Africa

Visions of African plains. The sun sets large, round, and red seemingly melting the dusty ground. The acacia trees run parallel to the lines of oily heat in the air. Giraffe profiles become dark as do the tops of the trees. Warm and peaceful. The simplicity creates more space for the awe in our hearts.

The beginnings of humanity will become the end...FULL CIRCLE, always.

This is the way it is, the way it will be. We all come from Africa, it is everybody's homeland. We must care for ourselves. We are all humanity.

NAMASTE.

Namaste is a wonderful word. It is a greeting and a salutation and a meditation. It is an understanding also. The true nature of life is within this word, in a sense. Namaste can be translated in different ways. I believe it to mean that My Inner Essence acknowledges Yours. And, these essences within you, me, and everyone alive is equal and peaceful, beautiful, and perfect. It is also one with the universe!

Speaking of the Universe....I've started to read a new book, just out, called "Before the Big Bang, The Prehistory of Our Universe." It's very interesting. Brian Clegg, the author offers a lot of the scientific history of cosmology, including Greek and Egyptian mythology. The most important aspect to remember, as he explains, is that all science is just theory, even when hypotheses are proven they are still ideas tested within relative limits. Therefore, science has evolved and theories have changed and been replaced. The Big Bang theory, Clegg says, was formulated by a Catholic Priest originally and the concept is very similar to the Biblical Creation story. Very interesting stuff.

And, recently I found this following video on NPR.org. This seems to show a new solar system emerging within our Milky Way. So, a new sun, a new earth may be coming into existence not so far away. Maybe some of us will go over there and help humans not repeat some of our mistakes this time! Check out the whole article:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125322033

Trauma

Eye do not know everything, and yes, the more I learn the less I know about life. Yet, I have rational thoughts like anyone else, with which I feel that I have an understanding of life. Let me divulge on my current one.

A baby falls down and is shocked. He lifts his head up to look around. His slate is completely clear. He looks around and sees the reactions of those he trusts most. If his parents come with pity, picking him up and say "Aww are you Ok? Are you hurt?" the child will react to their reaction. He thinks he must be hurt, because that is an emotion his parents are expecting him to portray. So he cries. It is what they are wanting, and so he gives it to them so they can comfort him.

Let's take it back. What if the parents smiled and said "oh you are Ok. I love you." The baby would just smile back and think that he is Ok. I have practiced this and it is true. Sometimes things happen, and we are Ok. It's the surrounding issues that make it not.

Something bad happens to you. You can move on, or live with it. A lot of the time it's society that keeps in weighing you down. This is bad, because I have been told it is bad, for example, and then it is that thinking that keeps a pain inside. Yet, if I had decided that something happened, but now it is just a thought or a memory and I no longer am experiencing that then it is Ok. Shock occurs as quick as a lightening bolt. The aftershock is so often a choice.

Have you ever felt emotions so pure that you are sure that they are out of your control? It is actually a very beautiful thing. It is a choice as well, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. It's taking responsibility for yourself, without exceeding the necessary amounts of emotions. The body surges with powerful feelings, that occur separately from thoughts of the mind. To be able to let these flow and feel them without letting your thoughts intervene is quite amazing. The mind comes with all these thoughts that carry a burden of pain, hold blame, anger, frustration and confusion. All these that are held will hurt you in return.

So, in conclusion, be honest with yourself about your feelings. Do not carry around hateful thoughts, or burdensome worries, or burning confusion. If these thoughts are played through conversation, then they will become lost in a false reality. You will be lost in a false reality. The truth is so simple, and so pure.

Let it Happen. Just Let it Happen.

