Common Miracles

 

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

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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

The Conquest of Joy

 

“Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment help us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments — but all of this is transitory it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.”
― Paulo Coelho

 

Imagine a time when all the scars you wear on your being fade away because you have dealt fully with all the wounds that left them. Imagine that we have found the joy in every moment that we have lived and say “Yes that too was for a reason, that too brought me here.” Imagine that we  have come to the point where we are living the best version of every dream that we have ever had for ourselves and facing everything that comes our way with an equanimity that we never knew we possessed. Perhaps this all starts with the conquest of joy. I have always known that being happy and feeling  joy was a possible decision at almost any point but perhaps when we find that decision to be the harder one to make we can conquer joy and make it anyway. I’m willing to attempt those conquests. How about you?
Walk in beauty and live in Joy.
Blessings, G

 

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GestationGestation by G A Rosenberg

 

The Routed HallsThe Halls en Route by G A Rosenberg

In Love With Your Life…

“Be in love with your life, every detail of it.”
― Jack Kerouac

 

How do you love the parts of your life that seem hard or that you fight or that you wish never were?  When I was growing up my older sister used to complain about the shape of her face. My mother would advise her part by joke and part by rote. “I love my nose. I can’t change it so I will love it and accept it. I love my chin.” She shared this with me years later and while at first I laughed at the cheesiness, it made me think. What if I took it beyond the physical?  “I love my frustration. I love my irritability.” When something bothered me about my life that I felt I couldn’t adequately address I started telling myself how much I loved it. It was amazing how empowering surrender could be. By being aware of these negative emotions or circumstances not in a confrontational way but in a loving way I found myself becoming less frustrated and less easily irritated. That’s not to say these traits have left me completely but at least they are loved rather than used as a means to kick myself.

Blessings, G

 

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Rainbows at nightRainbows at night by G A Rosenberg

 

TransformationTransformation by G A Rosenberg

The Poet as Thief of Fire

““The poet, therefore, is truly the thief of fire.He is responsible for humanity, for animals even; he will have to make sure his visions can be smelled, fondled, listened to; if what he brings back from beyond has form, he gives it form; if it has none, he gives it none. A language must be found…of the soul, for the soul and will include everything: perfumes, sounds colors, thought grappling with thought”
― Arthur Rimbaud

 

Like Raven I will steal the sun to keep you warm
and to see its reflection in your eyes
as you awaken
On the night we met you had the stars
you fed them to me like grapes
as i became transfigured by your presence
We made elemental love
my fire banked in your earth
your water in my air
and birthed phoenixes in our destruction…

— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Embracing it AllEmbracing the All by G A Rosenberg

 

Vortex LandscapeVortex Landscape by G A Rosenberg

 

The Essence of Caring

“The best storytellers are irredeemably mad, driven by a desire to express something that will actually make the world give a damn. As if the world cared! Such perversity lies beyond the understanding of most of us – of those not so enamoured with the creation of stories that there can be no thought of doing anything else.”

– Billy Marshall Stoneking

 

In a world where the key word so often seems to be apathy, what do you care about? Do you care about tragedies that touch your life peripherally? Does it  matter more that three people died in the city where you live or that 20 children were killed with money from your government? Do you care about how a particular tragedy went down or do you care about what in society is causing these tragedies in the first place? What is the story that is taking place? What are its themes? Are you stuck in details and missing essence? It’s so easy to get blindsided by fear or outrage especially when the media promotes these emotions. Listening to all sides arguing I hear a lot of what used to be called FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). The fact remains people were killed and many were injured. Other people acted heroically according to the best of their natures.
We may never know what caused it yet it is strange, we live in a world where there are probably less acts of violence per year than at almost any other time. There is correspondingly more publicity and a lot more fear mongering when it happens. What in modern society seems to be encouraging people to think that the best way to make a statement is through violent means. There are specific questions in any given situation that most people will never hear the answer to.  There are more important general questions about the real causes that desperately call out for asking.
Blessings, G

 

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Energy ProjectionEnergy Projection by G A Rosenberg

 

CuriosityCuriosity by G A Rosenberg

I’d Rather Suffer…

“”My argument with so much of psychoanalysis, is the preconception that suffering is a mistake, or a sign of weakness, or a sign even of illness, when in fact, possibly the greatest truths we know have come out of people’s suffering; that the problem is not to undo suffering or to wipe it off the face of the earth but to make it inform our lives, instead of trying to cure ourselves of it constantly and avoid it, and avoid anything but that lobotomized sense of what they call “happiness.” There’s too much of an attempt, it seems to me, to think in terms of controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than letting him go. It’s part of the whole ideology of this age, which is power-mad.”
— Arthur Miller.

