Yesterday I thought this...

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I wish I, or someone knew what we are looking at that occurred so long ago.. It is disturbing looking backwards into Time, as someone else knew their time on Earth before they died, as we all do to leave this plane of existence. Photography is powerful in its ability to hold time still in one place without touching, or altering the fact, the quality and essence of a moment... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories.

9/1/18

Stand For Something, and Someone Else.

Civil Rights protestor alone and defiant.

I grew up during this era and everything was devoured, meaning all information about the Civil Rights movement was taken in by the general public eagerly and with dread. It was exciting for reasons this generation cannot grasp.

Every time period exists within a period of time. How it was important and unique to its time is important to the future where it is judged. It has always been like this in human history! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/7/18 

Kaepernick making a statement.

Cicely Tyson speaking at Aretha Franklin's funeral. 2017. 

I am always moved by Cicely Tyson's presence, what she says, does not say and how she conveys deep intangibles with her eyes, and by right of ancestry and legacy!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (Sept. 7, 2018) 

Shekere played by Chadra Pittman made by Madeline Yyodele of Women of the Calabash. photo by Bill Thomas.

Girls Just Wanna Talk!

Hilda by Duane Bryers. on the phone.

In the decades preceding now parents complained about girls, their daughters, on the phone constantly talking to their girlfriends. A lot of movies had that theme in their favor. It was such a concern, and disciplines were enforced because parents had to ensure their children's futures, and without discipline or focus they could not go far enough in life to have a good one.

Times are different in respect to the development of the phone over the last 100 years, but not in the sense that would give a recipient of Life today a feel of being better than our yesterday! The difference is simple: parents have given their children into what they do not understand. A whole chapter is being written about how disconnected from the source of Life parents have allowed their children to be led away by a technology unaccompanied by maturation of the emotions, the spirit. For that we will pay dearly. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3/7/18

What has changed since 1942?

Sharply dressed Negro couple standing for a full length portrait shot taken at the Daisy Studio,

located at 315 Beale Street, Memphis, TN, (1942).

"She just gits outa bed snapping this pic! Damn! She can't git 'nuff. We just had... "

It was funny. Rodney, her man, complains about getting too much! A lot of cats loose their women asking for what they cannot handle like women, who can't get enough sex and need to get laid frequently. They lose their focus to easily because their intent is unexamined and they are not schooled in the arts a nimble sex fiend, like Rodney's woman, can teach, and he can submit to the woman's need, will and abilities! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10/26/17 

the Eye is easily Pleased with Light.

Hat elegantly worn by Jean Patchett photographed by Irving Penn, 1949.

bare foot in the park.

Bai Ling in red & sunlight (Dec. 31, 2015)

purple skirt worn by Clarrisa.

Ancient Wisdom Today

hat worn by an elegant Black woman.

"There is no competition to be 'the most oppressed People on Earth'. Lets be clear. Resorting to what Predators do to undermine our own uniqueness becoming an opposite pole of victimhood to the Oppressor is not liberation at all. Indigenous People are not against anything in order to be for our own sacredness. To support and encourage, protect and uplift our own People on this Earth Mother is indeed 'normal'. This is who we always were and will strive to remain whatever is put in our path."

- Mereana Taki
sept. 19, 2016

Maori woman's involvement with her life is her mystery.

"... of the deeper mysteries is time. The way time is it is not. It can be held for a time and hold still in moments of great danger just long enough for each involved in their death struggle to see clearly within the slowed expanse of time. It is an uncanny ability being alive with time on each side and a part of every endeavor to stay alive. . ." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9.20.16

Gayle Ann Crosmaz-Brown, drum maker.

At the closing dialogue we were asked to listen not just with our ears. As Grandmother Beatrice shared her talk about taking time, the ancestors gave me this message which I shared with grandmother Margret:


"Take Time to Share Wisdom"


The 13 International Indigenous Grandmothers symbolize the sacred number of completion. We, the Grandmothers of the globe symbolize the 14th Grandmother. We are presently at zero point, that limbo just before the new beginning. As the 14th Grandmothers we are the unified foot soldiers, the Rainbow Warriors who must step forward and teach the younger ones so that they can create the new era, the new beginning.

This was the message from the ancient ancestors who also were in attendance at the Wisdom of the Origins conference in New Mexico."

