Act One - Groundhog Day Becomes A Love Supreme

As The Nord pointed out in his comment on the previous post, I'm now nearly two weeks into this new cycle... so what have I learned and how am I doing... any way?

Two weeks on... exploring the directions that I want to go, the last 12 days have been a definite first act, finding the characters, learning the landscape (again) spending time noticing what the content of my life is really about.

The supremely (the pun was unintended but I've decided to keep it anyway) beautiful "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane is playing as I write this and the structure which Coltrane places into his musical magnum opus (and in my opinion, the best recording ever made) reflects most particularly what I am feeling at the moment... Acknowledgement is the name of the first movement, and acknowledgement - facing, looking, considering, and nodding at my life as if it is a friend on the other side of a crowded room - is what the last 12 days have been like.

Over the last two weeks I have been extremely busy with a recording project, a set of personal dramas within the local club I am a part of, raising money in order to get through the "new world order," and searching through the ways to put all my plans (enumerated below) into motion. It's been a frenetic, thoroughly unbalanced and only minimally productive period of time. There's a lot going on, but most days it really seems like sitting on a stationary bike, peddling my ass off, and getting absolutely nowhere.

So, yesterday, in the midst of all the craziness, I simply stopped to lift my head up and take a look around.

Acknowledgement:

1. an act of acknowledging.
2. recognition of the existence or truth of something: the acknowledgment of a sovereign power.
3. an expression of appreciation.
4. a thing done or given in appreciation or gratitude.

As in the beautiful pattern of Coltrane's piece, the first act is about recognizing the reality of the life I have. It's about looking, but not just looking, it's about SEEING what's in front of me. Only then is it possible to begin working with what's there. This is really not that different from what I was talking about in the last post. As I think about it, the key to the basic idea in Groundhog Day is that the main character must first notice what's going on before he can begin to transform that reality.

So there we are... Act One - Acknowledgement

Taking the time to look and to see
Paying attention to the patterns as they unfold
Recognizing what feels right
Seeking to find the thread

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Thanks again to The Nord. I discovered a new blog this morning by a photographer from San Francisco, Rebecca Jackrel, She is presently out on a true 40 Days to Life adventure, which frankly makes my repetitive attempts at a search for meaning seem like so much cream of wheat (and I really hate cream of wheat!).