Thoughts

Images:
Sketch for new weaving
Weaving in process using 
recycled dry cleaning hanger hooks and 
Metallic sheath core fiber

No Expectations-Detaching from the Outcome

“No expectation, no anticipation of the outcome,” is a common
phrase that we use when commencing our meditation.

Useful in all aspects of life.

Sometimes new students get all tripped up when they begin
their first days of practice and their meditations are loaded
with a multitude of thoughts.
“This is not what I expected.”
“I thought it would feel different.” 

When weaving new structures, each time I try something
new, I use the same simple, innocent technique I was taught in
meditation class.
Take it as it comes.
No anticipation or expectation of the outcome.
Let’s see how it goes. Keep it simple and natural.

In meditation, we sit comfortably with our back supported…
Close our eyes and, after half a minute, bring our special word
“mantra” as taught by a VM teacher into our awareness
and let it go from there.

Thoughts come and thoughts go; we don’t hold onto them.
After all, we have 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts rambling around
in our heads at any given time.
We don’t need to hold onto them.

Like weaving, it takes time to see the outcome.
I can do a drawing and perceive an outcome,
but not until you sit at the warped loom and
begin the weaving process, do you understand how it feels to weave it.

It doesn’t work if you are in a hurry to get it woven quickly.
We simply take it as it comes
and gently and effortlessly weave.

Things take time.
Practice takes time.
The repetition of an action like
meditation, where we can dig into our least excited state twice a day,
takes time, to get through all of the overabundance of expectations that
we put on ourselves. This is what stress is.
And that stress gets embedded in our cells.
Releasing that stress, a meditation at a time,
is our goal.

Every meditation is different;
every weave structure is different.

Give yourself the time to embody it.
+ to Enjoy it. 

03.08.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
Weaving the selvedge.
3/4 point
1/2 way

Abundant Reflections

Abundant Reflections is a weaving for dear friends.
It started from conversations years ago
and is coming to full fruition this year.
Aptly named, as there are so many reflections
woven into this piece.
This weaving is filled with the consciousness
of multiple Books on Audible,
Podcasts and a movie here or there.
It takes about 12 Hrs to complete 5″ in this weaving,
so many ticks around the clock.
And… An Abundance of Reflections.

Reflections are also a hallmark of our meditation practice.
We recognize that many times our practice
is so full of thoughts, our meditation practice feels unbearable.
Yet we do it.
‘Lots of thoughts’ means that a GOOD THING IS HAPPENING.
Each thought, we are letting go of stress,
as each thought is part of a stream of an accumulation
of expectation we put on ourselves.

As we settle down to see the source of thought,
we begin to recognize that this is consciousness.
That knowledge has organizing power.
The baseline field of consciousness
are the laws of nature.
We recognize what feels good to us and what doesn’t,
and we begin to feel comfortable in the letting go
of what doesn’t feel right to our physiology.

What’s good about that is that once we let go of
maintaining, work, friendships, situations that are untenable,
things open up for better improvements
in our lives.

A meditation at a time.
A release of thought at a time.
An expansion of our awareness at a time,
so we can
resolve unnecessary badgering.
This is a slow practice that requires patience.
Just like the weaving. It requires patience
and perseverance. It’s about taking your time.

I’d suggest thought-filled podcasts like the Vedic Worldview by Thom Knoles,
my ultimate teacher, for your listening pleasures.
Mixed in with a good comedy!!
I love The Moth.
All that we do brings about an abundance of reflection,
so keep them on the light,
joyful side.

03.01.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
Thursday Night Workshop
at Praxis Fiber Workshop in Cleveland, Ohio
Beginning Weavers of all Ages
Happy ending…!
(Sorry, 7 folks left before the final pic)

United in Creativity

The art of performing an action so it remains a joy,
is about bringing energy and intelligence into the space
and not allowing resistance to come into play in any way.

In that way, we receive the art of co-operation from everything.

The action must not become taxing to the ability.
We must have self-confidence, efficiency
and the ability to concentrate, so that
one feels no action is beyond our abilities.

It’s our true nature to be creative beings.
Anything done in accordance with the
nature of the mind, pleases it;
and anything done against its nature, displeases it.

Whenever we find ourselves caught in worry or taxation,
the energy of flow turns into
distrust and it immediately changes the outcome.

This week, I installed an 18′ weaving into a corporate facility.
Flew in on Monday and worked every day
for at least 10 hours a day, weaving it all together.

