future and past skies

A sky that was all about the future: sunset at the wedding day of a friend.




A moment from my short trip to Cologne, same time, last year. came across this scribbled note again that made me remember:

Cologne Dome.
Old stones.
Young people.
Future and past, 
on a stairway.




And a sky from last weekend: a touch of autumn in summer: harvested fields.

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more skies: skywatch friday
more moments from august: augustbreak2017

bird sky, storm sky, sunset sky

We had a weekend of all kind of weathers and places: from sunny skies to cloudy to thunderstorms moving through. Here are some highlights, the first 3 are from a short trip to the Black Forest:



On the way, near the spring of the Danube river, we saw a group of huge birds circling, maybe 20. Coming closer, we noticed it’s storks. It looked like a gathering – maybe they are flying with their youngsters? I caught a photo but only with 2 of them.




In the black forest it first was sunny – and then clouds moved in. From route and wind direction we figured it might work out with the route we had planned, but it was a gamble.

 

At the ending point of our tour, up at Kandel hill, we had a stunning view of the weather around us, and could sit watching weather fronts… and we had about 10 minutes there, then rain started to fall, finally catching us. Back home, I wrote a micropoem to catch that feeling of this day:

A day in the black forest 
this different flow of time 
a bench, a way / the sky 
simple, huge moments

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The mixed weather repeated its cycle yesterday. We were mostly lucky again. In the evening we were invited to a garden party, which brought a stunning sunset, and another micropoem:

Garden party 
with sky magic  
strings of colored clouds  
strings of music

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more skies: sky friday

snow sky poetry moments, or: what I want in my life is..

"On the last day of the year, who better than Mary Oliver to inspire us?" - a friend of mine wrote, and posted a part from her poem "The Ponds"

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled—
to cast aside the weight of facts...

Since then, the reading and sharing of poetry continued - one of my favs from this new year poetry stream is M.S. Merwin's "To the New Year",

so this is the sound of you

here and now whether or not

anyone hears it this is

where we have come with our age

our knowledge such as it is

and our hopes such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible

Beyond those established poems, there also is the memory of the tiny poems / notes of moments, written last year in January. It's a good thing, to take time to note a small moment each day, and note it down - to be more attentive and aware of all those moments that make a day.

It was easy to return to this practice, especially as the first snow started to fall on Monday, giving the world a soft and special touch. And also nice to return to skywatch friday that way: with a light/snow photo.

So somehow, unplanned, this year started on a poetic sky tune.

Here are two of the tiny snow moments:

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and some additional links:

Poetry Foundation - Mary Oliver
Poetry International
poetry in this blog

on the ground

on the ground
the first snowflakes of winter
and a tree, waiting to be born

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Today's december reflection theme was "on the ground"... so when I went outside, I actually started to scan the ground for something interesting. And found it, just some metres from the doorstep: a winter still life of stone, snow and a touch of nature.

more #decemberreflections

star / light

Today was all overcast and rainy. But the week had some sunny hours. Like this one above: an afternoon sunset moment. And once the sun sets, it's time for candlelight. And for the real starlight. I even had a starlight dream: I was standing in an open space, with a wide horizon (like back then, in the desert of Rajasthan). All was peaceful and the stars so bright, such an abundance - and there was Orion. Like an eternal butterfly of flight.

And 2 light memories: smallstones, from January:

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Tuesday morning. dark sky with a string of blue,
and at the horizon, a pulsing stream of lights,
coming and going -
early morning traffic

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Half past five, daylight fading already
lighting a candle, I look up and see
right above the roof:
the moon

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more skies from everywhere: skywatch friday
and more light notes: #decemberreflections

summer's end moon

This week was special here in Middle Europe: it brought ongoing sunny and warm days. Blue skies. Warm evenings. No rain. It probably was the warmest and most stable week of the whole summer, due to some unusual wind-from-the-east, which kept the lingering rain front on the Atlantic at bay (or rather: at sea).

