A walk in the clouds

These days I’m living with my head in the clouds–almost literally. I am spending the month of February in Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala, a huge volcano-ringed lake so situation in the Mayan highlands that sometimes the airborne moisture gently clusters together and forms clouds around the mountain peaks just up the path from my casita. This, I learned when I first lived here in 2007, is what is known as a cloud forest–a phenomenon every bit as enchanting as the name implies.

And so I was fascinated when I heard about cummulus, a recent exhibition in Paris of gigantic crocheted clouds by the Argentine artist and architect Ciro Najle. Organized by Le Laboratoire (an experimental science/art center) and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, cummulus was the visual, three-dimensional outgrowth of Najle’s three years of work with scientists, engineers and water experts to design fog-collecting nets for the capture of fresh water in the Atacama desert region of Chile.

Kat Austen, the editor of New Scientist’s CultureLab blog, described the exhibition this way:

Lit from within and above, the swaths of crocheted white wool hang from the ceiling to just half a metre above the ground, casting familiar shadows on the gallery floor. The fluffy cashmilon wool chosen by the artist…works well for cumulus clouds–the puffy ones that can precede thunderstorms, and are precursors to the godfather of clouds, the cumulonimbus.

Though there are many types of cumulus cloud, they are all united by their fractal nature, which prompted Najle to turn to crochet to capture their complex, cauliflower-like topology. Najle says crochet is the perfect medium for representing fractal structures because its surfaces can be subdivided again and again by varying the length of neighbouring crochet lines.

A team of 30 crochet craftswomen in Buenos Aires created the individual squares that were sewn together to make the large sections of the installation. The squares were based on 1664 diagrams mathematically generated by Najle to describe the knotted intersections that gave shape to the overall structures. As someone who once went through a crocheting craze lasting several years, I can well imagine the feel of the soft cashmilon yarn being looped through 30 women’s crochet needles, the precise pattern of each square that was destined to be joined to thousands of others to form great, billowing forms.

Le Laboratoire’s interest in exploring innovative design solutions to global water issues goes beyond the Najle exhibition. Alongside Najle’s clouds Le Laboratoire showed

works under development by teams of designers and students from the 2010 ArtScience Labs international creative program. These include a novel, easy to operate, and portable water filter; materials that mimic African fog-collecting insects; and an initiative to support the sustained development of fog collection through the distribution and sale of “fog water.”

Fog water! As delicious as the idea of a cloud forest! Najle’s cummulus installation was up through January 2012 at Le Laboratoire and had previously been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado. But I need only look up to the sky on particularly moist days to be reminded of the innovative work he and other designers are doing to engage creatively with problems of water availability around the world.

Video by Florent Déchard for Le Laboratoire and is embedded from YouTube.com.

One of the largest common dolphin strandings on records continues to mystify marine experts

Marine experts continue to be baffled by a rash of dolphin strandings on the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where 179 short-beaked common dolphins have been beached since January 12—almost five times the average number of dolphins that have been stranded annually over the past 12 years. One hundred twenty-four of them have died. Workers from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, an organization that rescues animals, protects animal populations and preserves habitats, have led the rescue efforts. According to an Associated Press story on February 16,

…necropsies have been done on dead dolphins, and a Congressional briefing was held early this month in the push for answers. But researchers can offer only theories about things such as changes in weather, water temperature or behavior of the dolphins’ prey.

Dolphins and other marine mammals have been found stranded on Cape Cod beaches for centuries; an average of 228 dolphins, whales, porpoises, seals and other sea mammals are beached here during a normal year. But experts are mystified by the sheer numbers in a single month, and also by the unusual fact that they are of one species. As Jenny Marder reported on the PBS NewsHour blog The Rundown:

“All [179] are common dolphins,” said Katie Moore, manager of the marine mammal rescue effort for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the group leading the effort. “Which is what’s scary. If I look over the last 13 years, the average number of common dolphins we see [stranded] in a year is 38. This is an enormous event.”

Dolphins are social, tending to travel in large groups, which helps them forage and fend off predators—but which also can leave them stranded in large numbers. Moreover, the Cape is shaped like a craggy hook, which tends to channel the animals inland, where they can remain trapped and beached during low tide.

Still, experts have no explanation for the unusually high numbers of stranded animals. “There are no indications that tidal patterns have changed and no signs of disease in the 10 dolphins that have undergone detailed necropsies,” according to the PBS blog.

Reporter Jay Lindsay of the Associated Press hung out with the dedicated dolphin rescuers as they attempted to herd the wild mammals back into deep waters:

One drifts off to the left, where he could beach again. The manager of the stranding team, Katie Moore, slides over, grabs its dorsal fin, and gives it a push in the right direction.

