Bagels. Beauty and Becoming

Bagels
Jim and I found a marvelous restaurant called Bagels and Beans. It is 4 blocks from the houseboat and a welcoming fresh food place. More details later as I must rush off to get there before going to Wisdom.

Beauty
Jim and I spent Friday morning in the Van Gogh museum. i will write in detail later but suffice it to say that I was transported by the beauty of the art there. i saw several works I had never seen before. I was deeply moved. i cried a lot. I realized that I am a person who reaches altered states of consciousness when exposed to beauty for a long period of time. Art heals. My favorite piece that I had never seen before is "Portrait of Guus Preitinger, the artist's wife"by Kees van Dongen from 1911. I will do my best to get a copy of the painting posted here on this page. The striking red background surrounding the proud and bold beauty of this woman is delightful. She wears a deep indigo blue dress and has one hand on her hip and the other hand holds part of a three strand pearl necklace.

So many Van Gogh's i believe i will always be moved by the tragedy of his life. I remain inspired and delighted by the genius and expressiveness of his work. I am grateful that he lived and painted, the world would have been less if his work never existed.

Becoming


Teri Smiling in Amsterdam

From Amsterdam

Got lost on the way to the Wisdom course, thankfully I had given myself an hour to arrive traveling from the Van Gogh museum. I traveled to the World Trade Center but needed to be at the World fashion Center. Fortunately it was a beautiful day with no rain and the walk took me through a park. I got to the center 2 min. before the session started. I cried for a few minutes several times at the frustration of being lost and "not Knowing". Later Jim showed me that the Wisdom course location is a very walkable 10 blocks from our houseboat. A #2 tram gets me there in less than 5 min. It is an odd coincidence that taking a #2 here will get us from the houseboat to where I am teaching and also to Wisdom... Hmmm. At home in Seattle the #2 bus goes by my house and takes me from Allena's in Queen Anne, to Kathy McKeever's in the Central District to Jimbo's in Madrona. My three best friends all live on the #2 bus. I love synchronicity.

Wisdom Course teachings today included the use of three models which when understood and viewed collectively can give humans a glimpse of how the Universe/Cosmos and "All of It" function.
There are three realms: World, Being and language. Becoming belongs to the Realm of World. World as in the concrete existence of things/objects. The naming of things, the ability to handle and move objects. The place where things actually happen, objects get moved, papers get filed etc... WORLD has temporal time as in past, present & future. Because time is linear in WORLD, the possibility of becoming and the idea of growth and improvement exist.

I am still becoming an adult around community events regarding directions and needing help when i get lost. I still am looking for a sense of support and help around coming and going and transportation. I know my partner David will be relieved to hear that I have emotional upset about not being able to go when I want to. I realized again that I do not feel safe walking alone in the dark in a city, even if a man tells me he thinks it is safe for me to do so."I got very frustrated and cried again when I failed to be able to get a ride to the Joordan ( where I was meeting Jimbo at the Sex Museum). I was afraid of walking in the dark through the park to the Tram station. Fortunately a German woman and an American woman from California both noticed my distress and offered to come with me as they also needed the tram. I am becoming more aware that I have young conversations about belonging and acceptance and isolation around transportation that need upgrading. I will think about this today in the Wisdom Course and move forward on these issues.