More Finders' Responses
BOTTLE#16*, UC Davis, Arneson Sculpture
I passed your bottle to an artist friend of mine, that I worked with on a public arts project in Sacramento titled "Open Circle" I asked him to email photos of it to you.
John, University of California, Davis, USA
Robert Arneson, bronze "egghead" in front of UC Davis art building
BOTTLE#18, Davis Trail at "Shovel Gateway"
My heart sings when I breath in fresh, cool air.
My heart sings along with the birds in the trees.
A very small thing that had a huge impact on my life was the polio virus that left me paralyzed from the neck down when I was 18 months old. Though I regained the use of some of my muscles, I never walked again; I use a power wheelchair for mobility. My life was changed for the better by this tiny thing that couldn't be seen by the naked eye. I have had opportunities and insights that I would never have had if I had not had this major shift in my realities. I consider it to have been a fortunate encounter, though there are many people who cannot understand this and might say that I am in denial. Nope, it ain't denial, but I'd have to tell my life story to explain further.
A very magical thing happened to me when I was 20. On a road trip, we stopped at the top of Look Out Mountain outside of Denver, Colorado in the USA. I met my doppelganger there! She was born on the same day and year as me. She looked like me. And she had also had polio, though not at the same age. It was a brief encounter and we were both so stunned at the event that we didn't think to exchange contact information. I think we were frightened by the idea of staying in touch, figuring that we'd magically bump into each other again if it was meant to be.
My gift to human harmony is a living example of riding change, rather than fighting it. Peace comes from floating a river in the direction that it flows, rather than swimming against it.
Pamela, Davis, California
BOTTLE #13. Green Sage Restaurant Railing
What makes my Heart sing: Love. When my mom gives me hugs and kisses. My friend Fable helping me by getting friends to play with me.
Something that meant a whole lot in my life: Looking at photo albums with my mom. Being at my great grandma's memorial service.
How I make the world a better place: Asking people not to throw trash on the ground. Smiling at people, even strangers. I take care of my dog and animals. I listen to what people need. I care about people. Totally.
Most magical thing that ever happened to me: Realized fairies existed. I just noticed them one day. There are lots of different kinds, and my favorites are everything fairies. They exist inside of me - their magic.
Rowan, age 6, Asheville, North Carolina USA
BOTTLE #32, Unity Sanctuary, Palo Alto, CA
What a lovely find!
Karyn, Unity Sanctuary, Palo Alto, California USA
BOTTLE#16* Finder to Sculptor
Note: The original finder shared Bottle #16 with sculptor Les Birleson. Pictured left is his "Open Circle," a sculpture environment, similar in concept to 360 Project.
The sculpture Open Circle is composed of concentric circles and meant to be a place of healing and meditation. It took several years to complete and is composed of 30 tons of granite. Sorry it's not little but the thing that led me to it was extremely small: a thought about ethics and how they are constructed. Three sculptural elements make up ”Open Circle” and include a poetry wheel, a fountain with a bronze sculpture, and a vertical column with a water feature as the ”source”. Lighting and landscaping elements are also part of the artwork.
Les Birleson, sculpture located in Sacramento, California
November-December 2015
Bottle #63, Reference Collection, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library, Honolulu, HI
I was happy to find it. It certainly brightened my afternoon. As for the image, I chose it because those tiny flowers (spotted while on a hike) remind me to stop and contemplate small things... which is maybe the best way I know of to feel grounded and establish a sense of perspective.
Sveta, Honolulu, Hawaii
Bottle #6 Woburn Square Garden on "The Green Man" statue by Lidia Kapinska (photo below)
Photo, title: Flames in Nevern Square
R&S's response to prompt on Inner Circle.
No Lo Estaba Esperando (I wasn't expecting)
XX
R&S London, UK
ysysysyysysysysysy
Bottle #19 Haywood County Public Libray
next to the book "Message in a Bottle" by Nicholas Sparks
My grandmother was always known as the "baby whisperer" within our family. She volunteered in a hospital that took care of newborns that were born with their mother's addictions. She could calm an infant with just simple rocking and humming a tune.