“You’re going the wrong way, buddy,” she says.

The inlet continues to fill and the dolphins break into waters that are deeper than the rescuers can follow, but they’re in two groups. The IFAW’s boat eventually follows one pod and the Wellfleet harbormaster takes another. The noise from the motors pushes the dolphins ahead. So do acoustic pingers, devices that make a sound that annoys the dolphins.

Moore, visibly exhausted from the ongoing rescue efforts, later told Lindsay, “We just don’t know when it’s going to end anymore. That wears on people.” But she has been inspired by IFAW’s success in returning the dolphins to the sea. “I think that as humans we have such a huge impact on the ocean environment, and on these animals in other ways, that this is our opportunity to do the right thing.”

Video is by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and is embedded from YouTube.com.

 

 

Dia de los cariños

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Here in Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala, where I lived for most of 2007 and where am staying for the month of February 2012, Valentine’s Day is called El Dia de los Cariños–The Day of the Tendernesses, or Caresses, or Love. And it is not reserved exclusively for grownup couples (or those who wish they were, or feel bad that they’re not), but is a holiday for one and all, especially children, who make tarjetitas out of colored paper and magazine cutouts and paint and glitter and glue and give them to the people they care about.

And so, as this Dia de los Cariños was approaching, I was thinking a lot about children who are important to me. Some are my blood, most are not, but each has her or his own special nook or cranny, decorated in just the way that child might most like, inside the chambers of my heart.

As a way of honoring and feeding the lifeblood of my connections with these children, I decided to do a simple, strong prayer ceremony for all of them. You can do this, too, if you feel so called.

PRAYER CEREMONY FOR THE CHILDREN OF YOUR HEART

1. Make a list of the children who hold a special place in your heart. Keep it private; prayers are more potent when you hold the energy close, rather than dissipating it (by, for example, blabbing about what you’re doing, which after all only serves your ego).

2. Set aside time when you can do your ceremony unrushed and undisturbed. If you have any special objects you might like to use to create your sacred space–incense or a sage bundle, a special rattle or drum, a crystal, a significant toy, anything at all–pack it in a pouch and bring it with you.

3. Go to a place in nature where there is some water, a lake or a stream or a sea. Water is regarded as our Holy Mother, our primordial Source, in so many cultures–from Ganga Ma in India to Mami Wata in parts of Africa to Yemonja in Brazil, and so many, many more. Take a walk in this place. Breathe deeply. Feel your feet on the ground, the moist air on your skin. As you walk, look for stones or shells, flowers or leaves to pick up and take with you–one for each child you are honoring.

4. After a while, you’ll come to a quiet spot that calls for you to stop. You will know. (If there is another human around, make yourself invisible and wait with patience. He or she will eventually leave. When I found my special spot alongside el lago, a local boatman who arrived there at the same moment rustled around for a while as I kept a respectful distance, then took up his cayuko and paddled away.)

5. Make an altarcito, a little altar, out of the objects you’ve gathered and any you brought with you. Make this with tenderness and beauty. The spirits will love you all the more.

6. If you have a way you like to use for calling in the spirits, do so. I like to make an offering of sacred tobacco or sage smoke as I call in the guardians of the East, West, North, and South, the As Above and the So Below, and the sacred Void, the center from which all comes and to which all returns. But do anything that feels like a good way to open your sacred space for prayer. (And don’t be afraid to be silly. The spirits love to laugh.)

7. Look at the sacred objects you’ve gathered. Hold one up to your heart as you make a sincere prayer for the first child’s specific needs. You know what these are. Imagine your heart imbuing this object with energy. Then toss the object into the water. Give away your prayer. 

8. Repeat until you have made an individual prayer for each child.

9. Close the ceremony by making an offering to the spirits: your words, a chant, a great rattling or drumming, tobacco, flowers, sacred smoke, your silence–whatever feels right and true. Ask them to carry your prayers to Source.

9. Walk back the way you came, holding good intent in your heart for these special children. Take your sweet, loving time.

Photos of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, are © 2012 by Diana Rico and may be reprinted noncommercially under a Creative Commons license.

 

 

Guest artist: Charles Christopher, revisited

"Ponte Marcello" by Charles Christopher

A year ago I learned that my Los Angeles colleague, the photographer Charles Christopher, was making a wintertime pilgrimage to Venice, Italy, to fulfill a longtime dream of living in a stone house that he’d first seen and been captivated by as a fourteen-year-old boy. Charles’s subsequent journey of the soul resulted in an essay and a large portfolio of photographs, some of which were featured on HOLY WATERS (HW Guest Artist 3/11/11).

