Terraderma

User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 

Earthskin.

I’m looking at a satellite image of Earth from space. Our planet looks unfamiliar and two-dimensional; its surface seems smooth, smooth as a ping-pong ball, smooth as a baby’s bottom. The surface looks like a skin that could be peeled off in one thin layer. Clouds, oceans, brown & green landforms all appear as if in one plane.  The exquisite drama of earth’s undulating, breathing surface is cancelled by distance and perspective.

To bring this vision back to earth, I focus on the Andes Mountains, prying perception into a closer, familiar three-dimensional frame of mind with high elevations and deep depressions, briny expanses and fresh water lakes. Each visual experience, distant or close, is spectacular, thrilling. Our gravity-bred connection to every living thing on Earth reflects our cosmic connection as a planet in vast space. 

Every day is an occasion to celebrate our sensory existence on earth. The beauty of the elements—earth, air, water, and fire—is food for our bodies and spirits. Colors of each express micronutrient-rich zones affecting our thinking, our organs, and our blood. As we become more astute students of color, we realize that our personal cosmographies inform decisions made at the paint store counter.  During the economic meltdown that we’re now entering, trips to the paint store may be made less often or delayed, giving us a fantastic opportunity to explore non-commercial uses of color in and on our homes.  We can dig deep into our fascination with special colors—dark teal, salmon, or zinnia yellow—and bring representative colored objects in just to gage their effect.

Try sitting quietly in your living room and look at the colors already existing in the room.  What color is most dominant in the East? South? West? North? What is your favorite place in the room? Where do you feel most energetic? Where do you feel sleepy or comfortable? Try moving a small object with color to a different location in the room.  How does that change the overall feel?

Try reading about earth energy systems like Feng Shui and experiment with any suggestion that appeals to you. All home designs and applications vary because each is situated on one unique spot on terraderma and gathers energy from its own specific sources. We tend to forget this and look to “experts” to “tell” us what to do.  This past month I researched one such expert and simply put, I didn’t like the style of the feng shui interior decoration though I’m sure it was 100% professionally correct. What has great energy boost for one person will sap the next.

From space, if each of us looks like a smooth ball-bearing rolling around earth’s surface, the objective distance has missed essential human truth. We are undulating and breathing through our skin pores and lungs.  We are varied, spectacular, even thrilling at times.  Connecting our personal dramas to cosmic creation enhances both. Terraderma. Earthskin. My skin.

Happy Earth Day 2009