Category: Awakenings

The Seeker’s Dungeon “On Living and Dying” event

https://theseekersdungeon.com/2016/06/09/on-living-and-dying-day-20-by-kathie-arcide/ (Trying this link again…)

It’s one thing to write something for my much appreciated 87 “followers” but to be included on a Blog that has thousands is both awesome and intimidating!

My contribution to The Seeker’s Dungeon “On Living and Dying” event is up. It is one of my all-time favorite and very best true stories!

You can find my post at: https://theseekersdungeon.com/2016/06/09/on-living-and-dying-day-20-by-kathie-arcide/

I have loved reading the various guest posts in this series, (and actually everything on this Blog). If you visit The Seeker’s Dungeon, consider checking them out!

If you’d like to become one of the guest authors there, you can learn more about the event here: 365 Days On Living and Dying.

And speaking of Buddha…

Pilgrimage 144Pilgrimage 142Face We called him the buddha baby for the first several months of his life, partly for the all-knowing twinkle in his eye and his constant grin, but mostly for his laid back, peace-inducing demeanor. OK, and maybe because of those cheeks and that belly!

Last of Chosen Abstracts for WPC

  1. (above)

 

I love to photograph things I think are beautiful, but that won’t be easily or automatically defined. I’m not sure if this makes them “abstract” or not. (key to numbers at bottom)

 

San Juan's 11-10 029

2.

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3.

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4.

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5.

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6.

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7.

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8.

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9.

Abstract

  1. My son’s stunning custom-made guitar
  2. Mosquito netting above my sister’s bed
  3. What you see when you look up from my sister’s living room
  4. A weird shadow on neighbor’s garage door (which used to be my barn)
  5. Two accidental shots while trying to capture the full moon rising (I heard Creedence just then!)
  6. Two shots of the same water glass, from different perspectives
  7. Sand Painting, one of my favorite forms of art from Nature
  8. But wait, I like these three of Fire Painting also..man PLUS Nature?
  9. Piles of some kind of glass on the edge of the road…at first I thought from an accident but the glass was all melted into solid form???

Still another series for WPC Abstract

Sometimes I think I’m so “artsy”, but then I think I’m pretty funny too, so I may not be the best judge. But you can be. Tell me what you think of these shots of a rotating shadow  on my Group Room wall.

 

Here’s the explanation, Abstract in its own way. This is a gift from a client about “removing her mask” in therapy…..cool, huh?

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Abstract

 

Choosing another series for WPC

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Abstract

Again, would appreciate any feedback on which of these is good. I absolutely love reflections and accidental (“abstract”) photos! (I just wish I would remember to turn off the dang “Date” feature on my little point and shoot Nikon.)

This series looks like the accidental double exposures I used to do years ago with a film camera…uh, if you are too young, about now you are saying “film what? huh?”.

I have this great corner window that looks out on Rhododendrons and lots of birds. In the afternoons the light is ever-changing and magical! Most of these shots are trying to capture some bird through the window but there is this all glass curio cabinet that the sun hits in the later afternoon…..

Hard to discern what is inside and what is outside…….story of my life…..

For “Pauses”-two of my favorite things

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Grandsons and birds!

This is Juju’s first Close Encounter. At nine years old, he was instantly comfortable with a new friend’s pet.

Interesting side story; this bird’s caretakers build a cat door for the bird to come and go through…which it has for 20 years or so…Talk about your Free Bird! (Can you hear the obvious song in the background?)

The “Chosen” Future for WPC

Future

If these “impossible” connections can happen…..

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between predator and prey………..

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between newcomer and homey…..

JOY and Bandit

between natural enemies…..

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between famous and fan…..

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Then maybe in the FUTURE my sisters and I can reunite!!!

Half-Light 4-That one Sunrise in Fiji

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I don’t have the photograph of the exact sunrise, just the picture in my mind. And no words describing it will suffice so I’ll have settle for telling you the surrounding story.

Imagine yourself on a once in a life time trip, sailing in Fiji-not to the tourist places, but the remote islands of the Southern Lau Group. You are with your six closest people whom you dearly love to spend time with…a rare occurrence, so having 32 days together for this adventure is amazing.

Even with these kinds of friendships though, many years of working, traveling and vacationing together, conflict can happen. Though we were on a 90 foot yacht with plenty of room for all to be separate or connected-your choice-the early mornings were the hardest to share as we would all want to be above deck in the open (no canopy) to see the sunrises and have our various morning beverages.

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People do mornings very differently from each other.

Those of us who liked to wake up slowly, in silence, were getting up earlier and earlier to beat the coffee-fed, spring-into-the-day people. I’ve always liked solitude at sunrise above any other time so I found myself setting an alarm so I could be up first to have my alone time. SETTING an ALARM…on a YACHT…in FIJI for god’s sake!!!

We were all therapists. Our life’s work was to teach people how to take care of themselves, and that everyone’s needs are important…so of course, we came up with a great new rule.

On deck in the mornings, “no one speaks until the person up right before you speaks”.

So all seven of us could be up on deck, coffee or not, meditating or not, and it would be silent until the first person awake spoke. And then in order after that, so the transition from silence to party-time was slow.

One one morning I was the first on deck and it was still dark out….as dark as it gets under those South Pacific skies. Don’t even get me started about the starlight. People talk about a “blanket of stars”, well our nightly view was more like a down comforter of stars.

But Half-Light was slowly arriving, bringing with it the beginnings of this morning’s Sky Show. It looked to be a good one. The next 15 minutes were some of the most profound in my life thus far. As I said before, no words will adequately describe the beauty and miracle of this particular sunrise so I won’t even bother and it’s my process I am needing to share anyway.

