Integral to Everything

(From the Flower Child’s Garden Planet:)

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little. Do what you can.” —Sydney Smith

The movement to address climate change is] about something deeper than [justice], it’s about solidarity. Human solidarity.” —Bill McKibben

The whole galaxy is watching. 

We are all here for the next test. 

Will the people of Earth prove they deserve to continue to run the planet, or, not. 

Do we have enough wisdom and will to rebalance?

Maybe..

We can, if we take the accrued wealth and know-how we have gained from converting the raw materials of the earth into wealth, and invest that wealth in ways of healing, renewing, and rebalancing. Rebuilding a world in harmony with nature is the only way we can keep this Earth Garden. 

If we exercise full integrity at every stage of production, from cradle to grave, as they say. 

If at every stage the product or service embodies the intention of full integrity, from beginning to end.

“We are living on the planet as if we have another one to go to.” —Terry Swearingen

But I mean really. 

Even when we buy locally and this and that, often we don’t realize that all those things we have been buying from far away, that we don’t make locally, are made with lower standards. 

That is on us.

We still love to get stuff that seems like a great bargain, but usually if you follow that back along the chain of production, the price is not cheap, just hidden.

“Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone else is paying.” —Lucy Siegle

I mean something like a goodwill tax on everything all the time everywhere, paid not only with money, but a shared sense of basic purpose.

 What I call “unitics;” what Charles Eisenstein calls “interbeing.”

“Every time you buy organic you are persuading more farmers to grow organic.” - unknown

We talk about socially conscious, or environmentally conscious, so we mean this and more. 

I mean trying our best, inspired from within, to be mindful voluntarily at every juncture, at every point of decision, even when no one is watching.

We agree to do this in goodwill, with the hope that together, we can turn the tide.

Is this possible?

I mean, probably not?

But it is the only way forward if we want to live in the beautiful world that is even this day vanishing before our eyes.

I wonder.

“If you really think the environment is less important than the economy try holding your breath while you count your money.” 

 -Dr. Guy McPherson

Sky Art

Magical Clouds

First, I make the art..

Next, I try to figure out what it means...

Today I have created for you, 

magical clouds!

Clouds mean sky.

Sky means air.

Air means what you cannot see, but you need.

Art means what you need to see.

I’ve got a new art installation. It’s about that half of the picture we usually ignore, the sky half. All day we obsess about all things worldly, all of the stuff and things of getting around, and doing what needs to get done, but in so neglecting the the other half of our reality, we are missing out.

Just even the ever changing painting that is our sky, is a glory to behold! Not only the colors of sunrise and sunset, but the drama of the great majestic day star dancing in and out from the clouds, the starry sparkle parade in the night, and the daily changing of the perfect moon. And then there are the rainbows...

So I celebrate the sky. I am Mountainskyrainbow. Sky is my middle name. First I did rainbow. Then, I did mountain. Now, I am doing sky.

Sky is an important arena where the problem of global warming and climate disruption are taking place too. Air is mostly sort of invisible to us, detectable by what it does, like moving the clouds around. So my newest unit of art is another modular, moveable, play-with-able, installation.

 About Sky.

You can play with the pieces, moons and suns and stars and clouds. Our thoughts are like air, invisible until their effects are seen in the way things are happening. Maybe people can dance a circle dance with the clouds; or a sun or a moon. 

What will happen with our worldwide climate emergency depends on how we change our thoughts, in the sky of our mind, including our shared implicit beliefs. Here on earth I wonder what the people will decide to do with the pieces in their hands now...

An afterthought to this piece: pieces! Each of us holds a piece of the commons, a right to stand under our common sky, a piece of the game of fixing the common ground. I make some game pieces, tokens. Tiny hand held sky shares. Pocket sized reminders of the job of the day.

I wonder when we will start taking care of our sky, our atmosphere, instead of scribbling on it like kids.

On Gold

Gold!

Gold, the metal, is not universally loved. Gold the metal has been the cause of countless disputes between humans because it is useful and rare, and because we have used it as money across the centuries. Plato warned that all the gold in the world was not worth exchanging for virtue. Kahlil Gibran calls pitiful those who turn their dreams into silver and gold. 

