Let Us All Remember These Words:

Sermon on the Mound from Eliot Rausch + Phos Pictures on Vimeo.

What's in a floor?

Some may belittle my efforts as a designer and say “who cares about the flooring? Just slap something down that fits into the budget.”

I couldn't disagree more, I firmly believe that “it is the floor that dictates the experience of a room or a space”.

A floor and the materials used to create it can direct and navigate.

It can evoke a sense of history and memories to suit.

It can speak to sterility and cleanliness.

It can soothe or even excite.

The floor(ing) is what bridges the architecture with the interior (design).

Before a space can be furnished 'with all the fixin's'…but, after it’s shell has been constructed, it must receive a floor(ing).

That flooring MAY be cement, something some might consider an unfinished floor, but that cement then takes an active role in speaking to it’s design aesthetic.

Some floors are even famous.

Pompeii: Mosaics

F L Wright's Fallingwater: Waxed Stone

Taj Mahal: Sandstone and Marble

Chateau de Versailles: Parquet

may the sound penetrate

The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) from R Smittenaar on Vimeo.

Sometimes you come across things that move you.

Things that you can't explain or quite understand

But they stir something in your Soul

When I listen to this chant I feel it in my bones.

So I had to share it

the leaves take the water,

and the tea takes me.

i put up no resistance,

surrendering myself to what has entered.

Soon i am the tea, and the tea is me.

(Minister of Leaves, The Republic of Tea)

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."

- Mariane Williamson

Field Trip!

A Day at the Aquarium.

I decided to try out my new Nikon D90 at my local Aquarium.

I'm very fortunate to have such a lovely place, literally, 10 minutes walking distance from my house. If you're ever in Manteo, NC stop by the Roanoke Island Aquarium.

Here are the delights of my trip.

Intent_Aim_Resolve_Decision...Resolution

Several years ago I spent the New Years Eve with a friend who asked me to sum up the year in a single word.

I am a thinker, ever analyzing and mulling things over, but this one-word-for-a-whole-year forced me to think of the big picture and scrutinize events in conjunction with others of that year. I had never done that, not consciously anyway.

So years later, I continue to summarize the year in a word, and I also pick out a word to be the focus for the new coming year. A tradition of sorts; if nothing else, it beats making a list of resolutions.

2010 was a year of “Change”
I experienced a lot of unexpected twists and turns; some amazing, some wretched. I tend to dwell on the gloomy ones and try to figure out what made them so, or what I could have done different. But assigning this year the word change, it lets me sit back and breath a sigh of relief. The things that happened were just that, part of an overall change. A shift in my life that is…was necessary for the next stage of my life. A morphing of forms and lives into something new…even if unexpected…to nourish and feed and provide the tools necessary for the next phase…"Growth"

While I know that time is a fluid thing, just because the page of the calendar was flipped and now says 2011 doesn’t mean that my life is going to switch just as quickly. Nevertheless, I feel that when I reflect on 2011 I will come to find much growth. And so my focus is not on the past, but on the ever change daily present…and nourishing the growth. Maybe even exploiting it a bit. Taking myself as a priority and allowing my creativity, my knowledge, my skills, to flourish and thrive

I recently thought about seedlings…though I am no green thumb. I thought about how some seeds sprout and grow very quickly after be

ing planted in the soil; like beans. Others take a while to break through the soil’s surface; like oak. I thought about how my future, my creative future, that I’ve been anxiously awaiting to partake in might just be that oak. It may take a long time to develop and peek through but I’d much rather have an enduring long healthy career than a quick blooming seasonal one.