World Muse Wednesday - TOP OF THE WORLD

AUGUST 31 2011

"World Muse"

Our little planet is shaking with transformations. Look at the way the Ice flow travels from inside to out

 http://earthsky.org/earth/first-complete-map-of-ice-flow-from-heart-of-antarctica
***

Japans Tsunami
broke a huge piece of ice off the shelf.
 http://youtu.be/IPDuTzhNxvU
***

Me Too
After the earthquake and hurricane, I'm breaking off,

flowing fast, inside out, and spinning.
Like a recent post from Wunerful-Wendy, I'm saying

"Slow"

http://nutshell-wendy.blogspot.com/2011/08/end-of-summer-selections-and.html
***

I want it all to decelerate, match my pace

"Stop The World, I Want To Get Off"
Any one recall that show?
A still timely song from the 1966 film adaptation

Reminder

Give Away

To Celebrate my 300th Post

CLUES AT

http://mscomfortzone.blogspot.com/2011/08/silent-muse-saturday-secret-cup.html

***
Contest Ends September 3rd
Winner will be announced

Sunday September 4th here

In case of multiple winners, the offering extends to three awards

Primate Muse Tuesday - MATTERS THAT MATTER

"Primate Muse"

 
"Origin of man now proved, Metaphysic must flourish.
He who understands baboon would do more for metaphysics than Locke.
-Charles Darwin-
1838

Friendship and connection in the primate world is quite similar to
human behavior, as Dr. Frans deWaal shows in
"The Mystery of Love"
Chimpanzees and bonobos show feelings of empathy, compassion, friendship and even altruistic behavior, but only for their own clan members. They don't care, and might even kill,
outsiders vying for resources.
 Sound familiar?

Family, clan, nation, race, gender, or personal preference
are not actual lines of separation.
They are all artificial, unstable, and fluctuating divisions,
usually constructed to suit someones agenda.
In reality, all waters are one water.
Nothing separates anything.

Jane Goodall Hasn't Found The Missing Link
But, she's come closer than nearly anyone else.
The primatologist says the only real difference between humans and chimps is our sophisticated language.
She urges us to start using it to change the world.

2007

30 Minutes

Transformation
Primatologist, Jane Goodall, tells her own life story
from a young English girl of modest means,
to an international symbol of wildlife conservation.
She explainswhy she is hopeful about the future.

Address to the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice
University of San Diego.

59 Minutes

read more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall
***
"Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue
with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right."

"Lasting change is a series of compromises.
And compromise is all right, as long your values don't change."

Music Muse MONDAY - MAGIC IS ALIVE

"Music-Muse"

Magic Never Dies

Buffy Sainte-Marie found and admired this passage in Leonard Cohen's second novel, "Beautiful Losers". While visiting Leonard one day, she sang it to him. First released as part of her pioneering album, "Illuminations," this song was recorded anew for Buffy's

"Up Where We Belong" recording. 

A Cree songwriter born in Saskatchewan, Buffy has long been a devoted social activist, a voice for Native rights, founder of the Cradleboard Teaching Project, star on Sesame Street, and an artis

exploring her work through modern digital media.

For many years, unknown to her, Buffy's work was blacklisted and denied radio play as a result of pressure from government representatives in the United States during the 1970s. She later won an Academy Award for the song, "Up Where We Belong".

Her latest work, a 'comeback' album of sorts, is called

"Running For The Drum".

Here are two more versions I like if you care to listen again.

http://youtu.be/FhmeroR20lc
http://youtu.be/WY1annEsQRE

***
 Beautiful Losers
The words Leonard Cohen recites in this 1967 performance was a passage from his 1966 novel, "Beautiful Losers." This passage was itself later published separately as an illustrated book called "God is Alive, Magic is Afoot." Buffy Sainte-Marie first released "God is Alive, Magic is Afoot" on her album, Illuminations, in 1969. Cohen's recitation includes a final section absent from the Buffy Sainte-Marie version

 


There is no end

EXTRA Sunday AFTER STORM POST

Aftermath Of Irene

  Here in Manhattan, not much damage at all, only the anxious night of hardly any sleep due to Tornado warnings and general agitation of mind.  It is reported today that most of the deaths in the region
were due to falling trees.

The Hurricane

by William Carlos Williams

The tree lay down
on the garage roof
and stretched, You
have your heaven,
it said, go to it.

