Month: October 2012

Quote of the Day – October 31 2012

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is – infinite.”
― William Blake

 

What a gift it would be to be able to see things that clearly. An even greater gift would be to be able to convey that infinite vision in such a way that everyone could see it too. Kind of like the late great jazz poet Lord Buckley’s poem about Jesus the Nazz  who ‘ had them pretty eyes.
He wanted everybody to see with pretty eyes and see how pretty it was.’ I used to believe my main quest  in life was understanding and now I realize that that is at best half of it. What good is understanding if you have no way to convey it, no way to use it to help people. It would be an empty insight indeed that stayed up locked up inside one man’s head. Therefore, I wish not only to have ‘pretty eyes’, the kind that sees beauty and finds understanding but I want to grant others the gift of pretty eyes as well.

Blessings, G

 

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Wildfire by G A Rosenberg

 

 

Golden Web by G A Rosenberg

 

Wildfire 2 by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 30 2012

“It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.”
― Vincent van Gogh

 

“What are you staring at?”
I used to hear that question all the time and seldom had a good answer. I’d stare at cars and bushes, at women, at men, at a flower or an eye of a beautiful shade that caught my eye. Sometimes i feel my sense of aesthetics may be somewhat strange but I love to look at that which strikes me as beautiful and if I don’t see several of those in a moment than perhaps I am not trying. It may be a truly picturesque form of ADHD :).
“What are you staring at?”
Still as I said before, I tend to stare, not because I want the object of my gaze but because I wish to admire it, to grock it (yes I’ve been using that word a lot lately but it truly does seem to fit its definition more than most words therefore I’ll stick with it) in its fullness until i can feel connection. It may not be what others find beautiful. Who wants to be limited to that? But it is because I am struck by it.
The longer we look at things, truly look as opposed to playing the memory tapes that we all too often do, the more we can truly see it, appreciate it and find within ourselves that part that resonates with whatever we look at. Thus as we give it meaning, it returns the favour.
Blessings, G

 

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Tarot Trump XVII – The Star by G A Rosenberg

 

Reach Out From the Inside

Quote of the Day – October 29 2012

“We are travelers on a cosmic journey,stardust,swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

 

 

I have become familiar with both the inward and outward manifestations of the journey. So much of  my 20’s and 30’s were spent moving from place to place, soaking up experiences, learning what can only come from them yet not focused on the inward growth tho I was open to it.  I think if my 25 or 30 year old self was to look at me now, living in the same house for 10 years, married and child-raising, he’d be terribly bemused . Sometimes I hear his voice, quoting Peter Pan. “What happened? You got old.” I think tho we’d like each other. I’ve learned to accept the things about myself at which I used to lash out. Oh I still work at not needing to do or feel certain ways but I accept that they do come up. I like myself now a good deal more than I did then. It’s made it a lot easier to love my family and others in general. I have found truth in the adage that everyone we meet serves as a mirror to something inside of us and now I can enjoy the reflection. Well more and more.

I think my former self might enjoy my company as well. He’d laugh as much as I do when he hears that younger people keep referring to me as wise and not meaning it as either ironic or half a word. I have no advice for my younger self except enjoy the voyage even the painful parts and realize that even when your life is stable, you still continue to journey. It is a moebius strip existance where the internal and external can change positions all in an instance…

Blessings, G

 

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Gold Star by G A Rosenberg

 

Kitty Pride by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 28 2012

In a time of destruction, create something.”
― Maxine Hong Kingston

This quote puts me in mind of the blues and spirituals; of people reaching the limits of endurance and yet out of their despair, amazing song bursts out that expresses the bleak feeling that only the soul can know but also somehow exorcises and heals it. Love and jobs have been lost. People close to us have died, we become ill and yet words, music or art comes out in a way that’s truer than almost any other. Perhaps, that is an ideal I speak of and yet I’ve seen it, some people can get a hang nail and melt into a puddle of self-imposed drama while others can take the most profound pain and transform that and themselves. I know which one of those people I want to be.
Blessings, G

Soul ripped open pain
blackness so dark, it lacks name
Song redeems the heart

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Found in Stone by G A Rosenberg

 

Opalescent Ruby View by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 27 2012

“Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.”
― Neil Gaiman

 

For me by necessity the story comes out in small parts, chapters from the past and chapters from the future that haven’t been written yet. The present is always here and accepted gracefully. After all what else do you do with a present? This past while, I’ve been learning myself a bit more every day and as I learn myself and find my story I can share it like the tale of the bridge and the angel I found there… or the dream of my first crush,  and of pain… I may tell of days but difficult and joyous but slowly I find my voice.

