Sherm Davis's Blog, page 2
March 28, 2016
A New Season
Now that the debauchery of Semana Santa is over and all the tourists have gone home, life will begin to stabilize a bit here by this lake on the fringes of time. I have been strangely lethargic of late, very unlike my normal generator self.
But a few things are bubbling up, the most notable being a friend’s 9 year-old daughter who stutters and needs some techniques to stabilize her speech patterns. We begin working today.
The things I am thinking I don’t want to write, and the things I am writing have been moving too slowly for my liking. My bilingual book is inching along at the speed of Guatemala, and another story project is caught somewhere between conception and completion.
I’ve got two albums worth of music to record, but that’s just a dream at present. It’s become quite obvious to me now that the freedom I sought all these years comes at the expense of connections. If it’s really who you know, as a traveler and hermit, I’m in trouble…
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March 17, 2016
Bilingual sneak peek
As I jump through the final editorial hoops to get my second book finished, I think it’s time to give you, the readers, a sneak peek.
In the final version of the book, the English will be on one side of the page and Spanish on the other, but for now, a word document with the two languages separated will have to suffice. This piece of flash fiction is called “The Fatal Kiss” — or “El beso fatal” en español.
I am posting the story in its entirety for download here, but if you’d like to be a sweetheart and help the cause, I’m selling it for $0.27 — yes, that’s right, 27 cents — on learningtostutter.com
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March 11, 2016
Cyanobacteria back again
I’ve been spending a lot of time observing myself observing myself. That tends to happen with a lake view and 3 volcanoes to remind you of your insignificance. But with the mild heat wave came a resurgence of the cyanobacteria that plagues Lake Atitlan. Perhaps it’s time to do a follow-up article to the one I posted in August. Stay tuned.
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March 9, 2016
Transits, 8 March 2016: Futility Eclipsed
Transits, 8 March 2016: Futility Eclipsed – by David Sherman
Are you feeling like it’s just not worth the effort? Like you can’t get a foothold on what might come next or why it even matters?
Few lines are as bleak as 47.6 – The line of Futility in the gate of Oppression. From the Rave I’Ching = “A difficult position in which there is no exaltation. The sun in detriment, where the strength of will alone may find a way to adapt and survive, but without hope of ever overcoming the oppression. Life as an ordeal stripped of realization.”
Whoa. Inhale, exhale, read that again. This week’s transits are no joke.
With the Sun, the New moon, and the North Node all in Gate 22 forming a solar eclipse and pulling against the Earth, the South Node and Jupiter (moving retrograde) in 47, the weight of mental Oppression is as its heaviest right now (especially if you’ve got a hanging Gate 64), and seeing this transit clearly is the best defense against falling into the trap of attributing the oppression to some abstract personal failing.
With the north node holding in 47.6 and wearing us down, the answers don’t need to come right now. The negativity will pass, but not for awhile longer, as the Sun/Earth has three more days in Hexagrams 22/47, and the nodes will be churning through the same 6th line for the next few weeks, until March 28. Their next stop? Line 5, The Saint, with no detriment – “The gift in times of oppression to maintain without hypocrisy a harmonic relationship with one’s oppressors, while providing aid and succor to the oppressed…”
That’s a funny line, because it doesn’t tell us that the oppression is going to go away, just that we’ll be able to deal with it, and all pat each other on the back for getting through the worst of it. The joy of futility is in realizing that it’s not about you – it’s nothing you did wrong, and there’s nothing you can do to change the currents. Gate 47 will be activated for the next few months, so get used to the oppression — see it for what it is, and when the stars align, harmonize with it.
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About the author: David Howard Sherman Davis (5 August 1970 / 02:55 / Brooklyn, NY) first became licensed as a Human Design in 1995 by Ra in Taos, New Mexico. A writer, musician, and international educator, he has lived and taught in five countries on four continents. His novel “Learning to Stutter” is available online at Amazon and CreateSpace.
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March 7, 2016
Half-life and beyond
Human Design System is predicated upon, amongst other things, the fact that human lifespan in this century is analagous to the orbit of Uranus, or about 84 years. Therefore, between 38-44 we enter the Uranus opposition, and stop breathing in, so to speak, an start breathing out.
This year I have begun to feel that acutely, as a personal questioning of the motives of the first half of my life as I steer my starship into the future.
In Guatemala, there is a lot of time to think about these things, and that is a double-edged sword. For the time being, I can see clearly that my many talents do not necessarily bring financial reward. I need to play the system, something I’ve never been good at (or willing to do), if I want to reap those kinds of rewards. For the first half of life, when one can afford to be young and idealistic, holding on to principles is a great idea. When one passes the Uranus opposition, things start to change.
Other people in this phase of life buy a sportscar or find a younger woman, but I stare out into the vast lake and question…
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February 28, 2016
Learning to Stutter - Excerpt
Read More: http://buff.ly/1T8Ae9U
February 3, 2016
Learning to Stutter - Excerpt
The conscious I, the indwelling soul, was totally fluent. His words and phrases appeared in his brain with complete clarity, but somewhere between the conception of the thought and its utterance, the system derailed, the speaking I totally helpless and unable to foster the intellectual, the transpersonal, nor the social being -- all of whom relied on speech as their primary currency.
Read More: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Stutte...
January 28, 2016
To Kindle the flame
This week the ebook version of “Learning to Stutter” became available on Kindle Direct, and a full-blown author launch is just around the corner.
The book is $3.33, and free for Kindle subscribers.
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January 25, 2016
Up and running
Began running again after a long hiatus. Only 3-5K every morning, but with these hills and this mile-high elevation, it’s enough to kickstart my body into accepting the routine. The view is incredible along the rim of the lake, and I’m an early riser anyway. No better time to run than the morning, before the sun has fully risen above the mountains.
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January 18, 2016
Long-term planning, short-term bliss
Making the jump from the cosmopolitan grandeur of Vienna to the backwater bliss of Lake Atitlan takes some adaptability and the focus to keep an eye on the goal. That goal, presently, is the completion of “The Hair Collector & Other Stories / La recolectora de cabellos y otros relatos.” This bilingual English/Spanish fiction collection encompasses several years of evolution and offers many different settings for the stories. The process of working with translators to get the stories right has been enlightening on many levels. Two stories left to finalize, and then the final proofing begins.
Publicity and sales are the long-term goals, which require a solid web presence and a marketing guru. I am shoring up the first, while seeking the second online. A communicative, friendly, and hard-working publicist will be vital to the next phase of the endeavor. But in the meantime, just remembering to breathe, exercise, and enjoy the beauty of Atitlan is the number one priority. Sounds simple, but in this world (symbolized by Vienna as my most recent example) it is all too easy to get lost in the job and let your life drop out of balance. So I am practicing and playing music, reading, stretching, and projecting the tendrils of my vision into the future.
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
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