Fascinating Small Spaces

I like living in a small space. I like living in a place where I use only enough resources for one person. One more person could live with me in my single wide mobile home and we would be using the space even more efficiently but even so, my home is smaller than many apartments.


I am fascinated by the small spaces in which people live. In the United States we have the idea that we all need a lot of room and a lot of land. That is not the case in many other countries. We make fun of extended families who immigrate to the U.S. and all live in what we consider to be a tiny apratment or house but having a grand amount of space in which to live is a privilege that residents of many other countries do not have.



Recently I came across a fascinating art study done by photographer Michael Wolf. He did a series called 100X100. His work documents some of the residents of Shek Kip Mei Estate in Hong Kong.



The history of  Shek Kip Mei Estate before we get to Wolf's photos: After WWII, the population of Hong Kong grew drastically and a squatter's village of thousands of shacks grew in the Shek Kip Mei area of Hong Kong. On Christmas eve, 1953, a huge fire destroyed the shacks of 58,000 people. The government answered the needs of the homeless with a huge housing program- eventually building 29 six story block buildings in the next 10 years and 7 more thirteen story blocks a few years later. In the 1990's the Hong Kong goverment decided to tear down the buildings and build a new Shek Kip Mei Estate would provide about 6,600 rental units that can house up to about 17,400 residents.

The old dilapidated resettlement blocks were torn down except one - Mei Ho House (also known as Block 41), which is among the first batch of eight Mark I blocks built in 1954. In view of its significance in Hong Kong's public housing development, Mei Ho House was granted a historic building status by the Antiquities Advisory Board. The Government has decided to preserve it and rejuvenate it into a youth hostel with an attached museum on public housing history.



So back to Michael Wolf's project: before the last of the residents began to move out of  Shek Kip Mei Estate, Michael Wolf asked to photograph the residents of one of the blocks. There were 100 units in the block, each measuring 10' X 10'...the series being called 100 X 100.  Some of the people had lived in their units for 20 years. I have copied a few of the photos of some of the 100 square foot living areas.  I am amazed at the amount of belongings the residents were able to get into what most of us would call an insanely small space.


How would you live in a 10 foot square space?





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SKM_Estate_BLK18.jpg

The following photos are from Michael Wolf's 100 X 100 series.
All 100 photos can be seen at http://www.photomichaelwolf.com/100_x_100/


Image #2




Image #4



Image #7



Image #23



Image #27




Image #80




Image #98





Image #100

Treasure Bearers

In her book, Dakota, Kathleen Norris sees each of us as a
"treasure-bearer, carrying our souls like a great blessing through the world."  Sometimes I don't feel like a treasure bearer. We have all had those days...or weeks...or months...when life seems to be more of a burden than a blessing. Some of us have lives where we can hole up in our home or office or cubicle, put on our earphones, and make the world go away. Some of us find ourselves in situations where we must deal with people all day and be on our best behavior...or as best as we can manage. Some of us have occupations where we work alone and feel alone and wish for others to invade our work space. Whatever our curcumstance, we sometimes forget about being treasure bearers and instead our goodness seems like buried treasure.

A great many of us look forward to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics as we follow the journey of the torch bearers carrying the Olympic flame into the stadium. The flame is ignited at the site of the ancient Olympic games in Greece months before the games are scheduled to begin. As the games draw near, a series of runners carries the fire from Greece to the site that will host the games. The gathered crowd cheers wildly as the torch bearer enters the stadium and ignites the flame that will remain a symbol of the goodwill of the Olympics. There it will burn day and night until the games are over.

Most of us will never carry the Olympic torch to its destination but we can all be bearers of the flame of goodwill as we travel through our lives. We are each born with the light of love and goodness. We come into the world perfect and whole with the treasure of life glowing out of every pore. Sometimes the storms of day to day living threaten to extinguish our light and tarnish  our treasure. How fortunate we are that we have a big world in which to shine - and that truly needs our light - if we will only do so.

The Olympic torch bearers do not have to carry the flame the entire way on their own. Many runners work together to carry the torch the distance. Some of the runners run very short distances, some longer. Some are on foot, some in wheelchairs, some in vehicles. What they all share is their commitment to seeing that the flame stays strong as it travels through the world.


At the beginning of this new year, let us make a commitment to our fellow earth travelers to support each other along the way. Let us strive to make sure that the divine spark that each of us carries within is nurtured and supported so that the treasure we each have to give will flourish until it is ready to be bestowed as a gift to the greater world.

