whew

SHOCKED, originally uploaded by Justin Davis Davanzo.

What a day. Let's just say in a good way...i think i had way to much coffee for starters, but what the heck...I feel like there are so many good things going on that I don't know where to start...so i won't...but i will say that there is a directional force at work that is getting more powerful each day. I have just booked my third photo show which will be up mid October and I am beginning to work on a more regular basis with commercial based photo shoots around town...all of which are paying gigs...so that is a huge step in the right direction..getting paid to do what I love. I look back at this year and marvel at the huge things that have happened...ummm...getting married to my amazing wife? that would be enough to last and not have to do or plan anything for a whole year...but life goes forward and in that year, there have been shows, and books and writing and life...but all of it in the best vein of living large and pursuing the things that make one happy....there is so much for me to be thankful for that I really have to make a mental note to slow down and take things in...we watched a small sliver of the 3000 wedding photos taken by our amazing photographer, Beth Sanders, and while watching it all came flooding back..the amazing moment in time we had this summer with our families and friends and the simplicity of what is really important...so on a day where i feel fairly anxious with the many things to complete before some deadlines, i also feel very grateful and very much in love and extremely happy to have the life i do...I sometimes feel like a living experiment...and right now, the experiment is working....

love and understanding

Brewing

Brewing, originally uploaded by Justin Davis Davanzo.

This could not be more fitting...not that a bad storm is brewng, but a good storm..i feel it in the air..things are building and culminating and, well, brewing..like the clouds in this shot. A quiet storm of immense creative proportion that is building and getting ready to release torrents of creative energy and thunder and lightning...I feel like every day is moving towards a greater purpose of my creative existence and ability...things are opening up for me to learn, and practice and to feel like I deserve them and when I look back it is all part of the practice....

As Yoda once said...

"Do not try....Do."

or...Nike

"Just Do It"

or ...Steve Jobs

"One cannot connect the dots looking forward, only backward"

ok...so that last one is just one of my favorites...
but still...it is in the doing..the little things each day..the process of
doing...
...I am going to do.

Love and Understanding.

Dreaming

Field of Dreams, originally uploaded by Justin Davis Davanzo.

so last night i didn't dream...at least i can't remember my dreams...i often wonder what that is about. Am I not paying attention in the morning or when i am sleeping? I do remember i had a dream last week where i was a spy of some sort. very James Bondish, but i can't go much past that...sometimes when i see my pictures i feel like i was in a dream state when i took them, because it takes me back to a place in time that is gone. I can remember the moment, the place, the time...it is like a memory marker and i love that about pictures. i'd have to say, that may be the best thing about pictures...preserving the moment and the memories so you know they weren't dreams. time just seems to slide by but with the pictures it is well kept.

i am lately on a path of great intention that has invoked many dreams of my life and as I focus on the intention things begin to take shape and happen. each day is an excercise in turning dreams to reality and making sure that I am capturing the moments, however small they may appear to be on the outside, they are huge moments with great significance in the grand scheme. they are the kind of moments one can look back on and say, "wow, that really made something happen", and even though it may have taken some time, they are the seeds of moments growing into the full tree, slowly and surely, until one day it seems like there is suddenly a tree in the yard, but the memory with each stage of that tree is connected to all the care and time it took to grow.

I often think about trees and how the perspective is so subtle over so many years. As children, most trees seem huge, and some are, but the realization that we are both growing to the point that we meet in the middle is quite amazing. I first noticed this back home in Santa Monica when I noticed how big the trees had actually gotten on a particular street, but remembering as a kid, they had always seemed big. The truth is, we both had watched each other grow and the reality is that the trees were not big at all, but my perspective as a child couldn't understand that. Now, suddenly, those trees ARE big...i know this as an adult, because I understand the perspective of their size, but it took 35 years to get that big...always growing and changing, but in small ways unseen to a child and even to an adult...i suppose it is like the dreams we have in life...always reaching for them like the roots of trees, always changing, always losing leaves and coming back to life, always having to be watered and tended to, and always blowing in the wind...and then one day, the dream is reality and bigger than you dreamed, but only because you dreamed it.

Love and Understanding

here it comes

DSC_0201.JPG, originally uploaded by Justin Davis Davanzo.

yesterday and today reminded me that winter is very close...very very close...it snowed above 8000 feet and it has been colder...they say that we still have some warm days left, but they are numbered...I love it, but i also feel a bit sad as the long days come to a close. I am inspired to be cozy and hunker down and work inside...and for things to slow down a bit as they usually do in the winter. Life is moving along in so many ways and we are all trying to make sense of things as we go on a daily basis. It is good to have patience and to look at all options and to think of all possibilities before making drastic changes or decisions. I think winter is good for this kind of things..it is a time to hibernate and look at things differently. An excuse to stay inside a bit...that being said, i am going to freeze my butt off riding to work!!! so there.

