”Reflejo de Luna‘‘ by Alacrán, a Latin group (Ignacio Egaña, Fernando Arbex, Oscar Lasprilla). The words to this tango are: Eres color / Eres calor / Eres sonido en mi corazon / Manos de luz / Reflejo de Luna; which, translated into English are: You are colour / You are warmth / You are sound in my heart / Hands of light / Reflection of the moon.
There are many videos of this song Tango Santa Maria by Gotan Project as well with visuals. You can see the musicians playing it in this extended version: Gotan Project – Santa Maria (HD,1080) “Live” from La Revancha Del Tango (2005). The words: Hay milonga de amor / hay temblor de gotán / este tango es para vos. / Argentina Buenos Aires. Hay milonga de amor hay temblor de gotán. Argentina Buenos Aires El Puerto de Santa Maria del Buen Ayre. (Repeats) In English: There is a milonga of love / there is trembling of gotán / this tango is for you. / Argentina Buenos Aires. / There is milonga of love / there is trembling of gotan. Argentina Buenos Aires The Port of Santa Maria del Buen Ayre. (Repeats) Also found on Gotan Project – Best Of Gotan Project (Full Album).
I discovered this beautiful painting on Twitter. Don’t know whether this scene represents a sunrise or a sunset between the mountains. Either way, the vivid colors on the horizon and in the sky, and their reflection on the water are spectacular! I did some research to learn more about this impressive artist and found some of his paintings at artnet and in videos 1 & 2. Click on the video description to read more about this master painter. Here’s an excerpt from this Wikipedia biograhy.
Eilert Adelsteen Normann (May 1, 1848 – December 26, 1918) was a Norwegian painter who worked in Berlin. He was a noted painter of landscapes of Norway. Normann was the artist who invited Edvard Munch to Berlin, where he painted The Scream. Normann’s fjord paintings are credited with making the Norwegian fjords a more popular tourist destination.
The teaching of writing has evolved over the decades. Teachers used to praise students for duplicating what they were instructed to write, or criticized and graded poorly for not meeting established norms. This practice of praise or blame created consequences that were detrimental to the writer. They doubted their own natural ability to express themselves in writing, wondering whether it was good or not.
W.S. Merwin, in his poem, Berryman,* about his college professor John Berryman, asks him “how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all?” He gives him an unexpected honest answer.
I had hardly begun to read I asked how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all and he said you can’t
you can’t you can never be sure you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good if you have to be sure don’t write
Nearly three decades after he mentored Merwin, Berryman would encapsulate his advice to young writers in this Paris Review interview, on the perils of praise and blame.
I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame because praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.
It’s interesting to see this explanation—how praise (fame) or blame (criticism) might influence a young writer’s psychology, and therefore his or her creative output and development as a writer. Advising them to stay true to themselves, remain unswayed by public opinion, would allow them to maintain their own integrity as artists.
David Lynch is another artist who always follows his own muse and tells young filmmakers to do the same. Answering a student’s question about his creative process, he says we’re nothing without an idea. Using a fishing analogy, he explains that a desire for an idea is like a bait on a hook. He gives a detailed account of how he falls in love with ideas, turns them into a script, and transforms them into a film, or other works of art. To catch bigger fish, you have to dive deeper. David describes daydreaming and TM as ways to get there. He tells students to stay true to their vision, to meditate, and most importantly, to always have the final cut.
When writers and poets were asked to teach creative writing, some conveyed the enterprise as a process to be explored and unfolded, not as a specific product to be reproduced. What they said made sense. I practiced their suggestions and discovered my own process of becoming a writer and a poet.
I also shared their strategies with my students facilitating them as writers. The most important takeaway was this: If you took care of the writer, the writing would take care of itself.
I enjoyed asking younger students questions to find out what they were passionate about, to help them uncover their own voice. If they said something interesting, I had them write it down, then asked them to combine their thoughts into a rough draft. I had them listen to what they had written by reading it aloud to me, to use their skills as a reader. Once involved in the process they naturally wanted to clarify their writing, to include relevant details, to edit their work. They had become intrinsically motivated writers!
Here are a few favorite writers who inspired me along the way.
What some favorite poets, writers and teachers say about writing
What Do the Brains of World-Class Performers have in Common?
The brains of world-class performers are different from the brains of average performers. No surprise there. But what is surprising is that regardless of whether these top performers are athletes, musicians, or CEOs, their brains share one feature that makes them stand out: More integrated functioning. A world-class brain works in a more coherent, relaxed, wakeful, and efficient way.
