8.26.24

Thought

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free? If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed. For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride? And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you. And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Quote

Rumi on self sufficiency: 

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful everyday for the opportunity to learn and to create.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

8.19.24

Thought

The ecstatic is our compass, pointing to our true north. It arises genuinely in the process of creation. You’re working and struggling, and suddenly you notice a shift. A revelation. A small tweak is made, a new angle is revealed, and it takes your breath away.

This epiphany is the heart of creativity. It’s something we feel in our whole body. It causes us to snap to attention and quicken our heartbeat, or to laugh in surprise. It gives us a glimpse of a higher ideal, opening new possibilities in us that we didn’t know were there. It is so invigorating that it makes all of the laborious, less interesting parts of the work worth doing.

– Rick Rubin, The Creative Act

Quote

Kurt Vonnegut on creation: 

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”

Intention of the Day 

My intention today is to release things that aren’t serving me and to live in the moment.

What is your intention today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

8.12.24

Thought

Consciousness exists on two levels: as seeds and as manifestations of those seeds. Suppose we have a seed of anger in us. When conditions are favorable, that seed may manifest as a zone of energy called anger. It is burning, and it makes us suffer a lot. It is very difficult for us to be joyful at the moment the seed of anger manifests.

Every time a seed has an occasion to manifest itself, it produces new seeds of the same kind. If we are angry for five minutes, new seeds of anger are produced and deposited in the soil of our unconscious mind during those five minutes. That is why we have to be careful in selecting the kind of life we lead and the emotions we express. When I smile, the seeds of smiling and joy have come up. As long as they manifest, new seeds of smiling and joy are planted. But if I don’t practice smiling for a number of years, that seed will weaken, and I may not be able to smile anymore.

–Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

Quote

The Buddha on anger: 

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful that I get to see one of my art pieces in a group exhibition in New York this week.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

8.5.24

Thought

If you have the guts to follow the risk, however, life opens, opens, opens up all along the line. I’m not superstitious, but I do believe in spiritual magic, you might say. I feel that if one follows what I call one’s “bliss” - the thing that really gets you deep in the gut and that you feel is your life - doors will open up. They do! They have in my life and they have in many lives that I know of.

Theres a wonderful paper by Schopenhauer, called “An Apparent Intention of the Fate of the Individual,” in which he points out that when you are at a certain age - the age I am now - and look back over your life, it seems to be almost as orderly as a composed novel. And just as in Dickens’ novels, little accidental meetings and so forth turn out to be the main features in the plot, so in your life. And what seem to have been mistakes at the time, turn out to be directive crises. And then he asks: “Who wrote this novel?”

– Joseph Campbell, An Open Life

Quote

Alan Watts on myth: 

“The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it - aliens.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful for time spent away from the internet and constant news cycle to reset.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

7.29.24

Thought

As a general matter we find it hard to be really at home with things that shine and glitter. The Westerner uses silver and steel and nickel tableware, and polishes it to a fine brilliance, but we object to the practice. While we do sometimes indeed use silver for teakettles, decanters, or sake cups, we prefer not to polish it. On the contrary, we begin to enjoy it only when the luster has worn off, when it has begun to take on a dark, smoky patina.

– Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows 

Quote

Rabindranath Tagore on beauty: 

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful that I got to spend some inspiring time with loved ones traveling to Mexico and Senegal this summer.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

7.22.24

Thought

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

For what are you possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow? And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

– Khalil Gibran, The Prophet  

Quote

Don Miguel Ruiz on love: 

“What you will see is love coming out of the trees, love coming out of the sky, love coming out of the light. You will perceive love from everything around you. This is the state of bliss.”

Intention of the Day 

My intention is to stay calm and centered as I make conscious choices today.

What’s your intention today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

7.15.24

Thought

A third example he discusses is art that comprises vertical and horizontal lines, like that of Piet Mondrain, or colored squares, red in Malevich’s Red Square, blue in Theo van Doesburg’s The Cow, and yellow in Josef Alber’s Homage to the Square: Yellow Climate. Art of this kind is, he argues, particularly well adapted to the visual system, because each cell in the visual brain has a receptive field. It responds, that is, to a limited part of visual space – a red square, say, or a line of particular orientation.

So there is a correspondence between art made of lines or colored squares (which Zeki dubs ‘art of the receptive field’) and the physiology of single cells in the visual brain. Moreover, cells that respond to lines of particular orientation predominate in the visual cortex, and are found in many areas of it. Physiologists consider them the building blocks that allow the nervous system to represent more complex forms.

So when Mondrian defended his use of the vertical and horizontal lines saying they ‘exist everywhere and dominate everything’, his observation was, Zeki suggests, neurobiologically correct. When we view one of his abstracts, or some of the paintings of Malevich or Barnett Newman, large numbers of cells in different visual areas of our brains will be activated.

– John Carey, What Good are the Arts?  

Quote

Philosopher Seneca on desire: 

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

Intention of the Day 

My intention is to focus on the process and not the outcome today. 

What’s your intention today?

Happy Monday,

Val

7.8.24

Thought

We have been chosen, just as indole acetic acid has been chosen plant metabolism, to play certain roles. We have a role, but our role seems to like a major one. We are like a triggering system. Out of the general background of evolutionary processes mediated first by incoming radiation to die surface of the Earth and then by natural selection, suddenly we arrive, with our epigenetic capability to write books, tell stories, sing, carve, and paint. These are not genetic processes, these are epigenetic processes. Writing, language, and art bind information and express the Gaian mind my well.    

—Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham, Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness

Quote

Socrates on change:

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."  

Intention of the Day 

My intention is to stay present as much as possible today. 

What’s your intention today?

Happy Monday,

Val