Grounded Flight

It is approaching Spring in South Africa and in Pretoria buds and blossoms are beginning to appear here and there.  The general impression when looking at the landscape, however, is still one of dryness. 

When we lived in Germany and returned to South Africa for a visit, the first thing our children commented on at the time was the soil. They noticed that in their opinion South African soil is red while German soil is brown! 

Reminded of that while driving through to Pretoria recently, I wondered how many of us even notice the color of the soil in the area we live. Habits blend us into our surroundings. Surroundings reinforce habits. Perspectives become limited unless consciously challenged. Horizons are narrow unless broadened by awareness.

Returning home to a town once lived in, things never noticed before, suddenly glare at one.   Nothing has changed except the viewer who has gained distance not only physically, but emotionally as well.

Distance lends enchantment to the view, the saying goes but that I feel is only one side of the story.  Distance also enables one to see perspectives not visible from within a particular environment.

In the past, such distance could only be gained by physically moving away.  This was the privilege of a minority and so cultural habits and beliefs were reinforced from one generation to the next.

Today modern travel but more especially technology, has blasted this all apart.  People of different cultural backgrounds can meet online, beliefs are suddenly challenged, new ways of doing things become apparent. 

If I so wish, I can look at pictures of soil in Germany or soil in South Africa, or soil in wherever, read about it or even chat to personages knowledgeable in that field.  

The challenge, however, is two-fold. Perspectives need to be broadened, but at the same time we need to be grounded.

We need to feel the soil beneath our feet, if not barefoot, then through mindful awareness of the sensation of connecting with the ground as we walk. We need to be aware of where we are at and where we are coming from, especially when online where the temptation could be to escape.

As we realize that the other is not so other as always imagined - similarities outweigh our differences; we all want to be happy; we all wish to be freed from suffering; soil may vary but it is still soil - we open ourselves to new dimensions of being. 

here2here offers such dimensions. We meet here, are here together, but at the same time are each somewhere else. 

In such a “place”, in such a “space”, perspectives can only broaden. More importantly, however, mutual acceptance and hospitality allow the collective, meeting here2here, to be grounded in a dimension invisible to the physical eye, sometimes visible to the eye of contemplation, but definitely visible to the eye of Spirit. 

Collective consciousness, shared participation, shared responsibility and shared innovation are soils rich in potential, waiting to be stepped into, holding out gifts of creativity in ways unimagined before.

Let's feel the soil beneath our feet as we take off!

Trend Blue

Blue perches on the edge of her cybermobile, races down the information highway, turns the corner, and then barely screeches to a halt before shooting off again.

Accustomed in her youth to sitting still , then later travelling on horseback, ships or aeroplanes,  this kind of travel is exciting to her and she has taken to it like a duck takes to water. 

At last she has come of age and is no longer limited by the confines of distance and time. A thrill of excitement ripples through her at the very thought of the avenues of opportunity that have opened to her.

Now at last she can shout out from the rooftops and be heard by others instantaneously. 

Blue, by another name, is Communication, and in the current age has a voice unheard-of before.  Aided by technology and most importantly social media, Blue is the newly acquired voice of the collective.

Never before has the collective been so able to participate in bringing about change despite the many unhealthy structures still existing in some parts of society. The collective has in a sense, truly found its voice.

The collective has widened its embrace and individuals willing to open themselves to new perspectives and different world views, find themselves part of a much bigger We than that to be found in their family, their tribe, their town, their country, their religion, or even their species. And this We has a voice.

I have called this voice Blue for many reasons.

All colors have frequencies and when exposed to them we resonate with them in ways we are often unaware of. At the same time our evolving energy levels probably cause us to be drawn to colors existing at the same frequency. 

In the study of colors, blue is related to self expression. It symbolizes speech, and the ability to communicate our needs and requirements.  

Blue, the color of conversation, is said to absorb and release sound. In his book, “Born on a Blue Day”, Daniel Tammet, one of the very few people alive with synesthesia and autism, describes how he sees “the sound of loud voices arguing” in blue. 

When one studies the chakra system, the fifth chakra associated with the throat, is the chakra of communication, expression and creativity. The color associated with it is blue. Not only are there the seven chakras for the individual, but there are also said to be seven planetary chakras. According to some schools of thought, the fifth planetary throat chakra is said to be at the Great Pyramid of Giza located just outside of Cairo - interesting, when one considers recent events in Egypt and the action that was able to be initiated through the use of social media.

In an interconnected world, trends in one area keep popping up in others. Blue at the moment is in.

