The “opponent”, yes . . . .. . that annoying person whom you can never quite see, the one who foils all your attempts to get just what you want in the Chess Game of Life !
Two from A City Called Life: Getting Somewhere! and The Opponent.
Category: Series : A CITY CALLED LIFE
Every exit is also an entrance
From the City Called Life series : Every Exit is also an Entrance
The saying, “When one door closes, another opens”, a similar way of putting it, often refers to stages of life, jobs, retirement, relationships, moving homes etc. Now in this Covid time, as so many of our usual “doors” are closed to us, we are, of necessity, learning to find new ways to satisfy our human needs.
I made this picture, a long time ago, of the entrance/exit of a nearby shopping mall, just as it was closing for the night. It is made from a juxtaposition of two photos, one of people entering, one of people exiting. Now I am reminded of that saying every time I go there!
A City Called Life : All the World’s a Stage
From A City Called Life Series: All the World’s a Stage
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. – William Shakespeare (from As You Like It)
For more about the Series, A City Called Life
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A City Called Life : Alley Cats. Feasting on what can be found.
From A City Called Life Series: Feasting on What Can Be Found
This is based on a photo of feral cats looking for scraps one evening behind a restaurant in Spain, surprised by the light being turned on. It’s made from an old, (1960s) slide and will not enlarge as most of them do.
There have been many “messages” of one sort or another which have helped me throughout my life, from various teachers, friends and traditions. One that really speaks to me is the idea of “feasting on what can be found.” A friend and teacher, with whom I meditated for many years, used to say something like, “If you can’t do what you would really like to do at the time, think about what it is that the desired experience offers you. Then find something else which is available and offers you some of the same.” During this Covid time, many of us do this out of necessity. We can’t go to concerts, so because we need music, we go to virtual ones or play our old CDs, or we can’t travel, so maybe we watch travelogues on TV. Those are obvious ones, but some of our needs or wants take a little figuring out!
One of my mother’s favorite sayings – which used to annoy me as a child, but has stood me in good stead – was, “Enough is as good as a feast !” That has followed me through my life since my wartime and postwar childhood, when substitutions were so necessary. Putting that together with “feasting on what can be found”, today, when due to the pandemic, health issues and aging, I can no longer get around to find or do all I might like to, I don’t have much problem feasting on lots of small joys instead of missing large ones.
A City Called Life: The Path Less Travelled
From the City called Life series: The Path less travelled.
ROBERT FROST
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves, no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by.
And that has made all the difference.
A City Called Life Series : Home
This picture is in one of the first series which I made and is the only one in which I left a recognizable person, only slightly photo-shopped, because I did ask his permission, and gave him something in return.
“Home is not a place, it’s a feeling”, said someone, I forget who!
I don’t think it’s necessary to say much about this pic, but I invite you to ask yourself what the idea of Home means to you.
More about the Series, A City Called Life
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A City Called Life: Ups and Downs
A City called life: Alone
From the City Called Life Series : Alone
What a lovely surprise to finallly discover how unlonely being alone can be.- Ellen Burstyn
The longer one is alone, the easier it is to hear the song of the earth.
-Robert Anton Wilson
Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying. -Martin Luther
Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets. -Paul Tournier
Language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone; and it has created the word “solitude “to express the glory of being alone.- Paul Tillich
When I’m alone, I can sleep crossways in bed without an argument. – Zsa Zsa Gabor
I used to think that the worst thing in life was to end up alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel alone. -Robin Williams
From the City Called Life Series: Home
From A City Called Life Series : Home
This series is one of two which I started years ago and this picture is the only one in which I left a recognizable person, only slightly photo-shopped, because I did ask his permission, and gave him something in return.
“Home is not a place, it’s a feeling”, said someone, I forget who!
I don’t think it’s necessary to say much about this pic, but I invite you to ask yourself what the idea of Home means to you.