Category: Digital Art

Where My Work Lies…

“I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion–and where it isn’t, that’s where my work lies.”
― Ram Dass

 

Lately I’ve been hearing people talking a lot about what resonates with them and what doesn’t. Quite often they say it in the context of dismissing or not engaging with anything that doesn’t resonate with them. Not everything is going to click with everyone and that’s understandable. I am puzzled that I don’t hear people asking themselves WHY something doesn’t resonate.

Usually when I have a knee jerk reaction to something especially one of revulsion, it is because it is hitting either some kind of trigger for me or it’s hitting me in a blind spot. Case in point, when people talk about certain issues with families, I tend to turn it into a joke because it rings too close to the truth. If somebody presses it, I will change the topic of conversation. I could have said the topic didn’t resonate with me but I was in fact avoiding a truth about how I relate to my family. Once I started asking why or more properly what might be causing this reaction I opened myself up to a valuable lesson. At the very least, using my reactions as a basis for self-inquiry rather than avoidance has made me a lot more compassionate and to have a lot more confidence in and knowledge of myself.
Blessings, G

 

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Star HawkStar Hawk by G A Rosenberg

 

Flame mistFlame Mist by G A Rosenberg

Lion Truth

“The truth is like a lion, You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.”
— St. Augustine

If something is the truth, then no matter how people try to pervert it, it ultimately wins out. Every time I have tried to convince myself that I could live a lie, I would end up either sabotaging my experience or the falsehoods I was living would keep hitting me in the back of the head until I had to act on it. This has proven to be the case whether it was a relationship I knew I shouldn’t be in, a job I shouldn’t have taken or a life choice that I knew entering into it would not work out. Eventually in each of those situations (most of which I’ve done more than once but then I tend to have a stubborn streak) I finally had to move on because things had collapsed underneath me.

If this is true of my inner (small t truth) then it is definitely true for the Big T Truths. Say you come across a statement of belief. Try and falsify it and measure it against its opposite and let the two vigorously engage with each other. Eventually it will become clear that either the original statement was true on an objective level, the opposite was or in some ways they were both true even if that leads to paradox. Most large T truths tend to do that

Blessings, G

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Dream StreamDream Stream by G A Rosenberg
Elaborate SquidElaborate Squid by G A Rosenberg

“Awe is What Moves Us Forward”

“The creative act is not hanging on, but yielding to a new creative movement. Awe is what moves us forward. ”
–Joseph Campbell

 

What fills me with awe?

  • Seeing flowers in the garden that weren’t there the day before

  • Seeing babies of almost any species

  • The extreme acts of kindness and helpfulness that people are capable of

  • The extreme acts of insensitivity that people are capable of

  • Every night when I look at a finished blog entry after the initial trepidation of  a blank screen

  • So many pieces of art and music and writing. The creative mind is a wonderful thing and I have been so fortunate in being exposed to the creative talents of so many.

  • Love in all forms

  • Appreciation for the things that I do from people.

  • Life on this planet

Blessings, G

 

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Island in the StormIsland in the Storm by G A Rosenberg

 

CrimsonsmCrimson by G A Rosenberg

Crazy is My Strength

“George smiles to himself, with entire self-satisfaction. Yes, I am crazy, he thinks. That is my secret; my strength.”
― Christopher Isherwood

 

It is doubtful that I will ever see life in the same way that the majority of people in my environment do. On the day that this ceased to be a concern for me I felt liberated. No longer would I try to wear a reality view that fit me worse than the borrowed suit I wore to my brother’s wedding. No longer would I try to follow the crowd while my inner voice shrieked and howled that this is not how its supposed to be. Instead of worrying how others see me I have given myself a much more difficult criteria. I now have to act in accordance with how I see myself. The biggest difference is that when I put the view of others ahead of my own inner self, part of me died. Every time I act with the integrity of my being, my life shines brighter.