 

My Brother's Business Is Here

Branches Around Gramercy Park New York

 

There Were Fallen Treasures To Glean

To Photograph and Draw

 Mimosa Blossoms, Ginkgo Fruit and Leaves

The Scent Is Heavenly

7:30 PM

Looking East Out My Front Window

Looking West

My thoughts turn in sympathy to all the areas flooded, the losses of life, home, possessions.  I'm reminded of my own selfishness too, and to be grateful for everything. The storm was minor compared to
the storms across the planet over recent times.

This decade of storm, fire, flood and earthquakes is historic
"No other hurricane in history has affected this many people"

-Diane Sawyer-

Really?  Can this be so?

Spirit Muse SUNDAY - OPENING DOORS WITHIN

August 28th 2011

"Spirit Muse"

"I believe cats to be spirits come to earth.
A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through."
-Jules Verne-

"Opening Doors Within"
by Danny Miller & Kurt Mann
dannymillerfilms
***
The film follows the spiritual journey of Eileen Caddy,
co-founder of the famous, and magical
Findhorn Garden in Scottland.

Produced with the Findhorn Foundation
over the course of 3 years from 1988 to 1991.

Some Scenes

2009

A Long Way To The Light
Mike Scott

More About Findhorn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findhorn_Foundation

***

Extra Post SATURDAY - "SHINE A LIGHT"

Central Park

NYC-USA

8.26.2011

"Forget the hurricane and join us tonight at the Central Park Conservancy Film Festival! We'll be showing "Shine A Light",

the story of an epic Rolling Stones concert

directed by Martin Scorsese." 

  Born In a Hurricane

The crowd was mighty subdued and very young, but the film is as good as ever it was, and the crickets were wonderful both on the walk in and the walk back out to Fifth Avenue. Stopped to snap this fashion emporium where it seems evident Vera Wang has just    lost her head

Shine That Light On Me

 Jumpin Jack Flash

 

 All is well with me. I'm prepared, not scared, and have a plan B:

Magic

(Saturdays Silent Muse was posted earlier)

http://mscomfortzone.blogspot.com/2011/08/silent-muse-saturday-secret-cup.html

Silent Muse SATURDAY - THE SECRET CUP

August 27th 2011

"Silent Muse"

 
Love Dogs 

by Rumi

One night a man was crying Allah! Allah!
His lips grew sweet with praising,
until a cynic said, “So!
I’ve heard you calling our, but have you ever
gotten any response?”

The man had no answer to that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage.

“Why did you stop praising?” “Because
I’ve never heard anything back.”

“This longing you express
is the return message.”

The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.

Your pure sadness
that wants help
is the secret cup.

Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.

There are love dogs
no one knows the names of.

Give your life
to be one of them.

More about Rumi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
***
 

Crying In The Wilderness
Gillian Welch and partner/Producer David Rawlings

performed at St Lukes for the BBC Four Sessions

2007

 Longing For Happiness?
Try Meditation
"The brain waves of meditators show why they're healthier.

Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex—brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. In other words, they were calmer and happier than before." 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200304/the-benefits-meditation

***

"A story is told as much by silence as by speech."
-Susan Griffin-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Griffin

***

AND

This Is My Three Hundredth Post

Give Away Today

To Celebrate

A magical gift to be mailed to anyone responding to this post

whose comment includes
The Magic Word

Clues
1. The word is contained in this blog

2. Pick your favorite word, and you are likely to be the winner

Winner will be announced

Sunday September 4th here

In case of multiple winners, the offering extends to three awards

Silence Is Magic

Feather Muse - A LITTLE 'MAGIC' MANIFESTS

Magic
I've been opening a lot of unopened drawers,
searching for cloth in the recesses of dark neglected closets
due to the inspiration of  Jude's Magic Feather Project
(see sidebar)   
Rediscovered
A Big Box of Sewing Stuff

My Mother's Pin Cushion

So, although I have still not put needle through cloth,

I now have many more needles, and pins!

