Monthly Archives: November 2011

holy light!

This morning opened with this light.  I kid you not.  It looked like this.  I ran up the road in my pajamas to catch it and five minutes later it was gone.  The sun slid under a cloud, and when it re-emerged an hour later, it had that cool, fall crispness to it.  No longer like honey on the trees against an unreal blue sky.

That is how the creative moment is.  You have to catch it.  I have learned that if I don’t follow the impulse in that moment, it is gone.  The readiness to go into the studio and move.  The readiness to write.  If I let myself be distracted by too many things, like checking my Mailchimp account, or looking at email (other people’s work), the impulse is like that light.  Gone, or too cool to cook with.

This morning I caught the light, but not the writing.  There actually is a reason.  Outside, the truck is chipping all the branches from my shattered trees. The noise is deafening and seeing what remains of the beautiful cherry, the pear trees and the lilac is painful to see.  I wrote about that in The Journal two weeks ago.  The Journal is my ragged memoir, unfolding in fragments, every week.

This week I am writing about The Dangerous Woman.  I hope you  will join me.  You can do that here.

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beloved reader

I have a quandary.  I would like more of you to subscribe to my daily post.

I do not know if I should be less forthcoming.  Stop posting it to Google+ & Facebook, for example.  Become more elusive, reclusive and therefore more enticing?

Or just put it out there.  I would like your permission.

I find that the blogs I have chosen to receive in my inbox are precious.  Little delicious gifts at the door.  Special deliveries.  I have unsubscribed from all my spam, so that these gifts can shine more brightly.

I would like to gift you similarly.  I invite you to subscribe!

 

making peace with the predator

My friend Michele told me a story about a lesson she took with the brilliant trainer Sarah Hollis.  Sarah was teaching her about working with horses on the ground (not riding).  Michele works at an equine rescue, and many of the horses that she handles have Issues & History.

Sarah noticed that Michele tended to slink toward the horse as she approached.  She was being a predator.  She had gotten into a habit of trying to be unobtrusive, but instead had adopted a variation on a wolf posture.

Today when I was working with Nelson, I ramped up the work a little and asked him a different question.  I removed the halter and said (in movement), “Can you move around me in a slow circle with no lead rope or halter?”  What I didn’t want was for him to spook or run. I wanted a thinking, feeling horse.  A horse that was calm enough to ask me (in movement) “Is this what you mean?” To start and stop with a subtle voice or hand signal.  Be able to repeat the movement, calmly.

That required me to ask with a “go” signal, not a “GO!” signal.  To be non-threatening in my arms, legs, spine, head, mind.  To be as thinking and feeling as I want him to be.

Nelson was perfect.  Nervous at first on the dark side, but then he totally got it.

One of my daughters is a little like Nelson.  She can smell a wolf-Mommy a mile away.  To connect with her, I have to stay open and show my hand.  No slinking or sneaking.

When and how do you feel your predator self?

a rave

Ashes and Snow by Gregory Colbert

I know that this has been out there for a while, but I want to share it nonetheless.  Ashes and Snow has added an explore feature to their enhanced video.  I wandered there for about twenty minutes Sunday evening.

Colbert  has choreographed and documented dances with whales, manatees, eagles, elephants, cheetahs and more, capturing the relationships between species in a way that is excruciatingly beautiful, tender, full of mystery. The stillness is profound.  It is what I am reaching for with my horse dancing.

If I could have a wish, it would be to have witnessed the creation of these dances.

If you could wish to witness something, what would that be?