MEDITATION UNDER WATER, Part 1 of the Four Elements Meditation Series - (under construction)

Friends;

Here is my new MEDITATION WIDGET; it's called: "MEDITATION UNDER WATER". If you put a link to it on your desk top, you can do an eight minute meditation any time you want to get away or refresh your spirit.  
 
The purpose of this Meditation  is to make yourself comfortable with all aspects of water by being in it like it is your natural element --  which it is. It actually makes up the biggest part of your body and planet. As you start doing this meditation, and I would suggest a series of ten, at the same time every day of that's possible, if not, catch as catch can, just do at least ten sessions in a series.

How to do it: You are to imagine yourself as actually sitting on the ocean floor, watching the fish swim around and the sea anemones waft with the current. Be open to see whatever swims by you, watch for it and see what happens.  So, in essence:  BE UNDER WATER.  Feel  the crushing weight of the water as you are in various places, some the warm shallows, feeling the tide and waves above you, its sound and tug on your hair, or scalp (heh), and next time maybe, be at the black ocean bottom in its deepest parts, and feel the darkness and ice cold and the weight of the whole ocean on top of you. Marvel at the thousonds of tons of weight -- actually feel it. Remember, nothing can hurt you, it is your spirit body that you sent there, not your fragile physical body. You can do anything you want to under water, float, go inside an iceberg, find a pod of dolphins and swim with them, look for treasure, talk to sea creatures, watch and see who comes your way to communicate, float over ruins of cities long gone, find the radioactive trash and clean it up -- you can do anything while you are down there -- or just sit still and do nothing at all. But initially, just get used to BEING DOWN THERE and watching your surroundings and how you feel.

NOTE: YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ ANY MORE OF THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO. JUST START DOING IT AND YOU CAN COME BACK TO THIS LATER AS YOU HAVE SOME TRACTION WITH THIS MEDITATION, AND MAYBE SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON. You may want to read it then just to see what I have to say about it. Your experience is unique. What I say should not in any way define your experiences. it's fun to compare notes though, sometimes. You can always get in touch with me about all this.

It's not unusual to have some fear, we have it patterned into us that we are creatures of the air not of the deep and cannot live under water. Just continue to imagine being there comfortably and breathing -- yes, you should breathe in and out  and should feel your breath under water in this meditation --  till it becomes real and amazing and this world opens up to you on a personal, experiential level. Know that there is nothing that can hurt you, and your body will soon know this too; and there may be a point where you will become exhilarated with the freedom and new adventure of exploring another element

You can start with the shallows or a place you already know and then go deeper and deeper, further and further away from your homelands, travel in an instant or glide at great speed as the water flies by, and get curious about new  parts of your world. This new part is the part that is OF THE WATERS. Get to know this element in all its aspects. Go to where it is warm and friendly, go to where it is cold and black. Go to where it is frozen into ice glaciers or deepest snow. Go to it where the water element sprays out from the ground as thousand-degree hot steam, go find the water where ever and in whatever forms it exists. Go into it and feel what its like. Go to the most uninhabitable (for a body) places and experience them. Be inside and meditate. Just sit, or travel around. Look around and feel around you. BE the water itself and get to know this element and those who are a part of it. Make the water an element that you are a part of and that is a part of you, consciously and without fear. May you never be the same again, liquid, multiplex, multi-faceted crystal that your are.

This Water Elemental Meditation can re-train your mind regarding  fear of death by water or panic of drowning, or any type of avoidance. This Meditation is for you to get comfortable with all aspects of the element of water which makes up the biggest part of your body and your planet. Consider this the Green Beret training of your mind to know and be able to confront and handle all aspects of water, disguised as a Meditation.

You can do this without the meditation widget, once you are familiar with going down there and looking. You can personalize your experience; add your own music, or none. Do it longer, shorter, near water, to sounds of water, or not  -- just do it. Actually, its fun to do it near the surf if you ever get the chance and privacy. You can graduate to your own version of this.

See if it changes how you look at the oceans, the beings that inhabit them. See if it makes you become more aware of the waterly aspect of your own body, how the moon pulls your body and thoughts like a tide, how your emotions flow on the waters of your life, how everything is in flux and flow always, and how you can tune in to life's currents. You can allow the waters to cleanse your soul, to put out scorching hot emotions, to give you peace and silence at its deepest levels. Emotions are a waterly aspect of yourself and reflect in the attributes of water. Raging tidal waves, rip currents that cannot be resisted, torrential downpours, inexorable raising of the water in a flood, warm pools of healing waters carrying you to a certain place, warm, cold, sweet salty, bitter, clear, murky, dense, light, bubbly, still...you get the idea. Maybe Ponce De Leon's Fountain of Youth is about emotional waters..... Let it flow and live forever.

