I realized, as I was explaining something to someone today, that  part of the reason I enjoy doing the abstract photography so much is because it does hold my fascination. I can lose myself in those swirls and colours so quickly and easily, and  am compelled to search for more and more instances through the camera lens where I can capture that beauty. It's very restful for my mind.

I started actively pursuing the abstract works when I had quit work (for a period that lasted 8 years). Being over-worked and over-stressed, I spent much of my time travelling and trekking out doors. The very first photo I got that thrill from was one I took of seaweed washed up on the ocean shore. As I recall, I had been down on my knees and elbows in the damp tidal silt, totally focused on how the sunlight was shining through the seaweed strands and reflecting off the droplets of water that still remained. When I saw the result of that photo developed I was hooked. It struck me as absolutely awesome how such a tiny spot in this vast universe could be so beautiful and totally unrelated to the reality of what it was as we see it. I mean, here was some smelly old seaweed, but with the play of light at that moment it looked beautiful to me. I came to realize that we can find that beauty almost anywhere if we look closely. It stems from the fact that nature IS made up of beauty. Beauty in the colours, but also beauty in the way it works together.

This is the seaweed - the photo that got me hooked! It was like looking out in the universe with a tiny planet in the distance and the light from the sun all around.

It seems horrendously complex (and it can be), but if you approach it with the right frame of intent, you realize it can also be simplistically beautiful in its purposeful design. You will find repeating patterns and codes that show up in the tiniest of things as well as the mammoth sized things.

When you look at the work that I had been doing, both drawing and painting, and compare with the simplicity of the abstract photography, you can see why I might be excited about finding more of those calming moments.

As relaxing as it is painting or drawing, there is a great deal of focused attention. Tuning in to all the senses, researching, learning, scanning the brain for ideas and possible connections, scanning the canvas for  what has appeared and what may need to be added all takes focus. As does the actual focus on technical aspects - the planning and executing of the work. It can and does drain me sometimes. Not to the point I will ever quit ...... but sometimes I feel like a break is needed, to do something else, and I hadn't ever realized why. I would feel weary, and wonder why I needed a break from doing something I loved so much ..... it didn't make sense. Now it does.

Here's a link to a website with an article (book almost) on Directed Attention Fatigue if you want to learn more about it.
http://www.troutfoot.com/attn/index.html

Was reading a book and came across the phrase 'directed-attention fatigue'. Boy did that strike a chord! I had never heard anyone discuss  the feeling using those words before, but it sits right with me. It makes sense. My brain is tired of having my attention directed at what the situation dictates rather than just exploring what it would like to explore.

I am always focusing on creating specific things; solving specific challenges; learning new things; getting the job done on time. I haven't let it just meander through the thoughts that pop up nearly often enough over the last few years. I guess that is why I have been drawn to walk and sit by the river so much now that I have the opportunities. My brain is trying to make up for lost time. It needs to be able to ponder the thoughts that arise as they come along. It needs to be able to make the odd connections that it makes on its own without my interference.

There are a zillion instances when I have had thoughts pop in to my head and I have had to just brush them aside to make room for the stuff that needed thinking about at the moment. Did I have all the paperwork done for completion of the project? Did I have all the bills paid? Did I return all the calls and complete everything I said I would before the end of the day? Did I have this, that, the other and more! At the end of the day I was mentally exhausted and wasn't sure how to change that. I certainly hadn't heard anyone put it in to context like this. I knew my brain was tired, but it was like knowing the bread hadn't risen properly. I just wasn't certain what ingredient was missing. I knew in my soul that I needed more 'down' time but didn't understand why. According to William James there are two kinds of attention - directed attention and fascination (or involuntary attention). In the 1970's Stephen and Rachel Kaplan began studying this idea and their conclusion was that directed attention fatigue occurs because neural inhibitory mechanisms become fatigued by blocking competing stimuli. Their suggestion was to find an environment that holds high fascination and the directed attention can rest.

Well, I am highly fascinated by so many things in nature - the tiniest of things attract me. So it is natural that I should feel calm and rested when I am outside just sitting and watching and thinking and wondering. My brain is being carried away into its own little explorations without any direction. Nothing is being repressed as conflicting. It has an opportunity to run with the questions and ideas. It can make its own connections and ponder the results. It can ponder through the lens of a camera, the marks of a pencil or pen, the colours of paint, or something abstract and esoteric like feelings and spirit energy. It can do what it was built to do.

