SchragWall
As a teacher I spent my life as an agent of change. Moving students from lethargy to curiosity, leading to a life of positive action. I was a motivational speaker for an active mind and living an active life. It was, in a word, exhausting. I do not believe that those frenetic years led to my multiple myeloma, but I have decided that it is time to pass my "agent of change cape" to a younger generation, and put on the more relaxing garb of an “agent of calm.” This blog explores that new role.
Sunday, October 6, 2024
Why Every Painting is a Prayer
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Time to Breathe
It seems to require either exceptional courage or an intense inclination to sadism to attend to the "news" these days. Journalism has always been a slave to a "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality, but the digital nature of today's world allows the industry to rake up any political conflict, military mayhem, or natural disaster - large or small - from anywhere on the globe with truly depressing immediacy. I don't know if humanity is really striving to descend to new lows, or if our ability to follow the pessimistic storylines just makes it seem so. Either way, I feel a pressing need to take a breath and focus on that which is good and beautiful in the world.
Monday, September 16, 2024
Holes in the Fabric
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Playing with Poetry
Walking the Circle Path - 2024
Earliest beyond planning
Almost without awareness
Routes of exploration
Sights and sounds
Within each precious moment
Until, quietly, sleep intrudes
And then waking sends one
Again to senses newly formed
Somehow down around
A curve or corner
We discover the first faint
Awareness of a glimpse
Called destination
Perhaps maybe possibly
Could be should be is
At least for awhile
Until concrete asphalt
Highways byways
Bridges parking lots
Detours shortcuts
Cloverleafs round-abouts
And occasional dead ends
Guide us through the
May be could be
Might be should be
Would have been
Should not have been
Got right got wrong
Did over walked away
Turned around started again
That is life
When suddenly again
Beyond planning
At the reborn
Corner of awareness
The path turns
Soft and sandy
Bordered by nodding blossoms
No doubt once forgotten
Have been there all long
Now reassert their value
Sweetly requiring our
Attention appreciation
Kinship
Stop smell me
Implores a
Forgotten mantra
We would be wise
To listen to step aside
Off the harried highway
And return
For a tranquil while
To that friendly path
We traveled long ago.
Mice - 2001
As mice scampering across a moonlit mesa
Thoughts trace frantic paths across my mind.
Do not pounce. They cannot be caught.
Observe them. Allow them this time.
They are but figments destined to fade at dawn.
Who would have known empty
Could tip the scales to such an incline?
Perhaps dark matter does outweigh
All that is observable and light
Does so subtly assert its unimaginable worth.
For clear light does true love reveal,
Fragile and tenuous in its immortality.
While darkness nurtures its false shade,
A fleeting debasement that decays
Beneath its own whining and recrimination.
So seeming endless patience must your
First companion be.
The imagination of the eyes that look
To be the twins of your own comforts, bring
A feigned indulgence of your heart’s true ease.
But lose not your firm determination
To wait upon the rising of heart and flesh.
Allow ecstasy its own fair germination
For love delayed is far sweeter than
Affection or remorse draped in love’s disguise.
Pre-dawn showers mist the mesa.
An owl’s shriek steeps low against the mountainside
Sweeping mice to holes and cliffs and gone.
And sun’s first light reveals me still alone,
But softly now, fresh draped in calm repose.
Here is the original version, but if you are viewing on a small screen, very, very hard to read 🤪
Monday, September 2, 2024
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
L’Image Aumentare : Pearl No. 160
OK, it's not really No. 160, it's more like 3 or 4, depending on how you are counting. The 160 refers to the new set of markers I mentioned in a previous post. They arrived, but really didn't live up to my expectations. First, about a third of them were greyscale obviously designed for folks who worked in pencil, a skill I neither have, nor aspire to. But, I did get the set at a half price sale, so still a pretty good deal. However, I realize that I should have paid more attention to myself when I talked about the variability of marker shades.
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Pebbles in The Stream
I have been reading about a variety of recent anthropological discoveries that have been raising new questions about who we are as a species, and how we fit on the tree of life here on earth. Those discussions, and a few weird dreams featuring people and places long gone by, have got me thinking about "evolution and identity" from a far more specific and focused perspective - mine.
Saturday, August 17, 2024
The Color of Excess
One of Christine's favorite sayings is "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!" I'm not sure she intended me to follow that line of reasoning as I began to accumulate a store of markers for my images, the current state of which is reflected in the image below.
Friday, August 16, 2024
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
L'Image Aumentare: Pearl 1
OK, I'm going to move from prose to images for awhile.