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Archive for June, 2015

A little light in the dark

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, perception, photography on June 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The other evening as I was shutting the shutters, a little later than usual, it was already dark.

Suddenly a little light in the grass at the far end of the garden caught my eye. You know how a cat, or dog, or other little creature can look like it’s got a light in its eye when a headlight shines on it? Well I thought this must be something like that. Probably a wee creature like a mouse or something.

I started to walk towards it and the first thing which struck me was that the light didn’t flicker, and it didn’t disappear. Now, in my mind, if a light in a creature’s eye is just a reflection from another light then as the animal moves its head the light will “go out”. This wasn’t happening so I began to doubt that it was a mouse or whatever after all.

When I got up really close I saw where the light was coming from – an insect in the grass. It’s body had two bars shining as bright green as any LED light.

I tried to get a photo.

OK, I admit, this is hardly a convincing photograph, but until I learn how to do macro photography in the pitch dark with an iPhone this is as good as it gets!

I quite like that the photograph actually captures the mystery of what I saw, rather than the more distinct appearance of the actual insect (which I saw once I turned on the torch feature on my phone)

A bit of research later revealed that what was in the grass was a glow-worm.

Well, that’s another first for me. I’ve never seen one of them in real life till now.

Something new to see every day?

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Habits

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography, psychology on June 7, 2015| 3 Comments »

Redstart

“We are creatures of habit”. We’re told that. But in fact, it seems all creatures are “creatures of habit”. This little redstart really seems to like sitting on this particular flower pot in my garden. He has a number of favourite places – this flower pot, the arch over the well, and a couple of fence posts.

We probably develop habits to make life easier. They can let us off making conscious choices all the time, and they can contribute towards the feeling that we live in a predictable world, which helps us to feel more safe.

There are downsides to habits however.

Firstly, by letting us off making conscious choices they propel us towards a “zombie, not hero” lifestyle – they allow us to go on autopilot probably more than is good for us. Autopilot reduces our awareness and in that state we are less likely to see and appreciate the new, or in fact, just the reality of the world around us. Haven’t you had that experience of driving a car, or riding a bicycle on a very familiar route, lost in thought, only to discover that you have arrived at your destination and not taken in any of the details of the journey at all?

Secondly, they make our world smaller. By staying on the same path, perching on the same perches, we limit our opportunities to experience the new, the different and the real.

Thirdly, they limit our growth. We growth by putting ourselves in new situations, encountering different people and places, seeing and hearing new information. We don’t do much of that when we are on autopilot.

Now, I’m not saying your habits are “bad” (I know people talk about “good habits” and “bad habits” but that’s not what I’m thinking about today. I’m sure the little redstart prefers that flowerpot for good reasons!

But today, in the “A to Z of Becoming”, I’ve reached the letter “v” again, and one of the verbs starting with “v” is “vary”.

I think it’s a good idea to become aware of your habits, then, just occasionally, to vary them. (You can always go back to them again the next time) What varying a habit can do is wake you up. It can make you more conscious and in doing so promotes your autonomy of choices, and opens up your world and your learning.

So, why not pick a habit or two in the coming week and try a little variation?

Maybe take a different route to work or school? Maybe shop in a different shop? Go for coffee in different cafe, or somewhere different for lunch? Or simply choose something different for breakfast, or try a different drink from your usual one?

Just see what it feels like, and then make a conscious choice the next time, which might be to go back to the same route, or shop, or cafe, or whatever – because when you do, you’ll probably notice somethings you’ve never noticed before.

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The sun and the moon

Posted in creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography on June 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »

sunset over the vines

moon

The Sun and the Moon.

The red rose and the white……

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Bejewelled

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, perception, personal growth on June 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

bejewelled

I can’t resist it.

These sparkling jewels of dew in the morning, shining in the morning sun…..

This is the month of light, and seeing light making the world sparkle is such a treat.

Seen any sparkles near you recently?

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The whole and the particular

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, neuroscience, perception, photography, psychology, science on June 4, 2015| 2 Comments »

poppies south of cognac

poppy

 

According to Iain McGilchrist, who has explained the way we use the two different cerebral hemispheres, first of all the signals and sensations which we pick up are passed to the right hemisphere which we use to get an overall, holistic, “analogue” understanding of the world. Then we pass some of the information to the left hemisphere which is terrific at homing in on just some aspects of what we’ve picked up. We use the left hemisphere to “abstract”, analyse and categorise what we have received. If the right hemisphere view is analogue and holistic, then the left is digital and reductionist.

What should happen next is that the left passes back to the right what it has processed so the right can deepen its understanding – now understanding both the overall and the particular.

The overview, the “view from on high”, and the extracted, abstracted, reduced view, seem like opposites, and in many ways they are, but we have this incredible brain which lets us process in both of these opposite ways at one and the same time. We are capable of holding the general and the particular in our minds at the same time.

Iain says we have developed a tendency to think that the view from the left is the “correct” view, and “enough” and is so doing we failing to use our whole brains….we are failing to see the whole picture.

Interesting, huh?

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Behind the light

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography on June 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

l'amphitheatre

My previous post was about light and I shared a photo I took in a tunnel….well, here’s what that tunnel was leading to!

It’s the Roman amphitheatre in Saintes, France.

This must have been a terrifying place to be in its heyday – in the tunnel I mean. I expect the crowds of spectators (around 15,000 of them at a time) would have been excitedly waiting to see what, or who, was going to emerge from the tunnel into the arena. I suspect not many who walked or ran out of this tunnel towards this light returned alive. A shocking thought.

At the entrance to the amphitheatre there is a plaque which gives a little of the history of the place and it mentions how the Roman elite used “bread and circuses” to keep the populace in their control. Have you ever wondered how the present food and entertainment industries might do the same thing nowadays?

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Looking for the light

Posted in creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, life, perception, photography on June 2, 2015| 1 Comment »

light at the end of the tunnel

Some years ago I realised that the names of the days of the week relate to the same planets in many languages and that got me wondering about the names of the months – which aren’t!

It struck me that relating the name of a day to a planet opened up a whole rich level of symbolism and meaning and I thought it was a shame we couldn’t do the same for months. So, I decided to come up with a keyword/theme/symbol for each month that made sense to me. I’ve been following that since, and in that scheme, June is the month of light. I chose that because, in the northern hemisphere, where I live, its the month with the most light (including the longest day). I know for some of you it’s the month with the least light, so I encourage you to come up with your own themes, which make most sense to you, or that you stick with June being the month of light and see what you can discover about winter light.

It’s hard to actually see light, but the way light plays with us, and with the rest of the world, is beautiful to explore.

I’m aware that, in choosing this particular image, which I only took yesterday, it immediately speaks to me of “light at the end of the tunnel” – so if you’re looking for some light at the end of a tunnel, here’s an image just for you!

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