Thoughts

Top Image: Mockup weavings for the doors of an ark for
Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas
Bottom image: The Stern Chapel by Cunningham Architects

Looking for Signs

This week, a friend sent me a screenshot
of a project in Dallas.
The weaving on the ark, that was completed years ago, was shown by Cunningham Architects.
Entitled A Light Spanned, the Weaving reflected
a rainbow.
Perhaps Moses’ first
cognition of a larger self. 
Who doesn’t look at a rainbow and think it’s a sign?

I notice we are all looking for signs.  
To distract us from the unknown and perceived
stress that activates our reactivity.

The fact that my friend sent this image was a signal.  
It compelled me to look this project up,
where I found these beautiful mockups.
SNAP
Moments later, I had a call with a new
client to discuss her project.
I explained that I would weave her 
a mockup, so she could see how 
her piece would be woven.

Searching for a signal…
What is happening in our country,
the world, our Earth and our celestial? 
We are evolving.
Countries are supporting
each other. Standing up for themselves. 
That’s a sign. 
Politics are about money.
Like the waves on Fire Island… some winters, they give and some winters, they take. 
We all wonder what will be there 
when we return.

Why can’t you sleep?  Perhaps it’s this
Full Moon/
Lunar Eclipse. 
Awareness that signs are in abundance.
Awareness that connections
are happening constantly, becomes
routine in meditators.

It was a wonderful week of corollaries from
new students just learning how to meditate.
An immediate connection with how the meditation
releases stress, held deeply in our physiology. 
How our inward inner peace makes space for 
outward creative intelligence.
How sleeping after the 3rd day of learning to meditate 
felt easier.  
Students are asking if this had to do 
with the practice. 
Heck Ya!  
When stress is released from our bodies,
we sleep better.
All signs that the meditation is working.

How thinking about an old friend or weaving
will yield a connection, to samples and friends you hadn’t seen or heard from for years. 

If you are looking for a sign…
Sign up for meditation classes 🙂 

03.16.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Alphanumeric, 2024
Lord, Abbett & Co. Headquarters
Sheath core Warp
100 pages of shredded Lord, Abbett 1980s ledger paper
40 Recycled Mylar Balloons
1,200 Recycled Dry Cleaning hangers
detail photography by Carolina Madrigal
Thank you, HLW 

The Importance of Oscillation

It’s a wrap!!
Alphanumeric for Lord, Abbett & Co. 
Weaving is my art. Each weaving reflects the consciousness at the time of connection with the client.
I love the collaboration of coming up with the correct piece for the space. And collecting the detritus.
Looking closely, you can see the typeface from the 1980s!
A time of abundance. Discarded ledger paper.

Their employees collected the 1,200 dry cleaning hangers;
and the company colors are green and blue, from used Mylar Balloons.
A perfect mixture. A perfect collaboration,
to create a wonderful weaving of texture and whimsy.
Oscillating from tight weaves to textures of loopy paper.
A place for the company to talk to new employees about their sustainability mission.

Weaving, like all art, tells a story.
Where was I, when I got the call 
to ask if I would consider weaving a piece
for this company?
What detritus will this company have,
to make a meaningful piece that will speak
to sustainability and the environment, 
to which we so need to attend?

I was in a transition phase in my life.
I was oscillating about my work/life next steps. 
This call was the unambiguous sign, telling me
to take the step away from the day-to-day 
work I had been doing for 43 years and
try something new.  
But, but, but… What if it doesn’t work out??

The thing is, the support of Nature is always
around. We simply are not in the state of mind
to see it, hear it and feel it. 
This is the beauty of our meditation practice. 
Above all else, it quiets the persistent chatter. 
The negating thoughts that keep us from 
truly realizing what we want to do next.
The questioning and oscillation between the
big insecurities/big resistance rub up against… 
Just do it! See what happens.

This is the path that we feel comfortable taking
after becoming a meditator.  
The meditation stabilizes our thoughts and nervous system.
Making way to follow the direction of
what feels charming.
Letting go of all the doubts.

Don’t worry about your small thinking; it 
makes way for big thinking. 
Nature is searching; it does not discriminate. 
Something we all desire.

03.09.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Recycled Dry-Cleaning Hangers
woven on Sheath Core Metallic
warp for a Private Collector
day shot
night shot

Progressive Change

Each time I weave, my skills get refined 
and I learn something new.
Something new about myself, about my craft,
about human nature.
 
Like each time we meditate. We are signaling
to ourselves an acceleration of our evolution and
an expansion of our awareness,
which we call consciousness.
Or our true BEING.
In our active state, out of meditation, we signal
to ourselves the attributes of progressive change. 
We start recognizing how Stable we are,
How Adaptable we have grown, How we Integrate
more and more things into our waking active state.
We feel the Purification from our practice. Refinement 
occurs, with a Perpetual Willingness to grow. 

I learned so much at the installation this week in CA, 
which coincided with teaching
the 4-day Vedic Meditation course. 
I learned that
Each installation brings 
about Adaptation energy.
When asked if it was stressful? My reply was,
“yes, a bit, but each time I meditate, I release acquired stress 
from an overabundance of expectation that I put on 
myself”.
Giving me the adaptation energy that I need, to think clearly
and move through the installation process…

Let me answer another inquiry from
this week… Is Stability an ongoing process?
Yes! Each meditation we root ourselves. 
Like watering a plant.
We never stop refining, stabilizing and purifying. 

Our roots of stabilization bring
more growth.
Let this simple, natural, innocent practice do its magic. 
And see how you BEcome your true nature.
Morning Meditation 20 min.
Evening Meditation 20 min.
each feel different.
Like the weaving!

AND YES, IT’S SIMPLE TOO—That 
was the third question this week.
“You aren’t doing anything wrong;  
it’s meant to be simple, natural and innocent.”

03.02.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

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