You Shall Be Free

“You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care, nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.”
― Kahlil Gibran

 

Can you picture a life free from care, free from want never with anything to grieve over? Can you imagine no challenges that come up, no arguments or trouble? Wow, then what would it take to encourage growth? How would I see where my blind spots were? I can’t imagine that a life like that would be anything but stagnant. I want to have challenges that I learn from. I want to know grief and sometimes anger and hurt. I want to know them for what they are and find the joy and lesson that comes from dealing with each one. I will dare the thorn for the gift of the rose’s beauty always.
Blessings, G

 

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New GatewayNew Gateway by G A Rosenberg

 

The Eye of the StoneEye of the Stone by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 10 2012

 

“There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.”
― Scott Lynch

 

Wow, i find it difficult at times to live up to people’s expectations. It seems the more I show, the more that’s expected of me. It reminds me of why I spent so many years if not failing at things, not working hard to excel. It did give me an amazing amount of freedom. My parents and family were happy when I did show up rather than disappointed when I didn’t. I could do the work that I wanted and the studying that interested me rather than strive for a degree. Basically, when expected to fail, I was able to accomplish more than I ever dreamed possible.
Conversely when I exceeded people’s expectations they started expecting more and more. When friends had problems I listened and gave them advice. This resulted in them asking me for advice whenever they had a problem and becoming angry with me if I had something of my own going on. When I made it to every family event and made it a point to spend time with my family, the expectations for how often this would happen climbed…
The more you do the more you’re expected to do.
Not all of this pressure happens externally, we start to expect more from ourselves as well…in this day and age the expectation is that we will drive ourselves to the fullest amount of commitment we can handle.
More and more I am starting to believe that we really just need to relax a bit, do what our spirit moves us to do. If we disappoint others, if we disappoint that inner voice that keeps insisting on what we ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ do then that’s ok. In the long run we are answerable to our own hearts and that of the universe. I am not advocating abandoning all responsibility, if anything I am talking about being totally responsible to our own inner being and to the universe. Exhaustion and feeling like a failure does not equal responsibility at all.
Blessings, G

 

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Museum Peace

 

Museum Peace by G A Rosenberg

 

PlantedPlanted by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – November 5 2012

“Artists are most themselves when they are out of their minds, transcending the ego skirmishes of conceptual thought, and intuitively relinquishing control to the greater Creator”
–Alex Grey, The Inner Artist

 

Letting go, releasing all my bullshit and giving in…letting it flow.. yes…so often I find myself trying to drive and navigate when it doesn’t matter where i go as long as the expression is true…so much needs to come out still..buried passions and shadow stuff that even as I express I tuck away ever playing a game of peak a boo with my own awareness. How lame is that? or if not lame, tame, we tame ourselves, make of our inner spirits the domesticated pets of our own ego and why? to maintain an inner core of what we tell ourselves is sanity when what we really need is madness…can’t we trust ourselves to come down again, trust the guidance of our spirits and that greater Creator? Why can’t we just let go and let God, the inner God that we all are?
Blessings, G

 

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Journey Through the Mind’s Eye by G A Rosenberg

Monochrome Crystal Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 11 2012

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
― Toni Morrison

Roped into the life I lead
occupied but never freed I ask myself
where and why I let the door go
I don’t know
Gave away its view for security
needed to have that surety
yet it never reached within, my sin
was never to believe in my worth
and what’s worse now that I do
to much to see through
commitments
re-fitments
and so the chains tighten
and that door never yields
— G A Rosenberg

It seems tho that even when we can finally claim our freedom, it takes quite awhile longer before we can claim its authorship, a true mark of responsibility.

Blessings, G

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Finding the Exit by G A Rosenberg (2009)

 

Wild Tyger in the Day by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 10 2012

“I’d like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. ”
— Jon Krakauer

 

To me this quote has (at least) two meanings. There is an external one that talks about changing one’s circumstances and taking chances and travelling. There is also an  internal one that deals with changing ones landscape and habits… looking at the old sun in a totally new way That I quite like..
Blessings, G

 

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Green Oasis by G A Rosenberg

 

Rubbed by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 6 2012

“The thirst to be boundless is not created by you. It is just life wishing to know itself.”
– Sadhguru

What is the primary drive? Could it be freedom? Isn’t everything we seek to know and relate our way of going beyond ourselves, exceeding the limitations of not only our bodies but ourselves as well? We free ourselves at birth and from there we free ourselves from helplessness and keep finding other ways of freeing ourselves from ourselves. What is not driven by freedom?
Blessings, G

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Grocking the Earth in its fullness by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – September 27 2012

“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.
We lived in the gaps between the stories.”
― Margaret Atwood

 

Verse spins from the quote :

 

Crawling out from the edges
of the stories you told
You were the star
I was merely the extra or at most
the friend, the lover
there to understand
but not to act
but then once your staged moved on
I found freedom
I could act in any way I chose
I chose…not to act
but to be..
Living and alive
able to see in with insight
and out again
your story moved on but then you came back
only to find I no longer fit your script
but that’s ok
I’ve been too busy living my own

 

Blessings, G

 

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A Prayer For Peace by G A Rosenberg

 

Masqued Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – August 6 2012

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

 

I believe I’ll break one of those rules now. Does a rule exist that when you have a quote, some writing and a picture on a blog entry that they should relate to each other? Is it even customary? It seems difficult when my brain tends to go all over the place so I might have to ask you to bear with me.
A few months ago I read a post on FaceBook about how wonderful life was and someone else commented indicating it was selfish to feel that way when so many suffered, were homeless and others mistreated and tormented. Reading this hit me hard because I felt truth in it and yet…
It’s way too easy to give in to despair, to feel life is too hard too unpleasant and not worth living. Many people seem intent on ruining this life for the rest of us to make it even better for them its true and yet…
In every given day even when shit storms are happening there are countless moments of beauty, a flower, the smile of a baby, the full moon, someone doing a random act of kindness for someone else.
I would not and don’t ever advocate closing our eyes, ears, hearts or minds to the plights of others. I believe compassion to be one of the most important qualities to develop along with love yet if we get so wrapped up in the horrors of the world that we can’t appreciate awesomeness than what’s any of it for? What keeps us going?
So I will admit that all too many of us have really rough lives and help in anyway I can at the moment but I will also say appreciate and love the beauty, the kindness, the love, maybe even just a bit more. It gives us the strength to make life better for everyone.
Blessings, G

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Essence by G A Rosenberg

1 AM Questions (Redux)

So if I take off my art and my quotes and my poems
if i stand exposed before the world
and speak my truth
will anyone care?
and why should that matter?
Do I have a truth worthy of expression?
one that hasn’t been said better by others?
What is my voice?
Can I teach as well as learn?
Can I talk as well as express?

What if I step out from behind my masks
and show nothing?
where does all this fear come from?
Could it be?
that I need to be this open
to heal myself and thus heal others?

How can I counsel jumping to others
without making the leap myself?
Can I let go of fear
and being alone?
Shall this caged bird fly free?
— G A Rosenberg

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Meditation by G A Rosenberg