Month: February 2012

Quote of the Day – February 9 2012

““This is what it is to be human: to see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving — and to act, to strive. This is what it is to be human: to reach forever beyond your grasp. This is what it is to be human: to live forever or die trying. This is what it is to be human: to perpetually ask the unanswerable questions, in the hope that the asking of them will somehow hasten the day when they will be answered. This is what it is to be human: to strive in the face of the certainty of failure. This is what it is to be human: to persist.”
–Spider Robinson

Part of the persistence Spider talks about is how we can pick ourselves up when we’ve fallen. Repeatedly. Over and Over. My mother deified this ability. She called it her Molly after Molly Brown, the character Debbie Reynolds played in the movie “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”. When she told me this (it was a dark time in my life and she told me I could borrow her Molly if I needed to) she referred to the song”Pick myself up , Dust myself off and start all over again”. It took me years to find out that that song actually came from another movie. Still the idea is sound. Thanks Mom. 🙂 . Namaste, G

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Eyesis Veiled by G A Rosenberg

Radiant by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 8 2012

“‎”Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

I believe I’ve mentioned before how attractive I find people with conviction to be. People who believe that they know how the universe works and move along that path, never swaying. Lately I’ve begun to realize that there was an attraction but also a bit of fear and anxiety mixed in. Of late I have watched repeatedly people of conviction challenged by questions, not even opposing viewpoints but questions and instead of taking time to think of an answer or even discus the matter, this group of people dedicated to living in the heart and acting from love went into a feeding frenzy mode that would do any group of sharks proud. They tear into their victims, with derision, mockery and accusations of anything from possession to downright evil intent. Then they would congratulate each other on how non-judgemental and loving they were. It seemed that they did not show judgement on the other person. They discerned them. After all, everyone knows that judgement is a no-no. Apparently discernment is ok. Ah, a rose by any other name…
Without conviction, without absolute certainty in one’s own beliefs, can heresy be possible? How can you reconcile it with Ken Wilber’s belief that “Everyone is right”? Also how can one grow and change if alternative views get shut down? I believe in examining my beliefs as much as possible, to examine what i know now for knowledge from everything I can tell tends to be fluid and absolute truth at least on this level of reality a mathematical limit that one can approach ever closer without ever grocking it completely. Tho I also realize that I too have had and still have some sacred cows and when I feel them challenged I too can be somewhat irrational. Strange tho, I do realize during my more lucid moments that they are my cherished beliefs and like everything else in the book inside my head, may be wrong.
G

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Chamber by G A Rosenberg

Lime Star by G A Rosenberg

New Contest Announcement

My January 2012 gallery : http://grosenberg.wordpress.com/art-gallery-2012/ is now online. Which means it is time for a new

CONTEST

The winner receives a signed print of their favourite picture from this past month

Look through the gallery
Check out any you like by clicking on them and let me know through a comment here which one is your favourite.
Next Monday I’ll choose the winner

Thanks for your support and great comments,
G

Quote of the Day – February 7 2012

“The truth will not necessarily set you free, but truthfulness will.”
— Ken Wilber

Authenticity. What does it mean to be your authentic self. Can you be authentic without revealing a lot of yourself? How much trust does it take to be authentic?
Not only of other people but to be able to be open takes a lot of trust in oneself. If I open myself up and reveal my honest self then I have to believe that what I have to show is worth seeing. Also to accept that people will see the me who i am today as a snapshot not as the movie. I have not yet shown the fullness of who I may become even to myself. Namaste, G

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Four of Swords by G A Rosenberg

Tantric Gateway by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 6 2012

“Home is where one starts from. ”
–T. S. Eliot

I have always found home to be a difficult concept. Not that I come from a particularly unhappy home. For its time in 1960’s and 1970’s United States, I had a fairly typical family life, perhaps more functional and happier than most. Yes my parents were divorced but within seven months they were married to other people.
Due to this restructuring, I moved first from the home I spent my childhood in Connecticut to a new one in New Jersey. A year later we moved again one town over.
This played havoc with my sense of home and for quite awhile I roamed about like a gypsy for the next 3 decades spending anywhere from 3 weeks (my shortest stay) to three and a half years (my longest) with 5 months being about the average.
During this time of instability I felt very rootless. After leaving first my mother’s house (at sixteen) than my father’s (first at seventeen, than at 18) I found pretty quickly that in neither would I ever feel at home again. Not that I was made to feel unwelcome but they were never places I had rooted. It took me many years of searching both internally and externally until I finally gained an idea of what home means, to me at any rate.

