Elemental

The banner (or header) for the site consists of the circular "Enso" symbol, representing community, non-duality, enlightenment and the circle of life. Superimposed on the enso is a crane rising in flight. The magnificent bird represents earthly existence and the journey to radiant awakening, whatever form that awakening might take for individual earthlings.

The moon is a powerful motif in earthly cultures and spiritual practices. For me, the enso also represents the perfect aureole of the moon shining above us all, radiant lunar cycles and the turning of the seasons in the great round of time. On moonlit nights, I am often to be found somewhere on a hillside with camera and tripod, looking up and marveling at the grandeur of this astonishing cosmos we all call home.

Banner text is set in Suomi Hand Script by Tomi Haaparanta of the Suomi Type Foundry, beyond a doubt, the most exquisite handwriting font ever created; body text is set in Verdana by the legendary type designer, Matthew Carter.

For the lover of typefaces and lettering, the world is full of wonders, and every scrap of print is an adventure in the offing. It helps to have a good guidebook along as one traverses the soaring peaks and pastoral valleys of the typographical landscape, and I recommend one reference volume above all others—book designer, typographer, poet and mythic historian Robert Bringhurst’s magnificent The Elements of Typographic Style.

In these eldering days, I find myself embracing a lifestyle that is lean and supple and spare. I sometimes consider redesigning this site, brewing up a new template, adding gadgets, widgets, windbells and bamboo flutes, but whenever I tinker with the place, I always seem to land up putting everything back more or less the way it was. The truth is that I like this simple uncluttered approach, and the place is likely to remain much as it is for the foreseeable future. Emaho!