“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery and isolation. Isolation is a gift… All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it… And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds… and it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”
~ Charles Bukowski
This year, for a number of reasons I have decided to work on my physical aspect. Over the last couple of rather taxing years, I had let myself become rather sedentary and ate a lot of my frustrations. I had started smoking again and was up to over a pack a day. So once January hit, I decided I would take action.
1) January – I quit smoking cold turkey.
2) February – Diet and more activity. I stopped eating by eight PM. I stopped eating cheese. I started drinking lots of tea both to suppress appetite and to clean the body. I walked 10,000 Steps a day. I lost about 13 lbs and achieved my goal weight for the month.
3) March – Continue Diet and increase exercise. I am up to 15 pushups twice a day. I have been riding my bike every day that the sun allows. I am up to 12,000 steps a day. While weight loss has slowed a bit I feel my body regaining its overall form.
These might seem like some what minimal goals. I purposefully chose goals that would not result in injury. I have, in the past, overcommitted and ended up unable to exercise at all and I wanted this to all be doable. It hasn’t just been a matter of extensive effort but that of committed every day constant effort and it is paying off. The next steps will be a yoga class and the gym at least 3 times a week. One step at a time
Blessings, G
“I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.”
— Vincent van Gogh
With half my heart
I took a step
and faltered
unsure of direction
I didn’t feel it
and so was frozen in place
I didn’t want it bad enough
and withdrew.
Life happened and years passed
Half-heartedly I lived them all
yet nothing called to me
and then something called to me
with siren’s voice
I could not resist
I threw myself in
with all of my existence striving
and striving
no holding back
I jumped
Falling in yet enjoying the ride
and still the call goes on.
— G A Rosenberg
“Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.”
― William S. Burroughs
I was tempted to run a poem of mine seen here a few years back called “Seducing the Muse”. It would have been relevant and it would have fit the quote but there would have been an irony in it. My commitment to my writing is at least 100 words a night be they doggerel or stream of consciousness, poetry, mini essays or what not. In this, I hope not only to increase my contact with those of you who come to read and look at the pictures but it is one of the ways I seek to keep my muse involved with me. That and constantly creating more art, honing my skills and acquiring new ones. Expressing either concepts or whims or sometimes like the tarot project, I seek to do more. After all pretty abstract designs while fun and well liked often seem like popcorn, tasty yet unwilling. It’s much more of a challenge pulling an image together from start to finish and doing my all to represent it.
Some nights I can tell when the muse is happy with me. The images and concepts flow and there is a rapport between me and the expression. Other times I stare at the screen and start to play until an image appears. Then it is up to me to convey the image to other eyes in the best way possible. So that even if she left the party for awhile, the muse will return. So far it seems to be working plus she is very forgiving.
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
He Witnesses Her Transformation (Gäap ) by G A Rosenberg
“You have little time left, and none of it for crap. A fine state. I would say that the best of us always comes out when we are against the wall, when we feel the sword dangling overhead. Personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
― Carlos Castaneda
I work best when under pressure. I have found that if I have a deadline I can push myself through and accomplish whatever I set out to do. Conversely if I just set myself a goal without a time limit I find all kinds of distractions that pull me away from the work at hand. Deadlines (swords) tend to focus me. The goal can be self-imposed such as this blog where each day I have committed to produce at least one picture and at least a hundred words on any given subject. For the last twenty-five months, I haven’t missed a night of blogging. Success has bred success tho I wonder at times whether quality suffers.
Similarly my work on the tarot book has been most successful when I have set commitments for myself. It is only when I let things become open-ended that I find myself slowing down. I need that sword dangling, otherwise the crap gets in the way.
Blessings, G
Serpent’s Arena by G A Rosenberg 
Cancer Rising by G A Rosenberg 