Feather Fact and Lore

Just a snippet- an idea of what follows at this site
"Here's a little bit from an article from Garden Shed magazine about birds and their feathers..."While 1,500 - 3,000 feathers cover most birds, the known count ranges from 940 feathers for a hummingbird
to 25,216 for a whistling swan.
Because smaller birds lose heat more rapidly than larger ones, their plumage is denser.
The number of feathers also may vary seasonally:
One goldfinch has 2,368 feathers in winter;
another had 1,439 in June."
http://creatingthehive.com/group/Folklore/posts/79619/feathers-facts-and-lore
***

More About Birds And Their Feathers

Listen to a radio clip
http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2011/08/09/birds-and-especially-their-amazing-feathers/
***

Grandmas Feather Bed

Why Quilts
from Deanna
http://www.whyquiltsmatter.org/welcome/

***

PS

Jude has postponed her Friday Magic Feather instructions to Tuesday

due to the looming hurricane.  May all be well for every one.

PPS

Just One More Quilt Related Treat

LULLABY LAND
directed by Wilford Jackson and released on August 19, 1933.

A little baby and a toy dog have an adventure in the land of patchwork quilts.

This title song of this movie was released as sheet music.

Dolphin Muse THURSDAY - INTELLIGENT LIFE

AUGUST 25TH 2011

Dolphin Muse

As with all things,

Thursday posed a great many choices for inclusion,  and for a muse.

Thursday Etymology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thursday#Etymology

*** 
There is so much available,

for the moment some literature, film and music.
  
The Man Who Was Thursday 
wherein Gabriel Syme, the main character, was given the title of Thursday
in G. K. Chesterton's 1908 Metaphysical thriller.

Sweet Thursday
John Steinbeck's 1954 novel, the sequel to his novel Cannery Row,
 set in the days after WWII

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy  

The character Arthur Dent says

"This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays" 

A few minutes later the planet Earth is destroyed.

Here's the opening 6 minutes and 38 seconds of the 2005 Film

The Muse Shot
I snapped a dolphin leaving earth from the opening sequence.

I love dolphins and worry over them even more than I worry over us.

Let Thursday be the Day of the Dolphin

A day for Mammalian Intelligence & Wisdom

Dolphins, along with whales and porpoises,
are descendants of terrestrial mammals.

The ancestors of the modern day dolphins entered the water
roughly 50 million years ago.

read more science

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin

***

Thursday's Child

David Bowie

The Search Resumes
read
http://earthsky.org/space/seti-searches-on

***

I still believe in magic

"...AND MAGIC DOES NOT DIE."

World-Muse WEDNESDAY-A MESSAGE TO THE FUTURE

August 24th 2011
"World Muse"



Wherever in the world, or off-world, into, and beyond our stratosphere, my attention is drawn, it's from there I'll post here.

"In 1977, NASA Launched Voyager 2. They timed the launch to coincide with a rare planetary alignment that allowed the craft to make use of each planet's gravity to boost it on its way. The original purpose of the mission was to explore Jupiter and Saturn; it's since passed Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, and is now considered an "interstellar mission" because it still has enough velocity to leave the solar system. It's currently flying through the heliopause: the area where the solar wind is opposed by hydrogen and helium gases from interstellar space, forming a kind of bubble around the solar system. Scientists believe it will be able to continue sending back signals until at least 2025."


"Both Voyager 1 and 2 also carry golden records,
with pictographic instructions on how to play them.
The records contain sounds, images, and welcome messages from Earth, as well as a map to our location."


"Carl Sagan chaired the committee that decided what should go on the record. He said:
The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring
civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet."

"President Jimmy Carter included his own message on the record:
This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images our music, our thoughts and our feelings.  We are attempting to survive our time
so we may live into yours."

from The Writers Almanac
*

WHAT ONE THING WILL YOU SEND?
(*if there is a future) 

Perhaps I'll send a copy of "In The Next Galaxy"
by Ruth Stone printed tiny on a golden rolled scroll-
"In the Next Galaxy
Things will be different.
No one will lose their sight,
their hearing, their gallbladder.
It will be all Catskills with brand
new wrap-around verandas.
The idea of Hitler will not have vibrated yet.
While back here,
they are still cleaning out
pockets of wrinkled
Nazis hiding in Argentina.
But in the next galaxy,
certain planets will have true
blue skies and drinking water."

Maybe my prose poem in response it-

"There will be no more feral thugs lurking round each dark corner to perfect their hopeless craft.  Nor lack of care for any other than themselves, grown weary of blood sacrifice that never really satisfied. Where clean, clear water runs deep enough for dream, desire, men, women, children, and all the beasts of burden joining ones in flight to fill the air with songs of sweet delight the whole long day. A verdant canopy spread above will shelter every living thing in shades of comforting and ease. Grain will feed each single need. No thing will be slaved, oppressed, pressing in for succor at the table. There will be much to do of course. We will never be bored, nor boring. Stars and thoughts will be enough. Touch will nourish. Our restlessness will not be necessary when we walk the cherished woods and fields.  Death will lie down as easy as sleep in my next galaxy, where there will be no nagging ache of constant longing."
 
