Thoughts

Hoping you all had a peaceful day of giving Thanks!

Being with family always gives me a quick check up 
on how my nervous system has evolved. 
Thinking about the concept of “who am I” coming 
into the lives of my brother’s family and reframing 
it to “what am I” feels a lot more like how I want to feel.
 
Who am I feels so separate, almost
defensive;  what am I, feels more contented.
If I can stay in that field of Being 
the observer of all things going around me. 
Then I can be of service to others and 
be of the most help. 

I stepped into my nephew’s room, who was 
home visiting too, and was thrilled to see
the vastness of
his collection of shoes. @samtick_footwear
Some he made — prototypes
that were brought to market, some
never destined to be on the market.
Others, he simply liked and collected. 

I was struck by the vast personalities of each shoe.
Each with their own unique nervous system. 
It sent me looking for a favorite passage in Alistair Shearer’s book: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 
he writes: 
”According to yoga, we suffer because
we live in ignorance. We are ignorant of our real nature.
Our true nature lies beyond the restrictions of
our careworn and humdrum existence,
ecstatically free and untouched by suffering.
Deep within the mind, beyond the faintest
flicker of thought, it is experienced as an
undying and omnipresent vastness. 
It is absolute consciousness.
Animating everything in creation,
this is the source and goal of all life… 
The more developed the nervous system,
the more it will express the qualities of pure
consciousness—intelligence, creativity, and bliss.”

Recognizing this year feels different than any 
other year of visiting, I am left with 
this quote
by T.S. Elliot
”We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” 

Giving thanks to all of you that 
are curious and in my life.
Sharing our lives together
growing and expanding
is the absolute best.

12.01.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

I had rested with this small stainless steel woven
foundation for a bit, until I realized
I was going to run out
of the special metal fiber I had acquired in 
Paris. I was there some ten years ago. The fiber
was awaiting the perfect piece.
So I pulled it all apart this week to start afresh.  
I have saved the metallic thread to 
cast it in another direction for this ground weave.
A 3+1 twill, the strongest weave, that
Levi Strauss has used 
for years in their jean structures.  

Recognizing the concept to stop ignoring
the inevitable, I needed to redirect this project.  
Like life, and some dark laden relationships.  
We must recognize if propositions, friendships,
products, weave structures are failing, then best to 
redirect your energies onward before the Used
by Date gets you.  
Building a strong foundation for 
friendships and for weavings
(at least in my life) never ends.  
It’s the style of relating to find 
fulfillment and fullness that changes and we are 
looking for.  
A better way to relate.  A better use
of the materials at hand.
Couldn’t help but recognize the strength 
of the number 3 + 1 here.
A point for discussion.
As nature teaches us we are always evolving
so, let go of the ever-repeating known and 
take action in a new direction if you are at
a point of no return…

11.24.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

These pastel portraits were drawn by my grandmother,
Annette Sayler.  
Gingi, as we called her, worked at the local photography gallery,
where she spent her time coloring black and white portraits with pastels. 
She grew up in rural Illinois on a farm and moved to
the city to work and take evening classes
at Illinois Wesleyan.
This was when models would come to sit so artists could practice 
on coloring portraits. 

What a batch of Beings found in the box of my
parents’ home. 
All pastel portraits carefully housed in their own plastic sleeves.
The colors are stunning and pure.
Each Being is a unique blueprint of consciousness
embedded in their own physiology and recognized thru their eyes.
The eyes, the entry point to the brain. 

These days we can barely get a glimpse of peoples’ eyes. 
They are so transfixed on their cell phones.  
Or too anxious and uncomfortable to take the time for a long
healthy conversation.  
Favoring texting.
Expanding one’s awareness can be difficult,
as problems are consciousness states that don’t know how to 
use all of the resources before them. 
Connection with ourselves, with our art, with our
friends is so important.
Settling the nervous system is key to gaining knowledge.
Knowledge has organizing power.
The mind
creates a solution field
if given access to these subtle states of awareness from meditation. 
What can we do to be perceptive and have capabilities
of comprehending what is going on at any 
given time?  Meditate. Come to group practice. And then Take action. 
Create a Solution Field.  
Be aware. Be yourself. Be Bold.
Be the blueprint of what 
you want to be.  
Enjoy this very powerful Full Moon about to come
over the horizon in NYC.
This is the time to build inner strength for the winter. 

11.17.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

This week I must have received a half dozen
messages from friends with the same heartwarming message
from ‘the’ Toni Morrison. 
It reads like this:  

This is PRECISELY the time
when artists go to work. 
There is no time for despair,
no place for self-pity,
no need for silence,
no room for fear. 
We speak, we write…
That is how civilizations heal. 

So this week, in the midst of the turmoil, I refrained from
the news, social media; and I taught, I wove,
I responded to friends,
I took a class, I collaborated with a friend,
I listened to Thom Knoles podcasts, I colored, 
I selected fabrics for the Teknion showroom. 
I entertained and cleaned out closets. 
And this morning at 7:30 a.m. 
I helped a friend in need.

Recognizing what the need of the time is, helps
iron out the difficulties. Keeping in a good-spirited
Creative mode, enhances all that we do.
Being awake and doing what feels charming,
is essential.

What I didn’t do was sink into a dark hole
of despair over the what ifs?? 
Recognizing that all that is happening
is an evolutionary process, that I may not understand
at this moment… but will soon come to 
realize why the change is happening.  
It has been heartbreaking to hear how much despair
there has been in our collective. 
Now is the time to help each other.

stay light, be light  

We will continue to activate our creativity through
our twice a day practice. 

11.10.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

“Golden Rule” the name of this Weaving,
seems apropos to share for these last few days
before the election.
It is woven with yellow happy face mylar balloons
found on the beaches here on Fire Island
and golden mylar balloons from celebrations
of friends, that I’m the thankful recipient,
for producing my weavings.
I love embedding moments of celebration
into my weavings.
It gives the weavings their own consciousness.

This morning I woke up to the golden glow
of the sky just before sunrise.
Yellows and Golds.
Yellow the color of Optimism and Golden,
as in the rule, outlines:
treating others as they would like to be treated
and/or asking people not to treat others
in ways that they would not enjoy being treated,
…comes to mind…
as I observe behaviors so amplified
by the fear of the unknown outcome of what this election will bring.

In the Vedic Meditation community
we have been discussing with fellow meditators,
how important, especially at this time,
to not miss our twice a day practice.  
If you have a meditation practice, no matter what kind…
Let’s help the collective consciousness of our
community to keep the rising heat
of the collective down and do our part in
lessening the madness.

We survive to the extent that we change.  
You live inside the consciousness you are in.
There are 5 elements of Progressive Change.

The first is Stability – complete inner contentedness.
and the fifth is A Willingness to Grow.
With Entheos which is the root of the English word “enthusiasm”.
This state of consciousness has a most
optimistic approach to everything that holds supreme.  

We see these traits in Kamala! 

Please VOTE
Please Meditate!
Please treat all as you would like to be treated.

We will discuss all five elements
of Progressive Change and meditate together…
and hold room for all to share and learn from.
Life is golden.

11.03.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com