Meditation

in the mountains, a yogic practice with the breath (familiar, favourite, welcome, refreshed).

I experience turning through time.

Who are you today, (name)? I would love to love the you you are today.

The end of my book, and a mantra for a wonderful life.

I feel the face of the mountain, a magical creature of rock, fur, whiskers, twitching nose, that is mirrored in the soaring of birds.

I remember the creature I felt emerging a few days ago, I don't think I documented it here (or anywhere concrete as yet) (is a blog concrete?) The tapping of a shell, egg, opening, breaking through, (that's right, it was Tuesday after the morning swim and somehow somewhere between then, the geology walk and the studio...[an imagining, a whisper in the wind - sings the creature of the Dales.. (sshhhh!!!)]
Yes, arriving here in the rocky mountains at banff is like breaking out of the shell and membrane of an egg and emerging.. (to my surprise!) as a tiny dinosaur-type-thing!! A baby mountain dinosaur, newly hatched. As if!

There are different creatures that live and emerge in this place. I feel the weight and importance of the places I've visited these past few months, of Ancient greece.

Colour Grid 1000063

Origami. That was the other beautiful suggestion on the colour grids from my studio-mate yesterday. The strong bright colours , folds of paper, 3G Rubik cube emerging, of origami. 

This grid moves, has so many patterns rhythms dynamics tensions I can see it's form spring to life through this magical ancient (?)paper art. Where can I find origami paper? I can make my own, practice paper constructions like the 10 steps from 0 to 10 of foundation exercises. Made real with the grids. 

I see how quick time goes how delicate to hold the days plan. Struck how after even 4 days here a simple task of putting water in the right hole, coffee in the tray ( take sachet out of foil wrap first) jug under tray and switch to on ( power remains a constant, no need to replug) such a simple task has superceded me several times already since coming here! I have a first sensation of what it may be like to be a nun in a monastery!

Message sent from a handheld device.

Jackie Calderwood

www.jackiecalderwood.com

Begin forwarded message: 

 

Things I see here are:

Harmony balance a grounded sky. As above so below.

I notice:

Patterns and vibrations a strong cohesive form.

I notice that as I scroll up to look at it I can touch it with my fingers 

changing it's colours clumsily if I'm not careful.

The colours in this grid are like:

A song of strength, equal tension, rhythm. normality

I made this colour grid at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.171619,-115.561142 using http://twitter.com/gathererapp

This is a very beautiful thing, it's quite delicate to hold. As I made it I knew exactly as it should be. As I wrote of it I inadvertently changed it's form several times. I had to think hard and be careful to return to to how it was made. The logic wasn't as clear in reverse. But when I got there and trusted it was right then I saw the original beauty more clearly. Defined on it's fragility and strong in it's repercussions, resonant pathways stretching out way beyond the grid.

This is the remembering that I take as a tool into the balance of seeing- making-doing-being and Writing-reflecting-seeking to understand. For understand comes from the making where one stands under the feeling of what is become; and knowledge (spoken) comes from the remembering of the action in the truth of what is made. Not from making it anew.

How the soul gets lost and found

Another victim unfortunately of the Blogger crash...

I'm sure this was one of the most interesting posts before it disappeared into blogger's bin vacuum somewhere in cyberspace.... maybe one day it'll magically reappear. Or maybe I could whizz back to a time before when.... It was still there on Thursday, so I didn't worry to back it up. On Friday when the site was 'mended' it had gone.... Maybe it was the straw that broke the camel's back!  Maybe I can remember what it said...

I was writing about time. How strange time had been since arriving in Banff. Sleeping odd hours. Waking odd hours. A feeling of folding back in time, more so than just a few time zones apart. Geological time. Time to think. Time to do. Time communicating here, online, across days and nights. Making work to change with time cycles, for people in another time zone to hunt, how will that interact with time to come when people may hunt caches here too?

I'd decided it was high time to get into the present time, to wake up in the morning (not half way through the night), plan and structure the day, keep to time, and have a sensible bed time (even if that meant staying vertical until such time as it would be considered 'norm' to go to sleep!  And so the plan for the day - blog updates (time gone, now the evidence is no more), email stuff, meditation, studio time, lunch, movement, lecture, yoga, supper, evening (novelty!), bed.

