Month: October 2013

Fear Knot

 

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
― Jim Morrison

 

Does our fear tie us in knots? If it does are we like a shoelace or other knotted chord with one central fear that once unraveled and exposed automatically make the rest much easier to deal with. If so then it would be of benefit to explore and find what that fear is and slowly take it apart. After that we deal with the next biggest fear knot (fear not?) and so on until eventually just like a child’s shoe lace that at first seems hopelessly snarled and tangled we end with just a neat tie…
Blessings, G

 

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FlowingFlowing by G A Rosenberg

 

The BIg DunkThe Big Dunk by G A Rosenberg

Build Me Your Myth

 

“Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.”
― Joseph Campbell

 

Bring me a story
Build on your myth
Open to wonder
surrender to bliss.

Show me an image
Strike me a chord
Play on my symbols
Strike with your sword.

Take on new depths
with new clarity
to inner resources
the lock and the key

Show me my shadow
and I’ll reveal yours
no part of our being
held in reserve

Meld with my being
Unite us as one
Let long night bring us
to brilliant new sun

— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

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Free Your MindFree Your Mind by G A Rosenberg

 

Lost in the FlamesLost in the Flames by G A Rosenberg

Compassion and Pity

 

“While pity shows a lack of respect for other human beings, compassion has its roots in a deep respect for others. Pity is an emotion; compassion is a connection. Compassion sees the other as equal. Compassion happens when we care for another person enough to make his or her problems our own.”
― Matt Litton

 

In the past couple of weeks I have met people who have presented me with an interesting paradox. They simultaneously demand both pity and respect and tho I try hard I just can’t do it. Oh I can feel compassion for them easily enough. I know their lives and know that while they have it rough, so much of their suffering is self-inflicted. Yet they don’t seem to wish for their suffering to end as much as they want people to feel sorry for them and take care of them. Then they resent the people helping them and push them away and then berate their would be benefactors for their lack of respect and bemoan their fate. It’s a cycle that’s rough.
But then we humans are a contrary lot and often the major things we have to work out end up paradoxical in some way. Whether we need self-esteem, connection or openness, we find the oddest ways to stop ourselves from getting them. May all beings be released from suffering indeed. Especially that which we inflict on ourselves.
Blessings, G

 

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Emperor's FoundationEmperor’s Foundation by G A Rosenberg

 

StarheartStarheart by G A Rosenberg

Abundance, Appreciation & Gratitude

 

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”
― Anthony Robbins

 

In the past when I’ve heard the word abundance, I thought of it as being an embarrassment of riches. As much money as I might want to have, as much great tasting healthy food as I might want to eat and all my needs taken care of. In that I was at least half right. It does mean having as much as is needed or wanted yet its amazing how much the scale slides down. If I can learn to appreciate and savour a walk in the evenings with my dogs or a conversation with either an old friend or someone new and interesting than the definition of an abundant amount of entertainment changes quite quickly. If I stay active and put effort into enjoying my life (even the less than fun parts) then I am less likely to look to food to fill my time or elevate my mood and so the amount of food needed to have abundance changes. If I am grateful for everything that comes my way in life then the chances of me slowing down long enough to experience it increases and I realize that with relatively little, I can be abundantly satisfied
Blessings, G

 

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Rising of the ForceRising of the Force by G A Rosenberg

 

Moving ForwardMoving Forward by G A Rosenberg

Consequences

 

“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.”
― Michel Foucault

 

I have a talent for self-justification that surprises me at times. I find that I can rationalize my actions with the best of them. Eventually tho around the hundredth time that I lashed out in anger at someone and said the exact thing that would cause the most pain and then saw the distress they were in, it occurred to me that even if I understood the why, I needed to become more aware of the consequences. Words can hurt. Actions can sting and if we can’t anticipate the cost than we need to avoid antee ing ourselves into ply.
Blessings, G
 

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Juggler ClownEnergy Juggler, Clown by G A Rosenberg

 

FlashMind Flash by G A Rosenberg

Playing With a Full Deck

 

“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”
― Madeleine L’Engle

 

Another trip around the sun has passed. Funny, how the one thing that seems to be happening with each year is that it becomes easier to choose happiness. It may seem cliché yet it becomes more and more obvious that bad moments don’t last so then it becomes a matter of how long we want to dwell in them and that particular flavour of masochism lost its appeal a long time ago. I get my kicks more in calm to enjoyment end of the spectrum now. The trick this past year is balancing that awareness with the knowledge that there are people suffering and work to be done to make life on this planet better for everyone. I have given up feeling that I must suffer to feel compassion for the suffering of another. Yes it hurts to see someone hurting yet I would rather help to relieve what pain I can and feel that joy. In the long run anything that adds to mankind’s total happiness cannot be a bad thing. Of course I still have much to learn but now at 52 I have a deck of years to shuffle.
Blessings, G

 

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PavillionPavilion by G A Rosenberg

 

Taking Myself For a SpinTaking Myself For a Spin by G A Rosenberg

Just Desert

 

“They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars—on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.”
― Robert Frost

 

Do we all carry different territories within us? Do we have the oft-traveled city streets crowded where one aspect melts into another and we can easily lose site of ourselves given all the different opportunities to be someone at least slightly different? Are there rural areas where life is abundant and we find quiet peace while we grow and know that we are not afraid of hard work as long as we can see the result spreading out in front of us. Do I have inside me a suburb where everything is pre-fab and the same outwardly placid inwardly chaotic face is shown to all. I believe I contain all of those but deep within me as well are the desert places.
I believe we’ve all experienced the desert inside of us at least once. The places that we would call empty tho in reality they are teaming with life, tho its a bit subtler and wilder. Here we are stripped down to our essentials and there is nowhere to hide. We find every ounce of ugliness inside us but also every ounce of will we have to survive. I can handle the ordeal of the desert tho I will never take it for granted for there I find myself.
Blessings, G

 

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Layers and LevelsOutside the 3 D Maze by G A Rosenberg

 
 

Lava Lamp MandalaLava Lamp Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Irrational- Thought stream.

 

“The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence rather a condition of it”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

 

The most beautiful things often make the least sense (thinking of flowers, children’s smiles, long tails on dogs, double rainbows, pi and pie and I could go on and know that some people could argue the sense and sensibility of the above yet I will sing loudly offkey beautifully that it does’t matter one wit. Rationality can only take you so far… It is a very useful servant but as a master it doesn’t even have a health plan. Is a thought of a unicorn a real thought and on what level do our symbols become real to us… All of these potential realities that we feed and water with our thoughts, hopes, prayers and nightmares, which will materialize? Which will we choose?
Blessings, G

 

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Eye of the Night2Eye of the Night by G A Rosenberg

 

Mermaid's chamberMermaid’s Chamber by G A Rosenberg