I can ponder what it would be like to sit upon that distant mountain and look back to where I stand now. How difficult would it be to get there? What change would it make to my impression of the valley?

I can ponder the cubist-like abstract created by moss growing on the cliff face.

I can wonder what kind of fly this is and why it is sitting on a rock by the river, like me.  What does it do the rest of its day?

I new that I needed a rest, a change of pace, something more interesting to think about - but I didn't realize that there was a physiological reason for it. I just figured I was bored with work. Now that I understand that this is the way the mind works, I can make certain that I allow time for it to wander at will. Just sit and let it explore things. And it's another good reason to spend time wandering in the woods! Just exactly what I need. The more reasons I can find to spend time wandering, observing and thinking, the happier I am.

This is the time of year when I like to gather things together that I might want to sketch this winter when I don't feel like standing outside with frozen fingers, trying to make my pencil work right or keep the ink flowing. These squash and gourds should provide an interesting project, whether it be drawing or painting. A challenge to look forward to - whether I succeed or not, it will be fun trying, and that's what it's about after all.

Colourful, gnarled, bent and twisted ..... these should be a challenge! Does anybody actually eat these? I just seem to draw them and then dry them out or put them in the compost.

I bring in things like grasses, branches with a few leaves and perhaps cones attached, groups of berries on a twig, leaves from various trees. It gives me an excuse to buy colourful hot peppers and weird looking gourds too. If I am near a lake or ocean driftwood is good, as are seashells. I used to be able to find tiny snail shells and fresh water clams shells on the shores of Skaha Lake, but it has been a number of years since I have seen any.

I have also collected a few cones of various types from the trees. Cones always look like they should be easy, just repetitious, but if you don't get the lines right, they just look like blobs (just ask me).

Weeds and grasses are always fun, the more character to them the better. Curvy, bent, gnarled and twisted is good! It is all practice, and especially because I do so much abstract work, I like to draw back now and then, and remind myself of the basic underlying structure of things. It also helps me to get to know what is out there around me in the natural world. Chances are, if I find something I don't know, I will look it up. Then I have just a little bit more knowledge to understand this world I live in.

Feathers are good too. This one is from an eagle that was preening in a tree nearby.

Truth of the matter - it's my way of rationalizing wandering around in the woods for a while without feeling any guilt pangs ..... which I shouldn't ..... but I do still sometimes. Guilt catches me when I am not paying attention. Funny how that works. Things that are of utmost importance to our own well-being, are often the things we feel guilty about taking the time to do. We shouldn't, but we do. Somewhere along the way it gets instilled in the mind that what we love most should be set aside and more "important" things should be taken care of. Those important things are always some one else's priorities, but funnily enough, they never want to do them themselves .... did you ever wonder about that? I used to. I would think that if it was so all-fired important they should do it themselves to be sure they got it done right! Funny to look back on, now that I can do whatever I please, and realize that I probably always did ... I just developed a guilty conscience about it!

A small painting I did last winter from some hot peppers I brought home from the vegetable stand. I needed something to hang on the wall in the kitchen, so I did three small ones.

So now, I do what pleases me - what gives me energy to do more -  and try to keep that guilt where it belongs - in the past, where it was handy to keep me from getting into too much trouble! And sketching on a day when the sun is reflecting off the snow into my living room where it is warm and cosy, is one of those things.

The phrase, "I am of two minds" comes to my brain this morning because that is the way I feel. One of me wants clean, clear herbal tea and some chrystal meditation and one of me wants sweet, thick, flavoured coffee with lots of heavy cream. One wants to dive right in to finishing up a reno project and painting more walls, or writing and drawing ........ and one wants to just crawl back into my warm bed with it's eiderdown comforter, as it is only 5:30 am and I could catch a few more zzzzzz's quite easily.

