November 2009 Full Moon – Right Brain

Although the correct time of the November Full Moon is dated: November 2, 19:14 UTM, I thought I’d post a day earlier. Since we have just fallen off Daylight Savings Time here in the USA. I’ll let you calculate the exact phase of the November moon when this image was taken at 6:00 PM Sunday Evening November 1st. 2009!

Just to trick you, I filtered this image through GIMP so there would be no way of seeing a difference between this phase and the exact Full Moon Phase.

This way you can imagine looking at it with the Right Brain just like you would glance up at it while walking hand-in-hand with your favorite friend or spouse.

Just in case you never heard of your Right Brain – your body is controlled by a Right Brain and a Left Brain! Are you surprised?

The right-hand side of the human brain, believed to be associated with creative thought and the emotions.

The left-hand side of the human brain, which is believed to be associated with linear and analytical thought.

Ever wonder why some of us are so unsatisfied with our positions in life? I’m not saying there is anything wrong with our positions in life, but just maybe there is something missing and we can’t seem to put our finger on it?

I can say I’ve been there, Done that! I don’t want to rule the future, but I want to someday retire and live the rest of my life with that something the past 40 years had been missing as part of my profession and to make it a priority the rest of my life! I consider the majority of my hobbies as Right Brain, so after retirement – hobbies WILL EVOLVE INTO FULL TIME!

Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind – Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future says:
A Whole New Mind is for anyone who wants to survive and thrive in this emerging world – people uneasy with their careers or dissatisfied with their lives, entrepreneurs and business leaders eager to stay ahead of the next new wave, parents who want to equip their children for the future, and the legions of emotionally astute and creatively adroit people whose distinctive abilities the Information Age has often overlooked and undervalued.
In this book, you will learn the six essential aptitudes – what he calls “the six senses” – on which professional success and personal satisfaction increasingly will depend. Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, Meaning. These are fundamentally human abilities that everyone can master – and helping you do that is my (Daniel H. Pink) goal.

Tossing of the Rose

While sitting on the top of a cliff high above the ocean, I watched a small group of people descend the steep trail onto the rocks by the water’s edge. They stood in the salty spray, each holding a rose and bowed their heads. I imagined the group was a procession of mourners far from the burial of someone dear to them. Two young women, one holding a baby girl, a teenage boy, and a young girl all turned their heads and tossed their rose into the breaking waves of the sea, then stood holding hands, united in deep sorrow.

While they stood together watching the roses being swept away into the deep blue sea, I reflected on the recent deaths of my father and my sister’s husband. For a few moments, I could clearly see them in my mind, while a peaceful calm swept through my thoughts.

Watching the young procession of mourners, as they stood in the salty spray beside the sea, I imaged myself from a distance, beside them, tossing roses for all our family members that have passed on.

There is a profound mystical attraction to the sea that comforts the lamenting soul.

Summertime Reflections

on September 1st, 1985, my wife, daughter, and friends joined me on a short journey to Haverhill, Massachusetts to the homestead of John Greenleaf Whittier. if you are familiar with this early american poet, the following will make sense to you:

we took a ride to visit his homestead
the poet i read while laying in bed

we saw his house, the small desk and chair
the poems i read, he wrote sitting there

we saw his fireplace and felt the glow
remembering Snowbound shut-in by snow

hung on the wall was a red riding hood
left behind by love we have understood

my wife found an acorn under a tree
now as i hold it the homestead i see

well on August 15, 2009, saturday, before noon,  after reading from Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, i thought it would be interesting to spend the afternoon being tourists around the Haverhill, Massachusetts area, while imagining the summers of long ago that may have influenced John Greenleaf Whittier to translate into poetry.

Well, traveling in Southern Maine and Coastal New Hampshire, with temperatures hovering around 90 degrees, we decided to turn westbound, get something to eat, then head back to Southern Maine. traveling on interstate highways are scenic to a point and the RampVan air conditioning was working well, but today was too hot to play follow the leader in erratic traffic.

comparing the image on this post with the few verses of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Dream, i’ll let you decide if traveling with the stop and go traffic patterns of restless families heading to ocean beaches before some of them reach their boiling point. the northbound lanes were backed up for MILES!

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” 2.1. 249-256:

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamelled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

Northeast Harbor

Activities of the wealthy and the working at Northeast Harbor was interesting to watch, but near-by Somes Sound was much more interesting to see and read about:

http://www.acadiamagic.com/SomesSound.html

The best way to capture the flavor of Acadia National Park is to hike every trail at least one time for each of the 4 seasons – i would have given anything to have enjoyed this once long ago simple task!

Foggy Casco Bay

There is always activity around the Portland Harbor in Casco Bay, but this summer seems very slow.

The Reapers – A Thriller

i finished reading The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl for the second time – missed subtle things the first time around. this time i researched The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), while reading the novel. it is amazing what you discover re-reading a novel.

i have been reading a half dozen or so John Connolly books and i’ve decided to read The Reapers next. this is private detective Charlie Parker book#7 and i don’t know much about this book – it will be interesting to find out.

sometimes it is good to start reading a novel without any previous knowledge of the story and be surprised as it unfolds. a good thriller helps you forget your surroundings – a great escape.

John Connolly used to live here in southern Maine, a few miles from me, although i never knew him. He now lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Portland, Maine – a pleasant day to play

on saturday, we left the RampVan in the office parking lot, headed downtown, and around the Old Port Area. it was a great day to take a few photographs and enjoy a lunch of fish and chips. a very peaceful day to pretend we were tourists.

the thunder storm didn’t start until 3:15 AM in the morning. it poured to the tune of the loud rolling thunder and strobes of bright lightning.