Dual awareness

I have this belief that we are connected with each other in unseen ways, and if we are attempting to find clarity, those ways are gradually revealed. Sometimes suddenly that is the case. It's called enlightment.

 

There’s a phenomenon described in Nuclear Physics called “quantum entanglement” according to which, if two particles are introduced to each other and then thrust apart to the furthest reaches of the universe, what’s done to one is known to the other. Perhaps our own beings are too complex and too distracted to register and make conscious to ourselves the myriad connections between us. We spend endless hours spinning outwards toward greater complexity without seeking that which lies within.

Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of Kindergarten, saw the purpose of education as being the discovery of our interconnectedness within the frameworks of family, community, and nature. But that’s not 

what most of us were taught in school. We were taught and encouraged to attempt to stand apart and ahead as separated from each other and to seek recognition in inconsequential things. The centrifugal force. 

And yet, there’s growth that comes from recognizing and accepting that which lies within. This can require that we circle back towards simplicity, attempting to occupy an abandoned space within. The conscious engagement of the hands can be a part of the process. What we see and like, we must then touch and ascertain.

Yesterday I got my second covid-19 booster shot, not because I'm frightened of the disease, but because it's important that we protect others. Recognizing that we are indeed interconnected, we do such things.

Artists are taught to look at both positive and negative space. The positive space is contained within the outlines of the object. Negative space is that space that lies between. Negative space is not empty space like that to be found at the furthest corners of the universe. It is filled with strings and streams of entanglement—the interconnectedness that can be found by turning within.

As the world launched itself into the beginnings of WWI Carl Jung began his exploration of cosmic consciousness called the Red Book. As we sit once again on a precipice of World War, and as Putin threatens the use of nuclear weapons, as he's threatened in the past, we all have the need of finding places of peace within. Jung used his angst at the onset of WWI to attempt to engineer his own understanding of human consciousness.

Years ago a group of us from Eureka Springs would go each Sunday afternoon to a mediation group led by a retired engineer named Guy Loyd. Guy's theory of things was based on a concept he called "dual awareness." The idea of dual awareness was to bring ourselves in balance by holding a focus on oneness and interconnectedness as we went through our daily complications. It was like an artist holding an awareness of positive and negative space at the same time.

In the meantime, I'm given joy by observing joy as Goldendoodle Rosie chews a stick while also holding a favorite toy tightly in her paws.

Make, fix and create...