In A Masqued Dream

 

“Real transformation requires real honesty. If you want to move forward — get real with yourself.”
― Bryant McGill

 

Final midnight’s call
and I reach up to tear
the mask from my face
revealing myself to all.
Yet underneath puzzled
I find another mask
I keep peeling away
layer after layer
as the crowd laughs
their masks firmly in place.
each layer still hiding
each face a shadow of the truth.
Where in this pile of facades
is my real face?
How far down does it go?
I reach what I know is the last mask
Now we’ll see what’s real
Behind it there is all and
there is naught.

 

Blessings, G

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AstarteAstarte / Astaroth by G A Rosenberg

 

Reading DestinyReading Destiny by G A Rosenberg

Becoming and Sniffles…

 

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
― e e cummings</h3?
 

…And the bar keeps moving. So many of us seek to become who we are yet that being has no fixed address. I discovered that what I need to do even more is strip away who I am not so that the being who I am can shine through. I’m working on it. So much is a combination of social conditioning and ways that I’ve developed to avoid who I feared I was. It has helped to strip away a lot of the fear and slowly become who I am becoming…
A rather brief article tonight as I seem to be finally purging myself of the cold / flu that has invaded my system this last week. Lots of sniffling tho feeling rather well in most ways.
Blessings, G

 

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Inner WorkingsInner Workings by G A Rosenberg

 

Back on the Cosmic Merry Go RoundBack on the Cosmic Merry Go Round by G A Rosenberg

 

None of My Business

 

“What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.”
― Martha Graham

 

Not only does it not matter what people think of us but its none of our business. Its a truly subversive thought in today’s society yet its true. So many of us get caught up worrying about what other people may think or say about us that we put on a mask of social acceptability and stop being ourselves altogether. Yet why should it matter? The only thing we are accountable for is to be true to ourselves and the only person whom we are accountable to for that is ourselves. People will have opinions. They always do. They may even say them but in the long run there opinions are not our stuff. If we could but live by that think how liberating that would be.
The corollary to that that what we think of others is none of their business also feels true to me. I tend to chant both of these as a mantra whenever I start to tell someone what I think of them or about something they’ve done. It’s human to have opinions about what people do and say. We have judgement and we use it. However when it comes down to it who are we to interfere with the will of another?
Of course there are exceptions to this rule, if I see an adult beating on a child or someone beating on someone smaller I will put a stop to it. I will try to do so keeping my opinions to myself tho. As to what they may think of me stopping them, well that’s none of my business.
Blessings, G

 

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Turning Wheels Within WheelsTurning Wheels Within Wheels by G A Rosenberg

 

Solve et CoagulaSolve et Coagula by G A Rosenberg

 

Reflecting and Absorbing Self

 

“You’re just an imitation of what is around you, it’s just that you don’t imitate one person; you take bits and pieces of hundred people and make yourself.”
—Sadhguru

 

My sense of humour came from her.
Sharp sardonic reflections
on what goes on around me.
My logical mind came from two others.
The desire to understand has come from so many.
I got my smile from the girl next door
My personality is a matrix
of lives that have touched on mine
Each somehow reflects the spirit within while it reflects the world around me
My external being shifts as the people around me changes. Ive always been somewhat spongelike in that way
absorbing the traits and reflecting the nearby foibles
while somehow staying true to my inner being.
What responsibility does this give me? Do I surround myself with the best. No, I’ll surround myself with those who will most help me recognize my true being
sunlight and shadow and beyond.
Blessings, G

 

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In My Dream I saw three robed figuresIn a Dream I Saw Three Robed Figures by G A Rosenberg

 

Space CubeSpace Cube by G A Rosenberg

Strange Discovery Waltz — A Bit of Doggerel

 

“Each man had only one genuine vocation – to find the way to himself….His task was to discover his own destiny – not an arbitrary one – and to live it out wholly and resolutely within himself. Everything else was only a would-be existence, an attempt at evasion, a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity and fear of one’s own inwardness.”
― Hermann Hesse

 

I find it to be the oddest dance
this search for self-discovery
two step forwards one step back
I make a quick recovery
then one step forwards and then back two
spin in place and fro and two

 

Still there’s progress to be made
meditation, study, prayer
all the screw ups , the lessons learned
another chance to conquer fear
and yet it seems to move so slow
getting caught up in what I think I know.

