June 19, 2009
Throughout the years, I have consistently been documenting birth, death and everything in between- as the blog is named. This documentation has taken several forms. The most prevalent of which has been photography. In the the upcoming posts, I will be sharing some of these photos along with accompanying original thoughts on the variations themes.
Lori, theexperientist
November 13, 2007
Yesterday, I had the privilege of teaching some very engaged students, Branding and Marketing, as a part of a new style entrepreneurial semester course created by startupcompany.dk. During one of the breaks, I became engaged in a conversation on experience with two of the students. Things we discussed:
When do we experience experience? When we “feel” it such as the physical manifestation that follows as the rollercoaster undulates on its course or when we “reflect” upon it such as when the tickling in our stomach stimulates the attention of our minds?
Experience is continuous. We experience all the time. It’s just a question of which level. As we go through our days breathing with hearts pumping we experience life in a biological context of being alive. Usually this and other necessary life functions exist in the background but, at times it comes to the forefront of our focus and we become aware of the experience.
Aren’t unconscience experiences still experiences. The body constantly stores unconscience experience which later manifest themselves as good form, bad form, or illness. Life happens over time. We can’t always be focused on all the experiences we experience since that essential would render us overwhelmed. If we had to think about making our heart beat or breathing we would be able to do anything else. We would also be unable to meet the requirements of the task consistently at the level in which it would need to be maintained. But, that’s a completely different discussion.
Although I find it fascinating to discuss experience at a more philosophical levels I am much more of a pragmatist.
I believe that we experience all the time at different levels (macro and micro). I believe that we can have meaningful experiences even when we are unconscience or unfocused on these experiences. They become apart of our DNA so to speak – influencing our future perceptions, actions, behaviors and personalities. Experience happens consistently at varying levels. When we become focused or conscience of these experiences we can reflect upon them which brings them to another level. Sometimes it is first in the reflectory mode that the recalled experience gives meaning, joy or pain. Sometimes it is the continually unfocused experience that provides a meaningful foundation experience for our everyday life. Both are necessary. Both are gifts.
Lori
theexperientist
August 30, 2007
In my third entry I mentioned that I was interested in the questions listed below. After a couple of months of getting my feet wet with some professional but, primarily personal experiences….I am ready to get to the crux of the “experience” issue.
What is “experience”?
To begin with, I will set a collective base for understanding the word by citing one of the online dictionary definitions that I find appropriate. This one is from thefreedictionary. The key words being…..apprehension, participation, acquirement, involvement, accumulation and immersion. My emphasis is less on the apprehension, acquirement and accumulation elements of experience but, more the participation, involvement and immersion of experience.
1. The apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the senses or mind: a child’s first experience of snow.
2. a. Active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill: a lesson taught by experience; a carpenter with experience in roof repair.
b. The knowledge or skill so derived.
3. a. An event or a series of events participated in or lived through.
b. The totality of such events in the past of an individual or group.
tr.v. ex·per·i·enced, ex·per·i·enc·ing, ex·per·i·enc·es
To participate in personally; undergo: experience a great adventure; experienced loneliness.
What kind of experiences are there?
The rationale for my blog name is that Experience is ever present from “birth, death and everything in between”. Experience like culture is everywhere. It is incorporated in everything. Experience means different things to different people at different times. This in part is what makes it so difficult to discuss at times because personal perspectives are rarely transparent and the multitude of varying interpretations sometimes can cloud discussions.
Where does it come from?
As mentioned earlier it is everywhere and has been since the begin of time whether we have be aware of it or not.
Who’s talking about it?
Actually, everyone to a more or lesser degree. However, those that are more focused on experience would include (and not necessarily in this order):
Psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, theologists, ethnographers, archaeologists, interpreters, performers, researchers, designers, writers, dancers, actors, teachers, architects, engineers, environmentalists, naturalists, marketers, salespeople, doctors, lawyers, hoteliers, receptionists, travel agents, pedagogs, directors, human resource managers, relocation specialists, travelers, parents, children, etc….
Who’s doing it?
Check out my link page for continually updated sources.
The rest of the questions I will continue to address in future threads.
How can we improve the quality of our experiences?
How can we strategically orchestrate meaningful experiences for others?
How can we objectively look at experience when it is inherently so subjective?