Funny thing tho, the more I listen to my voice the more I can hear others and hear them as they are felt and said. Perhaps all its taken is greater self-honesty or like the expression that I’ve used for years, shovelling the shit out of the communication box. I’m not there yet, not totally. I need to write, I’ve been told as if I’m the only one who will read it. Yet for me at times, it is easier to be honest on some things with witnesses for telling myself some truths may be too painful. There lies my blind spots and those are the ones I must work at.
What stories will you share and how honestly and easily do you find they come?
Blessings, G

 

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Expressive Abstraction by G A Rosenberg

 

Winged Peach by G A Rosenberg

 

 

Quote of the Day – October 26 2012

“If a man does not keep pace with his
companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let
him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple-tree or
an oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer?”
― Henry David Thoreau

 

What amazes me is not so much how out of step I seem to be with the world around me but how many others there are who at one time or another match my steps. Oh not totally and we each perform them in our own pace and style yet it makes me wonder at times who does keep pace. Is there a mainstream anymore or is there just an illusion of one that so many got to procrustean lengths to either match it or avoid doing so at any costs? I long ago gave up trying to fit any form of mainstream society but also to not fight against it. I will be myself and walk my path and give thanks for the companions I meet along the way.
As much as possible I have given up even trying to describe myself in terms of demographics either belief wise, politically, nationally or sexually because no box quite fits who i am. I believe this to be true of many of us and yet we keep trying to make things fit that just won’t…
That’s ok tho… If my path is my own at least I’ve been working at making the company good and at one time or another it turns out that for steps or miles almost everyone becomes a companion.
Blessings, G

 

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Reunion by G A Rosenberg

 

Aqua Stairs Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 26 2012

“From now on I hope always to stay alert, to educate myself as best I can. But lacking this, in Future I will relaxedly turn back to my secret mind to see what it has observed when I thought I was sitting this one out. We never sit anything out.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ”
― Ray Bradbury

 

How many times I’ve played my life as if it was a hand of solitaire, I dealt the cards out knowing full well how they would come out and then played it just as I knew it was. I believe most of us do this in relationships that we get into because we need the lesson which I suppose accounts for almost every relationship in which we find ourselves. It’s almost a cliche to say that the end is written in the beginning yet there it is…the alchemy that draws us into each other’s orbit decides how we will mix, partake of each other’s qualities and then either blend or separate.
As I’ve said before, we exist in relationship not only with people but with things, situations and events as well and like those, we know if we are being true to ourselves that most are transitory and the way we leave may be found in its beginning. Not that I believe its all predestined. Many choose to stay in relationships or in situations well past their sell by date. This may be because of happiness but more often it is done by our sheer stubbornness to make things work. This can lead to ongoing frustration or sometimes astonishing wonderful breakthroughs both for ourselves and the ones we journey with. After all are we not constantly changing? If that is so, if I am a different person than the one who entered the relationship, is the end still inevitable? Perhaps this is the change that involves letting the ‘beautiful stuff’ out.
Blessings, G

 

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Remembering by G A Rosenberg

 


Staring at the Ceiling by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 24 2012

“What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.”
― Salvador Dalí

 

I prefer confusion to utter unshakeable certainty… Confusion oft gives way to insight…Certainty to a dead end. When we’re sure of something we tend to stop asking questions and use what we’re sure of as a sign post…when we question and allow a bit of confusion in, all becomes discovery. It might feel a bit less comfortable but we tend to grow the most when pushed out of our comfort zone. The more our life becomes like a zen buddhist koan, “What did our face look like before our parents were born?” or some such the more we can open up and contain possibilities.. Or maybe it’s all an excuse and like Johnny Depp I like what confusion does to my facial expressions. 🙂
Blessings, G

 

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Indigo Gate Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

One of My Pet Notions by G A Rosenberg