Tag Archives: gift

June 15, 2018 · 2:47 pm

You Give Me Fervour

Fervour – Word of the Day

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When the bush comes alive it is with fervour! The colour is rich and varied, the smell is glorious, the hum of insects and the sound of birds is divine. We are currently in winter here, this was taken a few years ago in spring in the eastern wheatbelt after the rains had been the best for a number of years. Hoping the rains are good this year so that we get a repeat of these wildflowers.

Seasons come and go, in order, and generally predictable. But our personal inner seasons are nothing like that. I’ve had long internal winters which have given rise to colourful, intense springs of growth. I’ve had long summers of basking in joy and contentment. I’ve had autumns where transition and change have prepared me body, mind and soul for new experiences. They never come in order, they are never fixed in duration, they are unpredictable. If they were, then life would be dull.

Our inner seasons are indicative of our lived reality, the stuff of relationships, love, joy, pain. It is the complexity of body, mind and soul as a receptor of a multiplicity of experiences. It is gift and loss. It is the giddyness of aspiration, and the sober nature of graft and heft. It is our senses open and engaged. None are negative. Winter is essential, a season of withdrawing, waiting, refreshing, washing, grieving gives way to spring. Winter waters spring. As we befriend our inner winters, we become wiser, integrated, stronger for the journey. Without rain there is no blossom, no juice. As we rejoice in our summers we store up memories that give back to us over a lifetime. Each season is lived and embodied, a respository of awareness. Nothing is lost. Each one gives me fervour, fervour for life, love and purpose.

Currently I’m in an autumnal time of reflection and revision and I’m seeking that next step into spring. I wonder where you are at?

dark clouds surround 
the rain falls inside of me
cherry blossom glows

©Paul Cannon

Paul,

pvcann.com

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May 7, 2018 · 2:42 pm

The Happy Flaunt

via Daily Prompt: Flaunt

The Satin Bowerbird a video by Eliot Burch (via YouTube) an intense and class act, flaunting his bower, and using his wiles to attract a mate.

As humans we do that a bit, we engage a person and flaunt ourselves in various ways, our humur, intelligence, sexy looks, wealth maybe, some talent we may have, power and more. Flaunting is signalling to others – look at me. And we do. There’s that old saying, “If you’ve got it flaunt it.” But in this age we have learned that flaunting wealth is certainly crass (though many still do it), flaunting power is vulgar (though some still do it), and flaunting our sexiness may, sadly,  be misjudged.

In this age of #Me Too we are reminded of the delicate balance between signalling “Look at me” to (mostly) women being at risk of sexual harassment, worse, assault. Modern pornography (not to be confused with the erotic or an appreciation of the human form) has reduced women and men to mere functionary objects, to the point that they are simply a function of their genitals. Surely this is an abuse? Objectification leads to consumption, and we sexually consume those we sexually objectify. Objectification is also a power exchange in which the object has no power, whoever is objectified is used, positioned, directed and consumed. I don’t have a definitive opinion on sex dolls, but the mere fact they can be bought is further proof of the reduction of the real person to an object.

#Me Too, which had its origins in 2007, was coined by Tarana Burke who was using the phrase to promote empowerment through empathy for women of colour. In 2017 Alyssa Milano encouraged the use of the phrase as a hashtag on Twitter. Both have had a powerful community impact, and for the better, though I think we have a long way to go to undo and prevent further occurrences of sexual harassment.

Another protest from women has been around the manner of dress, that a sexy look, or a provocative or flaunting look does not equal consent to sex. Flaunting shouldn’t lead to being drugged and raped (as has happened in some cases) or sexually touched, or verbally assaulted. Women and men are not sexual disposable objects, they’re not to be used and thrown away. Soemhow we need to get back to being people and to sex as mutual embodied experience, and as invitation not as right.

I hope men and women still flaunt, its refreshing and pleasant, there’s something beautiful about the human form as Renoir, Gauguin, D.H. Lawrence, Robert maplethorpe, and Anais Nin would testify to, but I hope we can encourage that as a safe and natural behaviour devoid of power and abuse. Flaunting isn’t an invitation to objectify and use and abuse, it is simply a gift for the eye and heart to treasure. The invitation may come.