The moon moment above is from Thursday evening. We were sitting outside, and watched the moon rise. Knowing that soon, those days would be over. Which made me the moment even more precious. Now the clouds and the colder temperatures moved in, and the garden finally gets some rain.

There was one afternoon with clouds building, though, and with some raindrops falling - which also induced a rainbow. Then the clouds dissolved again.
 

We expected the weather to turn since then, and I caught the mood of the week in this small stone / tiny moment:

September rainbow:

Summer bending into

Clouds carried fromthe autumn sea…

So the rainbow also felt like the line beyond each additional sunny day turned into a gift.

And here's a note for the moon:

Last night, the rain finally arrived 
just in wrong time for sunday. 
it feels like summer's end, but who knows.
gone already are the swallows, leaving
without goodbye.

Now I looked for moon quotes, and found this one:

“Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night.” – Hal Borland

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links
more skies from everywhere: skywatch friday
more small stones / tiny moments: life as a journey / noticing small moments 

awake august ending

In the blue mountains. With sunshine. 
A mosaic of stones / a mosaic of moments. 
New directions and this vibe of timeless time.

Today: the last day of august. Awakeaugust ending officially.
Still feeling the mountain energy, those wider horizons. Or maybe it have not been the mountains that triggered this feeling, but all those tiny august moments before them, and the noticing and sharing, that made the difference, I will miss the awakeaugust group.

A thought I had today: that I want to try and keep the habit for myself, to notice small stones. Maybe try the direct blog-from-mobile-phone option for it, which keeps the moment more in the moment.

zencircles & upcoming

Monday 5 p.m. 
A pause of circles 
In between getting to-dos done 
And packing for a short trip. 

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Upcoming: new places. Including the Gamescom.
Looking forward.
And just cut some paper slices to note moments while away.
Will try some blogging from the road.

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 ‪#‎awakeaugust‬

august moon

Inspired by the #awakeaugust invite, August turned into a month of noticing small moments, for me and many others.

As some training experts suggest, habits take about 3 weeks to develop. And that's how it feels - what was a bit of a challenge at first, is now coming with more ease. Or to put it another way: without planning to, I notice more.

Here's a moment from yesterday:

Friday evening walk
Moon and sun and a harvested field
This first touch of autumn in the atmosphere

Altogether, it feels this August is special, and so beautiful right now. Even though the skies were overcast and rainy when the meteor showers arrived. but it's a sunny weekend, so that is a big plus.

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you can still join if you like: ‪#‎awakeaugust‬
and for more skies: skywatch friday 

ocean waves and small stones

Today, I was at the ocean for some moments... at least it felt like that when I revisited the link to the Calm-website, with ocean wave sound & images. From there, I went looking for a short ocean video i once took at sunrise time:



It's good, to find such small pauses. And looking back, i am happy about the way August is shaping out so far, with the small stones as reminders to notice all those tiny beautiful moments that are part of our days.

Yesterday I printed some of them, thinking it would be nice to have them around physically, and then remembered the empty note book I have since ages. Now I started to glue them into it, to collect them, and also: to play with possible shapes and formats.

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And here are my 2 fav moments / stones of this week (seems my theme of the week, without fully noticing it, is: color)

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Art time: 

The mathematics of yellow + blue = green 

 and the touch of all those colors 

painted before by others

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The last daylilies: 

Wordless orange reminders 

To bloom in one’s full color 

Just for this day

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PS: you can still join at AwakeAugust

noticing small moments...

today: first of August, which will be a month of noticing small moments for me...
here's the first:

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Rare feather at the side of the trail
Pencil notes in a second hand book
The marks we leave,
The marks we find

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join if you like:
‪#‎awakeaugust‬
photofriday: smooth

this sound joy / summer rhythm / reality

today:
waking and listening. and then getting up, smilling, to sketch this note.