I feel better if I don't overdose on the sleep end of things though. I am more alert and likely to be productive in the morning if I get out of bed when i first wake, no matter what time that is ........ but then I crash at mid day and desperately require a nap. When the nap is over I have to wake up all over again, and the process of waking has never been clear and easy for me. I sleep deeply and wake slowly. It takes a while to clear the cobwebs of dreamland. It's like having a sleep hangover and  working my way through that twice in a day is sometimes more than I want to deal with, so I have been known to force myself through the draggy-down time mid-day by doing exercises and going outside for a walk (or better yet, doing some hard physical labour like digging up the garden) to wake up the brain. I have even been known to reach for the chocolate, cigarettes and an overdose of caffeine. Neither method really does much good in the long run. The brain has a way of taking control when it feels in desperate need of sleep. It just shuts down. It doesn't really care what you are doing - it shuts down anyway.

I have had that happen at work, in the past - my brain coming 'to' while my hand was still trying to record gibberish on the paper. It was a weird sensation to wake up and find my hand had been making letters (or what kind of looked like letters) while my brain was asleep. The hand may as well not have bothered to try being the good little soldier and carry on, because there was no chance of deciphering what it had written. The letters got progressively smaller and they drooped and slid down the page like the tail of a cat sitting on a fence. Like a snake trying to retreat before you noticed, they headed for the bottom corner to make their escape.

So which one of me won out this morning? I compromised. I made tea and coffee - drank part of the tea first and then got into the coffee. The thing about having tea first thing in the morning for me is that it makes my tongue all fuzzy and dried out... and that's no fun to wake up to. If I brush my teeth first it reacts with the toothpaste additives and tastes just plain nasty. I am writing rather than working on the reno bits because Town Council says it is too early to hammer - and if I need parts, nobody else is up so nothing is open. So even though the desire for wholesome productivity is there, the reality can be ugly and unworkable. In my usual morning stupor enhanced by sugar, caffeine and nicotine, I can't think of a way to relate this to nature, so am just posting some pretty pictures that have nothing to do with anything.

Hope you enjoy them anyway.

Although upon reflection, this one could be me disappearing into the black hole of sleep oblivion.

And I suppose this one might too. It is at the water's edge. Neither completely dry nor wet - torn between being lake or shore, it absorbs a bit of both, easing into the transition.

In the end, I suppose I can find some way of tying almost anything in to the workings of nature. And I guess that is what my hazy mornings are about - easing myself through the transition from sleep to wakefulness.

Came across a work that I had done quite a long time ago, and thought perhaps it was worth putting out into the universe once again. It's a bit of a change from fog pictures, although it represents the mental fog we get into sometimes.

The premise behind the work was Edward de Bono's "Six Thinking Hats", which I am sure many of you are familiar with as it became very popular and was all the rage for a while.  Businesses adopted the process within their framework of personal training. It went along with the time management, stress management and decision making training to help 'make a better you'. The process though, was put together to help groups approach situations with a "parallel view".... where everyone looks at the problem or possibility from the same viewpoint. The viewing points can be changed, but each person must view from the same point at the same time.

The process de Bono works with is helpful in sorting things out in your brain if you have a problem you can't seem to make a decision on. The idea put forth in the painting is that humans are like a jigsaw puzzle made up of a combination of many different influences. Sometimes these result in inner conflict that doesn't seem resolvable until we pick the conflicting thoughts apart and put them in the proper places. I posted about this idea previously looking at it from a different point of view, but because each individual has their own way of learning, here's another way to look at things.

I am not delving into all of the specifics in de Bono's process, but he puts forth the premise that human beings make decisions based on six different influences; positive, negative, objective, organizational, emotional and creative.
He created a different coloured hat for each influence, and suggests that you figuratively place a hat of that colour on your head and view your problem from that aspect only - working your way through all six. In the process, you realize where your conflicts arise and can perhaps find the solution you are looking for that satisfies all aspects and objections. His process works with groups, but you can adapt it to your own individual situations as well.

My artist's interpretation of that works into a jigsaw puzzle that combines all colours into the white light of wholeness (as when you combine all light colours, you end up with white light).

