Sci Fi Friday: Curiosity on Mars Shows us Ourselves

Sometimes it helps to put things in perspective. Like when you start the day by having to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste from the tube, someone drank the last bit of coffee, you snag your panty hose on the way out the door (okay, guys can't relate to this - at least most can't), your car won't start and when you finally get to work, five new projects got slapped onto your desk and buried your "to do" pile for the day. When you've had that kind of a day, it can feel like the world is not your oyster but is in fact the sludgy grime that collects in your garbage disposal.

Which brings me back to perspective. This video puts it into perspective. For all of the drama of our daily lives, we are but specks in the cosmos. Even from Mars, our planet is nothing more than a shimmering dot.

I don't know if this bit of information will help the next time your life feels like sludge. But the video is cool just the same.

Mars Rover Curiosity

Images via Mars Science Laboratory

Manic Monday: A Poem

Let me start today's post by saying this: I am not a poet. I haven't studied poetry since high school (a long, LONG, time ago ;-0 ).

But in order to get my muse cranked up, I will, from time to time, dabble in writing poems.

The following poem is from a scene that has haunted me for a while. I've written a narrative version, but writing it in poetry form helped me tighten the thoughts. Poetry helps me focus on the essential feelings and descriptors.

I don't know where this scene fits in to anything. Not sure what happens before. No clue what comes after. It feels to me, though, like something bad is going to happen.

What do you think? What does this poem/scene evoke for you?



Air thick and
           moist.
Heat rises from
           the ground.
Out to the brambles,
           bushes full of fruit.

Into the viscous air,
           a languid summer day.
Wrapped from head-to-toe
           in anti tick gear.

Air filled with
           anger
Heat rises from
           their faces.
Out to the brambles
           and safety.

What I've Learned about Writing from Vincent

Vincent Van Gogh, Self-Portrait

I recently gave myself a day off of work - and my daughter a day off of school. We motored  up the I-10 to Phoenix to see the Van Gogh Alive exhibit. If this exhibit comes to a museum or gallery near you, I highly recommend that you check it out (and you can see it at the Phoenix Science Center through June 17, 2012). The exhibit combines music with images and words projected all around you on multiple wall surfaces. It's like being immersed in a Van Gogh painting.

I became a fan of Van Gogh's paintings when I studied art history in college. Monet's paintings are beautiful and Picasso's are amzing. But no painter captured my interest like Vincent.

I fell in love with the magical, swirling stars of The Starry Night.

The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

My nine-year-old daughter said, of The Starry Night, that his trees look like Tim Burton's trees. I had to explain to her that since Van Gogh came first, perhaps Burton's trees look like Van Gogh's. But I thought her comment was quite astute. Both artists combine magic, fantasy and whimsy with the dark and haunting.

The Van Gogh Alive exhibit displays not only Vincent's paintings, but also quotes from his letters and writings. As I sat with my daughter and took in the words and artistry of Vincent, I found my writer self deeply moved and inspired. Vincent understood at his very core what it is to be an artist.

"I dream of painting and then I paint my dream."

Artists get blocked from time to time. Fear prevents us from moving forward. The blank canvas - the white page - stares back at us. It taunts us. "Go ahead, try if you dare."

"Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again."

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

Actors, painters, writers. Creation, in whatever form, is the search for the truth buried in the soul. It is excavation.

"Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul."

The excavation can be frightening. What horrors may be buried there? But the artist has no choice. She must grab the pick and chip away.

"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore."

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

If the artist submits her art to the public for view, whether in a gallery or on Amazon, she subjects herself to opinion. The artist has survived the fiery depths of her own soul only to find herself running the gauntlet of public opinion. Oh, how high the favorable reviews take her! But oh, how her flesh is flayed by the negative talk. "Hey, that's my soul you are criticizing," she wants to say.

But Vincent soothes the artist with his words:

"Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion."

Amen.

Van Gogh knew about perserverance. Though he painted for only ten short years, he produced over 900 paintings. That is about two paintings a week! His prodigious output speaks volumes about his work ethic - about getting up and dusting yourself off and going at it again, and again, and again.

"In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing."

For Van Gogh's tortured soul, nature soothed. In nature, he found inspiration and oh, what a legacy of beautiful creations Vincent left.

"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."

What is art? Perhaps the most creative thing we can create is love.

"I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."

Unfortunately for the world, Vincent was plagued by mental illness. He cut his own life short with a bullet to his gut. Did he deprive the world of seeing the rest that his soul had to offer? Or was his soul's work finished - his artistry spent?

"I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process."

Wheat Field with Crows, 1890

"I wish they would only take me as I am."

Vincent's brush strokes and words speak to me across the chasm of time and space. And he accomplished what he set out to do.

"I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.'"

Blossoming Almond Tree, 1890

Manic Monday: Looking into the Face of God

Perhaps there is no better way to differentiate our species from all other known species than to say merely that humans seek to understand their place in this vast, strange and wonderful known universe.


As far as we know anyway, we are the only ones asking questions like "Were we created or are we a cosmic accident?" and "Why are we here?" and "What came before us? Before our universe was born?" and "What happens to us when we die?"


It is interesting to me that these questions are approached by humans in two apparently opposed ways: Through science and through faith.


Science looks to the very large using infrared, microwave and radio telescopes, trying to peer ever further back in time to see how it all began. And science also looks to the very small by smashing tiny particles (not even whole atoms mind you but mere pieces of atoms) into each other and observing the aftermath. They have said they want to find the 'God particle.' 


Faith, by definition, does not require a formula or visual proof.


I am fascinated by both ideas and am frequently saddened by the rancor on both sides. Sometimes even violent conflict. Ask Galileo about that. Don't we, as a species, have room for both? Can't we have science and faith?


