Month: February 2010

art, creative process, creativity, love

Step 41: Charting Eternal Mysteries

Christa Avampato

A few days ago I was shut inside my cozy apartment, working away, blocking out the cold. After an afternoon of intense work, I took a break and made some tea. Tazo Cucumber White Tea – a new flavor for me. I turned the box in my fingers and on the back found the steps to brewing a perfect cup of tea:

Step 1: Bring some fresh filtered water to a boil.

Step 2: For hot tea, place one Tazo filterbag in your cup, mug, or gourd.

Step 3: Pour 8 fl oz of water over the filterbag.

Step 4: Steep for 3 minutes while contemplating your favorite eternal mysteries.

I smiled when I read step 4 and started to walk away from the cup of steeping tea, back to my computer. And then I stopped, mid-step. “I have 3 minutes,” I thought. “What are my favorite eternal mysteries?” I jotted these down:

Why does love take it’s time to find some of us?

Why does the world work in mysterious ways?

Why does beauty take so many forms, and how come beauty is not always readily apparent to the eye?

How do we heal? And when and why?

Why are we able to forget that which hurts us while finding it nearly impossible to forget that which brings us joy?

And then I started imagining pieces of art like those of Brian Andreas: powerful, magical statements accompanied by an illustration that brings those statements to life. I’m not sure if there are any answers to eternal mysteries, but I am glad I took the 3 minutes to think about them, to jot them down. I don’t know if there are any answers to questions like these, but I do think they might make some beautiful art. I do think that they keep us reaching, and in the end, that’s what matters most.

The image above is not my own. I can be found here.

relationships, yoga

Step 40: The Opinions of Others

Christa Avampato

“The goal of many leaders is to get people to think more highly of the leader. The goal of a great leader is to help people to think more highly of themselves.” ~ J. Carla Nortcutt

While this quote by J. Carla Nortcutt is about leadership, it applies to so many other types of relationships, too. Whenever we meet someone new, start a new job, go to our first day of class, we often think, “I hope they like me.” It’s a natural human instinct to want others to think well of us, and at time it may cause us some stress and uneasiness. What if we could ease that stress by taking Nortcutt’s advice? What if we approached new relationships with the thought, “I want to help people feel good about themselves through their interaction with me?”

In recent weeks, I’ve been approaching some new interactions this way and the results are remarkable. I’m functioning with great fluidity, and the conversations get more in-depth more quickly. I wonder how many people go through their lives wondering if their thoughts and opinions are valued and valid? How many people truly feel that they are significant?

If there is anything that yoga has taught me, it’s the simple principle of “the light that is in me honors the light that is in you.” All of you. It’s how I close every one of my classes, and how I’m approaching every interaction. We’ll see if the magic of these words can become self-sustaining.

change, choices

Step 39: The 100th Monkey

Christa Avampato

I’m fascinated with tipping points, those magical pivots when there is a step-change in the way the world operates. Once we cross over them, we can’t ever go back. They assure that progress has been made and will continue. To illustrate some profound tipping points, Brian told me about the idea of the 100th monkey and trees slowly exposed to toxins.

If a tree is slowly exposed to a toxin, it develops an immunity to the toxin. In a strange turn of events that science cannot explain, all trees of that same species develop the immunity even though they haven’t been exposed to the toxin. Somehow the trees communicate – be it through the soil or the air or the water supply. They are all connected.

At some point, a monkey figured out that if he dipped a stick into an ant hill, he could capture more ants to eat. Eventually, enough monkeys learned this trick that it became something that monkeys just knew how to do, from birth, with no training. Again, science has no explanation for this. Monkeys, thousands of miles apart, even on different continents, somehow tap into the greater genius when a certain tipping point of intelligence is reached within the species. It is truly remarkable.

Think of the implications that this kind of uber-intelligence has for us. What kind of world could we have if we could reach a tipping point of kindness, concern, compassion, and love? If our generation could put aside violence and have a restored faith in humanity, what would that mean for the many generations yet to be born? Is saving the world possible simply by enough of us saving ourselves?

choices

Step 38: Your Jiminy Cricket

Christa Avampato

“The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

When I was little, Jiminy Cricket and his famous saying of “let your conscience be your guide” had a strong impact on me. I have always imagined our conscience, of consciences as the case may be, to be that little entity sitting on our shoulder, helping us navigate the world as good and honest people. Lately, I’ve also found that little voice serving the purpose of reminding me of my dreams and encouraging me to seek out new territory in many different areas of my life.