Shortly after she passed away I vividly remember being asleep and her voice shouting " Caroline, you need to check on Sadie!" Sadie at the time was a newborn. I raced upstairs to find her lying in bed sopping wet from a leaky diaper. While she wasn't injured or in danger, she needed her mother. I will never forget thinking, that my grandmother is still looking out for babies and for me.
Even when we think people have left our lives, there will always be a connection. She is our guardian angel.
Caroline, North Carolina
Bottle #25 Windward Community College
Fishing is one of the most inspirational things in my life. Its such a simple yet challenging thing to do. Patience is key if you want to succeed not only in fishing but in many things in our wondrous lives. I found this Bottle at Windward community college while I was in the library and I thought it was special because it had my favorite baseball number that I use for all the teams I've played for (#25). This is an awesome idea! This project showed me how special something as small as finding a little tiny bottle can make a difference.
Jacob, Kaneohe, Hawaii
January, February 2016
Bottle #30 Manoa, Hawaii
Sometimes the most memorable times are really simple and kind of silly, but they're usually the ones that make me smile. One time I found a small snail outside- there are so many snails around here, especially when it's rainy, but for some reason I brought the little guy in to show my friend. We watched him slowly creep over various objects and named him Ewwgene because since some people (including my friend) thought that snails are a bit gross. We wrote his new title on his shell and set him free thinking that if we saw him again we would recognize the name. How did you find your bottle? I happened to see the bottle by the Art Department office. I didn't have time to examine its contents so I took it with me.
Shannon, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Bottle #115, Solano Beach, California
We found our bottle on a Sunday morning while walking the beach with our family. We would ordinarily have been at church but various scheduling hurdles resulted in our walking the beach looking for sea shells and taking in the splendors that morning offered. As my daughter and I walked ahead of the others, I noticed something catching the morning light in the 50-60 foot cliffs that occassionally face off against the Pacific Ocean's storm surge. I pointed it out to my daughter and lifted her up to retrieve bottle 115 from a crag in the rock. It is truly fascinating to think about who put the bottle there, the number of people that must have passed by without ever noticing it, the waves that didn't dislodge it - all so that we could complete the circle. Thank you.
William, Encinitas, CA
Bottle #117, Dear Park Monastery
Painting: Flight to Morning, Brother Heart
Back in 2003 I was a newly licensed Massage Therapist practicing in Los Angeles, and a teacher had taken me under his wing. An older man, he was slowly transitioning from working with his hands to teaching, and was a master of several modalities. I worked in his studio with him, taking some of his clients as he felt I was ready. There was an altar in the waiting room that was covered with relics from his amazing life. The only book, the only words, on this sacred space was a small book by the Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. It is called, The Long Road Turns to Joy. I must have read it a hundred times. That magical piece of good fortune set a wheel in motion, and now thirteen years later I am a Buddhist Monk, an ordained disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Just last month working with a group of teenagers at one of our retreats, we did an exercise on connecting our gratitudes and our aspirations as we moved into another calendar year. Here is what I wrote on two sides of a piece of parchment paper and tied into a roll with a bit of yarn: Gratitudes 2015-16 A few times now, over some years, I have very softly made a very big statement. I have said, sometimes with reservation and qualification, that the purpose of my life is to understand LOVE. I am so grateful that the world, the whole beautiful, unfathomable world, opens itself up to me everyday like a flower to the sun, and that I keep shining the light of my life on it, over and over again, ceaselessly and without any meaningful sort of discrimination. What luck. Aspirations 2015-16 To be the wonder-filled, perfectly flawed little wavicle that I am, and nothing more, nothing less. Trusting as much as trying, being as much as doing, deeply knowing as much as learning. Maybe this is my Job on Spaceship Earth with a capital "J", to carefully and aimlessly relax with one-pointed concentration into being me just me.
Brother Heart, Escondido, California
Bottle #12, Whole Foods, Asheville, NC, September 2015
Found in car wash parking lot in Portland, Oregon, February 2016.
Finding this bottle made me feel as if I had won some sort of karma lottery. At first I thought perhaps this was a local art movement, but upon visiting the website, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had found one of many bottles placed all over the world! Although my bottle was smashed open on the ground, I believe the positive energy it contained to still be intact.
