Tag: Charles de Lint

Interwoven Plot lines in the Story of the World

 

“I watched the people passing below, each of them a story, each story part of somebody else’s, all of it connected to the big story of the world. People weren’t islands, so far as I was concerned. How could they be, when their stories kept getting tangled up in everybody else’s?”
— Charles de Lint

 

Have you ever stopped and listened to the story of the world? Have you leaned in close and heard the whispers of life that pass by you? There are many ways to connect if you’re open to it. Perhaps the easiest is become aware of the thread of your own life and see where it touches others. Follow their threads for awhile. All it takes is compassion and willingness to feel their thread without judgement of width texture or colour. What threads go on from there. After awhile you start to realize the shape of the tapestry, the repeated motifs and where the strange turns come in. Eventually if you’re lucky you may come to realize how deeply each of us is connected to every other thing on this world just one of the billions of interwoven plot lines in the story of the world.
Blessings, G

 

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Dream PriestessDream Priestess by G A Rosenberg

 

A Multi-dimensional Soap BubbleMulti-Dimensional Soap Bubble by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 7 2013

“There’s never an easy route to the things that matter.”
― Charles de Lint

 

In the long run, what is it that matters? As cliche as it sounds, we’re all on a journey. Some might think it is to have the life we want to have while for others its a quest to simply survive. We like our challenges also, don’t we.  Any time it feels like things are coasting without a challenge we encounter some person or something or some situation that will throw a wrench into our coziness and show us we’re not quite there yet We throw ourselves at these challenges, occasionally feel beaten or battered by them or sometimes we score an easy win. Those easy wins are great for building confidence but they’re not where our greatest lessons come from. It’s those things and people that have the greatest potential for getting under our skin that hold the greatest lessons for us. It might take time to see the lessons, weeks or months but if we keep looking its there. Feeling gratitude towards these difficult teachers can be the greatest challenge.
Blessings, G

 

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Flower of TransformationFlower of transformation by G A Rosenberg

 
Scrying Pool Mandala

 

Journey Within by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – January 5 2013

“Magic lies in between things, between the day and the night, between yellow and blue, between any two things.”
— Charles de Lint

 

Live in the centre
All extremes lose their meanings
Perspective regained

 

I love in-between things. Dusk, Dawn, and noon and crossroads all enchant me. In between, life is neither like this or like that but partakes of something new totally its own.  If I had my way, I’d stay at the centre always and be able to partake of all things offered rather than choose one to the exclusion of all other. All of the above without being greedy will always be my choice.

Blessings, G

 

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Camp Site on an Alien World

 

Camp Out on an Alien World by G A Rosenberg
Purple - Blue0 Red CrossesSite-Seeing by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 9 2012

“There’s stories and then there’s stories. The ones with any worth change your life forever, perhaps only in a small way, but once you’ve heard them, they are forever a part of you. You nurture them and pass them on, and the giving only makes you feel better. The others are just words on a page.”
― Charles de Lint

 

What story has changed your life? What tale has crawled inside your psyche and set a permanent groove so that you would never look at anything quite the same way again?

I met her on the bridge that night. To tell the truth, I had gone there to consider jumping. My life was rather a mess at the time. I was seventeen taking summer classes at the University next door to my High School to make up for the ones that I had missed during the year. I had taken off from school for five months and joined a religious cult. For that five months, I tried to alter my being, change it into the perfect church member only to find it impossible. Too many things made no sense and contradicted their own sources. One of the final straws was when I saw beer in the refrigerator of the church head in California and realize that he didn’t live up to his own philosophy.  I left only to find that I could not go back to looking at life the same way I had before. I was badly in need of a new paradigm tho I couldn’t put that into words at the time. My family didn’t understand. They thought I should feel guilty for leaving home and joining the cult. I felt cheated and alone and had no idea what to believe. The universe made less sense than ever.

We agreed that my staying in the University dorms for the summer rather than accompanying my family to their beach house was a good idea for all. I would have time to think and pray and try to put the pieces together (and make up for lost school time). They would have peace. I went more than a little crazy and self-destructive. Thus I ended up at the bridge staring into the water wondering if I had the courage.