Well, until the next time.
Lori
the experientist
August 18, 2007
As I was cleaning, I found notebooks filled with some of my earlier writing, songs, poems, essays, musings, etc….
When attempting to build a path for the road less travelled, you are met with countless hindrances and cumbersome deterents to your progress. Rocks, branches, brush. Some are easy to clear out of the way while others are not. Some are ongoing twines that gather around your feet and trip you up as you attempt to move forward. Others are the invisible conditions of the path as you travel including stability, effort, investment, energy, belief, fear, inconsistency, unforeseeable holes, varying textures, distracting surroundings. The mental exertion exceeds the physical exertion and the task is ultimately one of endurance. But, the efforts are rewarded by the experience. As you trek along you make fantastic discoveries. You see things others have not seen. You gain confidence. You learn to trust your own instincts. You understand self preservation. You do not fear but, anticipate the unknown and unexpected and are able to embrace each.. The journey itself makes you strong as you overcome the elements and yourself to pave the way for others to more easily follow.
Lori
the experientist
August 12, 2007
Forget Spring or any kind of seasonal cleaning, for that matter. This weekend, I decided to get down to brass tacks and do some life cleaning. Talk about a life changing, transformative event. As a lifelong—cluttermaniac–I had a S-E-R-I-O-U-S task ahead of me but, one I was finally ready to undertake.
For years, I have been moving stuff around in my house, on my computer and even in my head as a means to try to accommodate the abundance of the stuff, the files, the information and the ideas connected to me. Although, I have intermittently won some battles in my fight against clutter, sadly enough, the clutter was ultimately winning the war. I needed a new tactic and in January it arrived in the form of book. My preparation for this purge has been going on for awhile (actually, a lifetime) and if you follow my alternate blog, http://indspark.wordpress.com you would have seen an earlier thread on the book that helped me to get ready. Clutter expert, Peter Walsh’s book, It’s All Too Much! An Easy Guide for Living a Life with Less Stuff. I have it on audiobook and have repeatedly listened to it over the last few months to get me motivated and then later as a means to keep me actively on task. This, and of course, the cooperation and support of family and friends. It has been a LLLLLLONG process but, success is suddenly now in my grasp. Thank you, Peter for writing such a transformative book.
Lori,
the experientist
August 11, 2007
Mid-August already!?! Summer here and almost gone (at least in my part of the world). Vacation season draws to a close and regular school and work schedules begin again. A new school year and a new experience in social and educational development for not only the kids themselves but, the parents, the teachers, the administrators and community at large.
On Monday, my kids begin school again after an enjoyable and active summer vacation. On Monday, they will see old classmates and exchange vacation stories. They will begin new classes and get acclimated to the new environment. Their teachers will set the tone for a new school year. On Monday, it will be back to bells ringing, packed lunches, after school activities and homework. On Monday, weekdays and weekends, will again have distinct differential meaning. On Monday, they will meet new opportunities to excel, develop, connect and grow. On Monday, they will embark on a new adventure in this journey called life. So this weekend, along with a little end of vacation fun, we will also be preparing for Monday.
Lori,
the experientist
August 1, 2007
I have just introduced a new page to the blog: Portfolio. This is where I will present some of my original concepts, ideas, designs, creations, writing and creative work. I have uploaded two of my published articles and three presentations so far. More to come……
Lori,
the experientist
July 26, 2007
I find myself in a quandry. Since I have returned from vacation, I’ve had so much to say and nothing to write. True. At least, in part. Over the last many days I have continually opened this blog, began to write and instead opted to delete my musings. I am overwhelmed, I am discontent, I am filled with an internal conflict between my inner and outer self.
As anyone who has ever met me knows I am neither shy, reserved nor modest. However, something about writing simultaneously empowers and invigorates me while also incapacitating and draining me. For the most part, writing comes quite naturally. Although at times as the thoughts flourish in my mind, often readily bouncing off my tongue, the structure of the printed word is given to halt my flow and render me incommunicado. It is the self editing and the concreteness of the task that poses the problem. I write because, I can’t not. I’ve always written. I write because I enjoy the mode of expression when my watchful self conscious lies at bay. I write because, like most artists undoubtedly are- I’m a flow junkie. During the times, when I sit down and allow myself to be seduced and overtaken by the writing powers that be, I am in the zone. Comfortably lost and at peace with the world and myself. I emerge to find words on paper in my own hand. Whew…what a rush. When the stars have been perfectly aligned, I can even continuously return to this place just by picking up the written page. I am happy. I am self content.