Twitter’s official logo is in blue. Blue, light blue and sky blue variations of the twitter bird, although not their official business logo, are used as style elements on their website.

The ribbon promoting freedom of online speech is blue, and it is said that blue is becoming the new green.

At the end of the Milan Fashion Week, Giorgio Armani presented his Spring/Summer Collection for 2011. Inspired by the nomadic Touaregs, known for their wearing of blue, the show, entitled La Femme Bleue, had models wandering out of a desert backdrop in shades of blue from cobalt, through navy to royal and midnight blue.

I have referred before to the rise of what I call global nomads in the current world culture we are part of. This collection was a reminder to me once again of the need for finding new and diverse ways of communicating in this century of mobility and in a world where the centre is constantly changing.

If you have the time to watch the fashion show that follows, be sure to look out for Blue. She is definitely on the catwalk!

Langu age

About twenty years ago, it was still believed that after the brain’s initial formation period, brain networks were static. Neuroscience now recognizes that the brain is shaped by experience on an ongoing basis.  Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to rewire itself and form new networks at any age. 

The internet, and especially social media, is without a doubt affecting our reading and our writing, but what I find particularly fascinating, are the examples of brain plasticity in these areas, now slowly coming to the fore.

Without us being consciously aware of it, our brains are adapting and adjusting to the time we spend online.

The splitting of words as we type in haste, the joining of words for convenience or for use with hashtags, (a word only recently added to the Oxford dictionary), omitting letters for the sake of character limitations, and the use of numerals 4 certain words, are now everyday phenomena in cyberspace.

The very concept of cyberspace is effecting not only the way we use words but also the meaning we give to them and the way we see them. 

What if nowhere is seen as now here

Tweeps refer to everyhere not everywhere as they meet online with users from various countries simultaneously. 

The concept of an iCloud is not at all strange.

The blog u r reading right now is called here2here.

Only recently I came across this tweet:

@GammaInfinity One whole day has passed, and I remain amazed that until yesterday I had never noticed that “race car’” backwards is “race car”.

These are exciting times, for these very abilities will overflow into everyday life.  Whereas before we could look at something for years without noticing certain aspects of it, we will now begin to take new perspectives on worldviews we had never questioned before.  Outlooks conditioned by upbringing and culture will be looked at with new eyes. Reversals, splittings & combinations will see insights evolving.

As an exercise, I decided to take the word “language” and play around with it. 

Langu age, was perhaps a natural split, as we hear much about entering a new age.

Research revealed that besides being an iphone app to make the learning of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese a lot of fun, “langu” also means “my” in Swahili. 

A promoter of collaboration, I immediately looked up a translation for “our” in Swahili, only to discover that it is  “wetu” which I of course read as “we too”, appropriate I felt in an age of interconnectivity and connectedness!

Lan guage was another possiblity.

My eyes muddled up the letters in guage on first reading and I saw it as gauge.

LAN is an acronym (hard to believe that two years ago I did not know the meaning of lol!) for local area network, but as more and more of us access online space, the question of what to gauge as local becomes an interesting one. 

Let’s look at one more possibility for “language”: La ngu age.

Age keeps reoccurring, la added a French ring to the, and ngu is an acronym for never give up. The never give up age!  

My eyes, probably because I come from Africa and have many times visited the Kruger National Park, immediately saw “gnu” the first time I read la ngu age. The age of the gnu?

The gnu is a wildebeest and spends much of its life as a loner on the move. This is possibly not inappropriate when we consider how we as individuals are continuously on the move in cyberspace.  In a sense we are alone as we do this, but in another sense, this aloneness is only physical.  On an energetic level, we connect to so many others in virtual space.  The gnus are famous for their annual migrations in the Serengeti, and together we in here2here space, are making mass migrations to new ways of being.

People from the West write and read horizontally from left to right. In the East many languages are written and read vertically from bottom to top. The mass migrations we are making together in cyberspace, however, are rewiring our brains and altering the way we write and see things.  Now, for example, in the West, emoticons are written vertically :) while the Eastern smilies interestingly enough run horizontally ^_^ with most of us beginning to use them interchangeably.

In @GammaInfinity’s Flickr photostream you will find what he has entitled Luminal Butterfly. He states that in this magic fantasy, butterfly has another stage after adult, where it becomes pure light, creating beautiful displays in late summer.

Not only is language undergoing a metamorphosis, but we, both as individuals and as the collective, are undergoing one too.

As we do so the heart is opening:

heartheartheartheartheartheart is becoming 

hear the art hear the art hear the art 

_/|\_