Quote of the Day – May 16 2012

“I finally figured out that I’m solitary by nature, but at the same time I know so many people; so many people think they own a piece of me. They shift and move under my skin, like a parade of memories that simply won’t go away. It doesn’t matter where I am, or how alone–I always have such a crowded head.”
― Charles de Lint

I have both head and heart filled to the brim. People live in there and yes things too or at least concepts. Of course if you subscribe to a variety of modern thought, the people who come into our lives are the ones we draw forth because we need something inside of us modelled. I have found truth in that. I have had people enter my life who represented a side that I needed to see. They evoked that something within me and stayed until i learned what I needed. Quite often after that they or I was drawn away. I find myself to be as Mr de Lint says, a solitary being.

Oddly enough in the last few years I have found myself online connecting with more people than I ever would have thought possible. I welcome all and have learned so much. I wonder is it the time we live in that we now have ways to encounter so many so spread out geographically so rapidly. It seems an amazing dance and I am so grateful. It seems a very graceful one as well. Almost every encounter has been pleasant tho some have been challenging, another karmic thread becoming unraveled. All a necessary part of growth.
Blessings, G

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Re-Patterning by G A Rosenberg

Golden Eye by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 15 2012

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”
–Bruce Lee

Tonight seems all about water and reflection, meditation and thought, floating letting things come to the surface. This quote fits the image, The Hanged Man from the Tarot, a card I relate to more often than not. Odin hung himself upside down from the world tree to gain understanding (returned with the Runes better than the runs for sure) Be like water, let come to the surface come including silliness and sorrow…Sorrow for wrongs done this 64 years past and since..silliness because we humans become ridiculous..squabble over silly things and want control…so many people wanting to control so much when what they really seem to need is control of self or at least enough loss of control to flow…like water..
Water goes where it wills and seldom stays, it becomes stagnant that way and indeed my thoughts may slow and even stop but soon the flow continues unhindered…I’ve forgotten how long I’ve been on this tree…I need real eyes to realize–Dancing with my own development –part of the flow i need to let go — i forget my body is there –collecting consciousness in a jar, no it was a door but the door’s ajar or was…I left a note before I came here for my friends– “I hope you don’t mind but while you were away i took your limitations. It didn’t seem like you needed them anymore” — tho some of them couldn’t let them go thus we cling long after we need to…tho perhaps a reason, a season passes and something new begins..it gets cold here at night — I wanted to do something for my friends — I am so grateful for all of them..Lucky to have had so many great things happen and even the hard things, the lessons i’m grateful for too….

So here I’ll hang for as long as I need to and then…well I’m not sure
Blessings, G

Water below me

as I hang here upside down

reflecting inward

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Hanged Man by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 14 2012

““If you hear a voice within you say „you cannot paint“, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
― Vincent van Gogh

 

I have been long familiar with that voice. You know, the voice that says “I can’t do it”, “You’ll never make it”, “Give it up and go home”. Most days if I hear it now it is but a whisper but at times in my younger days, it was so loud it paralyzed. It kept me off the stage in university tho i had done plays in high school. It stopped me from ever doing visual art or much with my writing.

Luckily at some point I decided that if I never did any of the things that caught my mind, life would suck. I started taking chances. I collected stories of people who didn’t care what the world thought of them. People like Joshua Norton, the only Emperor the United States ever had if only in his mind (and those of the many who humoured and honoured him. (Look up his story (Somewhere a few years back on this site are a few videos I made about Emperor Norton). I think of Florence Foster Jenkins, unable to carry a tune and yet selling out Carnegie Hall with people being turned away (they might have come to laugh but they also marvelled at her spirit) . “”Some may say that I couldn’t sing, but no one can say that I didn’t sing.” she told a friend and indeed she did

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Amazingly the people who came to her concerts were unfailingly polite. If they felt the need to laugh, they did so discretely. Vincent Van Gogh sold no paintings during his life and could not get anyone to take him seriously as a painter. Now he is considered one of the greatest the world has ever known. Perhaps it is only by living your dream that you can silence not only the voices in your head but the external ones as well.

Blessings, G

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With Which do You Identify? by G A Rosenberg

New Land by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 13 2012

“To survive, you must tell stories.”
― Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before

This quote seems to sparkle on the surface. So much of our existence seems due to the stories we tell ourselves. Our stories reflect,  inflect and infect our being. Who was I there? Was I hero or victim, bystander or villain? Did I save the day or get lost in the woods? Did I grow or did I sink into despair? Is that story over yet or is this just a brief respite in between chapters?

Yet I wonder are stories truly necessary to survive? When we meditate isn’t the idea to shut the stories down and be in silence? If so, then what part of us needs the stories to survive? Does meditation give us the necessary space in which to change our stories, change ourselves? Stories may be necessary but we can keep improving the stories told.

Blessings, G

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Solar Plexus by G A Rosenberg

Heart’s Mist by G A Rosenberg

Odds and Ends

First of all I wanted to thank everyone reading this for coming by. Of late more and more of you have been coming by, commenting or liking my work and its much appreciated. All feedback is very appreciated. I’ve been particularly enjoying some of the conversations that go past just one comment / reply couplet.

I put all my tarot images on their own page for easier viewing. As with all my pictures, click on them to see them full-size (this occasionally takes two clicks)

Lastly this month’s art winner is Laurel Phoenix. I’ll be sending out your signed print of Light sometime in the next week. Thanks to all who entered.
Blessings, G

Quote of the Day – May 12 2012

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding… And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy”
― Khalil Gibran

When I was quite a bit younger I had an amazingly wise friend Delores. She told me that she gained her perspective due to the many health crises that she had. One day I was bemoaning my life and all my problems to her. I was having the usual problems relating to my father and deciding what I wanted to do with my life. She listened patiently until I summed it all up with one question.

“Why Me?” Sometimes I believe that question is one of the most common ones that us humans use. What Delores answered floored me.

“Why not you?”

“Huh?”

“Why not you? Why should you be so special that you shouldn’t have your share of problems and difficulties, your share of heartbreaks and pain. That’s what you should be asking.”

I think Delores intuitively understood what Kahlil Gibran was saying here. Pain is part of our lives and to deny it is to deny life’s full experience. Indeed our pain always tells us something. Either a part of our body needs to be attended to or possibly even a part of our attitude or a part of our life. Pain in any of those cases is the best early warning system we have. There are also times when pushing past our pain, accepting it and moving forward brings lessons to us that can’t or won’t come any other way.  I know that very seldom in my life have I learned things the easy way. Friends and I have discussed whether it is possible to learn the big lessons we need in a gentle way and always end up either shelving the question or deciding that somethings are meant to be learned through that great teacher, pain.

Blessings, G

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Blue Marbled Hallway by G A Rosenberg
Glowy Caterpillars eating my Lettuce  by G A Rosenberg

Blue Marble Cathedral by G A Rosenberg