Recently I was excited to discover that Charles is now compiling a book of his Venetian images. And he shared on his own blog, The Eyes of Charles Christopher, that Nicolas Roeg, the renowned director of the 1973 Julie Christie-Donald Sutherland thriller Don’t Look Now–which takes place in a spooky, confusing Venice–had seen and commented on Charles’s work.  Roeg wrote:

The images of Venice capture the heart and sad reality of an extraordinary and unique city. Venice is so well-known and so many of the views of it have been reproduced, but usually just emphasizing the grandeur of some of the glorious buildings, bridges and piazzas. The result is a city frozen in time, with its living identity kept secret and unseen by the casual visitor or tourist. Your very moving and original images remind me of the time I spent there. Far more movingly and personally than any perfect composition featuring a famous landmark, shot to death by guided tour groups.

On his blog Charles wrote: “I was very moved to receive these encouraging words from the visionary filmmaker whose dark and stirring 1973 thriller, Don’t Look Now, made an indelible impact on me when I first saw it as a boy. The film and the city have stayed with me ever since.” Kudos to Charles–I can’t wait for your book. And to see a bit of Roeg’s vision of Venice, here is the English trailer for Don’t Look Now:

“Ponte Marcello” © 2011 by Charles Christopher; for permission to reuse, contact the artist at charleschristopherphoto [AT] gmail [DOT] com. “Don’t Look Now” trailer is embedded from YouTube.com.

 

 

“One single drop of this compassionate water…”

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness;
May all be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow;
May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless;
And may all live in equanimity, without too much attachment and too much aversion,
And live believing in the equality of all that lives.

~ Traditional Buddhist prayer

“The End of Suffering” is directed by visionary artist Adéla Stefanov and is embedded from YouTube.com. The voice you hear is that of the Most Venerable Thích Nhất Hạnh, the renowned Vietnamese monk, author, teacher, and peace activist. The traditional Buddhist prayer above is a version of the statements used in Metta, a practice for cultivating lovingkindness. 

 

 

Guest artist: Robert McDowell

"Mars and Venus" by crackoala

If Only Men Truly Listened

If only men truly listened
To everything their women say.

I said, if only men truly listened
To everything their women say,

Maybe they’d be liberated
From the heartbreaking way

Their fathers distanced
Themselves from a woman’s eye

That watched and waited
Patiently with hardly a sigh

For any sign that he’d awakened
To her power and majesty,

Like falling to his knees, humbled,
Then looking up at her to pray.

Robert McDowell‘s most recent book is “The More We Get Together: The Sexual and Spiritual Language of Love” (Poiêsis Press, 2011). He is the author of 11 other books, including “Poetry as Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions.“ He is a teacher, speaker and workshop leader living in Ashland, Oregon. 

 

“Mars and Venus” by crackoala is from the website Deviantart.com and is used under a Creative Commons license. 

The third HOLY WATERS homemade video fest

Kai Lan's Chinese Dragon Parade

January 23, 2012, marked the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Water Dragon. Dragons are auspicious creatures in Chinese culture, symbolizing nobility, royalty and good fortune. They are also associated with water: “In Chinese belief, dragons rule over moving bodies of water and are considered to be the givers of rain,” writes Amy Huang on the blog Shape of Good Fortune (a visually rich Chinese New Year’s exhibition curated by Brown University art history students). As Huang explains:

This connection between dragons and water is especially important for this 2012—the Year of the Water Dragon. This year’s energy is said to favor expansion and growth, in a calmer way than that of the dragons associated with other of the Five Elements, or Wuxing 五行 (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth). The water dragon represents the flow and the overcoming of obstacles, as the water element is said to nourish new beginnings, innovation and successful growth. While all five dragons are known for their ability to magnify both the successes and failures of the year, the water dragon is known above all for its constancy—a celebration of balance between logic and creativity.

Since actual dragons are rare these days, you might want to build your own. Remember how fun it was to make arts ‘n’ crafts out of toilet paper rolls? You have lots of time to experiment–the Year of the Dragon runs till February 9, 2013, after which we’ll be thinking about snakes.  Here are my favorite dragon-making tutorials, ranging from papier-mâché to origami to nail art. I’m especially inspired by the “Dragon Chino,” who takes kind of crazy flight on a Canary Island beach about one minute into the video. 

All videos embedded from YouTube.com and are the property of the artists. “Kai Lan’s Chinese Dragon Parade” is from Squidoo.com.