muddled muses

Some thoughts I don’t want lose that were poignant for me this weekend.

a) Awareness is knowledge. Knowledge destroys the seeds of karma/old patterns/latent DNA (whatever you want to call it). Once you integrate knowledge into you life it becomes WISDOM!

b) Logic can bring you to the truth (which is not linear but spherical – get that one), but then it only takes you so far and then needs to be put aside; like driving your car to your living room (you need to park it in the garage and walk the rest of the way).

c) Teachers don’t teach, they confuse – so that the pupil has an eye for wonder/searching/seeking. In ethiopia post the famine, people were so accustomed to receiving food that once the drought ended no one knew/could/desired to farm.

d) In the presence of fear there is a lack of love; real courage is in surrendering.

Kalani Yoga, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

I just returned from 7 days of being on the big island of Hawaii with a man who practices yoga like no other; without desire to yield to any trend, his asanas (poses) are scripted, choreographed and thoughtfully composed so there is deep intention on how to maximize a particular feeling or experience (e.g. expansion, thoughtfulness, vibrant energy, etc); there is no pose or movement placed by chance.

I think of his craft similar to that of a 3 star michelin chef who puts on an amazing meal with every ingredient felt, savored and tasted with intention; such a culinary experience lasts hours yet feels like minutes; Although he has studied the great culinary masters, some how this chef takes the same preparations and ingredients, orchestrates them with authenticity and candor so they sing higher on the palette.

Like a fine, fine dinner nourishing the soul, our classes were long, savory and sweet and very memorable. Thank you Jamie for one of the best meals I’ve ever had. We shall dine again soon.

Machuca, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

So I have so many thoughts after Costa Rica. It was a mind blowing experience, “fur sure.”

What is on my mind right now is many things that entered my brain after reading Jill Bolte’s book, “my stroke of insight.” She suffered a hemmorage on the left side of her brain, effectively shutting down all logic functions. Interestingly, it also shut down ego and all notions of past and future. She could only live in the divinity of the present moment. Some quote that struck me from this book are as follows:

“ …to experience pain may not be a choice, but to suffer is a cognitive decision.”

“The easiest way I have found to humble myself back into a state of peaceful grace is through the act of gratitude.”

“I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.” – from Einstein

The image was from some cooling water dips at Machuca, or as Stephen likes to call it… EDEN; and it was an amazing garden.

Costa Rica Candy, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

I just landed back from Costa Rica. There is so much to share of that rich, rich land; namely being astounded at the black gold soil that grows abundance, including this amazing fruit called baidaba (bahdeh-bah) – which tastes like warm sugary ice cream. This was ONE of 21 NEW fruit experiences to be had this weekend. My flickr account shows all my tastings, including the Amazing Fruit.

May2009, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

glorious weekend in leavenworth, washington. It’s a faux little town that attempts to create a stage set of Bavaria. Shy of success by the very fact that mc D’s and Sbux must droop icicles from the eaves of their retail facades. I mean really, how many icicle eaves Mc D’s do you see in Munich? I digress.

So there is something about just wearing clothing you can wreck (e.g. those things you sport at a camp site). I think that is what is meant by casual clothing… those items of clothing you can stain, rip, stretch, etc, and they just look better and better.

I’ve got a pair of jeans that are just about there.
Oddly, once they get to this magical state… it seems like they can only hold it for a little while before you are forced to turn them into cleaning rags. However, their state of appropriate”ness” still lasts longer than fancy duds. And darn it… they feel really good around a camp fire with flowing bottles of aged wine.

Right now you can see my blog here before I pull it over.

Longbranch 2009, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

I shot this kid playing in the ditch at Longbranch. Its amazing how you give a kid nothing and they make the world out of it. But you give a kid some programmed, i.e. a game, robot, puzzle – meaning something prescribed for a specific use or ONE solution – and it occupies them for minutes. Give them a ditch, static object, cardboard box and the enjoyment is hours (maybe days).

We prescribe too much for kids and ourselves. Everything is so structured, we/they are carted off to piano, karate, soccer, club, etc. etc. The genius and brilliance is the child IS FOUND when the child (and we) are given nothing but an imagination and free time to explore it. This is where true creativity and learning happen.