Paul,

pvcann.com

 

 

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February 26, 2018 · 2:10 pm

New Eyes

via Daily Prompt: Imagination

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It’s known as Cathedral Rock (Windy Harbour), I get it, it’s quite large, it reaches skyward, spire-like. It was clearly someone’s imagination, and I get to share in that a little. However, if inclined, I can use my own imagination and come to my own sense of this rock, I thought of it as The Leap, the rock in the water having already done that.

I have met people who claim they have no imagination, or they only have a limited imagination. Initially I react to that with sadnness, but I question their premise. I think they have not had the encouragement, and probably the opposite in fact, to explore their capacity to imagine.

My imagination was given free reign. My mother indulged me in imaginative ways. She made cardboard castles and forts with working drawbridges (it’s amazing what bobbins and string can do), she taught me to imagine that my toys were real in the play moment, the cars, the plastic farm set, the soldiers, the trains. The best gift to my imagination was that mum read to me and taught me to read very early.

Reading took me to other worlds, and worlds I could extend, or place myself in. The Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island, Pirates and Amazons, The Secret Seven, all fueled my mind and my play and creativity. These gave way to Asimov, Tolkien, CS Lewis, Donaldson, Moorcock, Rowling and more. Best of all were the poets from Donne to Oliver, and music, of course. It flowed out into writing, poetry, painting and more that I have passionately engaged. Imagination gave me new eyes, a different view. Which reminds me of one of my favourite quotes, which is related:

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”  Marcel Proust

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December 21, 2017 · 3:30 pm

Miracle of life

via Daily Prompt: Miraculous

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Our precious friends the trees are nature’s great miracle. They give us oxygen in a carbon exchange, they water pump and transpire, they keep salts at bay, hold soils in place, give shelter to all life, are a habitat for many living things from spores and parasites, to insects, birds, mammals, and more, trees together also provide cool air, and they provide a rich resource for each generation when cared for. Really they are a gift that keeps on giving, miraculous, and without them we are doomed.

Although not perfect, some Oak and other species forests of Europe, Britain, and Russia have been intentionally managed over several centuries, whereas in Asia, the Americas, and Africa, deforrestation has been merciless. The ancient celts venerated trees as special participants in community, where ther ewere trees there was life, and the gods were said to appear in the groves which were ‘Thin places’ (places where the spirit world comes close to us). The first nation peoples have long advocated for the preservation of forests, their ancient wisdom knowing about erosion, salinity, polution, and imbalance when trees were disregarded.

Neil Young’s song ‘Comes a time’ and the line, “it’s a wonder tall trees ain’t layin’ down.” It was a rhetorical question.

But more pointedly, ‘Silent Spring’ (Silent Spring  ) by Rachel Carson sets us in our place environmentally. In regard to the preservation of life, the value of ecology and relationaship with nature, Carson made it clear we were heading in a disastrous direction, we were poisoning nature and thereby killing ourselves. The miracle of life that is a tree needs us to play our part in safeguaring the miraculous contribution they make, or they will be laying down.

The photo is one I took a few years ago of one of our Karri forests called Boranup, which means place of the Dingo (which have not been here for well over a century). Karri trees are our tallest trees (shorter than a Redwood), and these are a regrowth forest, on land reclaimed from strip logging and farming. it is a beautiful place to just be.

Paul,

pvcann.com

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September 26, 2017 · 1:35 pm

Focussed

via Daily Prompt: Focused

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I’m focussed on orchids. Cowslip Orchids, native to Western Australia, not endangerd overall, but under pressure where they are adjacent to urban areas. Saw these on a recent trail walk, there were many along the trail which is heartening, and the moths that help pollination were out in force, so some hope for regeneration.

When posting about orchids here it is really important to not give any details of your find, why? Because there are people who will go and dig them up, or take them as cut flowers. Which is counter productive because many Australian native plants are not easily transplanted, and most orchids won’t transplant, so to move them at all is just destructive. And to cut them is to kill them off. Sadly there are those who try (which happened several times where I live). Others will trample all over them just to get a shot of the one they want. It is very competetive, especially the endagered ones (no acounting for ego). There are such people. I really live in hope that orchids and their habitat will be a focus for protection by city councillors and workers all over the state, rather than the devastating rush to put concrete over every blade of grass.

If only we could learn from our indigenous peoples – that we must care for habitat, it is our friend and it is entrusted as gift. The gift is to enjoy not destroy, so that others can share in it too. Habitat, ecosystems, are vital to the web of life, surely they are worth more than ego or money? Surely they count in their own right? What we focus on matters!

Paul

pvcann.com

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