Say perhaps that you have received a job offer in a different city and you can't decide whether to accept or decline. Look at the situation from an objective point of view - find the logic in it.. get the information you require to make an objective analysis. Then look at it from your emotional standpoint. Just consider how you FEEL about it - nothing else. Where do you feel tension in your body - is excitement or fear? What are your intuitive feelings?  After you have thoroughly investigated these two aspects and written the thoughts down that came to mind, make a list of all the negative; cautions, possible problems, etc. and all the positive (benefits). Then you can look at the organizational aspects that arise from either choice - and finally get creative about how to deal with each of these aspects.

In his book, de Bono's process is much more elaborately explained, going deeper into his process,  but this is my own interpretation of it and sufficient for here.  If you are familiar with the book or the process, you begin to see how the creative mind takes over and puts things into places that make some sense. As an artist, I work pretty much that way with everything. I gather all the information of the problem, situation or idea, and then begin to analyze it from different aspects. I don't always go though these specific aspects when I think about things, but I do consider from varying points of view.  Once the analysis is done, my mind starts playing with the creative solutions. I do it with my art work, and I do it with regular everyday life. There is little separation for me. My mind works pretty much the same way no matter what. The fun part comes into play when I get to the creative solutions because I like to drag things from one area to another.

For example, if I have a negative emotional response to something, I consider how I could turn that into a positive on the organizational side. Using the idea from above, if I was considering moving and found that one thing holding me back was a negative fear of all the work involved and the time it takes, I could turn that into a positive organizational aspect by hiring someone else to do it. Pretty simplistic solution (although it may then put a negative on the financial side of things). But if you play with an idea long enough, there is usually a solution that keeps you balanced and content. The same in my art work - I take all the information I have gathered and consider what kind of influence it has on the total picture, and where it might fit into the grander scheme of things. If it doesn't work in one spot, can I change it so that it fits somewhere else? Can I change the size, shape or colour so that it enhances something else on the canvas? In this painting I balanced the colours on the canvas, so that automatically determined which aspect was going in which space.

It's all just being playful really. Bending, twisting, reshaping, moving around. Playing until it feels complete, and I feel content. Even from the point of view of the process de Bono has presented - I have adapted his ideas and created a process that works for me personally. So the next time you feel like you are looking into some of that foggy dew I have been showing you, pull out your playfulness,  put on your green creative hat and start having some fun with it.


And if you want to read "Six Thinking Hats" and get the full process explained in its original intention,  the revised edition is available through Amazon.

Fall is a good time to take a walk outdoors, and notice stuff. In summer all the colours are glorious, the leaves obscure the branches, we are busy with fun things and don't often take the time to notice what is really around us. But when fall comes and the beautiful leaves begin to fall off the trees, we start looking at what is left. When it gets to be really brown, anything different stands out, and we see things that we hadn't noticed before.

Because winter is coming the animals are looking for other things to eat, such as these mushrooms that are popping up from underground. Didn't know they were there.

Mushrooms growing underground have been unearthed by animals who have a better sense of smell than me! They found them and ate several.

Bird nest hiding in the crook of a tree. It's made from small sticks rather than fluffy things, and no mud mixed in - not big enough for crows or ravens, so am guessing maybe stellar jays.

I have walked by this tree many times, but didn't see the bird's nest in it. The leaves obscured it. Now I know it is there and will keep an eye out next year to see if someone is using it again. And now I can also see there has been damage to the trunk of this tree. Not sure if it is a kind of fungus or what. Now that I have noticed this one, I see that there are other trees with the same dark patch on them. Too high up to get a really close look. I could try to climb it, but probably pull the whole tree over!! Think I'll just look on the internet instead and see if I can figure out what it is caused by - that way I won't end up on my behind with a tree on top of me.    ; )

Life often obscures little things with its busyness too. There are bright colourful distractions coming at us from all sides. We need to peel back the foliage and take a good close look at the small things in our life every now and then.  Take a  look at who is building a nest and getting comfortable around the edges of your environment. Do you want them there? And is there damage or rot hiding somewhere that needs to be dealt with and healed? Sometimes there is benefit from a good clean sweep and a fresh start. That's sort of what winter does.

It's a good time of year to be looking at things in your garden too. Noticing what stands out and what doesn't. Does it need a little colour somewhere now that the leaves and blossoms have gone? Could you plant something with colour in the bark or stems that would stand out against the browns and greys of winter? Should you add a statue or something to make it more interesting in winter? Make notes of your thoughts for next spring, because in spring and summer we get carried away by the beauty of the flowers and forget there is colour to be found elsewhere on the plants, and in late fall that can really make a difference in how you feel about your garden.

