Connecting to the Rocks

 

When I swim in the sea, I am close to and surrounded by the granite boulders which are so typical for the Cape coast. The rocks are calming the waves and make it possible to swim in the open water.

As I float close, I feel a connection arising. In a way the boulders come alive. 

Strange creatures of another world watching over me.

Just after sunrise it is as if they come to rest and sleep.

During the day they are rocks, hard and solid, unmovable.

But now I can imagine how they are alive at night, touching and rolling over each other. Playing and splashing around in the sea. Making love in the waves.

With the first light they take up their positions like in a giant pantomime play. Frozen for thousands of days.

When I lie on a rock in the morning sun to warm up after the swim, I can feel the subtle vibration of a sleeping giant.

Of course, I have the option to know that this is a piece of dead mineral formed millions of years ago.

Or I can experience this boulder as an aspect of the living earth just as I am an aspect of it.

I make up time in my mind and my time is too fast to see the boulders playing.

In the morning twilight I can open my mind and we come closer to connect what belongs together.

 

 

The Rose

 

I love taking photos of flowers and my most favorite flowers are roses.

There is a feeling of attraction, I can hardly stop admiring them.

For me, the flower of a rose is one of the most beautiful representations of Shakti, the creative life-giving energy.

Absolute radiant beauty and softness offering a hint of mystery.

 

Deep inside the center, in the dark, lingers an expression of longing and desire.

 And there, beyond its vulnerability one finds a secret.

At the right time, without thinking and wanting, the rose opens to reveal its deepest truth.

Effortless it shows its aliveness and purpose.

When the rose opens and forgets its vulnerability it is ready for its stamen to arise and its pistil to receive.

The creative lovemaking begins.

This is the miracle of creation, that happens a million times all over this earth, wherever a rose grows and flowers.

The once so seductive petals serve their purpose and fall off revealing a fruit that grows from the rose’s ovary.

A seed forms inside which contains all the information to repeat life over again.

Each stage of the life of this flower has its own effortless beauty and wisdom.

 

 

Moving Boundaries

 

Tidal pools are the most wonderful places along the cape shoreline.

A wall protects the pool from the sometimes-violent waves. At high tide it fills up with fresh water.

It creates a safe space in which I can experience the action of the sea without too much danger.

In a way it acts like a filter keeping the strongest movements and currents out of the pool but still allowing enough movement to float and bob around.

This kind of wall however is static. It always acts and filters out and breaks the highs and lows of the Ocean.

In our mind we have a multitude of filters. They are made up from our conditioning, both inherited and learned. Conditionings are useful protection devices to help us survive and navigate through life.

Lately I have started to swim in the open water at Backoven in Camps Bay.

It is remarkably interesting that in this environment I must set my own boundaries:

How long is it safe to stay in the cold water? What are the currents and how strong am I? How far can I go out? Can I cope with the wave action and what is my survival strategy, can I hold on to something should I need to? Is someone around to help if I get into trouble?

I must constantly monitor and set my boundaries and as my adaptation and fitness increases, I can move them and expand the range of my experience in the water.

Swimming in the sea, in the tidal pool and in the open water are a metaphor for navigating life.

Feeling fully alive by constantly expanding the range of experiences requires to question and if necessary, to step out of my conditioning, which was helpful in the past, consciously.

 

Between Desire and Release

 

The spring and flower season is short in the Western Cape of South Africa.

A few hot days and the bright and colorful flowers are gone. They vanished virtually overnight.

The burning bright desire in the fireworks of color turns into an abundance of seeds.

The curtain has fallen on the carnival show which attracted the pollinators.

But hidden in the grass the seeds are ready to fly into the unknown.

The dried-out heads can no longer hold them. They must let go.

They must release them and hand them over to the winds blowing at the beginning of summer.

Observing this, I can feel the energy between desire and release and the trust that new life will be born.

 

Stillpoint

 

I am standing in a stream and I can see the water rushing towards me.

Turning around it gushes away from me quickly.

Here I am in the stillpoint between future and past. 

From this point I can see in both directions.

Seeing is an extraordinarily complex process in our brain.

We are actually seeing very little. 

Most of the image gets created from patterns stored and recognized in our memory which fits the information received on our retina.

This still point between future and past is a fiction created in my mind.

The water is gushing at high speed. 

There are uncountable vibrations, waves, and patterns. 

The world around me is absolute chaos. 

My brain and mind are an amazing tool to navigate me through this. 

It gives me the ability to stay alive and feel the universe pumping.

 

Wild Swimming

 

Even in winter I like to swim in the sea. 

My favorite place is the Dalebrook tidal pool.

After the latest cold front, the ocean is furious with rage.

The big sea monster is relentlessly rolling over the wall at the edge of the pool. 

With its mouth full of foam, the beast crashes into the tiny enclosure. 

Chaos washes over my head and I paddle to stay straight and not lose orientation. 

Upside becomes downside, as I bob around between the uprooted kelp, rocks, and the wall.

And with a giant slurp the monster sucks the wave back into it's mouth. Just enough time to take a breath and swim against the strong outward flow.

Before I reach the wall the monster spits out another blast of foam washing me back.

It feels so good to be alive and strong. 

There is no fear only deep respect. 

I know the violent force of this monster can overpower me when I fight against it. 

For me its: Go with the flow, stay orientated and swim only to keep myself inside the pool.

And in this wonderful wild dance of life I become part of the sea monster myself.

The Origin of the World

There is a famous painting by Gustave Courbet named “The Origin of the World” depicting the yoni and body of a beautiful woman.

When I started working on this image of a flower, I immediately was drawn to this origin.

This flower makes the same idea visible; it emanates the origin of the world.

But isn’t our normal western view the other way around?

The world brings about life in a most intricate way from a big bang to aggregates of atoms into a soup of an early ocean on our planet, out of which all life is born. 

This life evolves into a multitude of forms: Flowers, bodies, and animals.

Courbet had a different idea. For him, the origin of the whole world could be seen in the feminine. 

The feminine is that what creates and gives birth to everything.

The feminine showing up in this flower, radiates and vibrates the desire to unfold and expand.

It shows up as pure “Lebenslust”: The desire and joy to live. 

Its an indestructible all permeating energy. It will never be lost, only transform through death into new life.

And for me, this energy comes first. 

This vibration is the origin of the world, out of which all manifests into our reality.