A new book tells the story of these top performers and offers an easy-to-read introduction to the research showing that their brain function is different. This short book also describes other features that these top performers have in common, such as intensely happy and fulfilling peak experiences and a greater moral sense. Readers also learn how they, too, can effortlessly develop greater brain integration.
New Book Explores Secret of World-Class Performers
A new book coauthored by former MUM professor Harald Harung of Oslo Metropolitan University and professor Fred Travis offers an easy-to-read account of the defining characteristic of world-class performers – an integrated brain – and how one can develop it.
Titled, World-Class Brain, the 130-page book begins by outlining the results of three studies: on Olympic athletes, top managers, and symphony orchestra musicians. These top performers were found to have high levels of brain integration according to EEG measurements.
The book then explains in simple terms what brain integration means and presents various ways to increase it, such as playing a musical instrument, exercising, and meditation.
The authors then discuss the research on the Transcendental Meditation technique showing that it is the most effective way to develop high levels of brain integration.
The book goes into detail about peak experiences associated with brain integration in the several groups of subjects. It then discusses research on long-term practitioners of Transcendental Meditation who are experiencing higher states of consciousness and describes the defining characteristics of these higher states.
The final two chapters explain the research showing that brain integration can affect organizations and all of society.
World-Class Brain: A Textbook Teaching Tool
Co-author Harald S. Harung described editor Jim Karpen‘s great contribution to the book, “which mainly had two components: The smooth progression of chapters and ideas, and making the language very easy, enjoyable, and readable.”
Co-author Fred Travis, director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition, and dean of the Graduate School at Maharishi University of Management, said they used the structure of the book’s chapters to structure how the knowledge was taught to MBA students in China.
Dennis Heaton, professor and dean of the College of Business Administration at Maharishi University of Management, said, “I’m using World-Class Brain with my MBA and PhD students, and they really appreciate how readable it is. The authors have written about the key to top performance in a way that’s interesting and easy to understand. In addition, in the later chapters the book does an excellent job of distilling decades of research and theory, including higher states of consciousness.”
My daughter Shara and her husband Toby live on Lopez Island, WA. On Feb 12, Toby took this photograph of their buddha statue covered in snow. About a foot tall, it’s located in their back yard near the clifftop seats overlooking the ocean. It’s quite the view! I visited them in June 2017. Toby said: “We had quite a bit of snow here, it was really lovely just for that week.” He recently added the photo to his impressive collection on social media. I was inspired to write him a winter haiku on this first day of spring!
a winter haiku
wrapped in white silence contemplating nothingness the buddha ascends
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
These two poems by Mary Oliver describe the nurturing effect of rainwater in nature deep within the body of the earth and inside her own.
LINGERING IN HAPPINESS
After rain after many days without rain, it stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees, and the dampness there, married now to gravity, falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground
where it will disappear—but not, of course, vanish except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share, and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss; a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole’s tunnel;
and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years, will feel themselves being touched.
At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled after a night of rain. I dip my cupped hands. I drink a long time. It tastes like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold into my body, waking the bones. I hear them deep inside me, whispering oh what is that beautiful thing that just happened?
Both of these poems remind me of this short poem by William Stafford.
B.C.
The seed that met water spoke a little name.
(Great sunflowers were lording the air that day; this was before Jesus, before Rome; that other air was readying our hundreds of years to say things that rain has beat down on over broken stones and heaped behind us in many slag lands.)
Quiet in the earth a drop of water came, and the little seed spoke: “Sequoia is my name.”
I long to be the empty, waiting, pure, speechless receptacle.
From a young age, Mary Oliver loved the great poets—Wordsworth, Whitman, Emerson and Thoreau. They were her companions. She was destined to become a great poet herself.
To commune with the muse is every poet’s wish, and she succeeded. A keen, patient observer of nature, Oliver honored the creatures around her through her poetry. To do them justice she always strove to be an “empty, waiting, pure, speechless receptacle.”
Go easy, be filled with light, and shine.
Nature was her teacher. When she was among the trees, she felt uplifted by them. “I would almost say that they save me, and daily.” Sometimes sensing her low self-esteem, they would tell her to “Stay awhile.” She would see the light flowing from their branches.
They would remind her, “It’s simple,” and encourage her, “and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.” And she did! These two poems track part of her journey.
BLUE IRIS
Now that I’m free to be myself, who am I? Can’t fly, can’t run, and see how slowly I walk. Well, I think, I can read books.
……………“What’s that you’re doing?” the green-headed fly shouts as it buzzes past.
I close the book.
Well, I can write down words, like these, softly.
“What’s that you’re doing?” whispers the wind, pausing in a heap just outside the window.
Give me a little time, I say back to its staring, silver face. It doesn’t happen all of a sudden, you know.
