About Meditation

I drove to Melbourne & back today and enjoyed listening to 3 of my new CDs. Takk by Sigur Ros, Tooth of the Crime by T-Bone Burnett and Wenn Der Sudwind Weht by Rodelius. While driving I contemplated Christian meditations as I understand it. The idea is to bring you into the present moment so that in God's mysterious way you can be ministered to. By taking it into the rest of life I find that when I set out too I can then live life now, notice the information that the senses are bringing me and let them enrich my life. The shapes of the clouds, the taste & texture of my food. To actually notice them and appreciate the experience. When I am not in the present moment I am usually reliving some past regret or fantasising about some ideal future, but this is not really life. Except that in reality we need the past present and future and I think that I deal with past and future too often because through memory and fantasy I can control what happens in them. I shouldn't forget the past or lose hope for the future, but I should live now.

Practising meditation teaches me the tools and discipline to live now and enjoy God's presence now. In Melbourne I went to Kensington and visited Arion. I cleaned out the gutters and took some length of doors so that they would shut. I came back with lots of stuff for the Op-Shop.

Actual Paint on Paper

Today I worked on putting actual paint onto a painting after working out some colour previously on the computer in Gimp. I started some other work on another painting, but it seems a bit premature to put it here. It is as usual interesting to see the photo as opposed to the reality because the blue stands out better for me in the photo. It brought me to think that I should knock back the black, but now, no.

Cursillo Three Days

Athena and I are just back from a Cursillo. The first time that Men's and Women's have run concurrently. It went well, but of course we were exhausted by the end. Before it started we had to celebrate Selene's birthday, which actually occurred while we were on the Cursillo, but since for her, the whole universe revolves around her birthday we had to celebrate it on Saturday. A day early. We had a good time at the Sale Centre Cafe. Then she milked her birthday for all it was worth on Sunday. She managed to get three cakes at the three services at the Cathedral. So she enjoyed all that. We are now back at home.

Drawing

When I'm away from the studio pens, pencil and highlighters seem to work together well.

Trip Journal Finished

This week I finished our holiday journal, which is an agglomeration of diary entries, photos, pamphlets, tickets etcetera. When we get home from holidays it always constrains the getting back to painting because I know that if I don't devote time to the trip journal it will end up as a box of stuff gradually loosing coherence as the memories of the events go out of focus. So now it is done. I am not quite free though as for the next little while there is another thing to do, but at least it has a finite time limit. And after that there will be the printings of the paper. There are so often commitments that interfere with what I'd like to do, however I know that fitting things in around commitments gives time a structure that is in the end satisfying. Lack of structure seems to lead to a sort of dazed paralysis of self indulgence that isn't very satisfying. So I look forward to the frustrations and joys of putting paint on paper.

I wish the weather would change

This morning when I dared to leave the house I soon wished I hadn't. It was cold! After yesterdays delight it was a reminder that the heat is still a way off. I look forward to a time when I can consistently stay in touch with my fingers and toes in the weather.

Aprose

I don't claim to write poetry so I write aprose or in my mind emaciated prose. I was going through my journals and found this religious piece.

Waves of sadness

Peals of joy

Tears etched in my soul

Delight suffusing me

Silent sobs wrack my body

I turn and fold all into you

Your grace

Your love

Your hope

Is sufficient

Is all

Fears and Anguish

A new Federal Government has now been decided with the majority of the independents siding with the Labor Party. I'm glad it's over. I'm glad it's not the Liberal National Party in Government largely because of their opposition to the National Broadband Network and serious dealing with climate change. I think that the NBN is a bit risky but the indications are that it gives our economy more flexibility to respond to the future and industries that are only dreams now. Also I have an unease about wireless broadband with its spewing of radio waves through the environment. There may be no effects or there may be no visible effects, but I'm sure that the broad range of ecologies haven't been tested for its effects. What has happened to bird populations? And I do remember years ago hearing how radio jamming can happen kilometres from where the radio waves were generated, innocently, in unpredictable ways that show how effects cannot be completely predicted.

Then to climate change or not so much climate change as our use of the earth resources. Who are we kidding? This should be about future generations and their opportunity to live decent lives. At the moment we are over using resources and destroying the ecosystem that we live in and are afraid of taking some pain for the future of our nation. How selfish! I don't think the Labor really has the courage to risk making the radical decisions that we need made, but at least they are not running away as quickly as the Liberal National coalition.

Another thing that is always in the back of my mind with the Coalition is their work place relations policy. I know that Tony Abbott says that Work Choices is dead, but it doesn't take that much to rejig the policy and rename it, then claim it's something different. Especially when ideologically many in the Coalition support the theory of it and have only dropped it to be electable. Of course I also remember the Kennett Liberal Government in Victoria. I know 2 people who lost $100 a week when he deformed the award system.

Enough emotional intensity. I'll go now.

A Drawing

Painting plus Computer

I played with the paintings in Gimp.

Starting on a new 'thing'

I started work on a new painting/exploration today. It's in albumin tempera on the wrappers from A3 photocopy paper taped together to make a surface 1200mm x 1000mm. So far just black and white and the brown of the gum tape with white over it. My next step is to play on the computer to see what I think about colour. Working on the wrapping paper is about trying to not get to precious and be a bit freer, but in my experience this doesn't really work because once a work gets its own persona it doesn't like the idea of being temporary or an experiment.