camminando | Walking as Healing: Beach Walks in Ostia and Garbatella

My healing walks in Rome continue, as strategy to cope with stress, which has now arrived to extremely high levels. One of my stressors du jour are dealing with a delayed and not well done renovation of my late parents apartment in Rome, which will become my home: I am currently sleeping on the bedroom floor surrounded by boxes and covered by dust. The other stressor is the recurrent problem of progress with my doctoral research, dealing with egos and dysfunctionality: the latest is the  exceptional rejection of approving funding for my presentation at the Symmetry conference in Vienna.
I keep repeating in a mantra-like fashion Nietzsche's popular statement "That which does not kill us makes us stronger". My steps take to the A metro and then to the train to Ostia Stella Polare.

Returning to the city, I got off at San Paolo fuori le mura (IV century AD) the basilica erected in the burial place of San Paolo. The sun starts setting behind the pines at north-west side of the basilica.

My following wanderings encounter Garbatella, the former working class neighborhood which presents harmonious urban planning, inspired by the garden city movement. Wikipedia says:

Garbatella is a quarter belonging to the Municipio XI of the commune of Rome, in the Ostiense district. Its population counts nearly 45,000.It was founded in the late 1920s on an estate bearing the same name lying on a hill adjacent to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. The older section of the area is divided into project units (Italian: lotto), each of them made of several buildings grouped together around a common yards: this design was borrowed from the Garden city movement. This kind of architectural agglomeration in Rococo style, consists of a common garden area which serves as an informal meeting point for all the families that live in the lotto.

My walk ends by the Garbatella metro station, with views of the Roman industrial archeology: the Gasometro framing the setting sun.

 

The sun is setting framed by the Gasometro

camminando | Re-visiting the Healing Beauty of Ethernal Roman Urban Spaces

Piazza Campo de' Fiori: the statue of Giordano Bruno by Ettore Ferrari (1889) erected where the Dominican friar (also philosopher, mathematician and poet) was burnt at stake. The inscription in the base reads:
A BRUNO - IL SECOLO DA LUI DIVINATO - QUI DOVE IL ROGO ARSE

While landing at the Leonardo da Vinci international airport,  the pilot welcomes the passengers to Rome, announcing the local time and saying, right after, that "time does not matter, since Rome is the ethernal city".
I truly welcome this remark: for me as well Rome is ethernal, the place of my soul and mind where time stands still in the timeless ruins, art and architecture.
   You don't have to visit the countless museums and churches to become aware of the intoxicating beauty of the ethernal city. Walking becomes not only an act of knowing but also an immersion in beauty and memories-for me both personal and collective.
   I am very much in search for beauty as a means for healing: it seems like everything is falling apart in my life brutally attacked by the power of bureaucracy and dysfunctionality experienced worldwide in three different continents and in three different areas of my life.

Views of the river Tevere

Corso Vittorio Emanuele

practice | Finding the Axis Mundi at Sunrise in Atlantic City

urban views | Downtown Skyline from the New Museum

The day after the June solstice I am enjoying the commending views of downtown Manhattan from the New Museum rooftop, after a 4.5 miles walk.

Events | Summer Solstice, International Yoga Day, Strawberry Moon

On June 20 2016 the solstice coincides with the full moon—called strawberry moon. June 21 is also  International Yoga Day. The June solstice marks the shortest nigh and longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere (summer solstice), while coincide with the shortest day and longest night in the southern hemisphere (winter solstice)
In this very special day I am practicing the "Finding the Axis Mundi" movement sequence in a place very special to me: the NYC Hudson River waterfront, by the 70 Street pier. It is a healing practice dedicated to victims of domestic violence and bullying. Awareness of movement empowers and promotes healing.
Namaste to ourselves, sun, earth and moon, in this special moment of connection with the universe.

Father's Day | Remembering My Father

Dear Father,

Thanks for teaching me honesty and respect.

Now, more than ever while dealing with my former spouse cowardice, greed and deception, I appreciate the values you lived by, your being a gentleman and strength.

Art Installation & EEG | Mutual Wave Machine

Zoe and I participated at the art installation "Mutual Wave Machine on June 17, at the 3LD Art and Technology Center: The Mutual Wave Machine is described as "an interactive neurofeedback installation & neuroscience experiment that embodies the elusive notion of ‘being on the same wavelength’ with another person through brainwave synchrony. Enclosed by an intimate capsule and immersed in an audiovisual environment that responds and reflects their shared brain activity, two visitors can directly experience and manipulate their internal efforts to approach or distance themselves from each other."

practice | Healing While the Sun Is Rising