Thursday, March 31, 2011






Below is a photo of the woven abode of the Eastern Tent Caterpillars I wrote about the other day, although I'm open to correction if someone believes it's a different species.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011


It’s when we hear or observe something that just doesn’t make sense. A sign reads: ‘Now offering squirrel vision!’

When you walk up to a restaurant, and try to open the screen door, it's latched. A waitress comes forward and says, ‘Sorry. We’re closed on Wednesdays.’ You get to your car, and realize it’s Thursday.

Pay attention to what makes no sense. Ask. If still no answer, maybe we can’t reason it out, the answers aren't available that way. That’s when we relax the shoulders, and listen to gut intuition. We breathe out, and let other parts of the brain pick up the patterns over time that are too complex for active thinking. These occasions are gifts because they let us develop new ways of understanding complicated realities.

Eastern tent caterpillars are reported to be among the first caterpillars to appear each spring. The adult moth lays a clutch of 200-300 eggs that take nearly a year to hatch. The caterpillars stay together as a communal unit and construct a tent of silk in the wedge of a branch, a tent that they add on to every day as they grow. The caterpillars leave the tent as a group to eat, and return as a group, using the tent to rest and to protect them from extreme temperatures.

When I was a kid, we called them 'bagworms' (which apparently is wrong, the casual name for a different caterpillar). Their structures seemed rather icky. Unfortunately this morning I had no camera with me to photograph the most beautiful caterpillar tent I've ever seen, glistening in the clouded daylight.

Most of the info included here was found in a Wkipedia article on Eastern Tent Caterpillars.

Sunday, March 27, 2011


A screech owl calmly warbles
near my window -
his lonely voice.
Light from a tv
flickers against the bark
of the spring-leafed tree.
An announcer rambles on
from a city far away -
her voice just audible -
so business-like
in counterpoint
to the night verse
of the owl.

Maybe synchronicity is like a skipping stone through the universe, connecting points in different times and locations, connecting points in parallel universes.

Synchronicities happen naturally, but perhaps there are ways to produce them, or at least to create a space that enhances their natural occurences.

Saturday, March 26, 2011


A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.
Mark Twain

Thursday, March 24, 2011


shadow of butterfly
crossing dry creek bed;
primroses bend and wave

A big, pale possum ambled across the street.
An air conditioner started whirring.
It's a spring night in Texas.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

art by Phyllis Levy:





Each stroke of the artist’s brush is the preservation of a moment, the mood and emotion of that moment. Each stroke is a unique signature, an expression as complete and as incomplete as a word.

Sunday, March 20, 2011


Taimyo is a body movement peace meditation of Japanese origin. This evening, people around the world will be doing this meditation in support of those in Japan affected by the recent earthquake. It is not necessary to know the Taimyo movement to participate. Just join in if you like with your own meditation, prayer, or caring thoughts.

The Taimyo is from 10:30 PM to midnight in England (where the organizer is located), 5:30 to 7 PM Central Daylight Time in the US.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Details from the art work of Jeanne Potter:






A detail from the Shreiner Mansion/Museum, the building next door to the Kerrville Arts Foundation where the above pieces were displayed:




the traveller
makes progress every day
a few feet here
a thousand miles there

there are bad meals
and sacred meals
thin coffee, bitter coffee, blessed coffee
hot ruby tea that heals

there are people with sheafs of flowers
people who piss and spit
people on skate boards
people racing in wheelchairs

birds coast overhead
and car horns beep
in syncopated synchrony
while dry leaves rattle on the trees

the traveller
forgets about travelling
and says oh what is this
hands to head in awe

whispers from childhood
now sound like thunder
the traveller was in motion
long before the trip begun

I wade
after the moon
when the birds have gone
and people are few

Li Po


Tuesday, March 15, 2011


leaves whisper in chorus
down the sidewalk.
an owl softly chortles
from a perch in a tree.
the noise of human worry
fades beneath the voice
of the breeze,
the fluttered wings
of doves at dusk.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011


to trust and be trusted -
to honor tenderly
tenderness

Monday, March 7, 2011


How wonderful the warmth and reflection of those who bring us out of our inner worlds.

Sunday, March 6, 2011


the waiter gave her
a glass of champagne
so that she would give
a couple of ones
to the man seeking
food in a trashcan
so that he would give
the crumbs from his bread
to the pigeons who
would take flight
above the waiter
as he walked home from work

Thursday, March 3, 2011


I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free,
for His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Civilla D. Martin
1905

Wednesday, March 2, 2011






The bridge that touches only one side of the river is a bridge that's too short -

Tuesday, March 1, 2011


Karl Schaffer is a math professor in California. Erik Stern teaches dance in Utah. Together, they have created a program to teach math concepts using the physical experience of dance. The two met as performers in a dance troupe.

'The two dancers immediately hit it off. “We found we shared a similar sense of humor and an interest in bringing philosophical concepts into dance,” says Schaffer. After choreographing and performing together for three years, they began creating work that explored the connections between math and dance. “Choreography is a way to identify, define and change a pattern in time and space. That’s a math problem,” explains Stern.

'In 1990, the two created a performance piece for kids made up of a series of short acts that explored different mathematical ideas and included plenty of audience interaction. The performances were popular and before long the duo was touring schools and other venues around the country as the Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern Dance Ensemble.'

They've also written a book called 'Math Dance'. Some university professors are using the book to teach future school teachers innovative ways to convey math concepts. One professor reports that her college students, in learning this technique for younger kids, are themselves getting a more solid grasp of concepts they'd never fully owned before.

From '1+1=Pas de Deux' by Lisa Traiger
in the online newsletter 'DanceTeacher'
http://www.dance-teacher.com/content/1-1-pas-de-deux