These stalks hold their colour late in the year and give you something besides brown to look at.

If you put a few things of interest in your garden, they stand out when all the flowers are gone. When the snows come it will provide a bit of colour and interest.

Then you can put your feet up inside on a chilly day and having something eye-catching to look at in your garden. Now is the time to take a good look and make your plans for next year. And while you are thinking about it, take a walk in the wild and see what ideas it gives you - for your garden and your life.

If you want some fall garden ideas, check out this Squidoo lens;
http://www.squidoo.com/fallgardenplanning

Another foggy morning that turns into a beautiful day. The interplay of light and water can create so many different moods and such beauty around us. The mist-laden air enfolds around us, drifting in and out quickly at times. These two photos below were taken only a couple of hours apart - but what a difference in the mood. It went from a dull, almost foreboding atmosphere to a bright sparkling day as the rays of the sun dance off the droplets of moisture on the plants, and all it took was a little warmth from the sun.

The morning mist rising from the river drifts through the trees obscuring the background.

As the fog is lifting the sun shines through the cloud layer. The dew condensed on the leaves and branches of the trees and shrubs sparkles in the sunshine.

The dew on the leaves and branches will wash them clean as it trickles and drips down to the earth, slowly being absorbed into the soil and sucked up by the plants once again. It's another way Mother Nature tends her plants and cleanses the world. The fine drops of moisture in the air carry away the dust and the air is fresh and clean when the sun shines again. It smells wonderful and I fill my lungs.

If you have an interest in reading more information on the different types of fog and how they are created, or check out a few cool photos, this link will take you to a Wikipedia page on fog.

We had our first snowfall a couple of days ago, but it soon turned to rain. Nothing left to take pictures of. The next morning I woke to the foggy,foggy, dew. Fog always casts such an interesting light on everything, and the moisture in the air makes the leaves and rocks glisten. I find it very pretty as well as rather soothing and calming, and look forward to a few more days of this effect, as the difference in the water temperature and the air temperature creates more fog.

Fog diffuses the light waves and sends them off in different directions so everything looks fuzzy. It creates a softened vision of the environment around us. It also deadens the sound, and the resulting effect is comforting (unless you have to drive through it!).

But for some people, fog has become extremely important in their daily survival. In Nepal, for example, a system has been constructed that captures the moisture from fog. People use it for their daily water in areas where water is scarce or unavailable. There are also projects in South and Central America, Namibia and Israel among others, that are co-ordinated by "Fog Quest", a Canadian company.

The International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, Canada has an article listing benefits of the innovative water collection systems that are being put into place around the globe. It's an idea/process that has been researched over the last couple of decades, and though we don't hear much about it in the mainstream news media, there is progress being made. The lives of people in water-scarce areas are being improved.

I think it's an interesting idea that we could take advantage of for 'off-grid' living as well in certain areas. And in this country, with our regular snowfall in winter, I don't see why we couldn't investigate in that direction for 'off-grid' water sources, particularly for irrigating food for our own personal consumption. It wouldn't create enough to live off all year, but it could be perhaps used to augment other supplies, or kept in storage until the dry season and then put to use. Similar to reservoirs for city usage, but on a much smaller scale. One wouldn't really be stealing it from the earth and upsetting the balance, but merely directing it to a specific area of cultivation at a time when it was needed. It is something to think about. And I do believe we need to put more attention to how much water we consume, and how we use it.

Sooo much is wasted. I mean - really - do you have to wash down your driveway with your drinking water? When I drive past someone doing that I get the urge to get out and slap the guy ..... and I am not an aggressive person by nature. But there are some things that just seem ridiculous, wasteful and show a total disconnect from the world we live in. We are slowly draining our reserves while the population numbers are exploding, and to top it all off we have climate change effects and global warming to add in to the mix. No - you can't fix it all by yourself, but you can do your little bit, which in the end will be a cost saving advantage to you and a major advantage to the earth.

