John & Anne Wiley

2010/11/14

Spiral

It can be fun to explore synchronicities, and to contemplate what we attend (as in notice and/or take pix of). I realized that two of my fav recent pix evoke an intense almost dizzying spiral energy in me.

0797~3131 Spirals

0797~3131 Spirals

So I googled “spiral” just now, and the first hit is a movie we’ll get from the library. The second hit is the wiki entry, and I skipped down to the symbolic meanings: “a symbol of the process of dialectic” and an excerpt there: “central to both Indic and Western philosophy since ancient times. …dialogue between two or more people who may hold differing views, yet wish to pursue truth by seeking agreement with one another.”

It turns out that in the relative silence of our life since the Citizens election campaign, Anne and I have been engaged in an especially deep, sweet, challenging and fruitful ongoing dialectic. Kinda cool to “feel” something in the pix and find this context.

Another “hit” I’m getting internally is about Chumash meaning in spiral forms. So I googled “spiral chumash counter-clockwise” and the first hit was an essay with two bits that resonate. First a reference to how low pressure systems make a counterclockwise spiral (a common feature related to aviation weather), the other mentions a Yogic tradition that “counterclockwise flow is the unfolding or dissolution of matter into energy.” I’m certainly experiencing some energy flow!

In a dream last night, Tripp’s number came in. You may recall it’s 66111, and that seems to have strong significance in ways I don’t understand. That entire number is the end of my pilot license number, assigned in 2006 and not consciously noticed until long after we bought Tripp 1/23/10. I graduated high school in 66, and that number has resonated for me over the years. In the dream there was something about 111 related to a date, maybe 1/11 (New Year’s Day) or Jan. 11? Anyway, it all seems worth noting so I can re-read this if anything else comes up, or perhaps sometime next year.

Further down the hit list is an Ojai item about a Chumash ceremony where “a screech owl swooped overhead.” On a quiet night in Santa Ynez recently a great horned owl (a bird I have associated with my father) called me and I walked to within 15 feet. We looked at each other intently before I tried to speak owl and he flew away in disgust. Two nights this week in different parts of town a screech owl has flown low over my head and called. I’ve heard them a few other times over the years, but never in flight. Coincidence? The item linked in this paragraph ends, “everything is a process of spiritual growth.” That’s been my core focus since soon after switching my life focus from technology to psychology.

Further down the hit list is an essay by Harry Marriner I’m going to read and contemplate more. “Many North American Indian cultures associate counterclockwise spirals (starting from the center) with the concept of rising, and the clockwise spiral with the concept of descending.” Earlier tonight I had noticed that one of my two spiral themed pix above is looking down into the water, the other up into the sky.

OK, enough of my inward spiral for now. Next post I’ll be back to “normal” for you. 😉

Harry A. Marriner

Downtown

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Random,SB Region — John @ 01:49

La Arcada downtown has a great courtyard pond with turtles and fish. There used to be a restaurant with outside tables there and we have many warm memories of meals and meetings over the years in all seasons. Watching the fish like you’d watch a cozy fireplace. Watching kids watching fish and turtles, kids trying to talk to or feed them, and sometimes a kid trying to catch them. Watching people strolling through.

0797 Arcada Reflections

0797 Arcada Reflections

A few steps away is a nice view of the Courthouse tower that we used to join the tourists going up for a panorama of the city. It looks nice from the air. 🙂

0796 Courthouse Tower

0796 Courthouse Tower

Looking the other way in that spot the Art Museum entrance is entrancing.

0794 Into Art

0794 Into Art

So many magical places downtown, it’s fun to revisit favorites and we still discover new secrets occasionally. Will it be another glorious day tomorrow? If so, will we fly?

2010/11/13

Sunset Cruise

Not long after moving to Santa Barbara we went on a romantic sunset cruise of the harbor. So delightful to look back at our “new” town snuggling in for a cozy night beneath the mountains. Dappled hues on the gently rippling water, as we joined other couples talking quietly and cuddling against the mild chill. Lovely.

Well today we enjoyed another romantic cruise, this time 1/4 mile up flying slowly West in the calm air. Sunlight was still caressing rolling hills.

3408 Sunset Knoll

3408 Sunset Knoll

In the West there was a fascinating orange “cloud” that stood out from a few slightly pink clouds more toward the northwest.

3413 Smoke Fingers

3413 Smoke Fingers

We decided it was smoke from a wildfire or more likely from agricultural burning, as was the consensus on a different photo of it I sent to Edhat. As the fun finally thinned to a sliver on the horizon, I snapped one last photo before we turned for the gentle ride home to SBA. Have I ever mentioned that Santa Barbara is an exceptionally beautiful place? 🙂

3433 Smoky Sunset

3433 Smoky Sunset

2010/11/11

Yesterday

All our troubles seemed so far away, floating dreamily past Stearn’s Wharf on a slow climb.

3359 Stearns to Mountains

3359 Stearns to Mountains

How many times have we enjoyed a bike ride, walk or drive from Stearns straight up Altered State Street? I like how many trees our town has, making the narrow corridor up State stand out due to the lack of green. Some day I’ll need to get a camera that doesn’t emphasize haze so much, because it actually looked pretty clear and crisp yesterday. Approaching the air traffic pattern at Camarillo (KCMA) there’s this agro island school.

3376 Agro Island School

3376 Agro Island School

I call it that due to how it’s completely surrounded by agricultural fields. I wonder how long it will be, before those fields give way to housing developments. We used to always look for high vantage points, like this church tower in Ventura.

3379 Church Tower

3379 Church Tower

While it does seem like a nice place to watch people walk the courtyard maze, we feel differently about “high” places now that we often look so far down at the tops of them. Even when we passed Sears tower in Chicago last year, it didn’t seem all that impressive. Maybe partly because we can choose from such a wide variety of altitudes and locations to look at points of interest. In a tower (if you can even find a way to go up) you’re limited to one location and often only one height above ground. We do still enjoy glass elevators though. 🙂

2010/11/10

Quiet Flight

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:24

Weather was glorious today, so we decided to take the short hop to Camarillo. As always, the Santa Barbara harbor shimmered with colors and life.

3356 SB Harbor

3356 SB Harbor

Coming home just before sunset, Anacapa Island was floating in a bath of ocean mist.

3391 Floating Anacapa Island

3391 Floating Anacapa Island

Such a magnificent place to live, sail, and of course fly. I took another deep breath just now, adding this pic. As we flew Anne turned to me and asked, “Why do we ever go anywhere else?” Guess we enjoy going away so we can come home, and also maybe seasoning our quiet time here with the spice of adventure. 🙂

I’ve sent a different pic from today to Edhat, and will probably add some to our Photo Page later.

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