“Doesn’t it?” says the wind, and breaks open, releasing distillation of blue iris.
And my heart panics not to be, as I long to be, the empty, waiting, pure, speechless receptacle.
— Mary Oliver, Blue Iris: Poems and Essays (2006), Devotions (2017)
WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES
When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world …..but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.” The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, “and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”
— Mary Oliver, Thirst (2006), Devotions (2017)
Mary OIiver read When I Am Among The Trees (22:08) and Blue Iris (26:48) among other well-known poems on Oct 15, 2012 at the 92nd Street Y for her new poetry book, A Thousand Mornings.
Visit her official website maryoliver.com for her books of Poetry, Prose, and her Bio, which lists her books and awards, and includes a special Tribute. On September 23, 2019, thousands of fans came together at the 92nd Street Y in New York and online via livestream for A Tribute to Mary Oliver. Friends and fellow writers read from the work of Mary Oliver, who died January 17, 2019. It was recorded and later posted March 27, 2020 on YouTube. Watch this extraordinary event led by Coleman Barks, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Eve Ensler, Bill Reichblum, Maria Shriver, Lisa Starr, Lindsay Whalen, and John Waters. It was sponsored by the 92nd Street Y, the Academy of American Poets, Penguin Press, and the Poetry Society of America.
50PlusPrime with Tony Fama is the national TV News Magazine for Baby Boomers celebrating the lives of the 108-million Americans age 50+. Tune in this weekend for a 30-minute special on Bob Roth @meditationbob and the David Lynch Foundation (DLF) with Tony Fama on @50plusprime. They talk about Transcendental Meditation (TM) and how it can bring more creativity, peace, and equanimity to your day.
This episode airs on AXS TV, Saturday, March 9, at 8:30am ET, and Sunday, March 10 at 11:30am ET, and in New York City on Sunday at 1:30pm on WABC 7. It was published on the 50PlusPrime TV News Magazine for Baby Boomers YouTube channel Thursday, March 7, 2019.
Tony Fama interviews Bob Roth about his trajectory since he was a young person to today as co-founder of the David Lynch Foundation teaching TM in 35 countries around the world. The show shares excerpts of DLF interviews with students, veterans, and celebrities, like Ellen DeGeneres and Jerry Seinfeld.
In his enthusiastic introduction to the show, Tony says, “This guy’s a product of the sixties, and he’s just a cool cat!” He asks Bob why he’s the go-to-guru for the rich and famous. Bob tells him no one is immune from stress, even the wealthy and famous. They talk among themselves. TM, he tells him, is not a luxury. “It’s a medical intervention, it’s a medicine. It’s a way to reduce stress and wake up the brain.” It makes sense. It cuts healthcare costs, makes you and your employees happier. It’s “a gift of rejuvenation; it’s a gift of awakening; it’s a gift to yourself.”
Tony covers a New York City gala where celebrities like Phil Donahue, Marlo Thomas, and Orin Synder discuss how Roth, having taught them TM, has enhanced their lives. The show includes clips from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr talking with David Lynch on why they support the work of the Foundation in benefiting at-risk kids and US military veterans.
At the same time, stress is real, and if we have headaches, or if we can’t sleep, or if we’re depressed we can’t get out of bed, that stops us from being able to fulfill our desires, to grow. And so, in one simple process of just accessing this field of calm that lies within, we eliminate the buildup of stress, and we unlock that full creative potential of the brain, so we can be more creative and more resilient, and do the things we want to do.
To get a feeling for what Mary Oliver heard and how it affected her, listen to this video, Voices: Common Loon, before reading her poem, The Loon.
THE LOON
Not quite four a.m., when the rapture of being alive
strikes me from sleep, and I rise
from the comfortable bed and go
to another room, where my books are lined up
in their neat and colorful rows. How
magical they are! I choose one
and open it. Soon
I have wandered in over the waves of the words
to the temple of thought.
…………………………………And then I hear
outside, over the actual waves, the small,
perfect voice of the loon. He is also awake,
and with his heavy head uplifted he calls out
to the fading moon, to the pink flush
swelling in the east that, soon,
will become the long, reasonable day.
……………………………………………….Inside the house
it is still dark, except for the pool of lamplight
in which I am sitting.
……………………………I do not close the book.
Neither, for a long while, do I read on.
— Mary Oliver, What Do We Know (2002), Devotions (2017)
A new book coauthored by former MUM professor Harald Harung of Oslo Metropolitan University and professor Fred Travis offers an easy-to-read account of the defining characteristic of world-class performers – an integrated brain – and how one can develop it.
The Uncarved Blog 