There is a very interesting and informative article in "National Geographic" on the state of the water supply  with comments and predictions of how it will affect the future. It's called "Drying of the West" and deals with the watersheds around Los Angeles and surrounding areas but is indicative of other areas as well. It's well worth a read.

If you want to learn about or donate to fog collection systems around the world, search out
http://www.fogquest.org/projects.shtml

OR

http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-26965-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#Introduction

for what the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa is involved in.  We take our water so for granted, we don't acknowledge that there is a very limited supply because we see it everywhere. This may not be the case if we do not take the time to understand the cycles and respect them in our usage.

The muted colours of fall on the Similkameen River. It's a damp day and I am soaking up the moisture and loving it. I breathe easier.

Rain and fog also make the surface of the stones wet and glisten in the light. It's the best possible time to go rock collecting because all the interesting ones stand  out when they are wet (it also means you don't have to lick the rocks to find out what they really look like).  ; )  I like that speckled black one in the middle the best.... well, I like them all, but that one caught my attention right away and nudged my curiosity about things - like what it is made of, how it formed that way, and where it came from. Is there more rock like it somewhere up the river? I get the urge to go searching.

Water is such an important aspect of life on this planet. Everything needs it - water and air are the basics that keep the planet functioning.

It always intrigues and pleases me when I catch light putting the spotlight on something in nature. An ordinary leaf can become rather translucent, showing the shadows of things behind it, when the sun is shining through it. It calls our attention to a spot on a distant mountain top that we may completely ignore if not for the light. It gives distance to the mountains, faintly fading them as they recede, and it brings far off points closer by brightening them. It covers the brown weeds with diamonds on a frosty fall morning. It can reflect off a shiny object way up on a cliff and flash back at you with such brightness you have to avert your eyes.

There's a grasshopper hiding behind this leaf - he thinks I can't see him!

The mountains fade as they recede, the rolling grass field in the middle ground becomes more visible, and the bright orange leaves of the tree on the bank jump right out of the darkness of the cliff.

This is my favourite. When the sun spreads tiny sparkles of brilliance around in the frost. Really hard to capture with a camera, but stunning to see. The whole field across the street was just sparkling in the morning sun - it was breath taking.

Of course, the absence of light has effects on us too. As the day winds down and things become muted in colour with the fading light we begin to slow down.We shift moods. We know night and darkness is coming. But darkness is hard to find sometimes these days. Have you ever seen any of the photos from space of the 'dark' side of the planet? There are so many lights burning all night long.

There is some interesting information in the National Geographic Magazine, and on their website. Several articles on night light are posted, as well as a video taken from the space station showing the cities of the world at night. Stunning patterns in the darkness and interesting differences in the colour of the light in different cities. The thing that caught my attention most though, was a short quip from Brad Scriber in a post entitled Ecological Light Pollution where he states "There's also evidence that our grand transformation of the night might have serious implications for our own health. The contrast between dark and light allows our bodies to calibrate our circadian rhythms, such as hormone levels and sleep schedules."

So my take on this is to enjoy the light in the daytime, and turn off some of those  lights at night. We don't really need them all I'm sure. Beautiful as it may be, it's not that good for us, or for the rest of the creatures on it. Oh, I know - we need some for safety- but do we need those on all of the time? As a culture, we seem to have become afraid of the darkness - insecure with it.

Maybe it's time we take back the night time and enjoy some of those fantastic stars that light our skies instead, because they put on a fantastic show as well. If we could only just look out the window and see them.

I know - I'm late with my post -it should have been up yesterday -  and there are a couple of reasons for the fact that it wasn't. One being that I was out of town most of the day. This is the time of year when the craft markets start popping up all over to get your Christmas money before you spend it elsewhere, and I went out of town to browse one of the bigger ones in the Valley. Some really neat stuff there - and yes, I spent a bit of money! I like to support the local  creative community. The other reason is that since I got back home I have been going over this post in an attempt to make some kind of sense to someone who might not suffer from the convoluted forms of thinking that my mental gymnastics go through! There is maybe-almost-sort of a connection with my recent post on changing perspectives.

I was watching a video on "Imagining the 10th Dimension" and it brought about an interesting train of thought. To MY brain, it clicked right in with what the basis of "The Secret" is all about. Everything that you could possibly dream about is already there waiting for you, you just have to step in to the flow and claim ownership of it. So after watching the video I figure if you bend the path you are following and connect it with where you want to be, that's all there is to it.

