Hazy Mirrors

 

“…even a mirror will not show you yourself, if you do not wish to see.”
― Roger Zelazny

 

Mirrors all around me
in every stranger’s eyes
amidst my lover’s thighs
in between truth and lies
and I realize
the reflection has grown dim
How can I see clearly
the parts of me I rarely
interact with sincerely
when it is masked by another
Could it be I’ve grown lazy
or my vision a bit hazy
out of fear that I’ll go crazy
upon gazing at my soul
I maybe somewhat shy
from my self I might hide
calm myself with the lie
that I don’t need to know
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Rising GloryRising Glory by G A Rosenberg

 

After the Tower, Before the StarAfter the Tower, Before the Stary by G A Rosenberg

 

The Lives of Me

 

“I saw my earlier selves as different people, acquaintances I had outgrown. I wondered how I could ever have been some of them.”
— Roger Zelazny

 

There was a boy who felt cut off from the other kids around him. That was ok. He found solace in books and comics. He had an amazing dream life with a continuing cast of characters including a winged lion and a talking cigarette ash. At nine years old he lied about his age and got a paper route. He could be seen trundling down the street with a red wagon filled with papers and his little miniature schnauzer at his side.
There was a teenager at odds with his parents, both sets of them in different states. He wrote depressing poetry abut alienation and lost love. Inspired by Jack Kerouac and Baba Ram Dass he left home with his best friend and hitch hiked and rode busses across the country to California where he joined a religious cult. For the first time in his life he started to believe in something even tho less than a year later, he realized it for the lie it was. Still he had had an experience he couldn’t forget where for a moment he felt connected to everyone and everything in the universe.
There was a young man in his twenties. He had started trying to reconnect with his parents by coming out to them after returning from a hitchhiking trip across country. He moved in with his lover in Boston only to discover that his friend was an alcoholic and ended the relationship after sending him to a place where he would ‘get help’. He was having trouble believing in much of anything yet still kept on with his tarot card readings both for himself and for friends.
I was all three of these and many others. I had different beliefs and different friends and different habits throughout. I can’t relate to some of them anymore yet when I look into the mirror of times past I see and know them all. I might have outgrown them yet I feel a great deal of affection for them. Without them I never would have come into being.
Blessings, G

 

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Projecting OutwardsProjecting Outwards by G A Rosenberg

 

Preparing For the JourneyPreparing For the Journey by G A Rosenberg

 

Serving Stories

 

“No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.”
― Roger Zelazny

 

It’s amazing how a good story can grab us. Especially when the story is our own. We as individuals or as part of a tribe construct our story out of a combination of things that happened and things that were said and things that we wished we had said and done. Over time we refine our story improving it until it is the one that works best for us at the moment whether in getting reactions out of others or in justifying our own action. As time goes on, it is not the events we remember in clarity but the oft repeated words. We may even tell our story long after it has served its purpose even if in the long run it does us harm. If someone who was present at the actual event remembers it differently (after all they have constructed their own narrative, we may become greatly offended. Where in more judicious moments we may see that a greater truth and value may come out of the combination of the stories, all too often we cling to the narrative we have. People can and have gone to war over these conflicting narratives. Families have been broken and lives destroyed merely because of a slight difference in narrative. Does our story still serve us or have we fallen in thrall to the story allowing it to control our reality and how we view ourselves?
I feel it would behoove us to look at our stories especially in cases of conflicting narratives to be sure that they remain useful to us rather than the means by which we perpetuate dysfunction.
Blessings, G

 

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Moth Woman ViewMoth Woman View by G A Rosenberg

 

Welcome3Welcome by G A Rosenberg

 

Textured EmergenceTextured Emergence by G A Rosenberg

 

Trust Your Inner Demon

“Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant -you just don’t know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you’d mapped out for yourself. Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place.
Trust your demon.”
― Roger Zelazny

 

When I read quotes about writing or other forms of creating art, I often pause and consider how it may apply to the art of living itself. For aren’t we creating our lives as we go along? We may be inspired by various thing but ultimately our lives are our creations. Oh we can play it safe as Roger Zelazny here suggests and follow along either the path encouraged by others or by our younger selves. Occasionally tho life manages to surprise us with opportunities or possibilities we’ve never envisioned. Do we jump at them and take the chance or do we say, “No, this is my plan and I’m sticking to it” The choice is ours but it is always good to listen not to the voice of ‘reason’ (not to knock reason, it is what stops us from dancing blindfolded through traffic among other things, but if we did naught but listen to our reason we would miss out on so much) but to our inner voice, that inner spark that guides us. Whether we call it our True Will or our intuition or ‘Divine Guidance’, it tends to bring us the lessons we most need.
Of course, when we take the responsibility of choices made by our own inner guidance, we need to be willing to accept the consequences that may arise. Every decision has consequences tho including the decision not to act.
Blessings, G

 

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OriginsOrigins by G A Rosenberg

 

Spreading His WingsSpreading His Wings by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – January 6 2012

“No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.”
― Roger Zelazny

We use our words to paint reality, not only our own but what we can of other’s worlds as well. What palette do I find available to me today? Well what subjects have come up in conversation and what depth do we find ourselves swimming in. Shallow words stay in primary colours. As we switch to weightier topics, the colours become more muted so as to not overwhelm and become garish. I may also try a finer and more subtle line making suggestions and allusions that direct rather than drag the audience. Namaste, G

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A Storm of Fish by G A Rosenberg

Fantasy Subdued by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 5 2011

“No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.”
― Roger Zelazny

Home again, Home again and the mind wanders all over the place so this might be another collection of random thoughts. I enjoyed Atlanta for the most part. I definitely enjoyed the people there and many of the conversations were great. Every city that I’ve been in has its own personality and Atlanta definitely fits that. However, where some cities such as New York or Chicago go all out in your face, this is me take it or leave it, Atlanta seems to be a lot more restrained. I can see it taking a while to get to know Atlanta and its people and that is only if one is not too presumptuous. Nothing can kill courtship of person or city faster than assumptions of what they are like and expectations that they’ll live up to it. Perhaps part of this relates to the conversation about looking where the answer lies not where the light is bright..

Still contemplating the occupy movement, the points on which I agree with the basic principle and the points on which I differ. I like the attention it has brought to some of the egregious actions and policies of the institutions that affect our lives daily. I am much less sure of the group think, group speak collectiveness that tends to form around its ‘no leaders’ policies. I believe that social change is happening as the greedheads hoard more and many are left with less and less. But it is individuals that build a system. If we take away individuality at the price of collectivism than something of value is lost, More on these ideas as they cook a bit
Namaste –GAR

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To Enter the Spiral by G A Rosenberg