We found this image on Yoko Ono’s instagram. “The hand is stamping “PEACE” on the map. Yes. We try. yoko” Wonderful words. Part of Ono’s Peace Maps, in which you… Stamping PEACE all over town would make lovely graffiti. via Yoko Ono’s Instagram; peace stamp image via Mikihiko Hori’s Flickr
Read MoreA few years ago, Yoko Ono tweeted a photo of John Lennon’s bloodied glasses. The image, taken not long after his murder — an artist’s way of healing — would become part of a powerful control campaign. Charlie Allenson took his own step toward healing by writing about the murder of his beloved niece in Huffington Post. ‘The Car in the Lot’ is a potent 573 words worth of essential reading.
Read More(Video link here.) The amazing Yoko Ono’s new video embraces being a BAD DANCER, and doing it anyway, WITH NO REGRETS. As she says: When your heart is dancing, your mind is bouncing! Break a leg Cut the thread I’m a bad dancer Full speed ahead! As usual, she undermines accepted wisdom, judgments and inhibition, and…
Read MoreAlways on the lookout for things that shift our view and spark ideas, we were very happy to discover that Yoko Ono’s 1970 book Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono has been reprinted. It is a FINE book of instructions— koan-like meditations that will, in fact, make you see a little…
Read MoreOne of the most compelling holiday trees we’ve seen in a public space is Yoko Ono‘s Wish Tree, versions of which have been installed around the world. She conceived of the idea in 1996 – though it’s actually an a very old practice – and it continues to reverberate. People are invited to write their wish…
Read MoreAs always, we are taking the week between Christmas and New Year’s off. It’s a time to slow way down and reflect on the rough year that’s passed and on the new one we are about to begin, starting with this question from Yoko Ono…
Read MoreA new study provides further evidence of the beneficial effect of trees on well-being. Being among trees can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. British sculptor Max Lamb’s recent installation shows how powerful trees are INDOORS as well. Yoko Ono expands the view.
Read MoreLong out of favor due to the glut of cheap clothing, products and materials, mending and repair is on the rise again. That’s got us looking into the deeper meaning of mending.
Read MoreThis remarkable letter was found among Becca Eldemire’s letters after she was murdered. Copied and framed, it found its way to me as a gift, and onto a wall where I post things I need reminding of. Its spare, gentle wisdom reverberates in my life daily.
Read MoreArtist ciriacaerre made a video of repairing a smashed vase using kintsugi, the Japanese art that celebrates the scars and breaks. She, and other artist, eloquently describe its greater meaning…
Read MoreAn unexpected blip in my life necessitates my taking time off from Improvised Life. Not “to relax a little”. More like a lesson in impermanence.
Read MoreHow charming (and easy) to hang a small book of essential reading by the bed, or, as we imagine, anywhere. You can take the book off the cord to read it in a moment and just as quickly hang it back up. Here’s how.
Read MoreWe read haiku often for the power they offer in just a few lines; they are HELPFUL, always offering a shift of our thinking and deepening of the moment. Jane Hirschfield illuminated why.
Read MoreAn essential question, and strategy, can help find unexpected solutions to problems.
Read MoreHas any election in America’s history created as much anxiety as this one? It seems like our very lives are on the line. So we’ve put together some instructions for navigating Election Day.
Read More(Video link here.) So, er, yes, well, er, we DO have a regifting drawer as well as a gift drawer of stuff we’ve bought because we think it’s universally great. Truth be told, the stuff in the regifting drawer tends to languish, we suspect because it can take a while before we find someone for whom…
Read More(Video link HERE!) The lovely GIF we saw at Hedwiggen, below, suddenly made us flash on John Lennon singing Imagine in 1971, over forty years ago. The video he made with Yoko Ono, with its image of the opening up of the dark, shuttered rooms of a house to light, resonates still. We think of all that happened to…
Read MoreAt a photo shoot at Maria’s studio, Suzanne Shaker and I played “face lift”, standing behind each other and gently “lifting” each other’s face. It was a funny, weird, grown-up girls’ game played by women who’d never actually get a face lift. We’re game to go where our faces take us…For a moment, we found a way to improvise younger selves.
Read MoreOne of the central principles of improvisation we follow is to turn things on their side, or upside-down, a simple shift that often yields unexpected results. It’s a practice you can do in your imagination just about anywhere, and in practice with everyday things. Recently, instead of the usual way of cutting an apple (slicing…
Read More(Video link here.) After we saw artist James Turrell‘s wondrous installation of light at the Guggenheim Museum, we looked hard to find a video that could give some semblance of what it’s like. Turrell completely transformed Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiralling rotunda into something completely other. We recommend watching this succinct two minutes full screen: what…
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