Eight forces sustain creation:Movement and stillness,Solidification and fluidity,Extension and contraction,Unification and division. Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace What opposes unites, and the finest attunement stems from things bearing in opposite directions, and all things come about by strife. Heraclitus, fragment 8 (Barnes) Aikido and rhetoric are both arts specifically designed to harmonize opposition, whichContinue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: Yin and Yang”
Author Archives: mourningdove
Ceramics Saturdays: Edmund de Waal
I just finished reading Edmund de Waal’s White Road, a poetic and gripping personal history of porcelain–from its discovery in China to its infection of the rest of the colonial world, first through feverish collection and later through emulation as enterprising potters in Germany, England, and even the Americas attempted to reverse-engineer the “white gold”Continue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Edmund de Waal”
Aikido and Rhetoric: As above, below
The Art of Peace functions everywhere on earth, in realms ranging from the vastness of space down to the tiniest plants and animals. The life force is all-pervasive and its strength, boundless. The Art of Peace allows us to tap into that tremendous reserve of universal energy. Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace What weContinue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: As above, below”
Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-up (words, books, and images)
Some really stunning stuff here: A much-more-fun version of the OED’s “first use” annotations for words: Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster. Look up your favorite word and see when it was first used in print; or, scroll back through some recent neologisms to see, for instance, when “spear phishing” became a thing (2004). I feel likeContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-up (words, books, and images)”
Capsule Pantry
I’ve done a couple of extended stays abroad for research and community work, and as I love to cook, this has presented me with the problem of how I can do so without investing in an expensive pantry that I am likely to have to throw out (or rehome with friends/neighbors). So, I’ve come upContinue reading “Capsule Pantry”
Koharu X Sia, “Elastic Heart”
This brought tears to my eyes, it’s so good.
Winter Harvest
No, this is all of it…. And those carrots are about 3 inches long. I can’t blame this on the RBQ, so I think it’s official that I’m a terrible gardener 🤣
Laziness and Efficiency
A friend and I were talking the other day about the word “lazy” and all the baggage it had in our families of origin. We were both from families that equated *doing* something all the time with virtue. We talked about the difference between resting and feeling unmotivated or exhausted. We talked about the differenceContinue reading “Laziness and Efficiency”
Upcycled Red Carpet Scarf
I can’t even remember which awards show it was last year, maybe the Oscars? But the New York Times (I think) ran a red-carpet slide show that sorted the looks by color and then put them in a gradient that started with black and went through gray to white, then did the metallics starting withContinue reading “Upcycled Red Carpet Scarf”
Ceramics Saturdays: John Almeda
You can’t tell from this image, but these pots are TINY. The bowl on the left is just big enough for the tip of my thumb to fit into and as thin as an eggshell. And John Almeda throws them en plein air on a tiny portable wheel the size of a big poker chip.Continue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: John Almeda”
The Rookery 