“I am obscure and odd, very deeply odd.”
— Virginia Woolf
Am I obscure? Perhaps but then I tend towards the mistake that many have read what I’ve read tho I seen to have more of a taste for it than others. Puzzling but then I have enjoyed the company of books more often and deeper at times than the company of other people. Connections made with the writers or the beings that they write about . A character from a beloved novel invoked at 3 AM can be as powerful as any other spirit and there are many with whom I have had discourse. But then like dear Ms. Wolfe, I have no trouble admitting to my oddness.
The more I live life, the more puzzling I find certain aspects of it. Sometimes this is amazingly heartening and sometimes like the present I find it frustrating. I want to be able to fix the world or at least the parts of it that I love and yet I can see perspectives where there is no brokenness just being. Anything can be healed perhaps yet the how and why and consequences of doing so are not often available. Everything has ripples, ways in which they interact with other things that interact still more that any change to the system can change it beyond recognition. Yet still I impose my will even tho I may not know how to cause no harm. Still the I I know as me is new to this game, merely in it for a little over half a century. Maybe with time the wisdom and discernment of how to act and more importantly when will come. Until then I learn and attempt..why anything I set my mind to I suppose.
Blessings, G
“If it’s worthy, say it now, and say it all. Use your words in service to the moment, not in place of it.”
— Alberto Ríos
How do we judge worthiness? This is not a rhetorical question but one that has been plaguing me for a while. Shall I be a Casandra seeing the end of civilization and the need for a new one in place? That gets boring and obvious quickly and people stop listening not to mention the tendency to shoot the messenger. Shall I talk about the importance of shifting our priorities as a society to form systems that are sustainable; systems that actually serve people rather than just perpetuate themselves?There are so many people who are invested in the maintenance of things as they are even tho it is becoming more and more obvious that in the current state of health care, education and caring for those who can’t care for themselves we are losing ground and not gaining it.
Should I speak of the importance of love and tolerance of all and not just those who we agree with? Another worthy topic yet far too few people understand that it is seldom a matter of right and wrong or right and left as it is a matter of everyone being at best partially right and the need to learn how to deal with each other rather than seeing everything in an us vs them light?I
It is so easy to see the problems and the solutions are not easy to come by. Yet everybody thinks they have the answer. It is easier to see unworthiness than it is to recognize what is truly worthy. That’s the rub.
Blessings, G
“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
― Hermann Hesse
I take the dross of pain and joy
I plan to weave tonight
Decomposing experience
putrefying by the wayside
waiting to see what may arise
out of the decay
I weave the remains
a golden thread
in which I shall cloak myself
with understanding
as compassion is born
for those whom it may fit.
Each night I weave
yearning for something pure
yet they still can’t guess my name.
— G A Rosenberg
The art gallery page for 2015 has been updated on Waking Spirals (http://wakingspirals.me) and now has my art from June.
Please browse through and if you have an interest in purchasing any prints please contact me at rambled@mac.com.
Click on image to go to the 2015 Art Gallery Page:
Click on image to go to the 2015 Art Gallery Page:
I have a fascination for how quickly people seek to suck the joy and celebratory spirit from others. They justify it through some cause or another as if in competition to see who can take life more seriously.”
– Randall Wolfe
I find it puzzling. Last week the United States Supreme Court made a ruling that recognized gay marriage throughout the country. People celebrated in many ways. After all, for many of them this represented recognition of their lives and their loves that they had previously not had. Many tho while not opposed to the ruling reacted in a way that saddened me a bit. They went on social media decrying the celebration because they disagreed with the idea of government sanctioned marriage. While I saw their point part of me was wondering why they would wish to quell another’s happiness.
Since then I have noticed that this phenomenon extends to almost every form of celebration. We shouldn’t celebrate the Fourth of July because the people of the United States are far from free and independent. We shouldn’t celebrate a new relationship because it might end in pain and celebration. How dare you honour THOSE people, look at what they’ve done?
Don’t get me wrong. Causes are important and their is a lot wrong with the world. People should seek to fight injustice and leave the planet just a bit better than they found it. Yet at the same time, very little gets accomplished by being joyless. If there is something that we enjoy that brings us pleasure, let’s do it. If it means close time with family and friends even more so.It is not paradoxical to fight the evils at the world while taking the pleasure and joy that we can. Taking it from others seems to be a crime in itself.
Blessings, G
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
— Henry David Thoreau
Looking at public reaction to the news of the last few weeks has been fascinating. Never has it been more obvious that there is more than one reality. Was the United States Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage a strike for equality and an affirmation that gay people matter or was it a redefinition of marriage that will make Jehovah and Jesus very cross and cause the foundation of society as we know it to end? Having lived in Canada for the last 10 years I would tend towards the former view but I have my reality tunnels too. This is but one example.
Is the discrediting and removal of the confederate flag a blow against a symbol of slavery and degradation or was it a removal of a symbol that stood against oppression? Were people who celebrated gay marriage buying into a government institution that was meaningless or was it celebrating a hard-fought battle? Who’s reality wins and how do we reconcile it? What do we see and what lens are we looking at it with?
Is it possible for the sake of understanding to allow ourselves to see what another sees even if it contradicts our own viewpoint? I believe so and I have proved it to myself in a number of ways. It sometimes means that one has to give up investment in one’s own outlook to do it. This doesn’t necessarily mean changing our point of view as much as loosening it a bit to see how another reality can fit. This makes it a bit easier to not dismiss those who hold opposing viewpoints. It is possible to both understand and disagree with someone. It just takes work. Could that be merely what I see?
Blessings, G
“Observe the wonders as they occur around you.
Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.”
― Kahlil Gibran
The air still moves
without my words
The stars and moon
shine above me
with kittens playing
in the moonbeams
There are flowers
and people feeling
everything.
I might feel sorrow
or anger yet
before the thousand
wonders of any moment
my feelings
are silenced.
Would that I could hold the awe
and hold the moment
and hold my feelings
yet in the next moment
things will resume
until the next time
the moment catches me
unaware..
— G A Rosenberg
Colourful Tor by G A Rosenberg 
Ornate Webbing by G A Rosenberg 