I often turn myself into a child weekly to stimulate my own wonder, explore my universe THEN it’s amazing what surfaces. The ingredients are imagination (we all have it) and time. Simplify life by getting rid of the busy and I’m amazed at how much more I get to experience. Just like a pendulum, when it’s at infinite speed (swinging back and forth so fast, faster, fastest) its at complete and TOTAL REST.

LMP-3695, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

I’m not sure if any one has conducted clinical trials on oneself, but I’m doing it now. For one week I’m consciously consuming my food, bite by bite, visualizing it given me power, strength healing. When I eat magnesium rich foods (like eggs and millet) – I feel and visualize those nutrients generating a HUGE factory of red blood cells. Salmon… I visualize and FEEL it energizing my muscles, repairing and making them stronger.

So far, today’s ride I was STRONG. I made it 20 meters further on my hill climb effort with power thresholds not seen before.

Again, I post this with warning, I am in clinical trials… but I also take my probiotics and feel it killing ANY virus, bug, germ, etc – it is my HUMAN SHIELD (read shield from flu). I do think conscious medicine (with the right foods for you to FEEL it) is the FUTURE for our survival and THRIVAL.

Vance Creek 2009, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

Vance Creek Road race is in a rather odd location. Its located in Elma, WA, which is southwest of Olympia (our state’s capital). It’s the site of where US tax payers fed $96 million into a concrete landscape for some nuclear power plants. The project ran out of cash at the same time public sentiment waned… so now its the site of weeds, decomposing concrete parking lots, towering concrete forms AND an annual bike race. Its rather eerie, and it remains here standing as it would cost way too much to demo.

I think about the presence of these monuments on the landscape. It symbolizes the erroneous notion of progress – thinking such things can make our lives easier – when really they make our lives enormously complex and in many cases damaging. I thought about the cell phone. How it becomes so convenient for us to do 20 things now at once (including the ability to tweet when I’m at a stop light). How we can be late and and just text ahead. How we can blame our missed appointment on it not being in our calendar. Sometimes I think if I just stayed home, tilled my yard, canned my foods, grew my daily, weekly and year sustenance… life would be so simple. AND giving up blogging would probably get me to bed a hell of a lot earlier.

Good night.

Sequim03.22.09, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

Today was another step in a journey. I’m fascinated by what I’m pulling in to me, what is drawn to me, my spaces. There is good energy in my world right now; amazing really.

Today I strolled to the top of Phinney Ridge to meet a new contact that runs a PR firm in Seattle at Herkimer Coffee (hip joint). We connected right away, but nothing about business. Suddenly, I found myself talking about self awareness – after we approached the topic of our current state of the world… and will IT really change after this new economic reality/shift we face. I thought so… but only because those that don’t change, leave the gene pool and float in another/separate reality (kinda out there, but not really).

I recall what caused my own awareness and wondered how much of the world will/has reached theirs; FOR ME…. it was sudden AND under the notion of soul survival. I tell my story of awakening here, briefly:

4 years ago… I had been terminated from a job, position, career that I mistook as part of my core being. This position was ripped from me like a close, close friend. This job had defined me for two years (maybe longer as I transferred prior years of work into this job – as the culmination of a career). Then in the span of 10-15 minutes, a narcissistic, abusive assassin (or so I thought) shot me in side (like a prisoner in front of a firing squad) leaving me for dead.

I dragged myself home.
I crawled in bed with the weight of the world suffocating me.
I stayed still in bed for over 14 hours.
The next day, awakened by light; AND
the sound of a small bird perilously crashing into my window;
once;
twice;
three times…
again and again.
It was odd enough for me to pull myself to the window to get a glimse.
This bird was throwing itself into the glass over and over again.
I wondered…
what is it doing?
How could it, why would it continue to crash into my window?
Doesn’t it know its hurting/killing itself?
Feathers falling to the earth at each strike;
Beak slamming into the glass;
Finally looking up I saw its nest in the tree and realized it was attacking its reflection in the window.

Wow, I thought…. its hurting itself each time….
FOR what?
My God, its killing itself with its own fear.

It was at this VERY moment I realized…
We alone are our own worst enemy.
We alone kill ourselves, drown ourselves with unfounded fear.
Release it. Stop creating pain!

I then drove down to Patagonia Arizona.
Chilled and meditated for 4 days.
I awoke.

Amazingly…. that assassin, was my savior.
Interesting how a dead end, suddenly becomes the beginning.