaciousness in the energy of the place. Tall windows look out onto century old trees that tower higher than the mansion itself, and they let in the dappled sunlight that ripples in playful patterns all over the walls.
The lace curtains I nailed up recently only cover the lower half of the tall windows, which seems to increase the upper energy of the rooms - the trees and the light and the sky are always in the room.
I have minimal furniture, no possessions, no clutter, but I have space to breathe deeply, space to roam free and to dance when nobody's watching.
This is my big, empty, beautiful cave, my place of rest and solitude.
This is the place where I'll do my retreat.
It is a very rare event for me to invite anyone into this sacred space.
In fact, it is as rare an event as “a blind tortoise swimming in an ocean in which there is a yoke with a hole in it. This yoke is being tossed about in every direction by the waves. The tortoise only cames to the surface of the water once every hundred years.” There is as much chance of me giving a dinner party in this lifetime as there is “that the blind turtle's neck will meet up with the hole of the yoke!”
I hope Louise and Stephen appreciate that the invitation to visit my cave is as rare as their precious human life!
Ha ha.... (sorry, if you haven’t studied any Buddhist texts you won’t get the joke)
Even so, I'm looking forward to the dinner...Stephen’s a wonderfully colourful character. He featured in a recent ABC TV documentary about a ‘cult’ that started in the 1970’s. Stephen was a key person in this alternative lifestyle community, a utopian model for sustainable living until it imploded due to internal conflicts and politics. The TV special showed some great archive footage of the community’s activities back in the '70s. The camera crew then followed Stephen's movements last year when he revisited the original site of the commune in Western Australia and then again when he attended the first reunion of its members in Sydney, a reunion that stirred up many old grievances and conflicts.
The lace curtains I nailed up recently only cover the lower half of the tall windows, which seems to increase the upper energy of the rooms - the trees and the light and the sky are always in the room.
I have minimal furniture, no possessions, no clutter, but I have space to breathe deeply, space to roam free and to dance when nobody's watching.
This is my big, empty, beautiful cave, my place of rest and solitude.
This is the place where I'll do my retreat.
It is a very rare event for me to invite anyone into this sacred space.
In fact, it is as rare an event as “a blind tortoise swimming in an ocean in which there is a yoke with a hole in it. This yoke is being tossed about in every direction by the waves. The tortoise only cames to the surface of the water once every hundred years.” There is as much chance of me giving a dinner party in this lifetime as there is “that the blind turtle's neck will meet up with the hole of the yoke!”
I hope Louise and Stephen appreciate that the invitation to visit my cave is as rare as their precious human life!
Ha ha.... (sorry, if you haven’t studied any Buddhist texts you won’t get the joke)
Even so, I'm looking forward to the dinner...Stephen’s a wonderfully colourful character. He featured in a recent ABC TV documentary about a ‘cult’ that started in the 1970’s. Stephen was a key person in this alternative lifestyle community, a utopian model for sustainable living until it imploded due to internal conflicts and politics. The TV special showed some great archive footage of the community’s activities back in the '70s. The camera crew then followed Stephen's movements last year when he revisited the original site of the commune in Western Australia and then again when he attended the first reunion of its members in Sydney, a reunion that stirred up many old grievances and conflicts.
Spending an evening around a table with Stephen and Louise will be interesting as they’ve both been involved in various spiritual practices under the guidance of gurus – I’m intrigued to find out more so I hope the evening will be a warm gathering of lovely people and meaningful conversation.
1 comment:
nice-wallpaper
tzih p $ zl 28
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