While our minds may riddle our thoughts with self-doubt, the conscience’s voice is clear and confident. In our hearts, we always know the right thing to do, the correct way to jump. We just second-guess our conscience and intuition, and this is caused by letting others put their expectations upon us. Who should we be? Where should we work? Who should we spend time with? If I do x, y, or z, what will others think of me? So rather than following our hearts and our conscience, we just turn down the dial on them, and focus on how others want us to live our lives.

My friend, Amanda, posted up a a quote by Michael Pollan, prolific author and healthy food advocate that really resonated with me this morning. My favorite line is, “without its daydreams, the self is apt to shrink down to the size and shape of the estimation of others.” He advocates for day dreaming as a tool in our lives that can guide us toward our best self. In day dreaming, the conscience’s voice is not only clear, but also strong. In day dreaming, we’re reminded that the voice of the conscience never goes away. We may put it on mute while running through our daily lives, but eventually, in the dead of night and the soft hush of morning, on our yoga mat, or during any time of silence, there it is, whispering our dreams back to us.

By silencing the conscience, we ensure a mid-life crisis, or a crisis of faith, that moment of “what the heck am I doing with my life?” And it can all come crashing down, this carefully constructed, “right way of doing things” sort of life. This crash isn’t inevitable. It just requires work to avoid it, strength and courage to live the lives that we want to live instead of ceding to the expectations of others. You can’t get rid of the conscience; in the long-term it’s going to win. So just listen. Now. It wants to be your guide, so just let it do its job.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

education, innovation

Step 37: Go the Extra Bit

Christa Avampato

“We’re so close to greatness. I can feel it!” ~ Cliff, Citizen Schools Teaching Fellow working with Innovation Station

Last week at my training session for Citizen Schools, Cliff, the Teaching Fellow who will be with me every step of the way in the classroom, let this quote fly as we talked through ideas for the apprenticeship that begins next week. The apprenticeship, Innovation Station, is going to help students build their own prototypes and models of products and services that they would like to turn into businesses. On Tuesday, students at M.S. 45 will have the chance to attend an apprenticeship fair where I’ll be giving an elevator pitch on the subject of the apprenticeship and what we’ll do during the ten weeks that we’re together.

Originally, I thought I’d run a brainstorming session. Cliff looked at me, kindly, and said, “I think that’s going to get really out of control really fast. Let’s hold off on that idea. All the content is here – we know what the apprenticeship is about and the ultimate goal. We’re so close to greatness. I can feel it! We just have to figure out how to get and keep their attention.”

Cliff’s enthusiasm for the subject and for the kids helped me see that there was a better way forward. I could communicate the same content as originally planned, but there are so many other interactive avenues to get the kids interested than I first thought. Infomercials, celebrity examples, new uses for every day items, the element of the strange and unknown as a catalyst for curiosity. Cliff’s got a million tricks up his sleeves. More importantly, he believes in the idea as much as I do, and he can quickly get inside the minds of these kids. He knows what piques their interest.

What I needed was that extra push, that extra encouragement to knock down any perceived boundaries to what we could accomplish. As Cliff and I talked it out, we began to discover so many new ideas that we could barely keep track of them all on the paper. And the real beauty, is that the ideas were spontaneous. Neither of us had even considered them before sitting down to talk about the apprenticeship fair. Like little pings of inspiration, I could feel their magic falling down all around us.

We just needed to up our game a little – that’s what the prospect of a middle school student’s critique will do for us. It pushes us to go that extra bit. They don’t just want an apprenticeship that’s decent; they want one that makes them run to the session every week, one that makes them believe that they really do have hope for a brighter future and the ability to make it happen. They want greatness in action, and I mean to create that for them.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

choices, happiness, yoga

Step 36: Following Hearts

Christa Avampato

My friend, Amanda, wrote a gorgeous post on her blog about following our hearts and living the lives we want to live. These sayings have been uttered so often that it’s easy to hear them and just roll out eyes in that “oh yeah, easy for you to say” way. Amanda, in her infinite writing wisdom, added two quotes to her post that greatly heightened the meaning of these sentiments for me.

“Trust your heart. You’re a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you.” ~ The character of Seymour, writing to his younger brother, Buddy, in Seymour, An Introduction by JD Salinger

“In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, ‘If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination,’ and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.”~ Brian Andreas

I’ve never heard the quote from JD Salinger before. The quote from Brian Andreas is one of my favorites from his art work. They both share the beautiful sentiment that within our hearts is every answer we will ever need. Do we have enough confidence and faith in our heart’s judgment to follow these answers? Can we trust our imagination to the extent that we place the entirety of our future in its capable grasp?

