“No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
— Alan Watts
Lost in memories
of the child on my shoulders
reaching for the stars.
The feeling of connection
so real, so deep, so frayed now.
Tho childhood doesn’t last forever
and the shoulders weaken
and there is a pulling away.
Feelings of pride fighting with fear
yet still the link exists
tho so much else is lost.
Perhaps one day
it will strengthen
shared memories and meaning return
or passed on as we pass through the world
“I’ve shed my skin so many times, the graveyards are full of all the people I used to be.”
– Richard Cassaro
Do you mourn your past? Do you visit that yard in your mind where all of the past yous (some passed as recently as the previous day or even hour) reside and lay flowers on the graves of those brothers or sisters that will never live again except for their echoes? Do you perhaps pay tribute to them with the knowledge that without them you would not be the person you are now? I love each of my fallen soldiers all of whom in one way or another gave up their lives for the present me as I will give up mine one day soon for the person I will become. It’s amazing how much affection I have for even the most unlikable versions of myself (and there were some who really sucked). Yet still what we have in common is knowledge of our transience. Each day brings changes in outlook and experience and there is no going back. Still, there are some amazing parties that I host in my mind where we converse and each one gives me some pretty good advice. Especially the younger ones who had all the hope and optimism in the world that they share gladly with me. I’d invite you to the party except that it would probably resemble a hall of mirrors to you and you probably host your own from time to time.
Blessings, G
“I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.”
— Joshua Graham
We’re all burning a path through life and sometimes our fires intersect in explosive ways. This can and often does happen between us and our birth families as we need to extricate ourselves almost phoenix like in order to make our own path. It often happens in relationships where our fiery paths start diverging and conflagration occurs. . It is then that we need to marshall our strength our inner fire the most and let it shine as bright as possible enough to light our path away from our current situation and show us the direction to the next chapter of our lives. This doesn’t have to happen on a physical level. Sometimes our inner light flares up brightest when it illuminates within.
Blessings, G
“We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art – we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.”
— Anaïs Nin
I look at a painting of a boy running into the waters. Behind him is a half-finished sand castle and a bemused father.The sky is that unreal shade of blue that memory gives all sunny days. The next painting shows the same boy a few years later. He is seated in the back seat of the car and he has a sarcastic smirk on his face. He is styling with his clothes and his hair yet he doesn’t want his friends to see him with his parents. It would be uncool. The next painting shows a teenager, suitcase in hand slamming the door. He is angry and there is a finality in his expression. Through the window of the door, you can see his parents distraught faces. The next painting shows a wedding and the teenager now in his twenties is smiling tho his eyes and his smile are only for his beloved. The last picture echoes the first tho the bemused father in this case was the boy in the first as he watches his daughter run towards the waves. Funny how from the middle picture one could never guess either the first two or the last two but the story continues in its cycle.
Blessings, G
The Art Gallery- 2014 page has been updated and is now complete with the pictures from December . Please browse through and if you have an interest in purchasing any prints please contact me at rambled@mac.com. For the next two weeks until January 18th, signed prints from 2014 will be on sale for $25 plus shipping and handling (this is only through me and not through the webshops).
Click on image to go to the 2014 Art Gallery Page:
“Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time, to figure out whether you like it or not.”
— Virgil Garnett Thomson
The step never taken.
The dream never tried.
The belief never shaken
I cannot abide
The leaf never crumpled
The chance never won
How could we leave
so much left undone?
To stay at home
out of worry or fear
rather than taking the journey
the chance I revere.
Without that leap
of faith divine
our lives ordinary
just filled with whine.
So I will drink the potion
I will take the chance
for my soul is restless
and it will advance.
— G A Rosenberg
“A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse, perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to commit outrages, to pull off the wigs of a few revered idols…”
-Hermann Hesse
When I was younger, I used to want my life to be anything but ordinary. I longed to experience things that no one else around meexperienced and to experience them louder, more intensely and deeper than anyone else could. I wanted to change myself, change the world and make a difference everywhere I went. However as the years go by, I have begun to realize that while some people do their best to follow some standard life equation, there are few ordinary people and few ordinary lives. Dig deep enough and you will find that even the most ‘normal’ person we know has some hidden quirk that many would think was insane. There is no such thing as ordinary and while it is still important for me to experience as much life variety as possible and understand myself to the deepest spiritual level of which I am capable, that is just my quirk. Well, one of them anyways.
Blessings, G