Hey everyone, check out Mark Johnson doin awesome musicmaking around the world. He is featured on the PBS show, Bill Moyers Journal, as you can see online here. His movie shows folks playing and singing and dancing to “Stand by Me” … he said he got the idea in the NYC subway when he saw two white-robed people singing in a language he didn’t know, but their song was so wonderful that everyone on the platform missed their ride to stay and listen…a peaceful stopping for a moment together.

Here are the links to Mark Johnson’s project: Playingforchange.com and Playingforchange.org.

OK that’s one gonna make you sing along!

Now check out this wonderful thing we found out about from a guy visiting El Morro (middle of Now-here) who met us at a sing-fest, and started telling about these wonderful computers for kids in 3rd world situations: www.laptop.org.

Thanks for spreading the word about these – Joan

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well every time in image and imagination class has been an intense rush, and a visit from two classmates last Saturday generated a lot of good energy among us.  But tomorrow night is the next class, and each of us is supposed to talk, with a tape recorder going, about what we’ve learned from peer group meetings, what we’ve learned about the images we have been making…and I’m feeling totally tongue-tied.  So far my images have shown me awesome journeys, interactions, and been full of animals and people I gratefully cherish. But  in class there I am in the imaginal dimension, seeing people’s emotions and concerns underwater so to speak, while they are still talking and even judging from the rather patronizing heights of ordinary ego reality. I know it is hard to let go of ordinary life-support illusions, but I wish some more people would at least try.  It’s really fine in this dimension of reality that is so much more flexible and loving and full of hope.  I’m in this blissful state, but lonesome.  I’m afraid that tomorrow will just bring more lonesomeness; that instead of trying to see in this way, the others will continue to just talk about it from all their readings, and be detached.  So I feel worried and sad right now.

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Tricycle Rider

To me, the importance of dwelling in the present moment can be visualized this way: it is like riding a tricycle. The essential front wheel represents present-mindedness. Without that wheel, I would face the agony of trying to force my tricycle forward with metal grinding and sparks firing. Or, worse yet, I would stay in the same place without making progress and without ever moving. As long as I keep my present state in focus, this fundamental wheel promises a prosperous ride.

Pedaling steadily along, the smaller wheel at my back left side represents the past. This wheel belongs with me, even on my present-minded path, because I have learned from my history and do not wish to repeat the same mistakes. Without this wheel, my tricycle would be inclined to travel in circles. Likewise, the insightful moments of my past help me to better appreciate my present moment. If I am too focused on the past, though, and if I cannot forgive and move forward, then this wheel is too big. The bigger it gets, the more likely I am to fall off the tricycle (my path), and fall on my nose.

The wheel at my back right side is the future. Acknowledging that I have a future helps me to be responsible in my present moment. Understanding that positive actions in the present affect ones ability to experience positive moments in infinite presents helps me to enjoy my present and potentially live to see another present, and another. Without this little wheel, again I would spin in circles, going nowhere. I would probably lose interest in riding my tricycle. I would likely find no reason to ride at all; and I like to ride. I love this ride.

And there are more layers to these truths. Sometimes, I ride my tricycle down the steeeepest hills, and the pedals spin furiously until my legs cannot keep up with the speed. Removing my feet from the pedals affects my balance and makes my ride unstable. This hill is like living excessively: overexerting myself, overconsuming, or just moving too fast in general, figuratively. This is an unsteady ride, destined to crash and end with a scraped knee, which is a beautiful lesson.

Attempting to ride up the cruel hill is a slow, cumbersome process that exhausts the legs and the mind. Traveling uphill might represent trying to achieve something that is not of true value, like money or power. Even after reaching the top of the hill, the tricycle rider does not experience joy. This is something that I struggle with most. I am working on a music recording project, for example, and I spend too much time thinking about the completion of this project. Instead, I need to consider the current state of this project. I need to appreciate the guitar playing of the present moment, and I need to find peace in the music that I hear right now – the waves of sound that I happen to be sailing on are originating from my own lips and fingertips. Whether or not the project as a whole is ever finished is meaningless. It is the day to day practice of dwelling in the pleasantness of the presentness that takes me where I want to be on my ride, which is always right here and right now.