Yesterday, I read Amanda’s post through misty eyes. I have been wrestling with some choices about where to take this one wild and precious life of mine. My mind loves weighing options, playing out the scenarios to make the best choice possible. This one choice that I’m currently considering is giving me pause. My heart and mind are not in agreement, and I’m not sure why.

But if I sit still long enough, just breathe and be, move through my asanas during my yoga practice, my heart sings. It knows which way to go. I just needed Amanda, JD Salinger, and Brian Andreas to remind me of its strength and competence.

The image above is a work by Brian Andreas.

dreams

Step 35: Roses and Thorns

Christa Avampato

President and Michelle Obama often talk about how they start their conversations at the dinner table with their girls – Roses and Thorns. They each talk about the roses and thorns of their day, the good and the bad. For the past few days I’ve been thinking about this idea, and started using my little black book to record these experiences.

Over the past few days, this practice is helping me to find the bright spots and celebrate all of the smalls wins, even on days when it feels like I’m finding mostly thorns. When I look closely, I am amazed by how the universe will guide us down one path rather than another with the use of roses and thorns. The thorns are keeping me from getting complacent, constantly encouraging me to stretch my wings, and fly to new experiences and opportunities. They are protecting me from losing sight of my dreams. The roses point the way to my best future.

I’m a firm believer in the idea that nothing is as good as it seems or as bad as it seems. That balance, that ying and yang, in every day keeps our feet on the ground and our eyes on the stars. Roses and thorns is about reminding ourselves of the positive circumstances that are all around us (even on days that don’t seem so bright), while also showing us that there are always ways for us to improve ourselves and our circumstances. Who knew we could learn so much from a flower? Another example of biomimicry at work in the highest order.

education, simplicity

Step 34: Moving Mountains One Stone at a Time

Christa Avampato

“The one who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” ~ Confucius

I went to a second training session with Citizen Schools that focuses on building out our final project ideas along with constructing an idea for the apprenticeship fair where the students will visit each possible apprenticeship and note their top choices for the semester. So now I’ve got the hook and the big prize, I just need to build all of the smaller steps that get us through the 10 week program.

If I think about this project too much, it can seem a little bit daunting. There are a lot of small moving parts to consider, specific content that must be communicated, and the communication methods need to keep an active 12 year old mind engaged. Thank goodness for all of the support offered by Citizen Schools. Out of the gate, it would have been tough to do this as my own independent side project. With the staff and resources from Citizen Schools, that mountain of an apprenticeship still looms large, but now appears to be scalable.

With big projects, I like to take the work involved and chop it up into bite-size pieces. Simplicity is the key: I just need to figure out all of the content I want to convey, and Citizen Schools can help me develop a fun method to the madness. I’ve got a blank slate to my right and a lot of material to teach on my left. With each activity and each lesson, I imagine myself picking up one small stone from the pile and moving it from left to right. Small goals and small victories can and will really add up to something beautiful.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

failure, history, story

Step 33: Lessons from Scars

Christa Avampato

On Sunday, I found my way to In Over Your Head, Julien Smith’s blog, via a tweet from Tim O’Reilly. He recently wrote a post about the importance of scars. We spend a lot of time avoiding disaster, avoiding the eventuality of hurt and pain. I’m not suggesting that we head out into the world searching for trouble. I’m just saying that I think scars are under-rated and we should be less afraid.

I started to think of all the times I didn’t say something or do something or feel something because the prospects of failure and hurt were just too great. I insulated myself in an effort to protect my feelings, my heart, and my spirit. There are times when I wonder what would have happened if I refused to ever be afraid, or at the very least if I never, ever let fear stop me from doing what I want to do. What if I never worried about getting scars?

Julien artfully connected stories with scars; he frames up the need for scars as a way to track our personal histories. The idea is simple and powerful. Take a look at your hands and your heart. Take note of the scars and blemishes and the imperfections. Hang on to the lessons of heartbreak, failure, and disappointment, and let go of the sadness they brought along with them. We need those lessons because without them we’d forget where we’ve been.

owning pink

Owning Pink: Bright Spots

Christa Avampato

The lovely ladies of Owning Pink have given me the great honor of featuring one of my blog posts as their Mojo Monday exercise: finding the bright spots in our lives and replicating the heck out of them! Have a peek here.