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today:
revisiting notes from summer 2015, and finding this quote:

"This summer shifted my rhythm. I have a sense of all the things that need done, all the stuff I’d like to do, but instead of going on attack, pushing through the day, I ease into it. I consider “what’s next?” in a much gentler way, more easily let go of what’s not going to happen." (from thousand shades blog)

the quote, it brought back another line:

to not try harder, but to try softer.

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today:
hammock time. watching clouds. and trying the search function of Poetry Foundation, like in spring in Mallorca. the search time I try is "reality". it brings me to lines that feel like written for me, in this week that included embracing a friend and feeling the reality of her illness, feeling the fear again, for her, for all of us. Words from 1943, in a poem called "Reality":

"I found a small green moss branched like a star
And bent to measure the discovery...

..driving out the fear of fear;

...And our feet that strike together the same stone, going
Far on this path where the star moss is growing."
- Florida Watts Smyth

sky moment + August invite

"Writing takes me out of my own small concerns and brings me into the world. It lets me see myself from a distant place, in the context of this vast, beautiful, universe... I’m starting up my small stone practice again. I’m running Awake August so that you can join me, and I can have some support. I’m looking forward to mindful writing again."

That's what Kaspa from Writing Our Way Back Home wrote, and it resonated instantly with me. To write small stones again. To notice little things. To be more there, in the here and now. Like last week, when I noticed the shadows on the floor while waiting, and they lead to a photo and a poem: 10 a.m. shadow memory.

Now, where to start? I tried some photos, as taking them makes me look more closely, and notice the orange of the daylily, and the bit of blue sky in the clouds. What else? I stood looking, and just then, a white butterfly appeared and fluttered through the garden, on a zig-zag path. And so the words of the first stone formed:

July 29 / beyond: 

slivers of blue sky beyond 
the zig-zag of a white butterfly 
this maybe-ness of Friday

After uploading the photo, i played with the words, and arrived at the vispo above. And followed the advice of the invite: "Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion." - Franz Kafka. So i included the vispo, too.

Now I am curious for the stone that will form tomorrow, and for the contributions of the others.
Here are the links to join:

• Invite: Awake August
• Twitter: #AwakeAugust
  
• & more skies: skywatch friday

10 a.m. shadow memory

10 a.m. and while waiting,
gazing at the shadow on the floor

this moon memory of last night surfaced:
turning a bend on a late walk
and after talking about it a day again
actually: seeing the glow of a firefly.

To find: no, it's not a firefly,
it's a drop of the light of the full moon,
falling through a tree.

#moment #whilewaiting

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2 hands support the heavens, or: write short and share (festival of words, day 2)

2 Hands Support the Heavens 

Noon
QiGong
The world slows
As we move like
Sky

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Today I learned two new things: in qigong, we started with the "5 Elements" practice, and today we learned the moves for the first element, Wood.

And I learned what a "Lanturne" is: a short form of poetry that follows a 5 line pattern. The Laturne is featured in Folded Word's new writing column "Write Short & Share", and of course after reading about it, I was tempted to write a Lanturne.

It took a bit to find the way from the 5 elements to the 5 laturne lines, but when the last word fell into place, it felt like: bingo.

The title of the poem "2 Hands Support the Heavens" is the name of a qigong move from the previous serious we learned, the 8 brocades. Some of them sound like poems: "Draw a Bow to Shoot a Golden Eagle".

And here's the original photo - this is the inner courtyard of the "Staatsgalerie" (State Gallery) in Stuttgart, Germany. It belongs to the new, modern-art part of the galery, the architecture is designed by James Stirling, and back then, caused controversial debates:




And some links:

• The Festival of Words - Day 2
• 2 Qi Gong videos that give an idea: 8 Brocades QiGong Practice  +
  5 Elements QiGong Practice

And another "Staatsgalerie" photo, from last year:

Under this different sky

when i woke this morning, i remembered the weather forecast: storm warning. so the first thing i did was: look outside. and then i went and picked my camera, to catch this sky. turns out, so far the storm isn't crossing this region. the wind got stronger for a while, but then faded again.

i walked up to the reception, to check with them: the nice news is, we can stay in the appartment we have (that wasn't all sure). and they expected worse weather, too. "if that's the bad day that was announced, we are happy to take it," was the general mood.

i also looked for books, and picked 3 to read into. which lead to this moment:



The second line says: "Das Glück sich lebendig und frei zu fühlen..." - "The luck to feel alive and free.."