“I love to see the moon reflecting on the water.” I turned and looked and there was a girl there. A few years older than me.

“Yes, it’s nice.” I muttered.

“The water’s cold tho, even tho it’s summer.”

“I wasn’t going to… I mean I’m not going to…” 

“Maybe not, but you can’t convince me you haven’t been considering it.”

“What would you know about it?”

“I’ve been there. I’ve worn that look you have on your face. Oh I didn’t jump either”

“Why would you want to do that? “

“The same reason as you. Too many thoughts and questions crowding my mind and more pain than I wanted to deal with. I was dating this guy and he was great, handsome and smart and controlling as hell. I let him tell me what music to like, how to dress and even what classes to take. We were together for four years and when i became the embodiment of everything he wanted me to be, he got arrested. After a month without him I realized that he didn’t want to be with me but with an ideal and the ideal was someone else. Someone on reflection whom I had no interest in being”

“It’s not the same!”

“No it never is. Yet it brought me here just as whatever you’re going through brought you. “

I told her the details. She just listened and then smiled.

“You know what stopped me from jumping and removed the temptation?”

“What?” I might have said the word louder than I intended.

“Well, my life has always been so strange and so difficult to predict and so wonderful and horrible that I realized at heart I am too curious to see what comes next to ever end it willingly”

“Wow” 

“You know this already but you’ve forgotten it.”

“Maybe I have.”.

We continued to talk about books, movies, music, philosophy and everything under the moon to find we had a great deal in common. We watched the sunrise hand in hand like children. I asked her if I could see her again. She looked a little sad.

“Actually, I came down to the bridge tonight to say goodbye to the view. Tonight I’m heading to England to study for a year. Tonight has always been fantastic tho. Thank you.” She kissed me and left not dramatically but wonderfully.

I sat there for a few more minutes wondering if I had been talking to some kind of angel. I never saw her again but I never forgot her magick or her story.

Blessings, G

 

 

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Alien Mage by G A Rosenberg

 

Blue Gold Sun Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – September 23 2012

You can’t stand up to the night until you understand what’s hiding in its shadows.
–Charles De Lint

Of late I’ve become more comfortable with my shadows. Everyone has them, these parts of ourselves that we try to repress, hold back. We become whole as we learn to accept our shadows, ask them in for a cup of tea, have long conversations with why they do the things they do and why we resist them and dance with them. Finally with any luck we may learn to integrate them. Of course there will still be shadows cast but fewer and fainter. Only when we resist our shadows do we run the risk of them biting us in the tail.

On a different note, today we started cleaning out our bookshelves, 30 boxes donated and counting. Saying goodbye to some old friends, well not goodbye as such, many of the characters I’ve internalized. There are a few that I have long conversations with but the covers that once contained them have gone to new homes. It is a cleansing of sorts.

Blessings, G

 

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She Wears the Night by G A Rosenberg

 

Circles by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – August 2 2012

“Our lives are stories, and the stories we have to give to each other are the most important. No one has a story too small and all are of equal stature. We each tell them in different ways, through different mediums—and if we care about each other, we’ll take the time to listen.”

― Charles de Lint

 

Create with me a new tomorrow
Let’s build our story
and don’t worry about leaving out the bad parts
Everything balances
and good and bad relative measures at best

 

Sometimes the most amazing stories we tell don’t come from narrative. They come from jokes made, kindnesses shown and songs remembered. Possibly not as easily put together as linear narratives but then as complex as we tend to be, how can any story be other than holographic or fractal, the whole contained in the part but oh so many parts. We carry each other’s stories inside of us and occasionally make them our own, at least in the telling. What new stories do you have to tell today? I don’t have to ask if you’ve heard any good ones. If you’ve been listening, you have
Blessings, G

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Tarot – Queen of Wands

Queen of Wands by G A Rosenberg

I’ll play you out tonight with another quote by Mr DeLint:

“The thing to remember when you’re writing is, it’s not whether or not what you put on paper is true. It’s whether it wakes a truth in your reader.”

