The heaviness I feel, as well as many people I talk to feel, stems from plain living in the world today. It is the result of watching at what happens the world over. From wars, antisemitism, climate disasters and violence we are inundated by events which lie heavily on our existence and wellbeing. At the end of the day, we need some relief. Music, and fluff.
Lately I am obsessed with the notion of gut feelings. What exactly is it, what does it convey to us, is it even a valid feeling? It turns out that I am not the only one obsessed with the notion of gut feelings, and that listening to your gut is literally equal to listening to your brain.
As I was looking out of the window of my dining room today, I could not believe my eyes. For the past few weeks, the old mass of Agave growth shot up a huge column. I looked it up, and it is an Agave Americana— commonly called a “century plant” — which is native to Mexico and parts of the United States, specifically Texas. The “century” designation is deceptive, as the plant does not live to be 100 years old.
Every year we sit at the Passover Seder table and ask, what changed? How is this night different from all other nights? There are 4 traditional questions, all to do with the customs of this night. In the new Passover Israeli Haggadah, that I just purchased, there is a story about the famous physicist Isador Rabi who “blames” his mother for making him a scientist
I had a dream, in which I was using my trusty Nikon camera, which has a great lens for people-watching and candid photography. I’ve always enjoyed candid photography; it’s so different from portraiture, that stylized and studio-set affair.
The Cambridge dictionary defines the term stroke of luck as something good that happens to you by chance. Lately I have witnessed or experienced a series of lucky strokes.
I have been occupied recently with being able to see. I had cataract operations on both eyes, and obviously was asked repeatedly: “can you see …. the top line, bottom line, left eye, right eye,” and so on. How far can we see, how clearly can we see, and what exactly do we see?
In conversation with a friend, I mentioned I am writing about the three Rs. I asked what she thinks about when she hears the term 3Rs, Not hesitating a moment she told me “Reading Riting and Rithmetic. That is what we were supposed to learn in school”. Those are not the three Rs I am referring to here.
At a side table of a water colour and woodcut exhibition I was browsing through paintings for sale when I came across one that intrigued me. It was mainly green, and when I turned it over, the title was “shades of green”. I naturally had to have it. As you may remember, my last blog was titled Shades of Green! The painter, Halina Robinson, was one of the first water colour teachers I hired when I became the director of the Art Craft Studio at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.
I do not know if it is because it is Summer, and everything is green around here, or I was always attracted to the amazing number of shades of green the fields around here display. The crops are just starting to cover the fields, each one in a different green.