“Nature is playful and terrible. Some see the playful side and dally with it and let it sparkle. Others see the horror and cover their heads and are more dead than alive. The way does not lead between both, but embraces both. It is both cheerful play and cold horror.”
— Carl Jung
Resist not your feelings
Your nature is wild and strong
The times that you are raging
you’re only withstanding the storm
Don’t hide your head neath the covers
feel them with all of your might
the storm that’s intense will pass by you
leaving behind peaceful night
Emotions are just like our weather
clear skies and cloudy mixed in
No use whining or complaining
by the time we’re done, a change has come in.
I once was an uptight bastard
bottling up all my rage
I felt like some wild creature
was trapped in my steel-headed cage
I finally got bored with my anger
my sorrow and feeling alone
I now let the feelings flow through me
not a one am I required to own.
— G A Rosenberg
A bit of doggerel on an evening where I have been awake too many hours with too little sleep. Tho feeling it a bit as a song. Jung’s quote talks about coexisting with nature rather than hiding from it. I have long seen my emotions as being similar to weather patterns. If I acknowledge the negative emotions that come up and let them pass through, it can be liberating. It’s when I try to clamp down on anger or hurt or sorrow that I start to feel trapped. Eventually I end up clamping down so far that I get a case of mental constipation, the shit has no way of coming out.
That doesn’t mean I have to lash out at anyone or punch walls, it just means that I have to acknowledge my anger or frustration. I witness it, witness how it manifests and then go on to other things. With practice, it becomes easier. Since I have started doing this, my stomach hurts less and I get way less stress and sinus headaches. I feel more clear-headed and can better handle whatever has caused the stress in the first place. Of course having my art as an outlet doesn’t hurt either.
Blessings, G
The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.”
— Henry David Thoreau
I want to lose myself
in nature’s boroughs
wander for hours
in forest and beach
I want to surrender
to where life takes me
from everyday life
I’ll be out of reach
I’m tired of life
in civilized byways
I’m weary of meetings
and coffee routine.
I find myself
daydreaming of travel
choatically lost
out there in the green
I want to find myself
some place that I’ve never
been in the journey’s
I’ve taken so far.
Perhaps I’ll start
leaving tomorrow
packing my backpack
selling my car.
Who knows where I’ll be
and how far I’ll travel
talking to strangers
maybe finding a friend
Getting myself in
all kinds of trouble
or perhaps find the person
I’ll be in the end.
— G A Rosenberg
“Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time, to figure out whether you like it or not.”
— Virgil Garnett Thomson
The step never taken.
The dream never tried.
The belief never shaken
I cannot abide
The leaf never crumpled
The chance never won
How could we leave
so much left undone?
To stay at home
out of worry or fear
rather than taking the journey
the chance I revere.
Without that leap
of faith divine
our lives ordinary
just filled with whine.
So I will drink the potion
I will take the chance
for my soul is restless
and it will advance.
— G A Rosenberg
I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn’t of much value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them. ”
― Boris Pasternak
I’ve seen the gutter from within
Walked empty streets a night or two
Broke and deserted and somehow deserved it
Yet somehow I pulled through
The bag with my past is ragged and worn
My mistakes and screw-ups were many
I threw hearts to the fire, rode out on the wire
Spent the trust of others like pennies.
Yet somewhere in there, I found my heart
and a soul though tarnished was there
I learned that I could start again
recreating anew from thin air
I know some who read this may snicker and scoff
and roll their eyes and make fun
All the storms I’ve made it through
have helped me find the sun
I comprehend how hard the road
and can help others to tread it
I face my life with hope and thanks
Not a moment would I edit
“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
“Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly upon the self, and partly upon the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly.”
— Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears
I course my corse course of course
through effort of strengthening will
I find my way
tho oft go astray
I find the path in distance or underfoot
conflicting shadow selves abound
tho their voices help me to be found
I careen in mad orbits about my sun
merely to find I’ve only begun
insights, slights
even a touch of delight
guide me through dark night
for in darkness I may gain
that seed of self
thought hidden on some dusty shelf
and so I find my way
distraction won’t hold sway
I seek to find my one true will
holding still, holding still
— G A Rosenberg
“When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You’re too this, or I’m too this.’ That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”
— Ram Dass
Accepting bugs in nature
we just let them be
Storm clouds we can see
we seldom criticize flowers
for not being the best
we put them with the rest
organic fruit misshapened
we eat it with the rest
it never fails our test
yet why with people
do we notice every flaw
subject them to our law?
Birds and Butterflies
we love them in their flight
not one is not alright
We never look at rainbows
and criticize their glow
we tend to let them go.
yet when dealing with each other
we scrutinize each word
let nothing go unheard
Even with ourselves
we criticize, denounce
on every blemish pounce
Why can’t we accept
whoever’s in our path
with hug or a laugh
Imagine a world
where every voice is heard
not one decried absurd
rearrange our thoughts
compassion in action
will yield satisfaction.
— G A Rosenberg
A little Sunday night doggerel because I find Ram Dass’s quote to be quite profound.
Blessings, G
Will Rise in Flames by G A Rosenberg 
Holding It All Together by G A Rosenberg 