Huh?........

What the heck am I talking about? Well - The basis of "The Secret", as I see it, is that everything that we want already exists. But as individuals, we are trained (or brainwashed) to only see what we THINK exists for us according to who we think we are. As example, if we think we are stupid or inept, only things that stupid and inept people are capable of handling will be available to us in our lifetime - and even if something wonderful comes along, we can't imagine ourselves in that position, so we unwittingly push it away because we don't think it is meant for us. If we think we are intelligent and lucky and can do what we desire, then we will find a way to do exactly what we desire, come hell or high water. Our actions on a moment to moment basis are governed by how we perceive ourselves and our world. It's much more complicated than this, but that about sums it up for me. Envision yourself as who you want to be - live your life as who you want to be - and you will be that person.

Part of the basis of the 'Tenth Dimension' idea is that all ten dimensions exist - now. Past, present, future, and all possibilities thereof, exist - simultaneously. They don't easily fit in to our vision of the three dimensional concrete world as we believe it, and the three dimensional part of us may not be able to physically survive in them, but they exist. There is much, much, MUCH more to it than that - but for this comment, it's all I am considering. Not very scientific of me, but when I read these theoretical ideas, I always look at them and say "Okay, how might this theory apply to my life as I live it?" because after all, I am a part of the natural universe and must operate under the same basic principles to some degree or other.

What popped in to my brain was if all possibilities could possibly be in existence at this present moment in time (from a scientific point of view) - I think I'll just bend the path I am following a little so I can connect with the path that takes me to the future I see in my mind - the one I know exists. Just step from here to there. Sounds like fun to me! No hard work trying to dig out the stigmas and retrain myself, no time wasted thinking about 'stuff' or 'issues' - just step on over to the other side of things.

To attempt to make this a little easier to grasp in everyday terms, think about the TV show (Extreme Makeover- Home Edition). Pretend your family was chosen. A crew comes in to rip down your old house and build you a new one beyond your wildest dreams. One moment you are living in horrendously confining circumstances  - you step away for a holiday - when you come back, you have a grand and glorious home to walk in to. A new life begins. You learn to think differently about life because reality for you has changed. I am sure that this opens up a whole new set of challenges for the family - but with all that brushed aside, you have stepped onto a different path through life. One lived with a different perspective on what you are capable of doing. New possibilities open up. You merely stepped from the horrible into the limo - and everything changed.

...... to take this one step deeper into my mental mire, if you change the perspective you have about who you are and what you are capable or deserving of in life, life itself can change. When you are willing to think differently and make that change, you can bend the path and connect with one that brings a new result. It is a series of decisions made in the moment giving new perspectives and new paths to follow. You don't even need the makeover to begin the process - you only need the change in perspective.

Maybe that is all babbling gibberish to you - but to me it makes sense. (A little bit of knowledge in my brain is a dangerous thing!) So I think I will have some fun with the idea and try it out.

You really should check out the Tenth Dimension website and related pages because there are some interesting ideas and discussions there. You don't have to grasp the whole concept immediately - but it is good to give the brain something new and different to grapple with once in a while. Shake out the cobwebs. See what resonates for you.

Say this is the path I am following. I can't really see where it leads, but it looks well traveled, so I could continue on this way and find out what awaits me.

But if I change my perspective slightly, I see there is a pathway off in another direction. Not so well worn, but obviously used by someone along the way. I could also go that way and explore what awaits me.

But then, there is also this pathway. I could take the bridge (over the troubled waters) and go through the tunnel (instead of climbing the mountain) and I have a clear path in an entirely new direction which will bring different results. But....all of these possibilities exist simultaneously. The results or destinations are there waiting for us.  Now.

It is in the decisions we routinely make at moments like this that shape our life. These decisions are based on what we believe ourselves to be.  Are we going to take the well worn paths, or investigate the less traveled? Do we want to the easy way or make things difficult for ourselves? OR.........do we want to call in the helicopter to lift us out and whisk us away to somewhere entirely different? Perhaps step in to the limo and and tell the chauffeur exactly where we want to go. That sounds like fun to me....what about you?