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I’m pleased and proud and thankful to be a Mud Pud along with you all.  Before waking this morning I started thinking about what to write – so here goes – I’m presently immersed in two courses at two different universities, and as usual, in my mind am weaving their meanings together with my realities, or trying to.  One course is called Ethics, and the other is called Image and Imagination. Ethics has a wide variety of stances ranging from complete selfishness to total altruism, and tends to get lost in ‘shoulds’ and in opposites, but it has made me think how when any one of us is stuck way down in the mud, we also can get stuck in desperation.  Desperation – it’s a universe where poverty, fear, anger, reaction, usery, competition and a bunch of other rough elements seem to be our social tools.  Some of us were born into it, and some got tossed into it for awhile, but I’m willing to bet all Mud Puds experienced it.  Plus, it might be that it is what some call the “real” world – after all, it is all over the news all the time.  The ethics of it are pretty brutal – dog eat dog, use others to get what you need, oppression….so it’s really blind, or nonempathic, for philosophers or ministers or whoever to come up with a lot of “shoulds” for someone duking out survival.

Nevertheless, desperation is really a way of thinking or a way of perceiving the world, and the way we think actually shapes the world.  Scary, huh?  This is where my other course, Image and Imagination, comes in.

In this course we are making images freely, trying to respect and nurture imagination so that it can get past our fears and egos and little identities to show us … a whole other universe, another dimension of reality that is going on simultaneously with the one we assume is “reality”.  I am blissed when I am in this class because this imaginal dimension is the one I’ve been hiding out in, pretty much by myself, all along.

I promise to describe it in my next posting!  Just one thing – here in Mud Puds is a good place to say I know how fragile each of us is and how important it is for that fragility to have safe loving space – those three things arrive in the imaginal world around us by magic – here, by the magic of Cabe’s imagination.  Merci, Muchas Gracias, Ahi hi, Thank you.

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Secrets Only Kids (At Heart) Know About:

1. the individual colors in a bag of Skittles all have identifiable tastes, whereas each M&M tastes the same regardless of color
2. lizard tails are a lot easier to collect than lizards
3. permanent marker mustaches wash away in half a day
4. bare walls need color
5. finger painting is practically the kewlest thing ever
6. bouncy balls explode on blacktops
7. vomit tastes like a mixture of worms, used bubblegum, and onions
8. only kids know how to speak fluent the languages of gibberish, coyote, and top secret code words
9. adults are beginning to copy kids with their preferably disheveled hair
10. crayons fit nicely up the nose and most kids have the luxury of fingers that fit nicely in black olives
11. kites don’t fly unless you run with them and send them sailing…

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Hi Amber. I hope you find this post with a smile on your face. I want you to know how important you have been in my life. You have played the greatest role in helping me to feel full – full of life, full of love, and fulfilled. I feel well again/for the first time. Today, I signed a new lease for a 1 bedroom spot in Grapevine. My subconscious mind wrote the word, “Grave,” just now on my keyboard…I wonder if that means anything.

I still feel love for you, Am. Even though we have to go our separate ways right now, my path keeps swerving back and forth toward you and away from you like a magnet pendulum.

Also, I want you to know that I feel happy right now. I am trying to come clean, even on my way to ditching the meds, no longer feeling that I am depressed. I attended a meditation group last week, and I have been reading the Bhagavad-Gita and Be Here Now – by Ram Dass. I am probably going to rock Krishna Das at MoveStudio (Preston/Cambell in North Dallas) ecstatic dance on Sunday, July 27, 2008 and Thursday, August 21. Plus, I found out that Mati is facilitating at a kewl-sounding place called “Cosmic Cup Cafe” somewhere near downtown tomorrow – July 20 (Jordan’s Birthday) and consecutive Sun Days at 10:00 a.m. sharp, and I’ll be there for that.

I think I will keep adding notes on this post, and keep writing you in this fashion. I think it’s healthy for me to spend time thinking about you – you are a lightning bolt in my mind, charging energy througy me. Peace and Cues,

Mud Pud In Training

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