Maybe I'll just send my "caravan of clouds" 
to illustrate the way they looked to us down here
when we remembered to look up-

Because it's good to leave them laughing they say,
I might settle on Monty Python's "Galaxy Song"
to show we had a wickedly imaginative sense of humor down here once upon a time, and leave it at that-

Friends, readers dear, I hope you post a response to the question if you're so moved. I wonder if Jude will send a "Magic Feather", Deanna, a basket or quilt, Nancy a found thing that makes a heart shadow? What a variety of treasures each unique person has to offer!

Footnote

Late last night, Wendy and I were emailing about one of her paintings, then later about the quake  
in Arizona

*

and then

*

Yesterday afternoon, If I felt the quakes, it was in a dream since I took a nap 1-3PM--missed it.  I slept through 9/ll too, sort of, waking a few short minutes after the second plane hit I had a strange feeling that made me turn on the radio, then TV just in time to see the towers fall.  But no more tremors here today.  It stayed quiet long enough for me to have 'one more' yoga class.

A new sign at the bus stop on the corner.  We are always on the alert now, and what could we really do but cover our heads and say farewell.

Returned home slowly-stopped to circle the church garden I maintain. I harvested Lavender last week there--then, floating on the evening breeze,

"skipping over the ocean like a stone" I arrived back here at the computer Just in time to add this note.

'Leave 'Em Laughing'

"BACK OF THE SUN AND WAY DOWN DEEP UNDER OUR FEET, AT THE EARTH'S CENTER,

ARE NOT A COUPLE OF NOBLE MYSTERIES

BUT A COUPLE OF JOKE BOOKS."

-Tennessee Williams-

NO

Let's End Beautifully

"Robert Moran’s Trinity Requiem

Trinity commissioned the Denver-born composer to write a piece for their youth chorus commemorating 9/11. The result, which will be released September 6th,
is a lush work for voice, organ, harp, and cello. 
The track Here is actually two offerings!

--- Muse TUESDAY - SEARCHING FOR THE ONE

Too Many Choices

I've been struggling - what to do with Tuesday's blog.
What will be the Tuesday Muse?
I start with a little research, trolling around the web.

Origin of the name
In the brief amusing history of English Tuesday was named after
an Anglo or Saxon god, but which one?

Wikipedia

In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world. For both Greeks and Spanish-speakers, the 13th of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on Tuesday, instead of Friday. In Judaism on the other hand, Tuesday is considered a particularly lucky day, because in the first chapter of Genesis the paragraph about this day contains the phrase "it was good" twice.

In the Thai Solar Calendar, the day is named for the Pali word for the planet Mars, which also means "Ashes of the Dead". and the color associated with Tuesday is Pink.

In the folk rhyme Monday's Child, "Tuesday's child is full of grace".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuesday 

***

Black Tuesday 1929
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929
***
Why we Vote on Tuesdays
http://billpetro.com/history-of-election-day
***
Another Book chain Folds Tuesday
http://news.yahoo.com/borders-bookstore-chain-could-history-tuesday-230900494.html
***
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday
Rolling Stones

Tuesday Afternoon
Moody Blues

Then I Remembered Hanuman

The Hanuman Chalisais a forty verse chant describing the life and deeds of Hanuman,

the Hindu monkey god, central character in the Indian epic
Ramayana.
Tuesday is designated as Hanuman day, and it is sung
either 11 times (about an hour) or
108 times (about 12 hours) continuously.
It is said that even hearing it sung is enough, and that
singing it is more than enough to effect a transformation over time.
I sing it with others since first hearing it,
then learning it,  and finally loving it.
Just a taste for now
since more about it's spiritual significance will be on a

Sunday Spirit Muse blog

The Hanuman Chalisa Chanted Once
September 2009 - Krishna Das in India
10 minutes and 51 minutes

"Tuesday's Muse"
is

Hanuman
Who can overcome insurmountable obstacles
Who is the perfect servant of the highest good

All things primate will be featured here,
beginning with this encouraging data:

Our Close Cousins and Altruism
http://earthsky.org/human-world/chimp-test-shows-planet-of-altruistic-apes