Stories

“Our stories are our maps and memories, objects of adoration.”

How we live is the story we tell, what we collect, consume and offer up: love, empathy and its opposite. Tied to words, our stories are told through deeds done, life lived, beauty seen and loss expressed. Our stories are our maps and memories, objects of adoration. What our stories tell about us are penned through our mindset and stitched through the images we choose to see, what we build by way of the creative languages, by way of learning to see and learning itself. Our stories are ongoing slide shows, narrated by the voices in our heads and pieced by our actions in time, by the things we surround ourselves with and whom. 

“To edit our stories is to be aware that we are the story teller and the cartographer, the possessor of the compass and the light.”

It is easy to see that we are the authors of our lives, but difficult to be the editors, choosing what we think, do, say and even savor. To edit our stories is to be aware that we are the story teller and the cartographer, the possessor of the compass and the light. Each of us are a noun using a verb to express the energy of emotion, trying to tie down who we think we are within our shells of bones and flesh, attempting to understand and control, as we write, edit and live our stories.

“We lose our storied identity when we allow our voice to be drowned out by the hive.”

In a world predicated on homogeny, it is easy to lose our voice in the stories we write and tell, opting for abbreviated versions that fit the narrative of sameness. We lose our storied identity when we allow our voice to be drowned out by the hive. Rather than choosing our words, our stories are ghost written by history and fear. To be one’s own author is to know who we are, see where we are and map the challenging terrain forward, writing chapters as markers of time. 

“To be one’s own author is to know who we are, see where we are and map the challenging terrain forward, writing chapters as markers of time.” 

Contentment

“To be grounded is to know what holds us and tying ourselves to that, as we move and sway to the winds of change.”

Being still in this era of troubles can feel like a slight of hand effort, made available to only those in the know, those already grounded, tethered as a string to a floating balloon. We all have our moments of feeling ungrounded, loss of control of what we never really had control of, life and living. To ground oneself is perhaps an effort of editing, cutting away the unnecessary noise of sound and clutter, the demands of self and others. To be grounded is to know what holds us and tying ourselves to that, as we move and sway to the winds of change. 

“How we live is not solely contingent on our surroundings, but merely softened, grounded, as a place to land, a place to dream, cradled in just, being.” 

When I lost my mother many years ago, it felt as if there was no one left to love me, what I find now is that it’s me, I am the one, the one to ground me, though often I feel untethered still, building the ground beneath me. How one thinks in the mind and moves in their lives is paramount to living a fulfilled life, this is my lesson, my ongoing learning. How we live is not solely contingent on our surroundings, but merely softened, grounded, as a place to land, a place to dream, cradled in just, being. 

“How we live is an extension and intention of our minds, the bridges and paths we build.” 

To be ensconced by what we deem beautiful, what we love and who we love is to be buffered and shielded, like wearing layers of down coats in Winter, life vests in water and shrouded in sound proofing layers. We are rarely two beats away from distration, rarely silent in the mind, nor body. How we live is an extension and intention of our minds, the bridges and paths we build. 

“To know oneself and to know beauty is to be truly content, in a world that constantly seeks”

Creativity in all its manifestations inspires and informs, speaks to the intuitive self, allowing us to see and be who we truly are. To know oneself and to know beauty is to be truly content, in a world that constantly seeks

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Perfectly Imperfect

“Our paths forward are never clear, despite our need to control and predict, days unfold while we live them, when we stop and see, everything within.” 

We are not flawed, we are not broken, in fact we are, perfectly imperfect. In life we are constantly striving, constantly in search of that beautiful future, a time when things fall into place. But the future is now, there is no guarantee beyond this, only today and the meaning we give it. Our paths forward are never clear, despite our need to control and predict, days unfold while we live them, when we stop and see, everything within. 

It is not clear to me when I started really seeing life differently, although admittedly I have always seen with an artist’s eye towards a bigger picture, but now that picture is wider, deeper and tad more in focus. It has taken me years of struggle to move through the muck of pain to arrive where I am, and will continue for the rest of my life. But somewhere a shift occurred, a light has fallen, illuminating my path forward. To say that I am enlightened is an impossible truth, I am merely open to the possibility of change, the possibility of better: perfectly imperfect. 

“To see the imperfections of who we are and where we are, eases where we wish to go, building bridges and marking maps.”

 

Life provides ample beauty to experience, and with it its opposite, how we react is part of the pendulum, how the future plays out and what momentum builds. To react upon is to act upon, pushing what we think, forward. To see the imperfections of who we are and where we are, eases where we wish to go, building bridges and marking maps. 

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”

Ernest Hemingway

Living

“Our ways of living are intuitive, brought from the gut and our traditions of history.”

Within an architectural building are spaces divided, filled with objects layered with memories, some of utility and others of pure beauty. It is here in these cubed spaces we build our lives, defined by language and deepened by emotion. Our ways of living are intuitive, brought from the gut and our traditions of history. When we are mindful, we know what brings us joy and expand upon it, smoothing our passing forward. Life is difficult, our time here, finite, to create change and beauty as life allows builds lasting results for generations to come. 

“Each deed, each thing we create can offer up clarity to who we are and wish to become.”

From a perspective of philosophy it would make sense to surround ourselves with the inspirations of beauty, nature and those we choose to love, building resilience to the difficulties that come. From the perspective of fact, what we think about we bring about, what we do we reap. The future holds what we give it, what we build now. Time waits for nothing and no one, therefore our day to day actions are paramount in digging our paths forward. It’s not about perfection, but the dexterity of thought and doing, what brings us upward and forward, us, we and them. Each deed, each thing we create can offer up clarity to who we are and wish to become. Every painting is a mirror and window, as is every book, each vote and painful wrong doing, offering up opportunities to see, prisms of who we are: magnification and light. This is life, how we surround ourselves is key, garbage in, garbage out. 

Creation

“Each creative arena offers salvation and solution if only we pause to see, pause and digest what’s before us and around.”

Beginnings always hide themselves in endings, but one has to begin within, to begin again. To find focus often we have to eliminate the noise, not just in our head, but what’s around us, the visual and physical clutter and clatter: setting things in order that we may find our way again. The visual languages, all, have a way of guiding us to where we wish to be, they inspire and uplift as they shine a light forward. Each creative arena offers salvation and solution if only we pause to see, pause and digest what’s before us. We have very little control outside who we are, the solution then is to build a better boat, a natural resilience to disorder: surrounding oneself with all that eases and inspires. 

Architecture is not mere container, it goes beyond utility into the physicality of the body and the emotions within. It speaks to and enhances our being human, down to the core of our well being, our intuition. This applies also to what we collect, how we fill our spaces and even time, what distracts and uplifts: utility and desire. If its true, what we think about we attract, then also true is what we surround ourselves with expands that attraction: like for like, same for same. Our physical world assists in manifesting our inner world, the good, the bad and the ugly. Beauty then, in all its complexities and creative arenas, is the language of self expression. 

“The love to create may be the deepest of emotions, as it pulls and is driven by, all that we are.”

Being human in its essence, is based in creativity and love, living is based in needs, wants and the desires that creativity and love push, deep from the belly of who we are. All that is created is manifested through love, how we work, what we make and our relationships. Creativity and love have no biases, they follow the mind and the individuals bent, the love to have may feel opposite to the love to give, or the love for the same or opposite gender. The love to create may be the deepest of emotions, as it pulls and is driven by, all that we are. But to create love has the broadest and deepest path, with time as its ally forward. To create is instinctual, our resolve and our remaking, the means forward to a clearer way.

“The love to create may be the deepest of emotions, as it pulls and is driven by, all that we are.”