14/ travel

Often, there, I felt the pull of history
as one does in a place of myth & legend.
Also a welcome.

These time travellers were gentler visitors in a way,
except when they weren't..

It's the cross-overs, the overlaps of ideas, dreams, myths ~
like the spark of neurons firing
in unexpected ways ~ that really interests me in images.

13/ overlapping times

Perhaps the sculptor of this chimera really saw it.
Now it sees the flocks of sheep, & prepares to dine..

an inter-dimensional event
horizon..what does that mean?

As the trees wave in the wind, if you are ready,
you can sometimes catch a glimpse of former times.

12/ earth memory

Someone wrote their name in stones, across the hillside
now just "I AM'' remains.

We can have these ideas of leaving something tangible
of ourselves,
earth has it's own timetables & destinations.

11/ if walls could speak

If walls could speak & we could understand their language..
imagine

For instance the man who designed the building where these
tiles have been repaired, was conscripted in
Ottoman times, lived to a great age, & is revered to this day
for his marvellous buildings.

.

Old cities like Istanbul have an extraordinarily
layered history

The stories of the city walls are myriad,
as they would be: Attila the Hun is said to have turned
instead to Europe, when he saw them.

Then there's the small domestic histories, better than
many paintings, in forgotten corners.
(am noticing how it's easier for me to be
imaginative with the visual mode)

10/ there be dragons

It was a remote volcanic lake, silent, still,
tears were running down my face as I stood gazing
back to a simpler time.
Pre-human.

Traces of those times are harder to see now

You must be quiet, catch small movements from the
side of the eyes: be open to marvels.
It's in that uncharted area, off your known map:
~ there be dragons ~

09/ earth memories

In this far-away land, the hills are drenched in history.
There are sites still to be rediscovered. 
One that is now a dig
was perhaps a temple, 11,000 years ago.

Such an intense presence on the top of that hill.

I felt these connections, somewhat like in dreams,
not so much a leap of imagination as a dropping into
~ to a time of beginning.

Hard to describe in words. 
The old vessels have been pieced
together & placed in museums. 
The earth itself remembers.

08/ when a story comes

When a story comes, the words fly from somewhere else
into your mind, & then somehow onto a page,
or out of your mouth.
Into your wings.

The story comes by it's own path, sometimes from so far off.
Even if you can't quite hear the words,
you can sense the gift of it.

I like the ones that spring from the earth,
the stories that have been hiding in faraway places
waiting for just this moment
to alight as birds.

07/ mind garden

In a way, every thing is imagination.
Yet you may need to slow down, or learn to nurture
your particular expression
Or grow new skills.
& it probably doesn't help to think you'll make a living at it!
Start with enjoying this moment
for no reason.Yes !

06/ growing

There's a famous Zen garden in Kyoto, though you may not
see exactly these rocks..

If you don't see faces in the landscape, there are
other surprising ways to appreciate nature
Life is so endlessly & magnificently inventive.Find your own voice.

05/ what's there

Really looking at this amazing world allows you to 
see so much more than before,
with a little practice.
As also with sound, smell, touch etc.

Here are two forest scenes, (click to enlarge); looking for
links I find a very wide range of views in cyberspace!
fairytales, forests, myths, the Ramayana & deer.
Then if you clicked on one of their links, where did you get to?
& when you allow different connections ?

04/ that way

A rock sits by the water's edge & looks both ways.
Right? Left?
So the plan is to use pictures I've already made;
I'm not sure where this will go, yet.
Meantime, notice how the stories differ in these 2 new pictures:




do they?

03/ lineage

One of my great grandfathers was a sea captain,
I never thought to ask whether that meant sail,
while there was still someone to answer. We understand
some stories in our bodies ~ birth, sickness, old age
& so on, as the Buddha taught; what about seasickness?
& all that conditioning that was passed down,
so that we believe our way of perceiving (as if it's real!)
though we may be seeing quite differently to others.
How can we tell, even?

02/ imagined memory

It's not going to be all family memories, or whatever you
are starting to think. Or it might be, we'll have to
see what happens.
Check with your own family (or friends)
about a time you remember: how many versions of
that same event did you hear?
Or jog your memory ~ take a colour, an animal, a time,
a feeling, sound, taste, smell.. invent a story.
In words or pictures, perhaps a dance.
?
A red dog one night heard a smell & felt so hungry
she barked until even the house groaned.

where did you go?

01/ start here

A friend & I were speaking about how 
a couple of older people might still have 
something to say in this so-called new world.
Perhaps a word & image form of consequences
~ we could pass the pages back & forward, see where it goes.

I'd like to find out how we know that we mean 
the same thing when we say imagination, rainbow, touching,
beauty, memory... or whatever.
(Is there any real difference between
you & me?)

above: I'm about 8, we are camped in the outback, I'm
wearing one of my mother's old hats, in a story of my own.
The picture is mostly about 
a description of memory ~ how it's so totally subjective.

Can you see yourself at 8? 
Or do you hear the smells or taste the sounds of then? 
How does imagination work in you?