I write because I love words and how they connect to each other to create a meaningful whole. Simply put, like dance- writing is the choreography of thought. The words are the dancers and the grammar the movement. Like the dancer, your expression makes you vulnerable. Your presentation is constantly left to subjective evaluation but, your need to perform is innate and unavoidable. Like the dancer, it demands training, commitment, creativity, flexibility, strength and passion. But, also perspective, distance, space, renewal and overcoming personal limitations.
Perhaps, I’m not in a quandry at all – just in the middle of rehearsal.
Lori,
the experientist
July 20, 2007
Experience! Expanding horizons. Acclimatizing. Immersion. Diversity. Fun. Reconnecting. Rejuvenation. Rekindled commitment. Challenge. Soul. Thought provoking. Esthetics. Humanity. Nature. Freedom. Opportunity. Impression. Flexibility. Innovation. Adaption. Patience. Respect. Understanding. Transformation. Comparison. Possibility. Enthusiasm. Reacclimation.
Well, almost three weeks have come and gone and I now sit once again at my keyboard here in Copenhagen. Transformed. I have just finished 19 days of the kind of continous 24-7 experiences that only vacation can bring. A transformative experience that challenges and expands your horizons through the intense period that comes with living out of suitcases; spending time with rarely seen family and friends; transversing geographic scenery; hopping from hotel to hotel; trying out local cuisine; seeing the new; revisiting the old; and appeasing travel companions while attempting to accomplish individual desires.
This vacation my family and I took a tour of New England and Upstate New York. Arriving in Boston, we rented a SUV and after spending 10 days with friends and family drove a hefty but, truly picturesque 1800 miles in the vacation days to follow. We spent most of our time with family in lovely Southport, Maine a small, quaint and quintessential New England coastal town.
During the trip, we saw nature from all angles -up close and at a distance. At the coast, we saw the melding of sky and sea in the amazing horizons of the New England sunset. During a speedboat ride, we got to see dolphins and seals followed by an intense new found respect for nature’s course as we hit rocky waters and fought the waves for a (relatively unscathed) safe return home. At Cadillac Mountain, we saw the impressive and expansive view only afforded from the tallest mountain along the US eastern coast which stands at 1,530 feet. In Plymouth, Mass. we saw a beautiful coastal community seeped in history. Home to Plymouth Rock, the spot where the initial english settlers are said to have arrived in 1620 on the Mayflower. While the rock itself, is nothing much to write home about, the Mayflower II ship and the town are.
Across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Conneticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts as well as New York we saw impressive scenic views, cosy towns, interesting cities and had access to continuous doses of coffee via Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks.
In Southport and Bar Harbor, Maine, we ate the best lobster of our lives and discovered breakfast pizza and blueberry soda, although not together. In Boston, Mass.we ate baked beans. In Saratoga Springs, New York we were treated to authentic NYC fare in the way of Hot Dogs with mustard and sauerkraut, Knishes and italian ices. We ate impressive slabs of beef in Albany, New York. We ordered take out Chinese food to our hotel room in Springfield, Mass. and although we waited 1½ to get it …it was indeed fabulous and plentiful.
The range of experiences I encountered during this trip undoubtedly has transformed me from the person I was before I left or perhaps more aptly said has reconnected me to the person I once was many years ago. As a child, my family lived two summers in Saratoga Springs, NY and one summer outside of Portsmouth, NH. I loved both of these places and have plenty of happy memories from each. I visited both of these places and was amazed by the outpour of recognition and remembrance. Suddenly, I was transported to the innocence of the late 60’s and the appropriate soundtrack of my early life-mowtown,the beatles, the beach boys and assorted one hit wonders…..Perhaps it is as they say, “you can’t go home again” but, at least, for me, it was nice to visit.
Lori,
the experientist
June 26, 2007
I am off on vacation and will have limited internet access until July 16th. Have fun and enjoy your summer whereever you may be. Until the next time.
Lori, the experientist