Passion vs. Purpose

I read an energizing article in the Harvard Business Review by Oliver Segovia recently that suggested that true happiness comes not in pursuing your passion but in finding a problem that needs solutions and working on that.

I have always liked the quote,
"Where our deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet, we hear a further call."
-- Frederick Buechner

Segovia references this idea at the end of his article when he says:
"Happiness comes from the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs. We've been told time and again to keep finding the first. Our schools helped developed the second. It's time we put more thought on the third."

Maybe, finally, we are moving away from ME and are on the verge of understanding that it is about WE...the fact that we are in this together and that individuals can make a difference in some way. Instead of leaving the solutions to the "experts," maybe it is time for all of us to get involved in the solutions....time to stop being armchair critics, get out of our chairs and DO something.

How do I make connections?
Where can I affect change in the big scheme of things?
Where CAN I help?
What CAN I do?

At the very end of his article Segovia asks: "What big problems are you trying to solve?"

I challenge us to look at the problems in the world and decide which one we are going to try to solve. I know that I don't have what it takes to solve the economic collapse but there are other big problems I could be helping to solve.

What are YOU going to do?

Let me know.


To read the entire article by Oliver Segovia:
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/to_find_happiness_forget_about.html

Celebrating Epiphany

January 6th is known as Epiphany in the Christian tradition and is the day that celebrates the visit of the wisemen to the infant Jesus.


Even those of us who are not of the Christian tradition can appreciate the birth of a baby. At the birth of a child, the whole world seems possible. Parents and grandparents dream of a child who will grow up to embody all of the hopes they have for the world...often the dreams they did not realize for themselves but hope will come to fruition in their small blessing. Each night a child is born truly is a holy night, as Sophia L. Fahs penned so many years ago.





"There is a legend that the magi were three different ages. Gaspar was a young man, Balthazar in his middle years, and Melchior a senior citizen. When they approached the cave at Bethlehem, they first went in one at a time.

Melchior found an old man like himself with whom he was quickly at home. They spoke together of memory and gratitude. The middle aged Balthazar encountered a teacher of his own years. They talked passionately of leadership and responsibility. When Gaspar entered, a young prophet met him with words of reform and promise.


The three met outside the cave and marveled at how each had gone in to see a newborn child, but each had met someone of his own years. They gathered their gifts in their arms and entered together a second time. In a manger on a bed of straw was a child twelve days old.


The message of Christ talks to every stage of the life process. The old hear the call to integrity and wisdom, the middle-aged to generativity and responsibility, the young to identity and intimacy."

from John Shea in Starlight: Beholding the Christmas Miracle All Year Long

Images / Ideas That Sparked My Creativity..... 1/2/12

This guy is the genius behind these exceptional works of art. He is Tjalf Sparnaay, who once said that:

I hope my paintings will allow the viewer to re-experience reality, to re-discover the essence of the thing that has become so ordinary from its DNA to the level of universal structure, in all its beauty. I call it the beauty of the contemporary commonplace.

http://trendland.net/tjalf-sparnaay-hyperrealistic-food-paintings/#

 

Most Amazing Miniature Food Artworks by Shay Aaron
http://thewondrous.com/most-amazing-miniature-food-artworks-by-shay-aaron/



http://pinterest.com/rastamom/

Is a Full Glass Necessary?

I have never been asked if I am a glass half full or half empty person but I have heard comments like, "Oh, I see, you're a glass half full kind of gal."

In the big scheme of things, does it really matter how we define the level of the glass since half empty and half full are actually the same?

Why is it important to be a glass half full person?  It seems that it is clearly better to see the contents as more instead of less. Since they are really the same...why is more better?

This debate with myself started when I read a quote by Marianne Williamson a few days ago:

"We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what's wrong in your life, or you can focus on what's right."

That started me down this path: I have some things in my life that I wish were different but there is really nothing I can do to change them right now. I must let go of trying to change those and focus instead on the things that I can change, if need be, and also on the things that I wish to continue to celebrate in my life.

That thinking lead me to acknowledge that my life is always going to be made up of the difficult and the easier. Focusing on one does not make the other go away. It IS just a matter of how we look at things and what we let tweak us. If I focus on...live in...the challenging side and forget that I can just as easily live in the other side, then I am living a glass half empty life. If I choose to focus on the things that I can change and are going well, knowing that when the time comes I will be up to what is required of me in the challenging parts of my life, then I am living a glass half full kind of life.

In the end, nothing has changed, just my perspective and usually therefore, my attitude. The glass still has the same amount of liquid in it either way. After all....what difference does it make as long as there is enough to take a drink?