Thoughts

Image: Fragility 
Made from recycled parchment
paper renderings and ‘Make It Right’
Pink Tent material from NOLA
saved from the landfill

The Mask we Wear

Vedic Meditation shines the light on who we 
really are, when we sit and do our daily 
practice. 
We tap into our True state of Being.
Every time. We tap into this quiet, restful place.
It’s natural, easy and simple.
The thing is… we can walk around for days, months, and years 
without knowing who we really are. 

Lately, I know for myself and many of you, we are feeling
out of sorts… Heated up.
Fragile from the constant stirring up of what we see.
Whether it’s
watching people lose their jobs, negotiations with other countries,
sadness, confusion and anger coming from Israel. 
Have you noticed Nature/Universe is mimicking 
what is happening below?  
“As Above, so Below; as Below, so Above.” 

I found something I wrote in 2015 about my fragile state of Being…
The Mask we Wear
“I am struggling with my role as a consultant and
business owner in the world of men. 
I feel strong and feminine. Proud of what I have accomplished
but in constant fear of repercussions.
I disguise who I am and how I feel, 
always a bit fragile and full of anxiety. 
What mask should I wear? Heels and a dress? A black
business suit and men’s shoes?”
Dressing more masculine made me feel stronger.
Deep inside, I felt fragile. 

Like this weaving with the tender parchment
paper, underneath remnants of a drawing.
Woven with the Pink tent material used in the ninth
ward in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. That was 2005.

I learned to Meditate, soon after I wrote this passage.

The Vedic Meditation practice allowed me to dissolve these deep-
seated feelings and embrace the feminine and 
masculine qualities I was so afraid of. 
To let myself BE. 
Allowing ourselves to feel fragile if we need to. 
Feel strong when we want to. 
Wear Makeup when it calls me. 
And create with materials both fragile and strong, to 
see and be aware of each creative process. 
Trying something new.

If you feel the desire to activate, there are ways
to be a part of a bigger collective.
Join Group Mediation.

And the following National Protest activities:
February 28th: Economic Blackout Protest-No Spending for 24 hours
March 7th-14th: No Buying from Amazon
Friday, March 14th: National Strike-No Work for 24 hours

02.23.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Torah Series Weaving 
Made from recycled Torah scroll
saved from the landfill
and dried parrot tulips coated with silicon

Seeing Beauty in Everything

The daily news can be excruciating. Creating
fear and anxiety in our nervous system with 
all of the unknowns.  
What is happening cannot be ignored. 
We must do all we can to support
ourselves and human(kind).
see #below.
And CREATE!
This is the reason to share beauty in everything
and to keep our physiologies upbeat.
And HYDRATED!

Happy Valentine’s Day!
A day not unlike every day, to share love with all.
Whether it’s flowers or Chocolates…
I share these flowers.

This Torah portion, Lev. 17-19 describes 
young women, cleanliness
and sexuality.
Where is the discussion of elder women?

Like what is happening in today’s climate—
lgbtq, immigrants, women’s rights,
you name it… could all be forgotten.

We all need to stabilize. 
The release of stress is physical.

Physical activity causes
mental activity.
It’s the quality of the stress that
structures the mood of the mind.

Mind can’t have a mood 
on an abstract basis.

If one is guided by thought,
then one is completely misled.

In meditation we release stress 
by not paying attention to all of those thoughts. 

So in our active state we can see clearly
the actions we want to take.

We don’t act on our thoughts that
arise during meditation.

When we want to act, we consider it 
on the level of commonsense afterwards.

CREATing beauty, of withered
and gorgeous remains,
symbolizes the beauty we all carry
within us. 
For wisdom will not be forgotten.

Let’s create, let’s act with stability.

#Free Arts NYC
#Arts for Art
#Lawyers for Good Government
#Glad Law 
#Transgender Law Center
#Earth Justice
#Center for Reproductive Rights

02.16.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Close up of Weaving commission started 8 months ago.
Made from recycled paper materials,
saved from the landfill
48″ h x 256″ w

Being Thinking Action

This woven sculpture started a year ago.

That’s 730 meditations ago, in terms of being a 
meditator with a 2 x a day practice. I can’t brag 
that I have never missed a practice, like David 
Lynch. RIP.  But I can say I have done at least
700 🙂 most years.
Like weaving, meditation helps us in the stabilization
of our nervous system.
Our world needs to stabilize.
Let’s start with ourselves.

Everything comes in layers.
Especially weaving.
In Meditation, there is no getting
around or ahead
of it without doing the practice.

The layer of Being, in weaving parlance,
is the foundation. For this weaving…
It’s the frame, the warp and the weft. 
The Being layer is who we truly are, in our
least excited state.

