Retrospective

by Ebb Then Flood

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Christmas time.

‘Tis the season to be jolly! (it’s compulsory apparently)

Also, that time of the year when we look back on what transpired.

Lists are compiled in magazines and on websites of the “best of the year” in various fields and genres, to mark the achievements that signified the 360-odd days thus far.

Day by day, we tread our narrow path, in small steps.

Hindsight is a virtue alright, and as you, and I, look back at the path through the tunnel that was the year almost gone, I hope we reflect on happenings and memories with  a wider, wiser viewpoint.

And that if we didn’t achieve all of our goals, there was progress rather than perfection.

Okay, we can turn back around now, and keep plodding on…

 

Streets Of Your Town

by Ebb Then Flood

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“Round and round, up and down

Through the streets of your town

Everyday I make my way

Through the streets of your town”

 – The Go-Betweens, ‘Streets Of Your Town’

A marriage of a picture of one of my favourite towns, Edinburgh, with the lyrics from one of my favourite bands, Brisbane’s Go-Betweens, who spent a good deal of time in the UK forging their career, a long way from home.

There is something about the song that captures the displaced feeling of pounding the pavement in a town that will never be your own.

Song here:

Not A Christmas Song (Thankfully)

by Ebb Then Flood

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Over Christmas music yet? Well, may I give some respite from the sheer awfulness of most of it – here is a prime cut from my album of the year, Devendra Banhart’s ‘Ma’.

A  typical offbeat piece of Venezuelan/American Banhart’s warm songcraft, enhanced by a surreal video. Enjoy! If it’s not your cup of tea ,it could be worse (‘Little Drummer Boy’ anyone…?).

(By the way, the recent photo features a community piano in a central London shopping mall . Some outstanding young talent created amazing sounds for free –  I love community pianos for their surprise element!

Link to the DB song below:

 

Criss Cross

by Ebb Then Flood

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Spectacular curving, criss-crossed ceiling at London’s King’s Cross Railway Station.

So elegant with its purplish backlighting, and just vast as a piece of design

Even I hadn’t been hanging around for the train north to Edinburgh, this would have dragged me in to admire it.

Lines crossing over and over again, like the passengers scurrying to their trains, heading to different destinations.

Indeed, the kinetic and life energy in the place is amazing – all those journeys, with their beginnings and endings ; those unknown (to each other) plans and dreams – in the one place at the same time, intersecting for the briefest moment and then arching out and beyond, perhaps never to cross over again.

And when you board the train, it’s a little simpler – you’re away again on your own trajectory and at least the tracks run parallel !

 

Fractured

by Ebb Then Flood

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Self-help/lifestyle books and sites are full of tips to assist you to “lead your best life”.

I  am not exactly in love with that phrase, nor some of the iffy suppositions behind it.

The general themes involve the person with the less than best life adopting new mental and physical practices,and sooner or later(preferably sooner) their life is transformed.

There are big assumptions in all of this – first, that you are able to help yourself (it wouldn’t be self-help otherwise!) and, secondly, that what has improved one person will do the same for another.

Sometimes true, often false.

Hard to assess, given the range of “solutions” on offer run the gamut from plain old common sense to ludicrous and even dangerous fads.

And mostly, the improvement schemes are aimed at ,and picked up by, those whose lives are just a bit “off “. Easy marks.

People who are broken, whose lives are fractured, fragmented, do not reach for lists with titles like “10 Ways To A Happier You – Now!” They don’t give a flying f**k about trite inspirational messages on cushions,bumper stickers or coffee mugs. If the Dalai Lama  himself showed up on the doorstep,with his sweet infinite wisdom, they would tell him to piss off. And nobody, I repeat, nobody, needs a coffee enema…

When you cannot do life ,you can’t do “need to do” bullet point lists.

The ones who are lost, trust me on this, don’t need to be told how to make themselves whole or found ,or whatever.

They need to be understood and accepted ,and there is no quick fix in that. Only time, and the love of others, will reach the soul and give the fractured the wherewithal to move themselves on.

 

 

 

 

 

Avoid The Void ?

by Ebb Then Flood

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“Sometimes we do not want to avoid the Void. When someone gives us flowers, it’s nice to have an empty vase. Finding an empty train carriage is a stroke of luck; an empty motorway is almost a miracle. Making the first pen strokes in an empty notebook or the first steps in an empty new house are sources of pure delight.”

