October 2024

	Asymmetrical
10.1.2024

This is a synchronicity story for the ages. Yesterday out of nowhere I thought of my friend Earl, a passing thought, wondering how he was doing. Earl and I like to talk about synchronicity. He has experienced many synchronicities. They seem to follow him around. I have only had a few, but a day after spontaneously thinking of Earl I had this one. I hope he will read this account and give me his thoughts: Today I was drawing a tree and focusing on the shapes of the lines. A set of tree images that I drew in the early 1990's came to mind. Those images were of trees being chopped down, they were about loss, and when the grief around them dissipated, the trees ceased appearing in the work. But recently trees have come back into the drawings and are thriving! Now they represent renewal. This thought about renewal reminded me it was Rosh Hashanah. Growing up in Louisiana we always observed. These days I usually don't pay it much attention, but I felt curious, googled it, and saw that the Jewish calendar year 5785 starts tonight. I started iclock.com on October 17, 2008, by uploading drawing number 1. I have tried to add a drawing to the site every day (there were a number of missed days in the early years). The total drawing count has never been a goal but I use the number as a simple way of noting progress. Imagine my surprise when I realized that today's drawing, on the last day of 5784, is the 5784th drawing on iclock and tomorrow's drawing, for the first day of 5785, will be drawing number 5785. This alignment could only happen this year, on this day, with the exact number of random skips, after almost 16 years of postings. I am shocked and amused by the coincidence. Something feels in sync. What kind of special year will this be?

10.2.2024

First of all, Earl approved the story : ) While my head was buzzing after writing last night's entry, I reflected on how my decision in 2008 to skip a few days between posts has always bothered me. I have always regretted not being able to say, very simply, that there is an unbroken string of drawings from day one. Now I marvel over the fact that if the number of days skipped had been even one different the alignment would have been off. The spaces are exactly correct. I suppose if the numbers never aligned, there would be nothing to say, it would be unremarkable. So just to be thorough and investigate how likely this coincidence is, I located the equivalent sequence of drawings for the Gregorian calendar, drawings numbered 2008-2024. The answer is they were drawn in June of 2014 - no where near the new year. The way I recognized the alignment on the day it happened, and how the themes tie together so much of my personal history, and the deep sense of wonder the whole scenario evokes, really delights me.

10.3.2024

So discussions have been happening in text and email about the significance of the year 5785. Several of my friends have offered that the digits in the year add up to 7. One cultural meaning of 7 links the number to the seventh day of creation, the day God finished work and rested, the sabbath. With all the suffering of being alive, being in the world, and being with others, maybe we can make 5785 a sabbath, a year long sabbath, and everyone could just give it a rest.

10.4.2024

I went on a short trip to meet some DYOPeeps IRL. (Drawing Your Own Path Members In Real Life) Jenny showed how she had extended systematic drawing. She matches a mantra to a shape. The number of syllables equals the number of lines. To practice, you sound one syllable for each line drawn and repeat the figure over and over. The stars are made of 16 lines each. Say one syllable as you draw each line: I have a precious human life I am not going to waste it

10.5.2024

	How can something Come from nothing? Four syllables each line Four lines each figure.
10.6.2024

	Environmental pressure on all sides
10.7.2024

	Getting comfy with a new workflow
10.8.2024

	Unexpected unfoldings
10.9.2024

	The feeling not the meaning
10.10.2024

	Not separate
10.11.2024

	In tune
10.12.2024

	How a day shapes up
10.13.2024

	Space elevator
10.14.2024