Bruce Lee once said: BE LIKE WATER.  This meditation is a way to get your toe wet. And get your Water Mojo on. Come on in, the water's fine -- well no, actually, it is what it is, Get to know it, feel it and understand it up close and personal, without having to sacrifice your body in the trying. What you will have become one with is an aspect of yourself and an aspect of your world that can kill you or cure you. Water has unlimited power yet is so soft and uncontainable. So much like what we really are. Enjoy.


Peace and Love,
Kalima~

PS: Wait for the other Elemental Meditations: FIRE, EARTH, AIR! Firewalking? Oh yeah!!!

I AM NOW DOING FLASH WEBSITES! (ARTicle Length Particle)

Dear Friends;

I have discovered FLASH! Or rather, FLASH has discovered ME, Karin Paul! It is a Marriage Made In Heaven. I am electrified! Frack HTML! (did I just say that? May lightning strike me)...and speaking of Frack, YES I am a Galactica fan.   Especially of  Lieutenant Starbuck. Sexy women in space suits. Makes me feel all glowy inside seeing her punch out her ex in the ring, tying up loose ends. Kara Thrace sure throws a  punch. 


This is the business site I am working on: http://www.wix.com/KARINPAUL/PattersonPropertyManagement. You can watch its progress. Much better site than the old html Dino of the same name -- whose days are numbered. "tick-tock!"

So, now; ten minutes of OOOOMMMMMM, on the House. It's a Meditation Widget!  It is a trial version, an experiment, so don't get all critcal on me 'stuff. I was checking how many different unrelated sound tracks I could pull off YouTube and combine, and still make it sound harmonious. I think there are five tracks playing at once, from five different videos. Apparently at least one too many.   Made it on one of my date-less evenings. You ever have any of those? No? ...too bad. Try it some time. It's like a date with yourself.  It was quite satisfying, actually. A caveat: Since I frankensteined the meditation widget  together from assorted YouTube videos it has a few quixotic references to products and people unknown to me which I am not really trying to endorse. I just wanted the ART and SOUND of their content, but glued firmly to the foreheads of of the videos is usually a plug for whatever they're selling.  I was poaching video clips and just could not get rid of the marketing taint (yes, 'taint" -- look it up), so roll with it.

I want you to enjoy it fully. It's meant to flush out your mind and put a spit polish shine on your soul. All in less than eight minutes. A lofty goal. It's intended to be book-marked and used daily for meditation. I'm already on Meditation Widget 2.0. Again, I will pillage, plunder and rape harmless, unsuspecting video offerings from diverse digital gene pools.  When I become the Flash Guru I truly envision myself to be, there will be no commercial content to my Art. Famous last words? Everyone is selling something, basically.Do not be deceived. what am I selling? "Aesthetics". Yes. My Message?  "GET SOME". Life's too prosaic and desperate without beauty, grace, magic, music and art. I'm as good a salesman as Vincent Van Gogh. Maybe I should cut off a body part to gain some sorely needed notoriety. Now, back to post content; my budding romance with FLASH. (no, not Flash Gordon.)

Being one of the most prolific photographers in the Milky Way Galaxy -- as my bleeding-eyed Face Book Friends will surely attest to after wearing magnetized wrist supports for their carpal tunnel syndromes after clicking their way through fifty galleries of 200-plus images a piece, shot rapaciously by Yours Truly -- I have been itching for an outlet to finally put to use my gadzillion pictures of all aspects of Life, The Universe and Everything -- both seemly and unseemly.I love Douglas Adams, don't you? May I quote him for you so you can feel the love, too: "Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job".

I am a Fearless Fotographer; nothing is holy, nothing is sacred, nothing is safe and nothing stands in my way to get my shot, or ten. I am merciless. I am  machine. I may look like a meek and gentle (well maybe not when you get closer) Lady, but truly I am the Robocop of Image Acquisition. I actually go into a   Robo-Zone trance where my trigger finger goes into hyper-drive,  and I must be forcibly shaken out of it.   Or my battery dies. Both happens a lot.