Blessings, G

 

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AeonAeon by G A Rosenberg

 

At the Jewel's CentreAt the Jewel’s Centre by G A Rosenberg

A Larger Right

“When something seems to go wrong, it’s invariably part of a larger right.”
–Jed McKenna

 

It’s happened to me often. Something in my life seems to go incredibly wrong. Plans are missed and I start to feel stressed. Then because of the mishap I end up in a situation that feels so right and planned that I realize that while it may seem like my life has been derailed, I are still on our life’s path. Indeed it is impossible to step off of it. It is just veering off in an unexpected direction.
Once I was working in another state from where I lived. I was supposed to go home for the weekend and my plane got cancelled. I went out and met someone who’s friendship was to mean a great deal to me over the next few decades and from whom I learned a lot. Another time it felt like my life was falling apart. For a year and a half, I had lived with someone who messed up my head and with whom I plumbed the depths of my integrity. I left there and started rebuilding my life. I felt humbled and devastated. Then the pieces came together. I found a job and started building a life from the ground up. A few months later I was to meet and fall in love with someone wonderful. After fourteen years of marriage we are still together.
Each time I thought that I was lost, I found myself in better shape than I’ve ever been. At this point, I have finally learned to trust that no matter how things may feel, I am always on the right track.
Blessings, G

 

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CentrepieceCentre Piece by G A Rosenberg

 

A turn in the weatherA Turn in the Weather by G A Rosenberg

Dare

“I’m not trying to counsel any of you to do anything really special except dare to think. And to dare to go with the truth. And to dare to really love completely.”
― Richard Buckminster Fuller

 

One of the best working definitions of love I have heard is that its what happens when another person’s well-being is essential to your own. Can you imagine what that would feel like if applied universally. If everyone’s well-being became essential to our own? If everyone’s well-being became essential to everyone else’s? Apply it beyond just people. Imagine a universe where the well-being of every being was essential It seems to me that that just may be our natural state. Imagine a universe where we all dared to love completely at once.
“You may say I’m a dreamer
but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us…”
— John Lennon

Blessings, G

 

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Celestial DanceCelestial Dance by G A Rosenberg

 

Violet aand Frost BlueViolet and Frost Blue by G A Rosenberg

Common Miracles

 

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

 ;

I have a friend who talks every month of his long walks talking with the full moon. He speaks of his relationship with Mother Luna. The first time he spoke of this I was taken a bit aback until my mind shifted a bit and I realized how cool it was. Since then I have built my relationship with as many parts of nature I can. When I walk the dogs I feel the breeze or the rain with every inch of skin I can and embrace it. I too have listened to the moon’s wisdom and to what the rain could teach me. I have always felt the ocean gives me calm and direction when I sit by her. I have found my world lit up by a baby’s smile and by the touch of my partner. These simple miracles of which I have only listed a few here keep enriching my life and my spirit. What common miracles do this for you?
Blessings, G

 

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TrystTryst by G A Rosenberg

 

Purple NetPurple Net by G A Rosenberg

Removing the Armour

“You haven’t yet opened your heart fully, to life, to each moment. The peaceful warrior’s way is not about invulnerability, but absolute vulnerability–to the world, to life, and to the Presence you felt. All along I’ve shown you by example that a warrior’s life is not about imagined perfection or victory; it is about love. Love is a warrior’s sword; wherever it cuts, it gives life, not death.”
― Dan Millman

 

What do you use for armour? I have used humour and I have used anger. I have used words,  sorrow and resignation. Each of these offered me various degrees of protection. They protected me from love. They protected me from awareness. They protected me at times from realizing that things were not as frightening as I believed they were. They protected me from exposing myself to my whole being. Now this warrior is weary. Piece by piece I dismantle my armour. I realize that even if battle killed my form that this is merely a suit of clothes that I wear. I have worn others in other lives. If I become hurt, then I will learn the lessons of pain and I will grow stronger. I will lead with my love and my thirst for understanding as open as I can and I know that no matter what transpires I will triumph.
Blessings, G

 

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Contemplating TransformationContemplating Transformation by G A Rosenberg

 

Emoting StarEmoting Star by G A Rosenberg