Inspiration Mashup #4
Metamorphoses, frog medicine, and creative snippets to inspire.
Animal encounter - a footed fish!
Up at the lake, solo paddleboarding. Osprey swooping overhead. Kingfishers calling. Dragonflies swirling.
I step off the board and drag my board to the shore. Something bumps my foot under the water. I peer down and there it is – a footed fish.
A footed fish? How could that be?
It can’t quite swim, but it can’t quite walk either, even though it has four tiny, webbed feet. Footlets.
A-ha! Technically, a tadpole in its tiny window of metamorphosis! A cross between a frog and a fish.
A footed fish! A real-time metamorphosis!
Crawling on the lake bottom, just at the shore, several of them. Swiggling and squiggling along the mud. So vulnerable in this moment between tadpole and froglet, when it can’t truly swim nor walk.
A perfect metaphor for transformation. How are you, yourself, an amphibious creature? the footed fish asked me. Transcending duality and non-duality. The absolute and the relative. Water and air and earth and fire. Sensitive! Vulnerable! In process! Exposed!
The tadpole emerging into frogdom is a process lasting two to three weeks. However! This one moment, the four-footed tadpole just prior to emerging out of the water, may only be a twenty-four hour window. Mother Nature gifted me with the opportunity to encounter this directly in the wild. Thank you.
Quote of the month - Virginia Woolf
“I will cut adrift – I will sit on pavements and drink coffee – I will dream; I will take my mind out of its iron cage and let it swim – this fine October.”
– Virginia Woolf, diary entry c. October 15, 1927
Meme of the month: Alan Watts
“There is a price to be paid for every increase in consciousness. We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.”
– Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951)
What I’m listening to: Philip Glass
Philip Glass: Metamorphosis I-V with Olivia Belli, piano (2019)
For fans of minimalist piano, haunting soundtracks and hypnotic soundscapes. Once you’ve gone down the Glass rabbit hole, you’ll likely be hooked forever. Pianist Belli is a composer herself, and performs works of other minimalist composers that I love, such as Max Richter. Great for writing, painting, drawing. Dreaming and fantasizing. This is Soul music.
If you dig this style, check out Glass’s Kundun (1997), the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s film based on the life and writings of XIV Dalai Lama (great film, too – perfect for fall/winter immersion).
Bliss of the month: Dancing outdoors
Ain’t nothing better than dancing barefoot.
Whadd’ya dig most about the Inspiration Mashup? Feedback and comments welcome. Another musical piece coming soon. Keep on grooving, everyone.
Love,
Erin
opening is an all time fav from philip glass. thanks for the mash up and the ongoing inspiration