Costume Designer Colleen Dobbin has been working hard preparing the masks for our upcoming play The Soup is Served at the Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, WA. Here are some of her beautiful initial designs:

In Thinking in Systems, Donella Meadows describes resilience as: “a measure of a system’s ability to survive and persist within a variable environment. The opposite of resilience is brittleness or rigidity.”  According to her, the highest levels of resilience are found in feedback loops (or balancing systems) that “can learn, create, design, and evolve ever more complex restorative structures.” She then goes on to use the human body as an example of an amazingly complex, resilient system. (Meadows, 2008, p76)

I find Meadows’ example of the human example to be quite poignant in reference to my personal experience of watching and feeling the systems in my body reach a point where its limits where overwhelmed and began to malfunction, go haywire and eventually shut down, one by one, and then later, out of necessity to survive, moving intentionally and deliberately through some of  incredibly complex, normally automatic tasks performed by the body that we often take for granted.

While my body was healing, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do to rebuild my life in a way that would support my newly discovered health challenges and allow me to adapt to persevere given the quite daunting new list of limitations upon me. It was during that time, in the spring of 2009, that I conceived of my personal website, La Fermata, as a way to represent and share my personal artwork and thoughts with the world. As I would consider my intentions and goals for the project, the words “Live, Learn, Grow” would constantly come to mind, and I decided to use them (and the slight modification “Pause, Sustain, Grow”–which makes a reference to the musical notation fermata) to represent my work. I  find their direct correlation to Meadows’ conditions for high resilience to be noteworthy and self-affirming
.

For me, to live is to create and design. For me, to learn or teach is to love. For me, to grow is to evolve.

Re-learning and re-building resilience in my body has been a slow process that is still not finished and may never be. It has required dedication and an exhausting amount of attention to detail, relationships and systems. I am thankful for the experience it has given me in revealing a higher level of a whole-system view of health and wellbeing. I am thankful for the experiences of pain, of suffering, not-knowing, fear, of despair and hopelessness:  they allow me to deeply relate to our human struggles with resilience–they have instilled within me a deep sense of compassion for others and a strong desire to help people Live, Learn, and Grow.

I hope your new year is filled with hope, joy, health, laughter, prosperity and peace. Not a single day passes that I don’t reflect on how fortunate and grateful I am to know so many kind, creative, generous and loving people. My life is richer and more vibrant for having known and shared a part of my path with you.

Spero che il tuo nuovo anno è pieno di speranza, gioia, salute, risate, di prosperità e di pace. Non passa un singolo giorno che non rifletto su quanto come fortunata e grata di conoscere cosi tante persone gentile, creativi, generosi e amorevole. La mia vita è più ricca per averti conosciuto e per aver condiviso una parte del mio cammino con te.

I leave you with a favourite poem of mine:

Vi lascio con uno delle mie poesie preferite:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no

of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

--ee cummings

Snowflakes and Sunbeams,

Brittney

Greetings all.

Have you heard about the 6.9 earthquake that hit last week April 14th in Tibet? This is devastating news for me personally as a Tibetan Doctor and wife to a Tibetan person. The news hasn’t been as widely covered due to some downplay by the government. The first on the scene were monks–they were the first ones to pitch tents, transport and pray for the victims, and pull them out of the rubble.

Now we are getting word the government is ordering all monks to leave the area, likely because they don’t appreciate a mass of Tibetan monks together in one location as there are rules regarding such in Tibet and getting praise internationally as the main help doesn’t look so good, but in any case there is much work to be done.

My own teacher’s Monastery, Thrangu Rinpoche’s center was the hardest hit, and is in absolute dust. It was only 1 mile from the epicenter, and though it had been re-built twice since the Chinese invasion it is now in ruins and many monks were killed, some in 3-year retreat. There was a smaller earthquake in the morning and they ran out, then they thought it was over, so all of them were in the main prayer hall when it hit. Very few made it out alive. It is personally very devastating to me. I have a friend who lives near to the area (we studied Language together in India) and she made it out fine, thank god. She sent me word two days ago from her personal experience. (Below in quotes.)

“The official death toll is over 2,000, but my friend tells me they did a mass burial/cremation for around 3,000 two days ago. There are about 119 victims in hospitals here in Lanzhou and about 650 in hospitals around Qinghai–also people were sent to Chengdu. A friend took me to one where she is volunteering yesterday, so no restrictions as far as I can tell. I’ll go back today and bring a few Tibetan-language magazines and books for the patients and their families to read. Last week when I was in Xining (it) was a little bit crazy because they hadn’t opened the road up yet and the phones were still down and the death count jumped from 70 to 400 in a few hours, so basically nobody had any idea what was going on, who was hurt or dead, etc. and we all feared for the worst.

I should have a clearer idea of the situation when I get to Xining again tomorrow. Thankfully, my friends, including the guy you met in Xining, are all ok, as are their families. But two students of mine lost relatives. Right now it’s snowing in Yulshul, I think, so I guess the big fund raising emphasis is on buying blankets right now. I’ll have more concrete information about how urgent people’s needs are after I get to Xining.”

According to news sources, 2,041 people have been confirmed dead, 715 are missing, and over 12,000 are injured as a result of the April 14th earthquake that rocked Yushu Tibetan Prefecture. This information comes today is from another Tibet who has a non-profit organization who is there on the ground working to provide relief now.