Gold the metal is not inherently all that valuable. The Spanish conquistadors were astonished that the American Indians used it casually and gifted it freely. Several Earth masses of gold are said to have been manufactured by an interstellar collision observed recently.

Mining gold usually creates a toxic mess.The  Rumplestiltskin story comes to mind when you see the cartoon image of a little fellow who is sitting on top of the world with a spinning wheel, proud he has spun all of the worlds’ resources into gold. “Now what do I do?” he wonders. 

In ancient Tibet, powdered gold is tossed to the wind as an offering of renunciation from worldly attachments. Many other holy places humans have built are adorned with the amber colored metal. Perhaps we wish to redeem the negatives associated with gold by donating it to the community place.

The malleability of gold, the metal,  gives it usefulness in creating so many of the accoutrements of modern life, including the device you are reading this on, which contains gold. Gold is the play dough of metals, soft, conductive, easy to use and form.

But we can’t quite dismiss the color, gold, as just another yellow. 

It shines! It reflects light plus it adds warmth. 

The connection to sunshine cannot be dismissed.

There is no denying the beauty of gold. 

Artists employ it to create a sense of beauty and grandeur, people have been banging it into adornments for the body practically forever, and it is a status symbol to use and possess.

My favorite source of the color gold is sun glitter, or the sunlight that is reflected on water. 

I love the golden diamonds sparkling in the morning dew. 

When something is of extraordinary value, we say it is as good as gold. 

A very glorious person is called “golden”.

Another symbolic meaning of gold is purification.

 Jesus tells his followers to get from him gold that has been “tried in the fire”, referring to the process of refining gold from ore by burning away all that is not gold.

Use gold to explore your feelings about wealth, attachment, royalty, sunshine, and beauty.

I wonder if and when we will ever return gold to its place of just being beautiful and useful.

Seeing Red

Seeing Red

"If you can't make it good, make it big. If you can't make it big, make it red." - an art joke, possibly by Paul Rand

Red is the original color. 

The first color that we humans tend to give a name to is red. 

Red is for beginnings. 

Red is basic.

Red is the longest wavelength of light we can see. 

Below this frequency, we begin to literally feel red, as heat.

“Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it's on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you've got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration.”   -Taylor Swift

Red gets our attention! Like when we are bleeding. Red is primal. Red feels close and physical. Red is decisive, proactive, and assertive. Red says comfort and security, but may also threaten aggression. Red seems to have universal appeal, appearing in every land in flags, costumes and traditions. Red is included in almost every color system, game, and model. It’s not the most visible color, that would be orange, yellow, or bright chartreuse. Red can stand for danger, warning. Red is a traffic stopper. Stop lights are red, and red is used in many road signs. But everyone notices that red is striking.

Red can mean sexy, red can stand for love, as in valentines. Pinks and purples can also be sexy or signify love, but red is more definitive, somehow more serious. 

Pink flowers are nice but red ones leave nothing to the imagination. 

Like sex, red is used extensively in advertising.

Red is an attractive food color, unlike blue, which is pretty much the worst color for food, unless it is used as a plate for contrast to make the food look more orange! 

Women tend more to like a red with more pink; men prefer a red with with more orange, but red is considered culturally acceptable for both to wear. A stereotypical woman may wear a red dress, a man might wear a red sports car or team uniform, but no one wants to be left out of red. 

Red and blue are the two most popular colors, with red being more emotional and blue being more cerebral. We currently call democratic majority states blue, and republican states red. Interestingly, brain scans show that liberals form their political opinions with their rational thinking mind, whereas conservatives are more emotionally influenced. Blue for cool calm decisions, red for hot feelings. But no matter what your political leanings may be, unless you are colorblind, we all respond to red.

You can use red light for illumination at night if you don’t want to lose your night vision because it won’t cause the pupils of your eyes to constrict as much as full spectrum light. But if you want to reduce your light exposure in the evening so your body won’t shut down its production of melatonin, red is not the actual best frequency to use, because red has a bit of blue.

The opposite of blue, orange light, is better.

I have noticed that red flowers tend to bloom in the heat of the summer, rather than at the edges of the blooming season, the spring or fall, when we see more yellow or purple flowers blooming.

Use red for feeling grounded, safe, confident, and strong. Make sure you want to get attention, because you will.

“More than any other color, red is loaded for action” -Robert Gen