Home quite simply means the place I can be centred within myself. Yes, the cliche that home is where the heart is has truth. Except that people tend to look at it in a very two-dimensional sense that it is where you are loved and where you love. In a greater sense tho, I find that home is where I can be loving, I can be centred and I can nurture and be nurtured and finally I feel that I can do this from within myself, my heart centre no matter where I may be located in physical space
I hope to grow to the point where I can do it irrespective of emotional space and mood as well.  Namaste, G

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Circles of Inspiration by G A Rosenberg

Reality Check by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 5 2012

“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.”
–Leonardo Da Vinci

How can we settle down on the farm after we’ve seen the big city? How, once we have gained awareness of space both inner and outer can we be content to settle back in our own heads without wanting to be out again. Yet life becomes a combination of many things, before enlightenment we take out the garbage, after enlightenment we take out the garbage and occasionally during. Still once we have been yanked outside of our earthly life, our eyes will forever look skyward and perhaps within. Namaste, G

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Destination Earth by G A Rosenberg

Healing Indigo (Bat) Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 4 2011

“All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.”
–Carl Jung

Conceive, Believe, Achieve…I love conceptual space. Letting my mind run wild and child-like I reach and grab at any pretty or shiny thing that crosses my minds cape. Sometimes admiring and putting it to use, other times I let it go and wander onto the next thing, not too concerned about distractibility. If something wants to be created, it will be. Sometimes I can call it, other times not so much. Once an idea catches then it becomes times to play. I stretch it out to see if it visually stimulates or if it needs words, then I bend it, warp it, massage it, talk to it, commune and meditate, wrestle and negotiate,question and cogitate until it starts to manifest. Occasionally then a poem or a picture gets created. Other times just a line or two, or perhaps some pretty colours and patterns that will one day contribute to a picture. File it away for later use. Namaste, G

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Reaching Out by G A Rosenberg

Violet Diamond Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 3 2012

‎”In your waking dreams when you are hushed and listening to your deepest self, your thoughts, like snowflakes, fall and flutter and garment all the sounds of your spaces with white silence”
— Kahlil Gibran, Garden of the Prophet

The process of going within; letting my thoughts fall away, watching them gradually growing silent as i watch myself watching eventually the thoughts slow down their clamouring and i watch and listen, echoes of the well, answers to questions and moments of deepest still silence…
lately even when awake my thoughts rush here and there, why i love sometimes just letting my consciousness stream, Proust like and go where they will merely typing their flow onto the screen.
The truth flows in between the 1s and 0s of the computers binary consciousness. That I can agree with for yes and no seem far too limiting as choices. Einstein stated that God does not play dice with the universe. Are we to believe that he plays tic-tac-toe? As I type this, somewhat concurrently I find myself having a conversation with a friend on FaceBook where past and future, memory and imagination are set at a strange juxtaposition to each other. It was just implied to me that the two are one and the same if time is a factor. To me, this gives me interesting insight into my art… Makes manifestation, a child of the two.
Can we manifest without imagination and experience meeting somewhere? If manifestation could occur, then would we be able to perceive it. The mind boggles which in its own way generates silence. Namaste, G

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Blue and Gold by G A Rosenberg

Rivers by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 2 2012

“The universe is an intelligence test.”
–Timothy Leary

If the universe is a test, at least it is an open-book one with many many life-lines. My mind races with this quote taking off running with the metaphor, stretching it, bouncing it and seeing how far I can take it. Would part of life be multiple-choice like those standardized tests we’ve taken in school? How about the essays? Do they really count for more? Do we get some credit just for filling in our names correctly?
Like any metaphor or map, eventually it gets limiting. I could also say that the universe enhances intelligence or that it evokes intelligence calling it out from within us. To take it in another direction the universe can also be thought of as a test of wisdom, heart or internal strength and resilience. Would those be considered forms of intelligence now? In what way does the universe not test us? Ultimately tho we all pass. And like every test, we come thru it with greater understanding and knowledge than we had before. Namaste, G

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Taking Off by G A Rosenberg

Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 1 2012

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
–Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Lately I have been deliberating with myself about how best to use this space. Oh I love having the quote at the top of almost every entry and my latest art at the bottom. It’s this chewy gooey centre of which I am unsure. Of late I’ve been using the quotes as a springboard to talk about whatever comes to mind. About the only condition I give myself is that I write at least 100 words and hopefully not write anything that others will find too boring. If I have any new poetry to share that gets thrown in as well. I’ve heard few complaints and occasionally I get a thoughtful comment for which I feel much appreciation.
I’ve been thinking I might throw in some stories of my past. Either my days hitchhiking or various spiritual practices and groups I’ve found myself a part of at various times in my life. I believe the statue of limitations have run out on most of the stories so that I can share them with impunity. I do worry about boring any potential audience I may have tho.
Another possibility would be to share some tarot card meanings or poetry. I’ve done that before and people seem to enjoy it. I figure I could mix it up a bit, Occasionally feature an astrological aspect, an i ching hexagram, a sephiroth, a deity, basically one of the many spiritual symbols that we’ve come up with throughout time that seem to have resonances or echoes in many cultures.
Possibilites, I see the ocean and long for it. Let’s see what kind of boat we can build. Namaste, G

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Free Falling by G A Rosenberg