And I tried another short video, to catch the mood of this unexpected light day:


and here is the written version of the moment:

Under this different sky /
hours vibrating in 3 kinds of blue /
this luxury of light time

sky + ocean + huge mini moments

On Wednesday morning, we got up at 2.30. Outside: freezing winter. And a plane waiting for us, at 5.50 - southbound.

So good, to be able to start this year with a journey in January, with some sun-and-ocean-time, after all the difficult times of 2015.

And so nice, too, the way small / huge things worked out on the way: we had seats on the left side of the aisle, and thus could watch the sunrise above clouds:

 

Then the arrival - stepping out of the plane, into mild air. A sky that is blue instead of grey. And so many moments, waiting. Yesterday I walked along a lava beach, which felt like the perfect counterpart to the walk of last week, which lead along snow-white fields.



Mini videos
During to flight and at the beach, I also tried some mini videos. It's one of my resolutions for this new year: to try new things, to experiment with format, and to take more time for those small huge moments that shape our days. Enjoy!





and here is the written version of the moment:

wave and wave and wave and -

the hugeness of time and the ocean

sky friday + international "light" haiku day

For sky friday: a sunrise moment from earlier this week, with clouds moving in.

And more skies:
In celebration of International Haiku Poetry Day, April 17, 2015, the haiku foundation is organizing an “EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration”. Everyone is invited to join with a "light" haiku written at dawn at their time.

The collab is happening directly online, here's the webpage: EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration

Below are my contributions, the first is from dawn:

single rain drops 
sunrise without color 
still the blackbird sings 

And the second from noon, noted while waiting to be picked up at the oncology centre after the next chemo session:

a blue bottle rolls 
in the wind
all the things 
that wait for us

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Join!
Take a sky photo and/or write a "light" haiku to join the round-the-world collabs:

• EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration
• sky friday

plans, or: rain haiku effect

"Introducing our new monthly Folded Word-Lab. This month you can read, write, and win with Ben Moeller-Gaa's haiku workshop. It's free. It's online. Give it a try? Folded Word-Lab: Haiku"

Reading the lines made me remember the plan i had in mind while in December, to start January with noticing and writing a daily small moment. I even had prepared the blog tag for it back then (see sidebar): smallstones - tiny moments

I wrote a stanza for the collab 2015 of Leaf Press, though, which is rather telling:

...every day h/our pattern of life: 
 this c/age of possibility—
until life happens
 while we were sk/etching plan(e)s.

So: plans.
If the moments didn't work out in January, why not try again now in April?

And, following that thought: Why not finally revisit that file that I once started? That was another plan I had in mind. To put together a small collection of those January smallstones, just for me. The first idea was to add photos, too. But now I tried the other way: instead of adding photos and make it complicated, simply make a word file out of it, and send it to myself, or rather: to my e-reader. So that those moments are easy to reach.

So the rain today, which is pouring since this morning, at least had a poetic effect: the first two new haiku are written. And there now is a simple file full of moments on my e-reader.

Including the one that I wrote this January after a walk through the snow, and found again in twitter (so much for organizing my own words well...):

Underneath the skin of white
The landscape of yesterday:
All the things that are there,
Beyond our sight

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the sum of it

This enclosed surprise

to find a sea

in seasons,

a ring

in spring,

a win

in winter,

all

in fall
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and the sum of it

in summer

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Note...

The moments that are up in my photo blog right now, as shown in the collage above: I picked them by color, and by the current photo themes "shadowed" and "serenity" - but in their current "sum", they cover all seasons, and elements, in such a good unplanned balance that makes me hesitate to add a new photo and shift the serenity of it...