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For once, I am sitting there actually hoping for the next person to come up on deck. I’m waiting, wanting, willing someone to hurry up and get here so they can see this. I know I won’t be able to describe it. You’ve seen one sunrise, you’ve seen ’em all, right? (Makes me think of the bumper sticker so popular in Hawaii a few years back-“just another shitty day in paradise”.)

By now, the sky is exploding into colors we humans have no names for, and it seems to be getting more intense by the second. Most mornings I fight off the feeling of intrusion and today I would welcome someone, anyone, just to share this with, to confirm my experience, to validate my conclusion that this might be the most beautiful thing that has ever happened in the history of the world.

Where the hell is everyone?

I am seriously frantic for company by now but unable to pull myself away to rouse my fellow travelers or the crew because I don’t want to miss even a second of this.  It changes dramatically every time I blink.

THEY NEED TO SEE THIS!!!

I am about to explode in frustration…I know, on the deck of a luxury yacht anchored off a deserted island in Fiji..about as dumb as setting an alarm clock… so I take a few deep grounding breaths to calm myself and that’s when it happens!

Wait, for context, I need to own the following. At this point in my life, I had lived solely and enthusiastically for the purpose of helping others better their lives. I had been like this since I was three or four years old. I had been told I needed to stop always putting others first, to be healthily selfish, to take care of myself, but I had staunchly refused because, after all, I was “called”. What’s also true is I didn’t want to give up the joy and reward I experienced because of my stance in life.

So here’s what happens.

Watching the most beautiful sunrise ever, I hear a voice, no shit, a real voice, tinged with just a touch of playful sarcasm…God? My Dad? My Therapist?…I don’t know but it’s a voice….maybe even my own.

 

It says, “Relax Silly. This one is yours…made just for YOU.”

 

My whole personality changed that day in the Half-Light.

 

 

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Half-Light #3 for WPC-the Woody

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So what’s a Woody station wagon got to do with half light?? Well, growing up in the town of Pacific Beach in San Diego, if you were a true, pre-popular craze surfer, you would be up each morning at Half-Light, to high tail it down to the beach for the best and least crowded waves of the day. A tourist to the area might look out a motel window and see weird dark shapes bobbing up and down way out beyond the shore break. They might even mistake them for a flock of strange sea birds out there. Nope. Those were the most dedicated wave-riding artists…waiting for their wave…however long it took.

“Surfing is one of the oldest practiced sports on the planet. The art of wave riding, is a blend of total athleticism and the comprehension of the beauty and power of nature. Surfing is also one of the few sports that creates its own culture and lifestyle.” 

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/spring04/britton/history.htm

No idea who first used a Woody station wagon to drag surfboards to the beach but it became the vehicle associated with the surfing culture.

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The following info from http://www.carponents.com/content/surfs-up-with-the-woodie-one-of-americas-most-iconic-cars-176

“In the early 60’s, Surfers, who spent their days riding those bodacious California waves all afternoon always seemed to be strapped-for-cash.  In need of an inexpensive form of transportation, they found they could buy woodies cheap, and that they were perfect for lugging around the long 10-12 foot wooden surfboards of the day long. 

While not really their goal, surfers prolonged the lives of countless Woodies.  It was something of a California oddity but surfers didn’t actually restore their wagons, they couldn’t afford to.  They simply kept them going.  Groups like the Beach Boys in songs like ‘Surfing Safari’ began to mention and immortalize Woodies in their lyrics, about how they were loaded up with boards and friends and driven to the California Coast and they forever became ingrained as a beloved icon of the surfing community as more and more were adopted by the laid back, fun loving culture.  The connection between surfing and Woodies became permanent.
  It’s also said that surfers were the ones who coined the term ‘woodie’. “

Now here’s the sort of personal part. For some reason, when I was a very small child, we had a Woody parked inside our fenced back yard. I honestly don’t remember why or where it came from. I don’t remember ever riding in it, although we did have another station wagon, a white mercury with red trim and red leather interior, that we rode in a lot. That Mercury was the transportation for many of the childhood adventures my Dad provided for his daughters. Most of those adventures involved deserted country roads with us riding on the opened tailgate, strapped in for safety with a make-shift rope “safety belt”. But we never rode in the Woody.

Maybe Dad had the foresight to know that old Woody was a good investment. I do remember it sitting out there until well into my adulthood. Sometimes, when I was visiting my father, a later version of a young surfer would ring Dad’s doorbell to ask about that old car in his yard. My sisters might know what happened to the old Woody. I don’t.

And here’s the really personal part. Many times as a child (according to family legend, as young as four and five years old) I would be discovered before first light, out in the back yard, with my pillow and blanket from my bed, sitting on the hood of that old Woody, all bundled up and leaning back against the perfectly slanted windshield…..doing WHAT, the adults could never figure out.

It’s no mystery to me. Though I don’t remember specifically thinking about this, I’m sure it started out as escape. Maybe if I woke up early enough, and “ran away” to the back yard, I wouldn’t have to start on all those chores no five, six or seven year old should be responsible for (changing diapers, cleaning up, making breakfast, etc.)

And to my lifelong delight, I imprinted on mother nature from those Half-Light escapes, on the absolute beauty and wonder of it all, even the most simple of its forms.

I still love the earliest morning, with its slow but dramatic light changes, the songs of awakening birds-in the spring full orchestras-and the emerging hints about weather for the day. These days, I rarely need it for “running away”, but nothing grounds me more solidly and spiritually onto the earth than sitting outside in the half-light, in almost any weather, eavesdropping on the world as it wakes up.