Quote of the Day – July 27 2012

“Let me give you some advice: Try to approach things without preconceived ideas, without supposing you already know everything there is to know about them. Get that trick down and you’ll be surprised at what’s really all around you.”
― Charles de Lint, Someplace to Be Flying

 

I’m tempted to quote Shrek and say that Ogres have layers yet its reality we give layers to. There’s what our eyes tell us. There’s what we want our eyes to tell us. There’s what we’re afraid our eyes will tell us. Each of these have inherent value judgements that we give them. Somewhere in there, once we peal away expectations and preconceptions and even what things or people appear to be on the surface is what things intrinsically are. To start to see it all we need is self-honesty about our filters and understanding..
Here’s to good perceiving.
Blessings, G

 

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Chameleon Baby and the Soul Gem by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – June 23 2012

“When you’re touched by magic, nothing’s ever quite the same again. What really makes me sad is all those people who never have the chance to know that touch. They’re too busy, or they just don’t hold with make-believe, so they shut the door without really knowing it was there to be opened in the first place.”
― Charles de Lint

People who have opened themselves to magic stand out by a mile. They tend to see the magic in everything and many of them are able to touch it and harmonize with it. Today I watched a friend of mine start toning with the whining sound of a bus driving by. He matched and harmonized and I can imagine him doing much the same with the babble of a brook or the whirring of mosquitos. For that moment tho he was touching magic. Funny how it comes from both within and without.

Touching magic isn’t difficult. It’s a matter of paying attention and noticing what’s around you and honouring it in grass and field, tree and street light, anywhere and most important understanding that the same force flows within all of us.

Blessings, G

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Honouring the Tree by G A Rosenberg
Missile Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 16 2012

“I finally figured out that I’m solitary by nature, but at the same time I know so many people; so many people think they own a piece of me. They shift and move under my skin, like a parade of memories that simply won’t go away. It doesn’t matter where I am, or how alone–I always have such a crowded head.”
― Charles de Lint

I have both head and heart filled to the brim. People live in there and yes things too or at least concepts. Of course if you subscribe to a variety of modern thought, the people who come into our lives are the ones we draw forth because we need something inside of us modelled. I have found truth in that. I have had people enter my life who represented a side that I needed to see. They evoked that something within me and stayed until i learned what I needed. Quite often after that they or I was drawn away. I find myself to be as Mr de Lint says, a solitary being.

Oddly enough in the last few years I have found myself online connecting with more people than I ever would have thought possible. I welcome all and have learned so much. I wonder is it the time we live in that we now have ways to encounter so many so spread out geographically so rapidly. It seems an amazing dance and I am so grateful. It seems a very graceful one as well. Almost every encounter has been pleasant tho some have been challenging, another karmic thread becoming unraveled. All a necessary part of growth.
Blessings, G

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Re-Patterning by G A Rosenberg

Golden Eye by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 12 2012

“Don’t forget – no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.”
― Charles de Lint

“It’s all a matter of paying attention, being awake in the present
moment, and not expecting a huge payoff. The magic in this world seems
to work in whispers and small kindnesses.”
― Charles de Lint

A pair of quotes tonight from one of my favourite writers,Charles de Lint. Both of them seem to reflect different things going on in my head tho which probably means that down the road a ways they connect.
We all have our stories and our perspectives. No one else has experienced the same life we have and so we each carry something of infinite value. If nothing else, a new exercise in compassion. By this I don’t necessarily mean that every one’s view on everything is as good as anyone else’s. These things are relative.
Everyone’s experience and insight does hold value, its to who, how much and relative to what that’s the rub.

I have always wanted to understand others. I want to understand the joy and pain and life that has made each person what they are and pushes them to become more. I want to understand and heal what stops them. I realize of course that this comes from a strong need to understand myself and overcome my own inertia but more than that. For understanding each person means being aware and seeing those small moments of magic that Mr. de Lint talks about in the second quote. Hmmm, easier to match them up then I thought.
Blessings, G

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Eye Transform by G A Rosenberg

Eye Travel by G A Rosenberg