To each his own path of discovery.
To each his own form of faith.


Last week I sat in my garden and noticed something amazing. Spring blew a warm kiss over the high desert I call home and the season's bounty has begun. And as I walked around my yard I noticed a single poppy had poked her head out of the dry, rocky ground.


A singular pleasure. A beautiful miracle.


The life we are surrounded by every day is neither micro nor macro in nature. It is neither as large as a galaxy nor is it as small as a particle. Yet within a single flower lives a universe of beauty to explore.

"You won't find faith or hope down a telescope,

You won't find heart or soul in the stars." 

     - From Science & Faith by The Script

And the mere existence of us - of these bags of water and bones that we call home - a lifetime of wonder to explore.

"Take my hand and lead me to salvation
Take my love for love is everlasting
And remember the truth that once was spoken
To love another person is to see the face of God."
                 From Les Miserables, The Epilogue

Do you ask big questions from time to time? What inspires you? Do you seek answers "out there" or within? Have you ever had a moment when it all seemed clear to you?

Writer Chat Wednesday: The Gift of Allowing

I am hard at work putting together more insightful, fun, informative and provocative Writer Chat's with wonderful authors from around the globe. Today the writer chat is with . . .

Me!

Here's a word I've been thinking about a lot this week: Allow

I started the week with a wonderful Chakra Reading and block removal with the wonderful Rosemary Sneeringer, aka The Book Nurturer. It was a powerful process that brought much clarity to my writing process and simmering projects. But the word that most stuck with me was "allow."

Allow what? What do I mean by allow?

Allow abundance. Allow ideas. Allow inspiration. Allow all the wonderful things that are flowing toward me to come.

Can you relate to this? Do you ever put up walls or barricades or dams to ebb the flow of abundance that is flowing to you?

My experience with it is that I will go through periods where I'm "in the zone." It's like I'm riding the river and going with the current and everything is lining up and buzzing in the right way. It was during such a period that I won my trip to Ireland I had so desperately wanted (read about that bit of magic here). I've manifested other wonderful things while riding the current.

But then it happens - life throws you a curve ball. It always will. We should expect it. But we don't. We're in the stream, riding the ride of life, having fun and them WHAM! Shit happens. We're thrown off course, the waters are turbulent - hell we may even get thrown from the boat! We're in the roiling waters flailing our arms, kicking and screaming and trying to get back in the boat or at least make it to shore alive.

When the waters get rough that is the time we most need to allow but that is also the time it is most difficult to relax. Allow means letting go.  Allow means forgetting our useless attempts to control. Allow. Let it Be.

The beautiful thing about my time with Rosemary was not that it told me anything I didn't already know - at least on some level - but that it reminded me in a powerful way that the missing component was the allow part. I need to get out of my own way. Do you relate to this?

Time to relax. Let it go. Allow.

In the words of McCartney & Lennon:

There will be an answer, let it be . . . 

Is there anything that you're not allowing? Are you riding the stream and enjoying the ride? Or are you paddling like mad against the current, fighting it every step of the way?

I love hearing from you so leave comments here, or my Facebook page and remember for the month of February, everyone who leaves a comment is automatically entered into the February book giveaway for a signed copy of Emily's House. Complete contest details here.

Manic Monday: Wag More

On this Monday, last one in January, 2012, I feel bogged down with more work than I think I can do. I'm editing two different novels right now, the day job, marketing and social media - oh, and raising my daughter and taking care of a household. You know - the usual.

The bright desert sun outside beckons me to play but a Midwestern work ethic nudges me to stay in, chained to the office chair. As I look at the pile of receipts and paperwork on my desk reminding me that tax season is upon me, I begin to feel overwhelmed.

Can you relate?

And yet I know this to be true:

It's the journey, not the destination. And the journey includes paperwork and jobs and to-do lists and bills to pay and kids and pets and family that need our attention even when we're a little too tired to give it.

The good, the bad. The beautiful and the ugly. The profound and the mundane. The pizza and the beer.

Okay, pizza and beer aren't opposites, but they sure do sound good right now.

Anyway, you get the picture. We all know this. But for me at least, it can't be repeated enough because it is so easy to allow the disturbances of our day detour us away from the joy of our time here. No matter how long you live, the journey here is brief. And oh, so wonderful - even when you wish you could drive a tank through rush-hour traffic.

Enjoy the journey.

So what, you are asking, is up with the video of your dog up there?

That's my dog Molly. She's going to be 14 this year. I got her from my local Humane Society shelter when she was a pup. Molly is pure joy covered in fur.

This video is me trying to capture one of those things in my life that reminds me daily how good it is to be alive.

Molly will wag just because I look at her. I look away and she stops wagging. I turn back to face her and she wags again.

All I have to do is look at her to make her happy. No dog treats were eaten in the filming of this video! I have no food out for her; no promise of yummies.

Just seeing my face makes her happy.

Isn't that an amazing gift for me.

I have someone in my life for whom the mere sight of me makes her happy.

Maybe we should all be more like Molly with each other. Maybe if we smiled at the mere sight of our loved ones, they would be happier. And we'd be happier because we were smiling. And they'd be happier because we were smiling at them. Wags all around.

I'm smiling at you right now : D

Do you have a special critter in your life that makes your day brighter, your face happier? Or a special person that always manages to bring out the best in you? 

I love comments and to hear your stories. And to spread the joy your comments bring, everyone who leaves a comment on a post from now through February 29 will be entered for a chance to win a signed copy of my novel, Emily's House. And for every 100 comments in that time, I'll offer another book. So spread the word, leave your comments and make me give away my books for free!!