Author: Nicolas

  • The Road Home

    Returning from university in The Netherlands,  I contemplated a pandemic in which the major contagion was opinion quick and fixed. What a study of the mind and society, as each filters and falters to turn information into knowledge. That January, new issues ignited around John de Ruiter. Followers departed and critics condemned. Regarding Covid-19, my […]

  • True Magic in Pan’s Labyrinth

    True Magic in Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro weaves us a tale rich in myth and archetypes, the kind we loved as children and forgot. At the same time, Pan’s Labyrinth is gorgeous, forward-thinking cinema that undoes what we thought we knew about story and about life; it woos us and haunts us alternately with […]

  • A River in the Rainforest: How the Most Beautiful Moments Exist within the Mundane

    Any experience can open up into something life-giving and gorgeous. Environments as unlike as day and night cross-pollinate. A stuffy airport queue recalls a river in the rainforest. Don’t fall for the appearances around you. Behind the veil, between the cracks, beneath the surface, there is beauty and wonder. Let go of what you think […]

  • Night Flight

    As sweet shapes and shadows cool for night Across the silk sky, owls in flight Feel the winter beneath their wings Listen to ice as it snaps and sings. Such sailing creatures we love to be Or to stand and watch from a mountain’s lee. At once we are these sprites, I know, And two […]

  • Dinosaurs

    The early earth was shaken By mammoth footfall pounding dust, Before the plains were overtaken When we arrived upon the crust. Did they communicate – who knows? In some medium reptilian? As our web and radios Link the tender billions. Did the regal dinosaur Foresee that it would be no more? And did Tyrannosaurus Rex […]

  • A Code of of Kindness in Master and Commander

    Master and Commander is a simple adventure with undercurrents of sweetness and wisdom. What I enjoyed particularly was the strength of character across differences in personality, opinion, and experience. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a youth in battle or a minion below decks – you do your job. Individualities are ‘subject to the requirements of […]

  • Neighbourhood

      Sunlight in the leaves – such a sweet reprieve. Like old mates the trees communicate. Mellienia In the spruce, I see it,  whisper in  this second – a truth to me. It ‘s hanging about my yard – the spirit so close, From my window to my bed, my head, yet remote. This little […]

  • The Potential of Awareness in The Butterfly and the Diving Bell and John de Ruiter’s Meetings

    ‘I can build castles in Spain, steal the Golden Fleece, visit the women I love, let the sea wash over me on the Isle of Martinique.’ I can explore my subconsciousness, break into chambers of understanding, relax in the golden flow from an open heart. I can distinguish between experiences and the deposits of truth […]

  • The Love of Life in American History X

    Despite its scenes of violence,  American History X sustains delicateness, emphasizing innocence after the cataclysms. I walk away from the movie inspired, relating to the power of my life. In the first and the final shots, the sea breaks at the shore. Unrest washes over the earth; the mystery comes in wave after wave, but […]

  • Appendix

    One year ago, my appendix ruptured in India. It cried out for a week prior to the Emergency Room, and mended over nine months until the bureaucracy mandated surgery. Introducing itself as a rogue, my appendix came to signify a quiet philosopher, showing me how change can come swiftly and with a punch. I saw […]