Tribal Fashion

Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration From Africa by Hans Silvester.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this stunning collection of photographs, Silvester (Ethiopia: Peoples of the Omo Valley) celebrates the unique art of the Surma and Mursi tribes of the Omo Valley, on the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. These nomadic people have no architecture or crafts with which to express their innate artistic sense. Instead, they use their bodies as canvases, painting their skin with pigments made from powdered volcanic rock and adorning themselves with materials obtained from the world around them—such as flowers, leaves, grasses, shells and animal horns. The adolescents of the tribes are especially adept at this art, and Silvester's superb photographs show many youths who, imbued with an exquisite sense of color and form, have painted their beautiful bodies with colorful dots, stripes and circles, and encased themselves in elaborate arrangements of vegetation and found objects. This art is endlessly inventive, magical and, above all, fun. In his brief text, Sylvester worries that as civilization encroaches on this largely unexplored region, these people will lose their delightful tradition. 160 color photographs.

As an artist myself I take great inspiration from the images I have seen from this book already. I am interested in traveling and in photography, and I have great passion and good eyes for doing so. Through these images I have recently discovered on the internet by Hans I am inspired for my own creative project of paintings and sculptures. Tribal Fashion are two words with meanings that I have been drawn towards, yet never did I expect to find the two together. There are so many inspirations here, so how to I begin without displaying an overwhelming array of words? I love nature and the use of what it has to offer: leaves, flowers, palm fronds, corn husks, spices, and more. I love tribes, because they show a true human connection to the earth. This is how I think humanity should soon exist again. They see the beauty in the nature on the planet and display that in their everyday lives. This is a deep spiritual existence that they have. The creativity in these African people's designs shows the fun of life.

Creation

Materials I like:

Hemp/Burlap/Glitter/Rhinestones/Prisms/Glass/Spray Paint/Sharpies/Wood/Metal/Spices/Leaves/Flower Petals/Stones/Feathers/Cloth/Textiles/Coffee/Chocolate/Papier Mache/Hammer and Nails/ Metal Working/ Wire/Acrylic Paint/

The Beautiful, The Spiritual, The Inspirational is what compels me.

Full Circle

The past year brought me full circle. I was on the opposite side of the beginning and I came right back. It's been a shaky feeling to come back to see where I am now standing. I can comfortably see all around me, as if I am standing on a stump stuck in the middle of the sea. And I feel that circle on my back, like a hand of unconditional comfort. Life is a beauty that my rational mind is blind to. It is a like a light that we all must stand alone with. Although, we are all swimming in it's waters. Blessed be I step off the log, and enter the pathways of life. Life is shared between us all, it is like a father and we are his children. Now, I understand the many religions ideas about the God figure. But, it is a metaphor. The rational mind appreciates idols, which are in their own image ("God created us in his own image"). Yet, the spiritual nature of life on the planet, which is understood by humanity, is not known by this method of thought. Thinking about the roots of where our passions lay, we find the truth and light. It cannot be explained to another, but it can be talked about and discussed. It cannot be learned in a church or a philosophy classroom. It is outside of humanity, yet channeled through us. Like, the different sections of our brain, there are different rooms to the homes of our beings. I am one part divine being, and I am another part social human, and in between the two lives my heart, like a fireplace in my living room. I see this metaphor for all people, and their location of warmth is vital to our existence.
Some ask: Why do we exist, what is it for?
Even when the love and peace within us and between us is achieved, that answer will not come. It is a question without an answer, and there lies the wonderment, awe, often bewildered feeling that comes with life.
We are the embrace the unknown and laugh like children.

Song: The Beatles. Across the Universe.

Blindness.

I just finished watching "Broken Embraces," the new film by creative Director Pedro Almodóvar. In it, the protagonist had become blinded by a car accident. It made me think about how life is different when living without this important sense. I've thought about being blind before. I think it was a self-conscious phase in which I almost wanted to be living without other people's stares affecting my ego.
Now after the film, I am inspired to imagine a world of darkness:

I have let go of desiring sight.
I am peaceful in the dark.
I see light instead of form.
I see with my imagination.
I imagine more than ever.
Eye can feel sensations on my skin on a cellular level.
Eye can sense my border-less existence with my environment all the time.
Eye smell and it sets my mind ablaze with wonder.
Eye can hear sounds as individual circular waves.
Eye can see now.