Gayle Ann Crosmaz-Brown 
September 19, 2012

Glamour through decades

Marlene Dietrich in a costume designed by Travis Banton for The Devil is a Woman (1935).

Faye Dunaway by Jerry Schatzberg, 1968 !!!!

Farah Fawcett by Antoine Verglass !!!!

Clara Bow in 1928

Bette Davis │  in Now, Voyager, 1942.

TIME OUT

On this day in 1883, 4 time zones simplified the country's railroad schedules and put cross-country friendships on track.

TIME looks at us all

Maori man between 2 worlds. 

Before and during the occupation of the whites cultures amongst Native peoples felt the movement of the sky and the subtleties of earth movements were akin to the movement of air and the currents of water within our bodies. It was the white man's insistence upon control that altered the perception of life on Earth, our Mother and introduced a kind of death, as yet unfathomable against the greater mysteries that circular motion creates in Life. Our relationship with time changed. Its alteration refocused the eye to form and a logic that turned against our stories and what we knew about how we belonged and felt.

We went on a journey. The whites took us on a journey from circles to lines, from touch to blows. It was a long and strange and disheartening journey, but to keep alive and relevant we took all we could of ourselves to remain ourselves.

Time, as a tool of those fixated with form, is like process and it is not fixated in a place. They cannot control time, or change its function. Unlike those fixated with form process, and development and the growing essence of a person is stream moving in directions around stones in the waters.


Time, as a tool of those fixated with form, is often used with a mean streak against those whose spirits are freed from those feelings in the work place, for example. Their relationship with time is a formidable weapon until their mortality kicks in with new knowledge and sensations of timelessness Death introduces to the inner being.

The truth is time, unlike rigidity, is not fixated in a place. Unlike those fixated with form spiritual processes, and development of form into formlessness is the growing essence of a person in a stream moving in directions around stones in the waters of Life! In fact everything moves. What doesn't seem to move is resistant to change as things change and forms adapt and change people's lives. But, indeed resistance does change. It moves into relevance, or stagnation, or at extreme pace moves into acceptance, tolerance, or understanding. If those things do not occur death comes and moves with its own force. Either route is a passage into something.

Gregory E. Woods
Keeper of Stories  8.19.14




Taraji P. Henson says motherhood is the best part of her life story

NOW IS

Laura Soares

Laura Soares wearing Google glasses

http://www.Laurasoares.com

Laura Soares in solitude 

"There are many things to do in the moment and there are no lack of things to do. According to natural law one cannot help but do something in each moment. Many moments when asked we will and have said, "Nothing." when asked, "What are you doing?" A question to that is "How will you know when you have finished doing nothing?" The answer to this question is a revelation and often times a shock to a system of thought. It sheds light on who we are and how we are perceiving the world-at-large and within. . ."  - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories August 4, 2015 

Promise YourSelf TIME

The reason why such beautiful creative work comes out of places where resources are scarce is because creativity takes time. The actual creative spark or impulse may be quick but the art of producing what was seen in visions or dreams takes time to bring forward. Time and patience is necessary for the full creative act. Whether it is film editing, fine art, fashion,photography, writing or dance most creative works have a lot of unseen time in the backdrop that was necessary... to push the art forward.

Time is the resource that is lacking in America and therefore the brilliance of creativity is lacking.


The quick fix syndrome and the "I want it right now" attitude causes dull repetitive, mechanized acts that have no depth or unique quality and the outcome is a assembly line of products that lack creative distinction.


Today, may I give myself the gift of time to allow my dreams to manifest in beautiful ways.


~Ubuntu

Candace Mickens 
April 3 at 7:11am



sculpture made of Vantablack, the blackest material ever created which absorbs
more than 99.96% of light, covering a bronze statue.



cat being served.

 

LIFETIMES

Cuban model Jenny Arzola
 August 31, 2012 

 

"I lived through the hippie movement. The times fit the people of those times. Jenny Arzola is an exquisite beauty made for these times. Neither beads, or raiment can transport her, by illusion, into the feel of those days. 
It isn't a bad thing. It is complimentary to be able to capture the time you live in. The stories and the energies of one's lifetime are special, and incapable of being fully re-created as time moves on to another era with its own energies, its own stories." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.6.14


Jenny Arzola

Time FORM

a Black woman's strengths in character 

I exist for reasons that come clear within each conscious moment. Time is inevitable. Timelessness is a natural state of awareness for me. Although most don't know this. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 8.31.13

Dreadlock beauty in the field

Adventure in Art of Fantasy

Jen Hallett

Time Has No Face

"Time Has No Face"

Wandering faceless in the realms of time, becoming the guardian drone of the clocks with no face but only hands, that tell us when to live our life; minute by minute.. Opportunities can be missed or seized. Never take a moment for granted! Time waits for no one, don't be a faceless drone in a world that awaits for you to participate.
Image By Jen aka Dancing Elk


FAME — with Dancing Elk. 