By Thursday, though exhausted,
I was energized, when leaving the job site to enter
the Praxis Fiber Workshop,
where I would teach weaving to 30 designers.

The energy in the space was upbeat and joyful.
When we are in that mind state,
the performance of any action will be joyful.
If the mood is miserable, tense or
people were worried about the outcome
or the anticipation of the outcome,
then any action will become a means of added tension.
And the outcome of the workshop
will be lost in anxiety and expectation.

If the mind is not in a natural state of happiness,
then no attempt to be joyful and happy,
while performing an action, will succeed.

Likewise, when first learning meditation.
If you have expectations for an immediate outcome,
and are anticipating that you should feel different right away,
you are hindering the ability to attain the joy-filled
outcome that will become you.
One must let go of trying to control the outcome
and go into your practice
with joy and reverence to the teaching.

Thrilled to see all of the amazing weavings that were produced
at the workshop.

(photo credit: Martin Crook, 2026)

02.22.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
Untitled new Kinetic Weaving 
Hand Details of weaving a prototype 
Shadow Effect 

Courage

New Weaving trials, using Recycled Dry cleaning hangers,
conjures for me what Anand Giridharadas describes as
‘The Forgotten Vanished Power’.
Listening to Ezra K’s interview with Anand regarding
Epstein and his Networks of Power, I can’t help but feel
so much Anger about how women (and so many others)
have been treated and hushed over the years.

Reticent to make the true parallels in my work, using
Dry cleaning Hangers to share the See/Saw effect of my
Sadness and Anger… Learning about so many years of abuse, and
watching women’s rights being stripped away and their
angry voices being ignored, infuriates me.

I realize my narrative of these weavings has been hidden behind
transformation of materials and a story of sustainability.
Where the truth underlying the work was not just creating
beauty with the discarded materials, but to build reminders
of what women have had to endure for years.

The use of the hanger… “No wire hangers, ever,” Faye Dunaway
screeched, portraying Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest… about
those who have lived with abusive unconscious parents…
The hanger as a device dangerously used to aid in abortions.
I can’t bear to read stories of this type in our day and age after,
yet again, women’s rights to abortion have been stripped away.

I realize, even after ten years of meditation, there is still
a residue of noise in my head when it comes to these subjects.
I can’t ignore it. I need to recalibrate. Breathe and Meditate.

A hallmark of a meditator is… we must not ignore what needs
to be changed.
I will continue to do my daily practice and will no longer hide
behind the making of beautiful things, to forsake the shadow
of what is actually being woven and the true story behind WHY
I weave with this material.

(photo credit: Martin Crook, 2026)

02.15.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
Shiny new meditators in
Houston, Texas!
Flowers from the first day of class.
Meditation Wrap dinner Party at MFAH special
private room at Le Jardinier,
Courtesy of SHAW and Patcraft,
honoring their Healthcare divisions.


“It’s a Wrap”

This past week, I was honored to be sponsored by
Shaw Contract and Patcraft’s Healthcare teams,
to teach their customers in Houston, Texas.
This is the third city I have traveled to for Shaw,
to share the knowledge and technique of a
timeless meditation practice that is so essential
for resetting our daily lives.

What a pleasure it is to teach this simple, natural, technique,
that has been taught for thousands of years
to hundreds of thousands
around the world.

From India a week prior, I dropped my bag, did my laundry,
kept my meditation going each day and meditated as much
as I wanted on all legs of travel. The benefits are no jet lag,
clear head, happy demeanor and optimum adaptation energy.
All from one simple technique.

Meditation is so relevant in these days of overthinking, over
stimulation, clocking too many computer hours, overuse,
shifts in design practices and understaffing.
All of these lead to the dulling of our mind, our clarity and
the simple joy in living, that seems unreachable.
And results in a stressed-being parent and partner.

Any time you feel stressed, you’ll have a myriad of
body sensations.
We actually don’t store stress in the mind.
We store it in the body.
So stress is a reaction.
In the 1930’s, Hans Selye, an endocrinologist,
defined stress as a body abnormality or imbalance,
caused by an overload of experience.
When we get overloaded, we get stressed.
We all have a certain level of adaptation energy,
which acts like a bank balance.
It goes up and down each day and it determines
whether we get stressed or not.
The one thing that can mitigate this stress tendency is rest.
There’s a one-to-one relationship between the two.
The quickest and easiest way to rest and reset
is to sit two times a day
in Vedic meditation.
Then the magic begins. Pure Creative Intelligence.

Thank you Houston, for your time and energy!

02.08.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com