Thousands of Tibetans who have been devastated by the massive quake. If you have it in your hearts to spread the word about how to donate to various Tibetan NGO organizations collecting funds and saving lives, I implore you–this is the work of the medicine Buddha, too. As a doctor of Tibetan medicine, this breaks my heart in more ways than I can express. It is freezing cold, no houses, blankets etc. and many are critically injured and need care to survive, right now foreigners need special permission to travel, so the work needs to come from already established organizations. My personal friend Lama Kenpo Jigme will fly there today with some funds we’ve collected already to buy supplies and provide for the immediate needs of the people and his devastated monastery.

Please encourage people to not only support this but get the word out. I have been surprised how many people have not even heard about it. Thank you!

--Nashalla Gwyn Nyinda
Tibetan Medicine TMD (Menpa~Amchi), LMT & Acupressure Practitioner

Below are listed various organizations and web pages that will help provide relief and assistance to earthquake victims. All have no middle men, and all 100% of the funds go directly to those who need it.

Thrangu Trust (Tibet Relief Fund): http://www.thranguemergency.org/
(Nashalla Nyinda’s teacher’s monastery, which has been hit)

Tibetan Village Project: http://www.tibetanvillageproject.org/yer.html
(Nashalla’s friend Tamdin, who is in Tibet helping)

Jinpa: http://www.jinpa.org/

Tibet Foundation: http://www.tibet-foundation.org/news/urgent_emergency_appeal_-_kyekudo_yushu_earthquake/

Tibet Fund: http://www.tibetfund.org/

ALZO LO SGUARDO AL SUOLO

Metto i passi uno davanti all’altro,
non importa dei lati, solo basso e alto.
Bagnato e lastricato in terra,
vivo
si prende le gocce e i minuti,
non s’offende di sporco, sputi e suole.
Trova ancora mille toni di grigio, rame, pece e farina vecchia.
CombattenTe, oggi mi curo di Te più del cielo.

CANILE DI MONTE ARGENTO

Rosa di rughe e rosso agli zigomi;
il celeste pastello d’occhi sbiadisce buono
le frasi che c’aprono il cancello.
L’abbaiare senza la memoria copre i giorni gemelli, stretti in placenta.
Entra l’odore nostro per primo, qui conta questo,
poi le movenze.
Spostiamo dei sacchi, in salita, poi i cani riconoscono chi li sa custodire;
si fa largo tra il sonoro dei musi e l’aria delle code.
Come un pastore conosciuto, conosce.
Liberazione di energie a decine sopra decine,
corrono, sbattono con noi con l’amore ventoso delle spighe.
Alcuni non possono uscire, si lanciano da un muro all’altro di pochi metri
e ti piangono le viscere.
E poi mani, zampe, dita, pelo, gomiti, lingue, carezze e bava.
Quattrocentoventisette.

Scritto da Federico Fratini

“La cattura di Cristo nell’orto,  1602″ Caravaggio è presente nel quadro con una lanterna in mano, la gente lo riconosce come se fosse un amico di sempre… la forza dell’illuminazione.  Ancora gente che parla sottovoce, squilla un telefonino e la commessa si precipita a redarguire l’arrogante signore in giacca e cravatta che non lo ha spento. ”I bari  1595″ La gente sembra voler dire al giovane ignaro, che deve fare attenzione, perché il personaggio alle sue spalle sta mostrando al compare le sue carte…  ”I musici, 1594 – 95″ Atmosfera diversa, luce più forte, giovani ragazzi come modelli. La signora che parla a voce alta dicendo “Quelli erano tutti amanti di Caravaggio” e, per un attimo, uno dei ragazzi raffigurati sulla tela, sembra guardare la donna in modo severo.. Francesco sta seduto nella saletta. Si riposa un momento. Lo imito e parlo con lui di Caravaggio. Quando arriverà Brittney, che è americana, le parleremo del “nostro” Caravaggio per provocarla scherzosamente: “Quando mai ce lo avete avuto voi, un artista simile?”  Ancora buio, mormorii, sensazioni.

“Giuditta e Oloferne, 1599″ Il volto di Oloferne appare come sbigottito mentre acquista coscienza del fatto che sta realmente morendo..   La visita sta terminando.  Terrazza delle scuderie del Quirinale,  Roma. L’altare della patria, San Pietro, L’olimpico… Di nuovo in via Nazionale, stazione Termini, self service, cesto di frutta e…  Caravaggio ancora fra noi!

Germano Rubbi

The Convento S. Giovanni Battista is perched upon a little hill in Celleno, a small town halfway between Orvieto and Viterbo. Built in 1610, the monastery was purchased by four families who created a co-operative in the 1980s and restored to its original simple beauty.

It now hosts a vast array of workshops and seminars from around the world, and has been so successful that they are booked out almost 2 years in advance by repeat customers. There are flower and vegetable gardens outside, simple rooms with beautiful views, a large dining room, a practice/workshop/performance space where the chapel used to be, and a tidy little breakfast bar.

The families who purchased and restored the convent say that they came together and were united around some common shared interests: political, social, spiritual, cultural and work-ethic sensibility and this quote on their website left me feeling hopeful that more collaborative endeavors of this nature can be created in the future:

“Il mondo e` nelle mani di coloro che hanno il coraggio di sognare e di correre il rischio di vivere i propri sogni.”

“The world is in the hands of those who have the courage to dream and run the risk of actually living their dreams.”