I was reflecting on the pace of the soul.

So the colour grid (above, 1000063) is an intention for the day, a structure to be in the present time, a tentative framework for the camel to stable.

The musings pause and the day 'begins' with breakfast, half-eaten, thrust into the mini-fridge and a dash up the stairs just in time for meditation (to experience a moment of timelessness?).

I can report back from two days in the future, post-crash, that I did indeed stick to time, even if it didn't quite stick to me. A late night, followed by an early morning. Time to begin, again...
I wrote about camels and souls, before realising that post had survived from the day before the trouble started. So the camel (and maybe even the soul) was lost, found, found again, and then the duplication rectified!

Catching up!

Yes, a morning swim was a good idea, I think my soul's catching up! There's a saying I love (from the middle east ? sufi maybe?) that the soul travels at the pace of a camel. Since first drawing up the structure for my thesis 18months ago there's been this little message I slip in (one of many..) with that saying. I know it has something to say on the way we experience pervasive media, connections across time, space (real and virtual).

It was great to hear Plan B's project recently at the Nottingham Towards Pervasive Media event, Soul tracking, where Dan talked about the soul travelling at walking pace, and both he and Sophia were using an iphone app to track their emotional response to his journey and separation by travel. Early findings were that flights between Berlin and the UK with short research/work visits would take about a 3 day lag on his 'soul'.

I prefer the camel though, it feels more scope to run with wind in your hair. It sits well with me that the soul can carry a person with it, trot and gallop, play stubborn and refuse to move, carry it's own resources and survive even long times in the desert. So 3 days into arriving across the Atlantic (and most of this massive East to West landmass too) I wonder if my camel's caught up with me yet? How far can a camel swim! Or can they fly... a magic flying camel sounds like a creature for an Arabian geoartcache!

Which brings me to the catching. Swimming and a whirlpool. The light is different in the pool in the morning. Not the same beautiful ripples of light bouncing off the surface and reflecting on walls and windows that I love about evening swimming. Instead a much more work-like, present focus of moving through the water. Three things clarified as i swam over the same small area of the pool back and forth:

1. The magical creature of Canada is the magical creature of the Commons; that I can start to explore and invite people to bring to life with me here, and continue singing with it on my travels back and forth in Canada. This will be the 'public' project that I focus on here.

2. Spaces of Thought. Inspired and pondering by the 'space to think' , I realised that there are many spaces for thinking - thinking in different ways, and different kinds of space. Of course Clean Space (where I heard that I had been offered a place to come to Banff) may be a key to approaching and understanding, thinking about, this. 'Spaces of thought' feels like a structure that could deal with and address the various ideas I've come with - revisiting journeys, communication across time and place, interactive walks, reflection, creation and collaboration.  It feels good. It feels appropriate for here. More of a 'private' project. That I can share and learn from, articulate and interrogate with others whilst I am here.

3. Writing: I've been writing loads, and enjoying it, since modelling writing at my best. Now it's time to model academic writing at my best here in Banff, so that I can make use of the time to do that also, effective, enjoying and efficient.

With that, geology walks and messages from Jen, the day is comfortable, full and fluid... I may even have an evening before I fall asleep!

Feeling a rhythm

Oh, the textile metaphor has turned into sound!

Or maybe it's the automatic movement of a hand passing a shuttle through the threads of the warp.

Anyway, I slept! Until just before 5am, nearly dawn. No news from Jen (the walk should be started by now) so I continue with the post from last night. 20:20 it started, 07:20 it was finished! Then around 5.30 they come, three together, emails from midday in the Midlands countryside. I feel bound to respond. To break the silence and record the spoken word. Bound not by process, obligation or intent. Rather moved to, inevitable consequence of interaction, how could I (in all being) not?

The texts (sent be email mobile to mobile to avoid texting charges to my phone here in Canada) I'll post as a separate thread under projects, Jen, soundwalks (until it acquires another name).

I could swim this-morning (rather than at night), eat a hearty breakfast and go to my studio :) feeling the rhythm of the day.