100 years | The Eagle Scout
The Legacy of the Eagle Scout Award This year, the badge and legacy of the Eagle Scout reaches back a century. In the Girvin family, this is a potent tradition. All of the Girvin brothers are Eagles. And the tradition of scouting runs passionately deep in our experience. Every season -- we'd pack up our gear and head out, the hiking path, pitching camp, wandering and explorations wild. 50 mile hikes were set as consistently as the turning of summer. The Eagle Award isn't easy, it's a lot of...
The Watch
The Focus of Watch Fullness, Studying the Terrain Around You. I was hiking and, to every horizon line, path, water-lined and sanded beach and I studied the wind, the insects' movement, the course of birds, the turning light and colour of green-cast tree-light. And -- who was near by? I watch the pace of the other -- out there, far -- the forest, deep -- the long line of the beach. I measure the stride -- and see what progress is made. The watch is the guard, the sentinel, the synchronizer of...
A Visitation
A V I S I T A T I O N I've learned, over time -- with hornets and other winged insects that they look for and follow the Light. Trap one in a room with windows and they will track the sun and continue to beat against the glass, trying to get to the Light. There's a lesson there, surely. Even though the Light might seem like it's just there, you might have to find another route, less so, the obvious. To get them out, I literally "blow" them along the glass, exhaling and "whispering" them along...
Into the Mist
Time ticks as you walk in the dark, emerging or failing light -- and you realize that your true reliable momentum measure is the sound of your heels -- moment to moment: pavement, gravel, pea, grass, chipped woods, snow and ice. Each, a rhythm, a story. Here now, hear now -- [are you] what passes by? You are into the mist, and, this deed, in deed -- you are in the midst. As I measure out the spin, the stride of next steps, new movements, the beauty of what could be found in that new curve [up...
Go slow, go sure
Sometimes the best path Is the slow and watchful. Sometimes in the planning of strategy, for your life, brands and other enterprises, striking out the mapping of the path -- moving forward: slow down and study the surroundings as you move forward. Pay close attention to the movement, by: market landscape changes as you move. And the strategy should be a feeling watchfulness. Driving, the country roads of old Kauai, I found this old, weather-beaten sign board ("SLOW"). Watching it, studying the...
THE GREEN MAN
THE GREEN MAN OF LIGHT | A SHAPE-SHIFTING WANDERER I was seeing this, dreaming this, drawing this. IN THE WOODS, I WAS CONTEMPLATING THE GREEN LIGHT BUT IN THE GREEN LIGHT -- THERE WAS A WARM LIGHT, a SUNNIER LIGHT -- COMING THROUGH. I draw on, and through that light, what I see. A LIGHT MAN, THE WAFTING MIRAGE OF LIGHT, MAN. L I G H T W A N D E R E R ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– DEEP IN THE FOREST, WHEN THERE IS WATER NEAR, the light of the forest mixes with...
APPRECIATIVE LISTENING: watchful feelingness
Which way are you listing? open, sourced? foundation: sharing. –––––––––––––––– Vince -- good question last night, listening into our meeting; "how does a meeting with people that you've never met becomes a familial love / hug fest?" Silence -- and observative, feelingness –– listening. The way that you hear is by being quiet and watching the person that you're paying attention to. And connecting with them. Bringing them into yourself. You're holding them. That hug starts at the beginning....
My house, held. And the work in it.
Thinking about the iconography of place, what's made in it. What are the talismans of your place? A person stopped by my condominium, asking to borrow a can opener. Peering into my place, she said -- "are you moving?" As I looked back, there were piles of books, clothes, luggage, presentation tubes, folders and project envelopes (and lots of power cords). And I realized, in 2011, that if I wasn't going somewhere one day, I probably would shortly thereafter -- so I was always leaving my luggage...
Focused attention. Seeing in-to things.
When you're looking at something, how closely are you tuned? I was watching people watch. This is a habit. That is, studying people as they "study" -- watching to see how people are paying attention. This couldn't be any more in-depth or capable interpretation of the ongoing analysis of watchful friend, Linda Stone, and her studies of "attention." But it's more to an inherent curiosity that I've got about people and how they see things, and what they do when they see them. How they do, or do...
Tumble
I was thinking about the right ideas, that come from the tumble of those that try, but fail. Those that stumble, and find. These that jumble and arrive at the new. There is tumble, stumble, jumble -- and topple. They're interrelated. Long back, working with a team of scientists, they'd offered that the ideas come when teams of investigators are continuing rattling and railing at the same challenge -- yet, perhaps, they're coming at that challenge in the same forum, over and over. There's...