My daughter Dawn Dubriel, the professional Videographer/Producer/Director, ( see Auteur Explosions -- Cinema Paradiso and Artistocats Online and Offline magazine) and Social Media Network expert,  not to mention shutter-ninja extraordinaire, is especially good at this. Her voice still rings in my ears:

"STOP with all the hundreds of random and blurry pictures!"
(Ouch. Dissing my ART? And aren't those called Action Shots, girl!)

"Focus! Make 'em POSE! Get the Money Shot! Make 'em LOOK at you! Tell 'em to SMILE! Smile BACK at them! Don't shoot BACKS of people! I want FACES! FRONTS! SMILES! Make EYE CONTACT! And all I need is fifty GOOD ones! Got it?"

Yes. I got it. I nod meekly, thinking of the all freebie entries and hookups to the cool events she throws my way. These days, socially and entertainment-wise,  I sail in the wake of my beautiful, talented and socially gifted daughter and my artistically well-endowed, brainy son-in-law. It's a turn-key operation for me. They put in the time and energy as local celeb synergists and event makers, and graciously hand me the golden key to the Mansion. I spring the lock to their privileged world of artistic relevance at the heart of our creative local community and bask in the big bang energies of my sprouts ascendance. Not many parents are so lucky. Yes I better shape up and shoot to kill.

Being a Child Of The Sixties, I had My Day -- or decades -- and more than my alotted Fifteen Minutes Of Fame -- not to worry. It's nice for once to just fly in and out of the Scene and not be responsible for raising its magic. Been there - done that. At their age I was an artist, too, at the University of Wisconsin Graduate School, graphics Department. The 602 Club. Eddie Ben Elson. Paul Soglin. Isthmus. Ice sailing on Lake Monona at midnight. The Arboretum. Fred Milverstedt. That scene. I've done my Time.

The least I can do for Dawn now is shoot a set of pictures she can USE! She is usually doing the videography and counts on me for some usable stills. Buck up, Karin. Get Commercial. Be an Event Photogrpher. Make them all look glammin' good. Yes I can do that, too. 'Course I didn't serve up my non-PR shots of them byatches, like when they are dancing with another girlfriend like a dervish up close for the bass-guitar playing hottie, as sweat sprays from their long hair ends....or the costume malfunctions of the Burlesque Queens. Those shots are mine -- all mine! (the subjects may contact me if interested).

So now, armed with Elements and Premiere I am now a FLASH Player to reckon with. I am contemplating the many websites I can create, enhanced with my bottomless picture gallery -- and may I say, they are not quite like the getty (yes that is a small g) collection in some interesting ways. Now I can do some real damage out there in cyberspace. God help them all -- Karin is loose with FLASH and pictures! Stall your sacred cows and bolt the barn door. Stay indoors for three days and nights. I'm comin' with the big ragged-edge knife ( or is that a knoife?) of  FLASH ART! RoboFlash.

That was satisfying. Was it good for you, too?  No? Well next time will be better. ..so for now, I have a gig to do a flash site for a business -- all non-distressed and socially approbate images and content. I can play nice. The pleasant part is that I get paid for it. Almost as good as getting paid for real great sex. Here's the first few pages -- as you can see I am not wallowing in flash animation and making the page shake, rattle and roll -- it's just a clean appeal to give the dude in the video a shot. He is likable and smart, good at his work and edumacated too. Better than you, probably. *pause*. I am so bad at PR it's pathetic. I always say just one thing too many. Now no one will call him because I said that last thing. I need to learn when to shut up.

Anyway -- here's the link to my first FLASH business page again: Patterson Property Management  More pages to come. I'll re-post the final product when it's finished.

My next plan is to FLASH-izise my daugher Dawn's website. If she'll let me. She may not. Her husband is The Web God (yes that's a big G here) in her life. Maybe she will allow me some BACK DOOR FLASH. I just invented that word. It means: You are vested in an HTML based website for impohtant reasons such as all the Old Boy Network corporations have HTML-based presences and that platform must be the way to go blah blah. To those I say: Check my FLASH sites on your mobil browser and see how it displays. Who knows it may just surprise you, and how much better do said fat boy sites perform on hand-held devices anyway.

Conversely, I am always open to useful advice on how to integrate FLASH into the full spectrum of web presence kinks out there. I want to end my post with an appeal to let me be your back door woman with my FLASH if you are married to a Vanilla HTML site, and open up a new world for you. You'll never look back. And anyone of you still Website-less, or website-challenged, or with website ADHD,  your ass is MINE. I will have my FLASH with you.  Let me at it now, my prices will go up once I learn them fancy tricks and I am about to. (Although I know a few fancy tricks already).

Peace....
Kalima