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Archive for June, 2014

The A to Z of Becoming. W for Wonder

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, from the music room, from the viewing room, life, music, perception, personal growth, photography on June 8, 2014| 1 Comment »

Wonder is one of my most favourite verbs.

I like the French word émerveillement which captures the essence of wonder for me. I think this is a great way to approach Life.

There are two aspects of the verb wonder which really appeal to me.

The first is to wonder in the sense of curiosity…….as in “I wonder what this is?” Here’s an example – “Is this a rock, or a tree? I wonder how these markings formed on this rock?”

 

rock weathering

The second is to wonder with a sense of amazement……as in “Wow! look at the patterns of the rock and the patterns on the stream, and how similar they are!”

rock waves

sparkling water

 

I would like to propose that an attitude of wonder increases the quality of your life, whereas, an attitude of scepticism, or nihilism…..hmm….well you tell me if you find those attitudes life enhancing.

Just as a wee bonus today, here is a great song about wondering…..

 

And, another bonus (well, it is my birthday!)

 

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My trilogy

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, personal growth, photography on June 7, 2014| 2 Comments »

september learning

A recent article in The Atlantic considers the big changes in demographics particularly in developed countries over the last one hundred years. It includes the statement that

For the first time in history, most people now being born can expect to live seven, eight, nine or more decades.

As I’m going to be 60 (tomorrow – 8th June 2014) I found this statement, and the rest of the article, to be a bit of an inspiration. I recommend you click through the link above and read it. The main issue is that we have hardly begun to consider how society will change with this increase in longevity. Other studies look at whether or not these “added years” are “healthy” years but I think that’s an important, but separate, issue.

What I’m wondering about is how we might begin to live differently as we become aware of this change.

I’m thinking that my life is like a trilogy.

The first part of the trilogy, for me, takes me to about 24 years old. That’s the age I was when I graduated with my medical degree from Edinburgh University. That first part was about growing, learning, playing, maturing into adulthood. The second part has been my working years as a doctor, and as I’m retiring at the end of this month, that part is concluding right now.

So, Part 1 was 24 years long, Part 2 was thirty six years long, and nobody knows how long Part 3 will be. According to the figures quoted in The Atlantic it could well be something between the lengths of parts one and two. Wow! That’s actually a BIG part. That’s what got me to thinking about my life as a trilogy. Not all parts of a trilogy are the same length, but it’s not actually the length of this third part which interests me most. What really interests me is what will be the underlying themes of this Part 3, which begins in a month’s time.

I’m shifting my focus from working as a doctor to living as a writer. I’m shifting my focus from salaried employment with all that entails, to living on a pension. To finish the routine, expectations, and responsibilities, as well as the rewards and pleasure of working as an employed doctor is quite daunting and quite exciting all at the same time. One thing I’m SO aware of right at this moment in my life is that the one certainty is change.

We are all becoming, not being………

We are all able to choose to become heroes, not zombies.

Part 3……..how shall I start?

 

Feather

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A second look

Posted in from the dark room, perception, photography on June 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

bird

This isn’t what I usually do, but here’s the photo I posted yesterday. I wanted to show you it again to say something about using a camera.

I carry a camera everywhere, and these days many, many of you have cameras in your smartphones so you too will be carrying a camera everywhere too. I’ve heard some people say if you are looking through a lens you aren’t experiencing reality as it is. In other words if you are busy photographing what you are looking at, then you aren’t really seeing what there is to see.

That’s not my experience at all. Of course, I don’t walk around with the camera in front of my face. I look, I see, I notice, and then I photograph.

But what surprises me, and delights me, time and time again, is how once I get the photos loaded up onto my iMac and look at them on the big screen, I see things I really wasn’t aware of seeing at the time.

In the case of this photo, I noticed the bird on the stone when I was trying to photograph the reflection of the forest and the stone in the river, but by the time I focused the shot and pressed the shutter button, the bird had flown off. I thought I’d missed it.

But look! I didn’t miss it, and even better, even more amazing, you can see the reflection of the bird in the water as it flies off over the river!

Wonderful! And I really didn’t see that when I was in the forest.

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An observation test

Posted in from the dark room, life, perception, photography on June 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Find the bird (s?)

 

 

 

bird

How do we notice what we notice?

Of course, it’s not the same looking at a photo as it is standing in a forest looking at a river, but I think what catches our attention is often what moves, or what is different. Either that, or we are looking for something, so we scan the scene to try and find it (that’s what you did with this photo)

What are you looking for today?

What might you notice if you have your eyes open for difference?

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Creative evolution

Posted in books, from the dark room, from the living room, life, philosophy, photography, science on June 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

One of Henri Bergson’s concepts is that evolution is a creative process.

Bergson saw life as an immense current of consciousness, a spiritual force, brimming with potentialities, penetrating matter and organizing it, “colonizing” it, as it were, in the service of increasing its own freedom. Matter, resistant to life’s impulses, impedes its advance and scatters its energies. Yet, as he argues in Creative Evolution, this current of consciousness seems to have been successful in at least three attempts to gain a foothold on matter: in the plant world; in the world of the insects; and in the vertebrates, who have so far culminated in ourselves.

He says

The vegetable world has fallen asleep in immobility…..In the world of the insects, specifically in the ants, what life gained in social organization and cooperation, it lost in initiative and independence; here instinct rules supreme…..the ant shows little in the way of intelligence, being completely dominated by instinct

Hermitage

beetle

flycatcher

If in plants and insects life has “stalled,” in the vertebrates there still remains the possibility of setting free “something which in the animal still remains imprisoned and is only finally released when we reach man.”8 For Bergson, humankind is the front line of evolution, the tip of the élan vital’s advance, the being in which the life force has most successfully organized matter to its own end of increasing its knowledge of itself and its freedom

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Dreaming and ageing

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography on June 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »

As Gabriel García Márquez once observed,

“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.

 

gone fishin

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Progress

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, health, photography on June 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Come a long way, haven’t we?

Plague doctor

 

 

image

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The A to Z of Becoming. V for Value

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography on June 1, 2014| 2 Comments »

In the A to Z of Becoming, V is for value.

So, this week, as you think about this verb, I suggest two actions to take.

First of all, how about some reflective writing? Take a blank sheet of paper, or a new page in your journal and at the top write “I value……” then list whatever comes into your head.

Maybe you value having certain relationships, or even that value certain qualities in your relationships.

Maybe you value your house, your job, or certain important possessions.

Maybe you value particular books, particular songs, movies, works of art, handmade objects.

Really anything which you think of when you think “I value…..” How you determine value is up to you. Sometimes what we mean by valuing something is  that it is important to us, that it would be a big deal to lose it, that it really adds to our quality of life……interpret this the way you want. (I’m not really thinking of monetary values, but you can if you want).

Secondly, review your list and ask what, if anything, you could do this week to nurture that value. If a particular relationship is important to you, how could you show that? If a particular possession is important to you, how can you care for it this week. Basically, whatever is on your list, ask yourself how you can demonstrate its value to you this week. More than that, what can you do to increase its value to you?

If you want to take the reflective review a stage further, why not write a little about each of the items on your list, describing what value they have for you, and maybe why you value them so much.

At very least, raise a glass to whatever you value!

 
Water into wine

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