 

Yet in this slow frustrating dance
A kind of peace has come to me
If I had never seen my chains
then freedom I would never see
So I’ll continue without slack
this two steps forward, one step back

 

Blessings, G

 

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Exploding PeacockExploding Peacock by G A Rosenberg

 

Fire Mountain VisitationFire Mountain Visitation by G A Rosenberg

Opening to the Universe

 

“Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

Courage takes many forms. For some it may mean doing something for the first time. For others it may be attempting something that they don’t believe they can be successful at. Courage can also be daring to step outside the truths that they have always accepted and daring to see the world in a new way even if that somehow invalidates what they have always believed. For my money though, the bravest act is when we open ourselves up to another person. This often involves pain for when we do this, we become vulnerable. We expose the armour of constructed self and let the other inside where all our wounds lie open to examination. They see us in our truest form. Would that we could lose that armour altogether and open ourselves up in love to the universe in that way, ever present, ever vulnerable. In our vulnerability we may become more than we have ever been before.
Blessings, G

 

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Reaching OutReaching Out by G A Rosenberg

 

Window on Blue FireWindow on Blue Fire by G A Rosenberg

The Fight For Authenticity

 

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”
–e e cummings

Thanks to AdamFromNorway for the quote and for having some of the coolest blogs around

 

Am I a programmed sheep? Am I a spiritual seeker? “No, there’s no need to seek everything is perfect just as it is?” “Why expose your shadow?” “Why are you afraid of your shadow, it’s a necessary part of you?” “Don’t judge. I don’t judge I discern?” “Bitches be like…” “Men are like…” “The government’s the enemy.” “Guns are the enemy” “The banisters are the enemy” ” The dance goes on endlessly. It’s another day looking at Facebook.
I’ve met many great people on Facebook and have had lots of interesting discussions with them. In some ways it is the best and worst party you could ever want to go to. Yet after awhile, it seems people get locked into roles and into the same old discussions playing the same parts and somewhere along the line authenticity gets lost. In a vacuum isolated from others, it would presumably be easy to become more and more yourself. However, it is when we are pulled from our comfort zones by others that we stand the most chance to grow. Paradoxical? Perhaps but then ultimately what isn’t.
I have found it fairly easy to adapt a viewpoint and be able to see it from the inside. What this often means is that I can see the reasoning behind multiple sides of an argument. Where I get into trouble is when I fall into one side or another merely to impress or to placate and I lose site of my own awareness. Thus authenticity gets compromised. Luckily tho it is difficult, my own centre calls to me. May I never wander too far from it.
Blessings, G

 

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MessengerMessenger by G A Rosenberg

 

Radial PlaneRadial Plane by G A Rosenberg

All The Friends I’ll Never Meet

 

“In the long run there is no real way to stop someone from doing whatever it is they are going to do no matter how foolish, or destructive of self or the world around them. You can care but you cannot convince someone that they are not alone if they refuse to see you or your heart. Sometimes all you can do is show up as real and as compassionate as you can. Sometimes that is enough.”
— Randall Wolfe

 

It’s a strange thing having so many people whom I feel so close to yet in all probability will never meet face to face. With my friends on the net I have laughed and cried, shared confidences, argued with and have shared both joy and sorrow.Yet it occurs to me, with most of our interactions being somewhat removed there is no way to show sincerity or lack of it. I mean I am pretty conscious of where I am coming from at any given time and being authentic only becomes more important to me with the passing of time. Yet I have only my words and presence to speak for myself.
Perhaps that isn’t so different from life off line at that.
Blessings, G

 

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Her Knowing GlanceHer Knowing Glance by G A Rosenberg

 

Signal ReceivedSignal Received by G A Rosenberg

Accepting My Own Madness

 

“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life…If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature…Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
― C.G. Jung, The Red Book

 

When I was much younger, I realized how out of step I seemed to be with the world at large and questioned my sanity. As I grow older, I realize that most if not all of the people I know have their own flavours of insanity. We all have windmills that we tilt at and believe they are dragons. Many of us repeat our actions and methods endlessly expecting different results each time. I no longer question my sanity or lack thereof as much as embrace it. How I differ from each person brings an endless flood of self-knowledge and confusion. Now my main concerns tend to be around how much my words and my behaviour reflect my authentic self and with time even that concern fades for it seems more and more to be something that can’t be done and worried at at the same time.
Blessings, G

 

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Dreaming Under Red SkiesDreaming Under Red Skies by G A Rosenberg

 

Tie Dyed WebTie-Dyed Web by G A Rosenberg

Feelings

 

“Let’s tell the truth to people. When people ask, ‘How are you?’ have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avaoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don’t want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you.”
― Maya Angelou

 

I feel exhausted
exhilarated
annoyed
amused
unmotivated
envy
hurt
humbled
grateful
tired
hilarious
insecure
unfulfilled
satisfied
unsatisfied
joy
pain
lust
love
pissed off
pissed on
silly
appreciative
connected.

Blessings, G

 

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Staring Out Drawing InStaring Out, Drawing In by G A Rosenberg

 

Solar PatternsSolar Patterns by G A Rosenberg