Alice in Wonderland by Jen aka Dancing Elk

"I'm Late, I'm Late... For A Very Important Date!"
Image By Jen aka Dancing Elk
FAME — with Dancing Elk.

 

Composition of FORM

Appreciation 4 Thickness

The form of the Goddess is held by strength, and tones heard in the temporal landscapes as understanding of the process comes to the life forces within a woman's body. The sound she made in the proverbial 'beginning' supported Life as was known, Life as could be, and Life for the sake of the living. It is an eternal sound broken by the gaps created by eruptions of the necessity for Time, and time management in a body. The form of the Goddess held by strength harmonizes, as the form gathers forces from Nature, and within the temporal landscapes into a vast understanding of the orgasmic process charging into the life forces within a woman's body. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.19.13

May 14, 2013

Reflect into the Future I AM

Toni Braxton in a splendid moment in time !!!!

How do we as elders extend our hands to the upcoming events to be shaped by our grandchildren and their children's children is fundamental to who we are right now! There are a variety of ways and techniques to do this work, and it all begins with one question: "What is your spiritual responsibility?" 

If you don't understand the two questions it is because your life-force is linked to a commitment to die, mediocrity and an origin in the narrowness of selfishness. I am not interested in trying to dissuade anyone from that path. I have no interest in the process. What I am interested in is training, legacy and the generations to come and the presence and influence of our ancestors. It is a worldview old as time on Earth, our Mother from a tradition deep into the ground we walk upon and exalted by the forces of Life in the air surrounding us the way water embraces land. 

"What is your spiritual responsibility?" - Gregory E. Woods, 11.2.14 

innocence of Nadine Sage !!!!

ABOUT TIME

"Time can be altered by thought and perception. The illusion is the clock."
Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.15.13

Lioness Daiba Sala
THE RIGHT TO BE BLACK IN AMERICA

SUNSHINE & FLOWERS

Nightcap Clothing

Sunshine and Sunflowers. On Abbot Kinney beautifully captures our Sunflower Lace Gown from Spring '13

There are songs and moments that stand still in our minds, our memories that speak of what it is to be in an eternal moment. It means a great deal when you are young and the impression of life is that it will always continue. But aging, maturing introduces another thought into the elemental reaction to time, and you begin to know the truth about time travel. - Gregory E. Woods 5.9.13

Black Woman looking at herself

Black Black Woman

When is Summer Over?

With the advent of the 1950's television has always endorsed the idea that summer is for the celebration of white youth. People of color accepted it. Whether we admit it or not it is the first image of summer time to come to mind. Beer, excess, tanned bodies, surfing, abandonment of dignity to wild uninhibited sex on the beach, rape and fast cars have come to create the frantic illusion of a 'good time'. In real time beach time is  usually families quiet and paying attention to their little one's and their teenage daughters on the beach. The open expanse of sky and water is the draw. There won't be the regret following irresponsible behavior. There is only family time, and for men and boys girl watching and the grill. 

Beach time takes time away from the frantic schedules, and it is the time to soak up what is missing: timelessness. ~ Gregory E. Woods 9.6.13

Goodbye to summer

Beauty at the Beach

"...beautiful ass for days!" is pretty much what Tony said when he saw her, not on the beach, but in Ron Ice's penthouse pool. She was 'jocking' for attention and after the wildness of the music took its toil upon her sense of morality and a few spiked drinks took her clothes off she felt nothing could keep her legs closed. After all this was the annual spring break and every Black college was on Florida beaches partying. Parties justify wanton behavior.

"You only live once!" is often repeated until stupidness comes out as acceptable girl behavior. This is how many girls learned of the deprivation of  the boy's game of 'running a train'. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 9.6.13

b a in yellow 

YESTERDAY 8 months ago

Kelly Madison is posted because she was the first
smiling face I saw online this morning.

