Saturday, November 27, 2010

What's the buzz?

What's the buzz?, Garden patio, Böblingen, Germany, August 2010,
Panasonic DMC-ZS7, Focal length 4.1mm, Exposure 1/640 sec @ f5.4, ISO 100, with flash
© Steven Crisp  [Click on the photo to enlarge]

Are you keeping up? You know, all that buzzing sound you hear? Are you plugged into it? You wouldn't want to miss a beat, right?

Well, here's the thing. When you step back, and see where all that buzzing is coming from, it's not from our friend here, but rather from the media, social networking, and good old-fashioned gossiping. Talking up who's right and who's wrong. Making sure you are suitably outraged by the talking-point that someone created that morning. Or, sadly, perhaps just giving into our fears and propagating their "advertisement".

You know that's what it is, and also what it is not. It's not deep understanding, calm reflection, or diving below the surface to find the substance of the story. Instead, it's superficial, here today / gone tomorrow, emotion-provoking, lizard-brain reactivity.

So choose your sources wisely. Tune out any that are not adding to the depths of your own personal insights. If you have begun to find that ever-present wisdom, and these hot-topics and themes are not resonating, trust your instincts. Tune them out, turn them off, and unsubscribe from those that do not have your sincere interests at heart.

And then you will be able to tune into the beauty and wonder of the everyday just this-ness of our world.

And that is something that will give you a very nice buzz.

Friday, November 26, 2010

The world goes round and round

Round and round, Frankenhöhe Nature Park, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, October 2010,
Panasonic DMC-ZS7, Focal length 4.1mm, Exposure 1/30 sec @ f3.3, ISO 125, with flash
© Steven Crisp  [Click on the photo to enlarge]

Do you ever feel as though you are going round and round in circles? Covering the same ground, the same issues, and having a hard time seeing forward progress? I've come to observe this largely as a matter of perspective. Sometimes one needs to step back from the situation and have a look at the bigger picture.

One could say that after thousands of years of civilization, and millions of years of evolution, we still find ourselves repeatedly stymied by wars and poverty and inequality. Yes, that's true. But at the same time, here's what I also see ...

I see a world growing more interconnected than ever before, with the internet, cellular phone service, on-demand video, and safe travel options, providing the opportunity for disparate cultures to meet and learn from one another. We even have some rudimentary tools, right here on Google, to help us translate between many foreign languages.

I see our own culture shifting, imperceptibly at first, but then before you know it, reaching a tipping point, and moving us leaps and bounds away from pervasive smoking, drinking and driving, homophobia, and the like. This is really remarkable when you recall the massive political, corporate, and religious hurdles that needed to be overcome. I thik it bodes well for many of our other sticky problems.

Oh sure, you might feel we might be turning backward from this month's mid-term elections (or finally turning around to where we belong ;-) But really, these are only the turnings of a small cog in the machine called Life.

Step back. Take a deep breath. And focus on all that is beautiful and wonderous and joyful in your life and all around you.

Painting with my pixels

Painting with pixels, Harz Mountains, Werigerode, Germany, October 2010,
Panasonic DMC-ZS7, Focal length 5mm, Exposure 1/30 sec @ f3.4, ISO 800, no flash,
heavily post-processed with iPhoto, © Steven Crisp  [Click on the photo to enlarge]

What is creativity?

Creativity is a spiritual spark. It results in the creation of something where there was nothing before.

That's magical stuff. An offering, if you like, to the world.

So much of our lives are spent as middle men ... moving papers from this pile to that ... or regurgitating other people's ideas and original thoughts.

There's not much heart in that.

So it is time to reclaim some space for creativity. It may not be much of an offer, but all that matters is that is your offer, from the heart.

And I hope to find that space, each day, to be able to create (or at least capture) just a little bit of beauty from this most amazing world.