I first read of Plato’s “the allegory of the cave” in The Republic, when I was in my 20’s. To be frank it was a stretch to comprehend. Now increasingly close to 60 it is beginning to make a little more sense to me. Without trying to recreate the detail […]
curiosity
10 posts
It is 10th February 2024 - Chinese New Year and the year of the Dragon. As was my birth year too. In recognition of this I would like to share this blog, "The dragon lies sleeping below." I hope that you enjoy this little flight of fancy...... The Dragon lies […]
“… without the making of theories I am convinced there would be no observation.” Charles Darwin (1860) in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell. The photo image that accompanies this blog is of a hand stencil from a cave in Borneo that is now recognised to be 40,000 years old. […]
I have been reflecting on some of the ancient sites in the UK and thinking about how perspectives of them reflect some of the limitations of perspective that we take on life generally. I wanted to start with a personal love of my own, the White Horse of Uffington. It […]
This blog is about curiosity. We will get to the great scientist a bit later. There is more to learning than being taught. Learning is not simply an exercise in logic or linguistics, even if societally we tend to elevate these ones above all others. Our capacity to learn did […]
As facilitators and coaches (and similarly for those in therapeutic practice) we are often charged with, or engaging in, working with the idea of supporting change or developing in individuals. Yet so often we encounter a degree of resistance, even if our clients wish for it. Kagan and Lahey, in […]
It was quite a few years ago that I decided the only logo that was appropriate for The Mindful Horse (the name by which I have worked for over 10 years) was the White Horse of Uffington. No one would ever be able to create an image to which I […]
In German there is a word “Umwelt” which defines the environment around us, however it has been more specifically engaged by ethologists such as Frans de Waal to mean – and as it is defined in the Microsoft online dictionary – “the world as it is experienced by a particular […]
I wanted to reflect a little on the human willingness to sub-contract; and I am not just talking at work! Let’s start with a definition: think of guru in context as a collective metaphor for our those “experts” to whom we love to proffer the title wise. Those that we […]
So why music as meditation? The other evening, I was listening to a piece of music that I never fail to be deeply moved by and started to think of music as a meditation. For the record, the piece: the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony. For me a passage […]