 

Would you give up all of the moments that have given you pain for a life of bland happiness? I know I wouldn’t. For in those moments that have hurt the worst I learned to claim the largest parts of myself. From thoughtlessly betraying a friend, I learned how certain rifts can never be fully healed and to trust my judgement just a little bit more. From the moments I felt the most alone, I learned both self-reliance and an empathy for the lonely. I learned how to love another by doing it wrong and causing pain both to myself and others and I learned that kindness goes a lot further than anger tho both have their place. I would never wish to be spared the tears in my life or heart for those have taught me the greatest compassion.

I would never wish to spare my son the pain of his mistakes tho I will feel it along with him. It would be the greatest disservice to him to try, Rumi said that the cracks are where the light comes in and I have learned that to be true. Gratitude ensues.
Blessings, G

 

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SheShe by G A Rosenberg

 

Starry EyedStarry-Eyed by G A Rosenberg

No Surrender

“What is the significance of the statement ‘No one can get enlightenment’? This is the very root of the teaching. It means that it’s stupid for any so-called master to ask anyone to do anything to achieve or get enlightenment. The core of this simple statement means, according to my concept, that enlightenment is the annihilation of the “one” who “wants” enlightenment. If there is enlightenment – which can only happen because it is the will of God – then it means the “one” who had earlier wanted enlightenment has been annihilated. So no “one” can achieve enlightenment and therefore no “one” can enjoy enlightenment.”
“The joke is even the surrendering is not in your control. Why? Because so long as there is an individual who says “I surrender” there is a surrenderer, an individual ego… What I’m saying is that even the surrendering is not in [your] hands.”
–Ramesh Balsekar

 

Is true surrender then surrender of the universe to itself? It may be something akin to Odin sacrificing himself to himself on the world tree to gain understanding. I love the concepts inherent in the Advaita (Non-Duality) school of Hinduism. I have found that contemplating all of reality as one perfect whole has lifted veils for me. Too often when we talk, words get in the way of our understanding so taking it outside of words helps.
Blessings, G

 

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Presence 2Fractal Presence by G A Rosenberg

 

Forces From the CentreForces from the Centre by G A Rosenberg

The Offensive Gnu – Streaming Consciousness

“I do not know how to find out anything new without being offensive.”
– Charles Fort.

 

To discover.. to look at something and see it for the first time… to discover it in a new way…upsetting the old and the ones who held it— the ones attached see me as wrong for my new eyes..my real eyes..my realization? … most can’t see… Galileo said the earth went around the sun… offended many… did he have the right?… how did he not? People like their Dragon spots and their fear and mystery… removing it…even tho the map may be better scores few thanks..how brave must one be to face the unknown even inside themselves? we’re looking for beings of courage…map makers to a new tomorrow… even if it means we have to throw out our old ones… Aww but the colours were so pretty too… that’s ok..we’ll create with even more pretty colours and it will be true..neophile- lover of the new, neophobe-one who fears the new… I know which one I will be…will myself to be..and if in the end my eyes offend and I lose friends.. i still will see the new..
Blessings, G

 

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Star DivingStar Diving by G A Rosenberg

 

Liquid FireLiquid Fire by G A Rosenberg

A Colourful Business…

“In many shamanic societies, if you came across a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?”
–Angeles Arrien

 

Where would we be without a sense of wonder? Occasionally I interact with people both in real life and online who seem to have had their imagination shot off in the war. They speak flatly and argue flatly usually for what seems like a flat earth but is in actuality just a reality that stops either at the border of what they have seen or experienced for themselves or sometimes stretches to encompasses writers who tell them that indeed reality does not stretch that far. So in a universe of infinite colour and hue they restrict themselves to sixteen colours and see themselves as fanciful that they do not stop at eight.

How do you describe to someone colours that they have never seen? How can you make them believe that there are complete palettes of shades that do not exist on their colour wheel. Especially when they have always been more than satisfied with their sixteen thank you very much and see as thriftless nutters anyone who could possibly see more than thirty-two. Perhaps if they were open to the idea that such hues existed you could help them to see in their minds eye at least but all to often they have erected a grey wall against it. Eventually you just have to share your colours only with those who have the courage to paint their dreams.
Blessings, G

 

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Dreaming in TandemDreaming in Tandem by G A Rosenberg

 

Gem VortexGem Vortex by G A Rosenberg