  -Louise van Swaaij & Jean Klare,‘The Atlas Of Experience’

For a void is not nothing! Even if  a void is a scary prospect, it is also the realm of the infinite possible.

 

Easy Chair

by Ebb Then Flood

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Presented for your viewing pleasure: one well-used blue leatherette and fake suede easy chair in a corner of my Thursday workplace, draped with a marvellously technicolor crochet rug, with a hot pink stuffed toy as an armrest accoutrement. Beautiful!

It invites a damn good sit down. A quiet nap perhaps.

Nothing wrong with a bit of comfort.

Getting too comfortable is another thing altogether.

It doesn’t pay to regret the past – it is what it is, and not a lot to be done about it – but I can definitely think of times when I got way too comfortable in certain life situations, overstayed in one place or missed other opportunities that were begging. Even finding some strange comfort in the known surrounds of adverse and damaging circumstances, when the sensible thing to do would have been to run (not walk) away!

I’m not advocating a bed of nails instead of an easy chair in your corner – no one likes a masochist (sadists aside) -but just to seek that challenging edge that will ignite your soul and mind.

As they say, you snooze, you lose!

 

Sphere Of Silver Ferns

by Ebb Then Flood

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A magical sphere comprised of silver ferns hangs suspended in the Wellington sky.

Okay, not really magical in the conjuring sense, as the wires holding the sculpture aloft are clearly visible, but in the sense of fantastical art/sculpture.

That the silver fern is the national symbol of New Zealand/Aotearoa is an emblematic plus.

The whirl of symmetrical fern motifs reflects the sun.

And reflects our special place and the endless,unifying cycle of life here(well, to me it does but you might see something else…).

F**k, I didn’t plan to come over all patriotic at the start of writing this, but even if you’re not a Kiwi, I hope you enjoy this very cool lump of flying metal anyway!

 

 

Safe Harbour By Failing Light

by Ebb Then Flood

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I took a photo at dusk from the harbour wall at Pittenweem on my recent visit to the Scottish village.

The weather outside the harbour was getting rough, with the wind and the sea up, and the rain beginning to fall again.

But looking back to the town, things appeared calmer.

The saying “safe harbour” sprang to mind.

I could see the light of the place we were staying (at centre top) and headed back to its comfort.

(In the failing light the photo was a technical failure so I salvaged it (like a sunken ship!) and made this abstract picture, that captures for me the moment).

God In Segments

by Ebb Then Flood

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The view up to a stunning vaulted ceiling in England’s York Minster.

Justifiably lauded for its architecture, it was the complex symmetry of it all that left me dazzled.

Like this segmented design ,radiating out from the centre of the ceiling like a star, or a flower, then falling down smoothly to enfold the equally beautiful arched windows.

I am a bit of a sucker for symmetry, as some pictures elsewhere on this blog will attest.

As a religious house it is well nigh perfect.

But, there was the nagging thought in my mind that it was a grand, and failed, attempt – it was made by imperfect humans after all ! – to capture a universal spirituality that is at times:

unpredictable,

jagged,

asymmetrical,

not compartmentalised,

indefinable…

 

 

 

Failure Loops

by Ebb Then Flood

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What does failure look like?…feel like?

Like the shore with the tide receded and just not coming back in.

Like a tree stripped of leaves, branches twisted over into loops.

For failure can be a cycle, a seemingly endless loop.

And when you are in that loop, you feel so, so, stuck.

The harder you try, the worse it all seems to get.

The loop becomes a tightening noose.

All you do is hope and  pray for anything that will act as a circuit breaker.

And when you find it, or the universe brings the tide back in, that will be success.

Remember then what failure looks and feels like, and appreciate that success.

Because you can’t truly know success without having experienced failure.

Weighs A Ton,Weighs You Down

by Ebb Then Flood

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I was intrigued by this suit of armour at the Tower of London when I visited there in October.

Shiny, superbly crafted and protective to the nth degree…lots to admire then.

But…

“When we have built up armour against all the bad things we think might happen in the world, we have a false sense of protection and have only built up isolation”.  -Tara Stiles

You name it – defensiveness, cynicism, aloofness – they only will only leave you alone in your corner in the end.

And those eye slits are not the best way to view the wonder and possibilities of the world!