Things that make my heart sing: Surprises, love letters, kisses, sharing secrets, good books, coffee, karaoke, that crackling sound you hear when playing old vinyl records, sunrises, sunsets, road trips, baby animals, old married couples holding hands, comfortable silences, and that feeling you get when somebody looks at you in a way you know they don't look at anybody else.
Ways I contribute to the well of human harmony: Practicing empathy and kindness towards everybody ALWAYS--even if some people make it really hard to do at times.
Most magical thing that has ever happened to me: I find magic in everything that happens to me (such as finding this bottle!), but I'd like to think that the "big" magic in my life has yet to come. Something small that had a big impact on my life: Probably way more things than I realize! Think of all of the times that you slept in or turned right instead of left or got lost or hit every red light and arrived at your destination late. I believe all of these small things contributed greatly to the big picture of your life and where you are now and where you will be in the future. So don't sweat the small stuff! It's meant to be. It's magic.
Lexi, Portland, Oregon
Bottle # 107, Lotus Cafe, Pacific Coast Highway 101, Encinitas, California
I had a really great workout and yoga during the sunset tonight and made me feel refreshed and energized, and now I am at lotus cafe where I found this bottle #107 and it made me feel like a kid again, like something magical has happened because things like this don't happen in everyday life so finding this little bottle alone makes me feel excited yet mysteriously calm and very happy.
I model and see a lot of different people each week and see people in photoshoots or airports who are so caught up in there electronics that they don't take time to look up and enjoy the small things around them and this bottle helps me realize the small hints and shows me that it's worthier to explore my surroundings more.
Charlie S, Encinitas, California
March - April 2016
Bottle #110, Kanuga Conference Center, Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA
I love how, upon arriving at this website, I realize that I know one of the people mentioned here. Small world huh?
I found this bottle in North Carolina, and I am going to take it with me to Portland next month and re-hide it. I love finding hidden treasures like this... geocaches, hidden love notes to strangers, etc... It goes to show we all want to connect more, and more deeply, than we are sometimes brave enough to admit.
Cheers to the creators of this project for reaching out with heart and creativity!
Whitney, North Carolina,
Bottle #57, Hawaii State Art Museum
on sculpture by Fred Roster, Honolulu, Hawaii
My heart sings when I ride my bicycle. I rode a bike today for the first time in 5 years. Feeling the air rushing past and the danger of crashing and burning was so exhilarating! I got to ride with my friend too! This little bottle has made a difference in my life. The crane is so carefully made and the idea is wonderful. Thank you for taking the time and the effort to bring people together!
Ethan, Honolulu, Hawaii
Bottle #65. Kyoto, Japan. Gojo Guest House
Knowing that you are somewhere
under this sky that I am looking up at now
I cannot be any happier.
今私が見上げているこの空のどこか下に
あなたがいることを知るだけで私は幸せです。
Miwa
Sunset, Mt. Koya.
I thought the movement of the earth relates to your project (circle) :)
This the detail from the statue of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva - the emanation of compassion in our lobby at 300 Page Street (SF, Zen Center.)
Bottle #114. San Francisco Zen Center, California
My worldly karma
Not yet used up--
no hammer striking
emptiness.
I live and work at SF Zen Center where I found your bottle on our notice board. The enso caught my attention. What a magical thing to do!
Drifting on a lotus leaf,
resting in loving awareness --
Zazen mind.
Then I find a poem from Lew Welch on your home page. I'm the administrator for his page on Facebook and a big fan. It's also coming for the anniversary of the day he walked into the woods and was never found again (May 23).
The message in a bottle also reminds me of my other favourite poet, Paul Celan. Here's his wonderful quote:
A poem, as a manifestation of language and thus essentially dialogue, can be a message in a bottle, sent out in the—not always greatly hopeful—belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps. Poems in this sense too are under way: they are making toward something.
I'd love to know more about your work, and perhaps get involved. I'm also a poet - currently writing mainly haiku.
The path is long,
and my hair white--
I must make the Wise One
my teacher.
Rita Cummings, San Francisco