sweetest
summer solstice salutations
🌅
for Sunday June 21st 2026
marking the astronomical
first day of summer
in the Northern Hemisphere
🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅
ancient cultures knew that the sun’s path across the sky
the length of daylight and the location of
sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way
throughout the year
honouring this, monuments such as the ones
at Stonehenge were built
☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎
Life is difficult…
sometimes you see something that reminds you
how heavy, sorrowful and sad you are feeling
….you may remember countless others too
are feeling the same, and so
an opportunity arises to extend compassion
to both self and others……
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agency, empowerment, great freedom, autonomy
each may take great courage to embody
to live, to choose, to engage with….
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in the darkness, light illuminates
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ongoing project: 3-or-4-books-by-the-bed series
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we are super-fortunate in Bristol (UK) to have the biennial BABE:
the international event showcasing artists’ books to the public
this year @ Spike Island Friday 26th & Saturday 27th June
some work from the ArtKitchen: sketchbook studies
observations playfulness
▲collaged over the miss take
playfulness & experiment
one-off-the-cuff collage….for friend’s 2nd birth day
the view
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cultural picks from the tribe….
artists
Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist (57mns) on BBC iPlayer this magnificent woman, visionary painter, overlooked even today…
Julio Le Parc: Light. Colour. Action 10mn video on this visionary man and his work
Gluck: Who Did She Think He Was? (59mns) on BBC iPlayer cross-dressing high society painter of the 1930s who staged one-man-shows
Kelly Boesch visuals/costumes/movement & music: AI powered video content creation wild/woolly/weird/wonderful/surreal….using MidJourney, Suno, et al
other…
Waldorf 100 – The Film 17 mn video people from around the world who work on the big educational tasks of our time, based on Waldorf/Steiner pedagogy
The Assembly itv+ radical: a group of autistic, neurodivergent & learning disabled people enquiring deeply with authentic, direct questioning – refreshing, compassionate, revelationary
Stephen Jenkinson & Gregory Hoskins video: Lost Nation Road (24mns)
the bearded plantaholic: risque, droll… good morning you….. good morning sprinkletits
MaMuse song: Glorious (5mns)
Banyen the beautiful Vancouver bookshop (55 years old) has a Podcast & Youtube channel abounding with informative & illuminating video talks with seminal folk, working beyond the mainstream cult:
Marianne Williamson, Pema Chödron, Deva Premal, Stanislave Grof, Tara Brach et al
example: video of Ezra Klein interview with Pema Chödron (1hr 15mn)
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reflecting on life and the seminal influence of cutting-edge books, back in the day taking our time
we were hungry ingestion was savoured educating ourselves
outside the agreement of the main stream cult…
in the late 1960s, through books such as….
Total Orgasm / The Tassajara Bread Book / Be Here Now / Games People Play / Our Bodies Our Selves /
The Last Whole Earth Catalogue / In and Out the Garbage Pail / Carlos Castaneda: teachings of Don Juan / Yoga for Health
☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎☀︎
random quotes
never underestimate the power of taking things lightly
just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there
don’t just do something, sit there
I’ll see it when I believe it
Read not the Times, read the Eternities
Thoreau
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some think…..or believe
and
to heal itself a colonized culture (ie western consumer capitalism) has…
to dig down to the foundations and begin the work of repair.
We are going to have to learn to be adults again;
to get our feet back on the ground,
to rebuild families and communities,
to learn again the meaning of worship
and commitment, of limits and longing.
We are in short going to have to grow up.
This is long, hard work: intergenerational work.
It is myth work.
We don’t really want to begin,
and we don’t really know how to.
Does any child want to grow up?
But there is nothing else for it;
no other path is going to get us home.
(Paul Kingsnorth)
and
……..and others think not….
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this photo is of Ram Dass & Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
circa 1974, @ Naropa Institute, founded by Trungpa Rinpoche (crazy wisdom master)
Ram Dass’s teaching was integral in the launch of Naropa,
these two could not be more different in their approaches to teaching & working with students.
However they had deep personal affection and respect for one another.
Naropa Reflections (19mns) is a beautiful video of Ram Dass
talking of those times and that connection
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thank you so much for visiting
we trust there is something here
to pique your interest /
give cause for reflection /
soothe the soul /
uplift the spirit /
that beats doomscrolling
☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️
with great gratitude for this precious life
and for my wisdom teacher Ziji Rinpoche
☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️☸️
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