"...if you do not have the passion, the chances for staying the course will be greatly diminished."

From Mending the World - Edwin Nevis and Joseph Melnick, Editors.  I am dedicating this posting to Ed Nevis, a giant in the world of Gestalt and a large influence around the world - through teaching, writing, mentoring and consulting.

Edwin C Nevis 1926-2011

Joe Melnick & Ed Nevis
Gestalt Review meeting at GISC 2003

Ed Nevis
Guest Faculty at GATLA 2009

  

Ed contributed his clear and original thinking at GATLA's Summer Residential training - Spain 2006 and Niagara Falls 2009. He was passionate about everything he pursued. In addition to his work, GISC and his family - he orchestrated the memorable AAGT dinner/dance in Cleveland among antique cars and planes, enthusiastically supported Flying Without Wings and continued his love of dancing into his last year. He died peacefully on his 85 birthday, May 20th at his home on Cape Cod. Ed will be well missed by our global community.

Wellfleet Cemetery

Wellfleet

Briar's Bridge

Autumn in Massachusetts

Winter in Wellfleet

Boston Common

Cape Cod Marsh

Ed's Cape Cod

"Failure doesn't carry a stigma in Iceland."

According to Larus in Eric Weiner's Geography of Bliss, this is the reason Iceland produces more artists and writers per capita than any other place.
Eric continues, ... if you are free to fail, you are free to try.

In 2006, my dear friend, Hakon Leifsson - the conductor and composer who wrote the score for Flying Without Wings - invited me to see this magnificent island nation. I hadn't imagined how there could be so much beauty without trees, but the land, the incredible feeling of space, and the impact of the ever-changing sky brought a feeling of expansion in my whole being. And the Icelandic horse? Irresistible! I didn't find many reflections but have included a few.

                        Reykjavik's population is about a quarter of a million people -
                                              two thirds of the total population.

Hallgrimskirkja and the Leif Eriksson Memorial.    

 

                                                            Landakotskirkja

                                 Grottuviti Lighthouse

 Murals and Graffiti

                                       Camping is a national pastime.

                                        Geysers abound.

                                       Pingvellir National Park - a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

                                                              Snaefekksjokull National Park

                                                           One of Iceland's magnificent glaciers.

                  Iceland summer melting glaciers produce many waterfalls.

                                                              

See more on Icelandic horses

"All that I have in life is a little time."

Life will be whatever it wants to be, and not necessarily what we want.

I want only to savor it - to move in its flow both carefully and trustingly.
Quotes from Flying Without Wings (1989) by Arnold Beisser, MD

My dear friend, Jay Levin, had suggested a number of times that I visit he and his wife, Consie, in South Africa. But it wasn't until I learned that the family was emigrating to the United States that I took advantage of the offer. It was one of the outstanding adventures of my life and I'd be privileged  to spend more of my life time there.

Reflections of the visual kind were not in abundance, but I was moved by the animals in the wild and by the spirit and resilience of the people who had suffered displacement during apartheid - creating a bed and breakfast in the middle of abject poverty, a soup kitchen where a chicken or carrot could replace payment for a bowl of soup (free to children), students for whom a school chorus for visitors was far superior to singing on a street corner, women making and selling jewelry to those who dared enter their homes.

I also learned more about Jan Christian Smuts, South African statesman and philosopher, who wrote of the concept of holism in nature and its creative evolution - like that of Gestalt - that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. This perspective led him to support both the League of Nations and the United Nations.

Below are some reflections from Kruger National Park and Cape Town. If you have a few minutes, visit Safari Supper South Africa for a short film.