"There is a lot I've said about Education, but the less said about it reveals the most about it. "

I am sitting at my desk on, what I just heard on the television is, the last day of fall. It is the 30th day of November 2012. I am writing today, and you are reading this on the 26th of June next year. If you read this the second it came up it is 8:56 AM. In a novel sense this is time travel. What it is is time manipulation. Playing with perceptions is to write upon the stars, and upon the Earth. Play with perceptions is to write from the past directly into the future. It is a direct penetration into the folds of existence, and a probing finger into the belly of questions about the movements within and between worlds. It is not unlike the mysterious ability of anyone to stand in the dark of night in the mountains, or the open plains anywhere in the world in the present moment looking up at the stars to see the past, and within their being; their centered being see, dream and project into the future. Being in 3 places at one time is the minimum capacity of understanding about Time average people have about the illusion of time. It is the fact and reality of worlds that separates and frightens average souls from the perceptions of children and masters accessing worlds with ease, and confidence.

On the other side of the views into realms of life are people studying themselves as we are looking at ourselves to 'see' with the depth of the Present into the wellspring of multiple existences upon and within the Earth realms. It is the concentric circles that confound average minds, and inform the terror of linear minds thinking they can contain the forces of change, movement and transformation. It is an innocent acknowledgement, on their part, to the mysterious things around our terrestrial lives, but the fears of linear, and conservative minds retards growth, and narrows children, and religious people to the small patches of Earth in front of them. They can't see in other worlds.

There are millions of people today reeling in disbelief in the wake of Romney's loss to President Obama! It is astounding on several levels the most profound of which is the deep reluctance of his like-minded followers to look squarely in the face of a long time coming change in the United States: the shift in demographics. American's might is questionable. Looking into the illusions we've supported ourselves is a frantic nervousness in the tones of American diplomacy, and the resistant elements within the Republican party to admit it needs to protect the whiteness of what they feel makes America great! Denying it has been a haphazard joke, and millions of us suffer from the brunt of the joke. Racial tensions have not subsided; inequality is the definitive quality of reform in education, services, and the infrastructure, which suffers in silence. The collapse of bridges, and roads will jar Congress into late action. Right now the minimal and dismal attention to the structure of the roads, and what physically holds the country intact is numbed into silence with enormous arrogance, and a need to control selfishly.

The selfishness in the halls of Congress, and the rooms of corporate boardrooms are the trademark of our country, and I don't see the spiritual, and economic pillars of the country changed by June of next year. It isn't feasible because Americans prefer to try and solve problems from the surface. If we did we'd restructure the structures.

 But, if I am dead in June it will mess with reader's head if they personally know me. It will be an "Oh, shit!" moment. But for now I am alive and it is the last day of last November, and I am writing in my office. My cat, Teacher, is to my left on my bookcase looking out the window on a chilled afternoon. It is 1436 hours. Teacher is sitting on my Coyote skin in deep contemplation as I am myself deeply contemplating the simple things of my life that bring me joy, and mystery to that joy.

I'd stepped outside a little while ago wrapped up in my black cape I've had since I was young in North Africa. Our postman is a Black woman, a rather good looking one, with a full deep brown-colored face, and a loud embracing laugh. It's funny. Not 16 years ago mail carriers would be engaging in conversations, and listening to portable radios. Now, they are on phones. The sound is different. There are more monologues in public, less communication, more selfishness, and fears have grown like weeds in an unattended field.

I am moving away from working with disturbed youth into the light of children full of light who want to learn, and I'm developing relationships with white facilitators in the peace keeping field in large part because of the disillusionment Black Americans seem to give credit and credence to, and the commitment in our circles to not growing in the deepest, and more creative ways. Well, I could go on a bit, but my eyes are tired, and I need to rest my mind, and my spirit. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.30.12

Brent Morales Foto

"A sweeping gesture is the initial gaze into this woman's presence, and the gasp comes from not believing, and from believing what is captured by the photographer, and what the model has within her composure is the butterfly flutter of the song she vibrates, and the type of prose that begets the start of something new to arise from the comfortable places where creativity is dormant.

In her face is the beginning of understanding beautiful moments, a beautiful woman, a song whispered in the clouds, and the breath of Life, so short, but expanded by the beautiful things women consciously nurture and arouse with the vision and inspiration of their souls!" - Gregory E. Woods (11.30.12)