Summer has been amazing....let's get ready for the winter.

Love and Understanding

Funkionlust

Single Fin, originally uploaded by Justin Davis Davanzo.

German lesson of the day:

Funktionlust

N. Pleasure taken in doing what one does best.


ok so here it is...the best example that comes to mind for me are Cheetahs. Cheetahs are made for running fast and hunting...that is what they do. When they are doing it they are experiencing der Funktionlust....ja. Some say that when animals are in der Funktionlust they are actually smiling...and happy and the endorphins are flowing freely.

right now I am experiencing it too...although I wasn't running...or hunting. I was taking photos for a commercial photo shoot...something that is fairly new to me in the grand scheme of things, but in doing it I realize that I was in miene Funkionlust. Two hours went by like minutes and i wanted to keep going...i could have done it all day...now I can hardly sit still....tap tap tap...i think that we all have it, but it takes time to find out what the true meaning is for each of us.

There are of course many things I enjoy that make me happy and that I am good at, but taking pictures for me is maybe the only thing besides acting where I feel naturally in my element and nothing else matters...they seem very easy and everything just clicks....

so today i am en meine Funktionlust and I hope you are too.

Love and Understanding.

Words to live by

barbed, originally uploaded by Justin Davis Davanzo.

We must eradicate from our soul all fear and terror

of what comes toward humanity out of the future.

We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations

about the future.

We must look forward with absolute equanimity

to everything that may come.

And we must think only that whatever comes

is given to us by a world direction full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age,

namely to live out of pure trust,

without any security in existence,

thrust in the ever-present help of the spirit world.

Truly nothing else will do

if our courage is not to fail us.

Let us discipline our will,

and let us seek the awakening from within ourselves

every morning

and every evening.

-Rudolf Steiner

sometimes

duty, originally uploaded by Justin Davis Davanzo.

sometimes it is hard to sit and write. sometimes i want to say to much. sometimes i don't know what to say. sometimes i wish i had the perfect idea. sometimes i wish i didn't have any at all. sometimes i think i should quit. sometimes i think life is all a big play. sometimes i miss my dog. sometimes i sleep in late. sometimes things don't go the way they should. sometimes things happen for a reason. sometimes i lose my phone. sometimes i feel tired. sometimes i eat Chipotle. sometimes my back hurts. sometimes i dance naked. sometimes my hair gets too long. sometimes i don't know what to do. sometimes i have too much to do. sometimes i get scared. sometimes i get happy. sometimes i cry. sometimes i get really angry. sometimes i can't see straight. sometimes i drink too much. sometimes i don't drink enough. sometimes i cook. sometimes i read. sometimes i fly on airplanes. sometimes i forget things. sometimes i say stupid things. sometimes i am patient. sometimes i laugh. sometimes i don't understand what just happened. sometimes i dream impossible things. sometimes my dreams come true. sometimes i wonder. sometimes i smile. sometimes i frown. sometimes i see things no one else saw. sometimes i fall down. sometimes i get up. sometimes i ride my bike. sometimes i curse my legs. sometimes i smell the flowers. sometimes i squish a bug. sometimes i can't remember. sometimes i forgive. sometimes i make music. sometimes i look at the moon. sometimes i freak out. sometimes i wish i could fly. sometimes i think i heard something. sometimes i want more. sometimes i am completely lost.

all the time i am loved.


love and understanding.

Secret Code

rapt, originally uploaded by Justin Davis Davanzo.

I will now be speaking the secret code of the spontaneous combustible artistic artistry i like to call Secret Spontaneous Combustible Artist Speak...if this offends those who are not willing to think outside the box because they are to wrapped up in the world of mediocrity and offensive oppressive behavior and cow like actions...good...that means even though this makes no sense to them they still feel as if they know what it is I am saying and therefore they pretend to have power over those around who actually do speak the secret language and therefore in the eyes of the moronic king, they feel powerful and are paid accordingly and so the language has worked as it singles out and shines the light on those that are truly challenged and for this I practice great patience and utter and mimic the moronic language of the great wizard behind the curtain. The curtain that is drenched in gasoline and waiting for it to be lit by those who know what flammable ideas and thoughts can create and do in a world that is rank with the waste and disease of those who can't see because they are so lazy and filthy with complacency that they simply don't hear or can't walk without uttering a stream of obscene and grotesque lard like statements that drip and drop into the cesspool of the grey world they rule. Kind of like orcs, but not as smart. The blessed spelling bee that rules the world and makes all things equal has come to light and the posturing and pretending will not be a part of the game any longer. this is the world that is sick with a cancer that has run itself for far too long and the sad part is there is no cure except a quarantine of the weak and simple minded soldiers doing the work of the bland wizard who reads the back of a cereal box in the morning and thinks he is king.

I am the walrus.