The Dangling Sword

“You have little time left, and none of it for crap. A fine state. I would say that the best of us always comes out when we are against the wall, when we feel the sword dangling overhead. Personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

I work best when under pressure. I have found that if I have a deadline I can push myself through and accomplish whatever I set out to do. Conversely if I just set myself a goal without a time limit I find all kinds of distractions that pull me away from the work at hand. Deadlines (swords) tend to focus me. The goal can be self-imposed such as this blog where each day I have committed to produce at least one picture and at least a hundred words on any given subject. For the last twenty-five months, I haven’t missed a night of blogging. Success has bred success tho I wonder at times whether quality suffers.
Similarly my work on the tarot book has been most successful when I have set commitments for myself. It is only when I let things become open-ended that I find myself slowing down. I need that sword dangling, otherwise the crap gets in the way.
Blessings, G

 

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Astral PalaceAstral Palace by G A Rosenberg

 

Silent ConversationSilent Conversation by G A Rosenberg

Meeting Myself

 

“Are you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with, take warning – I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade—this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?”
― Walt Whitman

 

Must we come with warnings?
Each person we meet may read
“Beware of the mirror
standing before you,
he reflects imperfectly
everything you shine into him
including your own reflections
He sees you
so he may become more clear
by watching the ripples of his breath
against your surface.
You may not like what you see
reflected towards you
he may show you your imperfections, imperfectly.
But know that by gazing upon him
he will love you
to the best of his being
perhaps not as lover or friend
or whatever your stated purpose for coming
but for the beautiful imperfect looking glass you are
and for what you may create together.”
— GAR

 

Blessings, G

 

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In Service To HerIn Service to Her by G A Rosenberg

 

Centre of the HiveCentre of the Hive by G A Rosenberg
 

The HeArt Connection

“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”
― Ray Bradbury

 

Art involves folly and perhaps a bit of hubris. To believe that you can bring a feeling or a knowing to others through an image, a story or song lyrics takes guts. Yet for those who create and that includes everyone in one way or another, it is what we attempt to do. What are the very words we speak but symbols we string together to convey meaning. Through exposing ourselves to how others have communicated in these ways in the past and even more importantly developing clarity and compassion, we can learn to connect better with others. Art can touch us in ways that mere spoken words cannot. Through story, song and image we touch not only the minds but the hearts of others.
Blessings, G

 

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Cosmic Key and LockCosmic Key and Lock by G A Rosenberg

 

ConvergenceConvergence by G A Rosenberg

Exploring in Familiar Places

“All of life is a foreign country.”
― Jack Kerouac

 

What is the first thing you do when you enter a country for the first time? I find that
whenever I travel to someplace new, I first acclimate myself. I look around and see what is different from what I have experienced before and what is similar. I love experiencing things for the first time and delight in people watching. What can I learn here and now that I have never known? How can I expand my knowledge? Each place ends up marking me in a new way.
When is the last time you looked around at your present environment as if it were a new country to explore? How much do we take for granted in our everyday lives that could if looked at with no expectations, reveal new things about life and the world around us? Life is never static and much happens around us every day. As Dan Millman’s teacher Socrates says in “Way of the Peaceful Warrior”, “There is never ‘nothing going on’.”
I would like to challenge everyone reading this to wake up tomorrow and experience something familiar as if you are seeing it for the first time.
Blessings, G

 

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On His MindOn His Mind by G A Rosenberg

 

Scarlet DreamScarlet Dream by G A Rosenberg

Let It Spill

“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

 

The witness knows that I’m too full
of transitory things
Momentary panic that stressors bring
On the surface, clarity gone
as the septic moment lingers
so let it spill on out
underneath is pure
learn to let it go
the empty witness’s sure
In hours it’ll matter less
in days not at all
so pop the troubled bubble
a child’s bubble gum
remember back to times
all it meant was fun
sing that happy song
that once ran through your head
Find the joy in what you are
the pure note’s stead

— G A Rosenberg

Blessings, G

 

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Amber Cathedral MandalaAmber Cathedral Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

Nebulous MandalaNebulous by G A Rosenberg

Making Change

 

“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. ”
― Niccolò Machiavelli

 

Many people fear the new. They prefer the ways that either have worked for them before or have consistently not worked in ways that they have become used to. This explains the failure of so many systems that governments have their hands in especially ones of education
Quite often we prefer the devil we know rather than the untried even if the untried offers hope for a better solution. Most people will admit that things in our society need to change. Yet actually making the changes seem to stymie us. An interesting conundrum.
Blessings, G

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WaterfallWaterfall by G A Rosenberg

 

Mind PuzzleMind Puzzle by G A Rosenberg

Artist’s Task

 

“The artist’s task is to save the soul of mankind; and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns. If artists cannot find the way, then the way cannot be found.”
-Terence McKenna

 

We’re all artists, our mediums may differ but we all create our lives from our imagination using the tools and materials at hand. Some of us give up way too easily leaving designs half finished or we spend our lives searching for others who will complete our designs for us. Some of us finger paint and let our designs go willy-nilly. Don’t get me wrong for this method can produce beauty and fractal patterns never before seen. Some of us tho, partly by design and partly by taking advantage of patterns that we see as they develop, create true beauty that inspires. Our lives leap off the page or off the board and influence others to see what they can truly do and become.
Blessings, G

 

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Bronze SpinBronze Spin by G A Rosenberg

 

Psychedelic Carpet stylePsychedelic Carpet by G A Rosenberg