Spirals

I see the spiral metaphor everywhere; the idea that we revisit the same issues again and again in our lives, but at different -- presumably deeper -- levels. A Flickr search found many spiral images -- this one at the left was my favorite -- I think because of that lovely blue marble, and the garden behind. And because the photographer allows use under a Creative Commons License.

Recently, on one of the Blogging the Artist's Way blogs (I'm sorry, but I can't remember who this was -- if you see this, let me know so I can link to you) the writer was discouraged to see, when she read a year-old journal, that she was dealing with exactly the same issues a year later.

I laughed, because I've had not only that experience, but the experience of having some wonderful, revelatory insight -- one of those Wow! moments -- only to find, soon after, the exact same insight written in a journal from years earlier. Written down with excitement, and apparently immediately forgotten.

My path is less a spiral than a tangle:

My 30 Day Photo Challenge Flickr Set

A very nice slinky gave its life for this lesson. Let us pause to mourn and honor said slinky. OK, that's enough.

On this path, there is no nice, smooth curving around and around, to the deeper, magic center. It's more like going in circles and retracing my own route; sometimes stepping directly from one level to another; sometimes stepping way back to a place I passed long ago. Sometimes it seems I step into another dimension altogether; a multi-dimensional tangle.

That's my life.

Yours?

Comments

[Shelley]

That slinky photo is a particularly nice photo.

[SB]

A particularly valued compliment, from you, Shelley.

[shelagh]

I am so glad I popped by today. My friend and I decided to call this the year of the spiral. We are clinbing it together. Getting to a healthier and better place. Nice to be reminded of it. Thanks!
I am also to be found at Azure Atelier.

[kat]

o man sb, i could so relate to this entry and the slinky, ha! that's great.

i've pictured it before as traveling down/up/through a spiral, hitting the same spots along the way, but from a different vantage point. the path will be smooth and then ....turbulence. in the midst of the turbulence i can know the smooth part with come back and vice versa. ah, good times. :-)

[Niki]

I, too, have had the experience of rereading old journals and seeing that I am grappling with alot of the same issues over and over. I love the slinky tangle as an analogy to our spiraling in what seems like a mess, but really there is order to it all

[Dave]

Yours?
Oh hell yeah!

(And hello from the home of the Slinky, more or less. The Slinky factory is about fifteen miles away. We Central Pennsylvanians have been wandering in circles for years - centuries, even.)

[animalfamily]

i tend to have sharp corners in my spiral (if that is at all possible. a spiral that's sat on by one of the cats maybe). at several points, life has taken a turn on an impossible tangent yet time and again still managing to step back in an old place. hope to finally get on a tangent that doesn't look back.

[harmonyinline]

"A multi- dimensional tangle" this sounds to much like my life as well.

[Kara]

Thanks for the laughs. I just love spirals and I never thought about it - but sometimes I do feel more like that tangled slinky. Especially today....