Author: neil

Be Like Water

Today’s walk was a solitary one. The water was cool and the air was warm. The surf was larger than usual, and the number of surfers were too.  The warm weather had brought out a large number of people – walking themselves, their partners, their kids, their dogs.

The waves crashing on the shore seemed felt like the emotional waves I ‘ve been hit by the last few weeks: at work, at home, with friends.  Most times, I’ve felt compelled to be like like the rocks that the waves crash on. The rocks don’t seem to be affected when a few – or even a hundred – waves hit them, & the waves will soon stop, right?

I sat down for a moment to watch the waves roll ashore, and to give my legs a little break, when I took this picture.

Looking at the picture as I sat down to write, Bruce Lee’s words again came to mind:

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

 

Vocal Learning Week 1: The Dash

One of the items on my list to the end of 2021 was recording a song or poem every week. This was week 1 & I barely got this one done on time 🙂

The first one is a little bit of a cheat on my part: I read aloud Linda Ellis’ poem The Dash (By Linda Ellis, Copyright © 2020 Inspire Kindness, thedashpoem.com) . I’ve loved this poem from the very first time I read it.

More Ovals

I spent a lot of time today on getting the ovals to resemble ovals – without resting the elbows on the desk. Years of habit obviously kick in immediately unless I’m conscious about the attempt to this does feel like hard work.

Sunsets at the beach and board games

It was the nation’s / state’s (?) day of confusing time adjustments today so everything feels a little out of whack.  Besides following a WWI tradition, I don’t know why some parts of the country do this to themselves now.

The one benefit today though was catching a beautiful transition in the western skies over the beach on our family walk this evening.

We walked back hand in all, all of us. We were the only ones on the beach as far as the eye could see. Admittedly my eyesight isn’t all that great, but we didn’t see any other humans on the beach while we walked back.

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I also re-learnt today how infectious  a child’s enthusiasm for  board games can be. With a moratorium on screen-time, the young lad has had to get used again to being bored or finding other things to keep his mind occupied. Practicing his cello, reading a book the old-fashioned way, riding his bike, and this evening, convincing everyone to play a board game with him.

 

Weekend Calligraphy Recap

I spent some time today trying out a different pen to do the drills, and to get better at the shaded ovals. I feel a little more confident in the free-form ovals and shades, and know I still have a long way to go to get reasonably consistent.

Walking in the Rain

I didn’t get a picture today: on our way back from the walk, the skies opened up.

Our ten-year old was on his bike, riding along slowly and grumpily as we walked. The trip back suddenly became a fun experience, getting wet as it was getting dark.

Walking in the rain was a trip back on memory lane too. Two decades or so ago when we were dating, come sunshine or rain, my wife and I would meet every day. On the days it rained, which was quite often given the weather there, we’d get drenched – and would come up with creative excuses for her when she got home.

Also reminded me of this wonderful tune that I’ve shared a couple of times before: Pt’s Shiv Kumar Sharma & Hariprasad Chaurasia Walking in the Rain.

 

 

 

From the Walk today

The weather held up much better than the forecast we had so we trudged up another local mountain for a bushwalk. I huffed and puffed to the top and the magnificent views made me forget the pain immediately.

A Beginner’s Mindset

I didn’t think there was any value in repetition. I remember as a 5 or 6 year old wondering what the point of it was, particularly when some adult insisted on doing some over and over again, like memorising and reciting poetry, or copy-writing.

I’d never considered how much I loathed repetition for certain things, and how ‘in the flow’ I felt when doing other things repetitively.  My conscious observation of what I found myself doing repeatedly may have been when I took up calligraphy again about 5 years ago, and the first task I did this time round was the oval drills. I found pdf versions of historical books on beautiful handwriting on the wonderful iampeth  site, & most of them insisted on the importance of the repetitive exercises.

Whether it has been learning to fingerpick the guitar or learn a new task, deliberate practice and repetition is the only thing that gives me the confidence that I can do it fluently. It isn’t easy, and it often isn’t fun while I struggle with it.

I’m a beginner yet again, this time learning Ornamental Penmanship, aka Spencerian. The beginner mindset is what I have to keep remembering to be in, not to judge my current foundational letterforms, to keep repeatedly doing them until the picture in my mind’s eye and the physical form that I am able to write resemble each other closely. And in the meanwhile, publish whatever I can produce here to keep myself on track.

Here’s some of today’s effort, ovals and a few shades.