“Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.”
― George R.R. Martin
Fear is healthy and at times it is necessary. We are often taught tho that it is something to be overcome. A few nights ago I posted my feelings about some of the reactions that I had then read about last week’s shootings in Paris. I felt that people were being way too critical about how others were reacting to the shootings. Tonight a friend of mine replied that she agreed but she also had a problem with people ‘fear-shaming’. She felt that there were those who weren’t being compassionate towards others who may be concerned about letting possibly dangerous refugees into their countries and communities. She was clear that she was neither a ‘truth’ who believed that the incidents didn’t happen (my feelings about that may be food for another posting one day soon) nor was she a new-ager who believed that people should never show fear.
I agree with her to an extent. People need to be able to feel whatever they feel without others telling them they are wrong. Fear is an honest response to terror. It is the response that ‘terrorists’ wish to evoke. However it would be a sad thing for fear to stop us from obeying the dictates of our hearts and our wills. Fear cannot stop us from helping those in need and doing what we can to help others. We cannot let fear make us lesser than we can be. If we let that happen than no matter what else happens, the terrorists will have achieved their goal. This is when bravery and facing our fear has to take precedent. We need to decide who we want to be, both as individuals and as a nation.
Blessings, G
“I want you to stop running from thing to thing to thing, and to sit down at the table, to offer the people you love something humble and nourishing, like soup and bread, like a story, like a hand holding another hand while you pray. We live in a world that values us for how fast we go, for how much we accomplish, for how much life we can pack into one day. But I’m coming to believe it’s in the in-between spaces that our lives change, and that the real beauty lies there.”
— Shauna Niequist
Welcome to my in between place. The crossroads of my evening where I take off my mask and share my fear of losing meaning. My existence used to have rich colours but has of late been painted in hues of grey. I still long for truth but the day to day gets in the way and drains the search of joy. Not that there isn’t joy in the daily moments but it seems somehow less vital. Yet here in the in between I grasp and reach knowing that I have not abandoned ambition as much as I’m walking the course to discover it anew.
Blessings, G
“Poetry is no more a narcotic than a stimulant; it is a universal bittersweet mixture for all possible household emergencies and its action varies accordingly as it is taken in a wineglass or a tablespoon, inhaled, gargled or rubbed on the chest by hard fingers covered with rings.”
― Robert Graves
I need a quick verse
to fix me up
cause my soul done broke again
C’mon man fix me up with a rhyme
I got the money if you got the time
for the ache in my throat
needs something gentle
to sooth the pain
and my heart
needs the gentle refrain
Don’t leave me hanging brother
even a haiku may help
me make it through the ennui
Please I will for poetry
she always turns me out
and I bring her back my best
then get beaten by her tender slaps
leaving her marks within me.
— G A Rosenberg
“A happy life is just a string of happy moments. But most people don’t allow the happy moment, because they are so busy trying to get a happy life.”
— Abraham
Collect the moments
of joy and pain
Press it into your book of memories.
Each one a brick in your structure
Each one a stick in your construct.
The pain blocks can be beautiful
for they have made you strong
Build on your survival.
May the joyful moments be the windows
with which you view the world
and may the view propagate.
Anger will not bear weight
so use it lightly
Forbearance will get you through
Let others in
to see what you build
You never know what they may contribute
what moments they will add.
— G A Rosenberg
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized: Throwing Stars by G A Rosenberg
“You only see what you know.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
For the last two days I have been watching reactions to the events in Paris. Many people have talked about how people are acting sad about the event while ignoring similar horrific events in other parts of the world.
I see the point I really do.
Tho let’s shrink the scale down a little.
Would you tell a grieving widow or child that they were wrong to mourn just their loved one when 50 other people in the area died the same day?
How about someone who was mourning a neighbour?
“It’s really cheap of you to only care about that person. Fred Wilkes who lives three states over got killed and I don’t see you mourning them.”
Seems kind of tacky, no?
The truth is that mourning one person or for those in one country does not make you unfeeling towards others. It just means that for one reason or another, it has affected you more.
Is it because of the media? Perhaps.
Perhaps it is because many people can relate to what happens in Paris quicker than what happens in Lebanon or Russia. Perhaps either they have visited there or hope to or they have friends who have more recently.
Having compassion for one event does not mean you do not have it for others
and covering your profile picture with the flag of France does not mean that you don’t feel for the suffering of people in other places. It is for many just that it is more relatable and that’s ok.
There are horrific acts of terror happening in many places in the world so often that many of us become numbed to the horror of it.
At some point we need to say “No More” to all of it.
Perhaps it is easier to do this when something strikes closer to home.
It is both supercilious and jaded to believe that this is a reaction that is only media driven just as it would be for me to suggest that those who feel so free to tell everyone whom and when to mourn are more interested in pointing out the flaws of others than showing genuine compassion.
Blessings, G
Benedictus by G A Rosenberg 
Drawing Fire Upwards by G A Rosenberg 
Sky Glow by G A Rosenberg 
Ready to Start by G A Rosenberg 
Owl Spirit Watching and Rising by G A Rosenberg 
Velocity by G A Rosenberg 
Star Dog With Ravens by G A Rosenberg 
Solve et… 
Exposed to the Chamber’s Secrets by G A Rosenberg
War Zone by G A Rosenberg 
Influenced by Her Surroundings by G A Rosenberg 
Scrying Gem by G A Rosenberg
Throwing Stars by G A Rosenberg 
Gateway Z by G A Rosenberg 
Bard Travelling to Inter-dimensional Castle by G A Rosenberg 
A Guide in the Field by G A Rosenberg 
Abstract Hidden Dragon by G A Rosenberg 