The thinking layer is based on Being.
In order to think, we have to be conscious.

In the creative weaving process, thinking is
the selection of each weft strand and weave
structure that will make up the piece.
Without that, there wouldn’t be a piece of art.

Happiness comes from our direct contact with Being.
If our Being is stable, our thinking will be stable.
If we are not truly thinking about the active part
of our lives, 
we are simply Reacting to what’s happening, without 
awareness of what we are thinking.
This happens when we are filled with stress. We
are unaware of the stress that we 
hold onto.
In the weaving process, this happens when
we don’t take our time to build and make each
layer work as one together. We aren’t organized.
Like our thoughts…
they become jumbled and we can’t focus. 
We become messy and distracted.

As we integrate a stable Being with the thinking layer,
our thinking becomes
clearer and more creative.
And from that, our action becomes more
effective.
These layers, like the weaving, cannot be independent
entities. 
The active layer in this weaving is the 
grand texture that is added as the last
process. 
Like the last Active layer in
this weaving… it becomes the true Being 
of the work. Like ourselves.
I simply had to take the 
time to make the strands long enough,
to create the texture that creates the 
essence of what is.
Like meditating… We take the time to 
integrate our Being our thinking and
our actions.
So the outcome is what we want in our lives…
Our true sense of Being.

02.09.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Weaving from recent India trip entitled
”Ganga, Jan. 2025”, woven from recycled paper strips.

Lila = a play or divine story

You can’t make up what we hear, feel and see 
each day in our world news.  These days, many
meditators find it harder and harder to
simply sit and do their practice and get
to that state of Samadhi=no mantra/no thoughts
because of the theatrics going on all 
around us.
It feels more interesting to interrogate our
selves with watching the actions of others that
create their own narrative/story, which reminds me
of Epic dramas like Ramayana or 
Mahabharata. Or passages of Exodus,
with Moses and Pharaoh negotiating for
food and the first born sons.

The thing is… every time we sit to meditate, we
reset our Dharma. 
Dharma is our true sense of Being. 
If you are feeling lackluster… It’s best to get to
your practice.  2 times a day.  Simple and Easy.
Our Dharma is in 
constant flux… it’s dynamical.
We want to rid our core of the detritus we 
accumulate in our day to day activity.
So we meditate to clear our minds; we 
feel settled and happy.

Like Weaving… Each time I sit down at the loom
or work on a piece of art,
my Being is reset and I learn something new. 
It brings me joy.

This past trip to India was more challenging
than any other trip I have taken.
Maha Kumbh Mela was eye opening, beautiful in
many ways and intense by sheer numbers.
As I ponder what
divine story the trip held for me,
along with this weaving woven at
the side of the great Ganges, I see our lives
are plays. Stories to be told. The more we activate our
lives with our least excited state (meditation) and
our active eyes open state, the more  
Lila Shakti = Play Power we have, 
to enjoy our lives and to tell our stories.
Creativity is a prime product of our practice.
Let’s Activate that.

02.02.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Image from a new commission for an 8′ X 52″ woven recycled
dry-cleaning hanger strip weaving.  To be installed in February.

Meditation is the incubation of our brain.
It’s the perfect prototype for Creativity.
Have you ever read a book (or watched a movie)
for the second time and realized that
you hadn’t understood or caught what you
were reading and the second time around
you totally get it?

Creative processes are made up 
of examining problems. 
Our twenty minute twice-a-day meditation practice
allows the brain to subtly examine the problem. 
In our practice, we forget the problem and 
let go of all of our thoughts.
Truly… we can all let go of our thoughts!

In this incubation phase, comes illumination.
Somewhere a wellspring of our consciousness
solves the problems.  

I recognize this every time I begin a new weaving.  
While I have been weaving with recycled dry cleaning
hangers for 15 years, 
each time I begin a new weaving, the processes
and technique, concentration and my abilities
are stronger and
more resolute.
After 8 years of meditation,
Life, working, relating and
the weaving process becomes simpler. 
It feels like a light bulb goes on and I’m at ease
and happier. 
Like rereading a book. The clarity is much stronger.
And each strip that comes off the loom
is more beautiful than the last.
The difference is the meditation practice that I now 
live with. 

The restful quality of this practice gives
way to creative stimulation. 
Like a stone creates a gentle ripple in a serene pond, 
our daily choices can send waves of positivity into the universe.  
Our daily practice, settling the brain to incubate,
gives way for creativity, clear thinking,
a happy heart and to stabilize, illuminate
and permeate all that we touch.

01.26.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com