“Only he who is well prepared has any opportunity to improvise.”
― Ingmar Bergman
Preparing to improvise
Making it up as I go along
but staying within defined lines
Investigating new boxes to jump in
for a moment or a lifetime
that lasts five minutes.
You might think a chameleon like fool
would find that easy
yet I am used to longer playtimes
Can I shift and find my way each time?
Yet each who am I this time
lends knowledge to who I am for eternity
so I will build my lines as I go
and by becoming someone new
become myself
— G A R
“Everything in life is miraculous. It rests within the power of each of us to awaken from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness.”
― James Branch Cabell
Quite often, we find ourselves unable to see just how amazing life is. From time to time we all end up going through shit and it can get to feeling rough. Loved ones pass and relationships fail. We deal with ill-health and loss of jobs and it can feel pretty dark both inside and out. However if we could look at those dramas from an outside perspective, they can look quite different. I think of some of the rough things I’ve gone through and survived and there is beauty there. Painful beauty has taught me much. It has given me an appreciation for the good moments and has made them sweeter. They are the downside turn of a wheel that is exquisite in all the flavours of life. If all we had was pleasant then we would take the worst moments of that pleasantness and call it hell. If all we had was misery then the best moments of that would be joy. Life it seems grades on a curve.
If there is truth to the idea of reincarnation (which I tend to lean towards most days) then this perspective gains even more currency. It would follow that we would go for the full experience deal and want one of every life possible. If reincarnation is not true than for me either through books or through appreciation of the lives of others, it would be much the same. I would want to vicariously experience as much as possible as to gain the fullest experience possible. At times this has exposed me to some terrible pain both for myself and for others. I would rather experience all extremes, joy, pain and as much as possible in between then be limited to only my one existence. How can I understand others if I limit myself to even the happiest of lives?
Blessings, G
“Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.”
― Neil Gaiman
I used to believe that people could be divided into those who were asleep and those who were awake. I used to feel, beneath the surface perhaps but still there like I was better than the majority of humanity in their slumber concerned about what seems to be inane things. At some point and I don’t even recall that this point had a defining moment it dawned on me that awareness is not a binary on/off switch but something akin to a dimmer switch. Everyone who I have ever met is somewhere on this continuum. I don’t know that I have ever met anyone either completely 100% asleep or anyone who was 100% awake. I doubt I ever will. In people who seemed the deadest and dimmest to me, I have seen glimmers of perception and kindness that astonished me. In those whom I have found the most ‘enlightened’ I have seen pride, arrogance and self-deception. I suspect that a fully turned on consciousness and a physical body are basically incompatible much like an adult trying to fit into a uniform or costume that they wore as children.
I have also found that while it may seem relatively easy to discern the point someone has reached on their path, appearances can be and often are deceiving. I have seen people who espouse ideas that seem relatively naive in a political sense or in terms of their interests yet they hold this deep compassion and understanding of others that I have not always seen in those who aspire to be spiritual teachers. This could of course be a fault of my own perception yet it has taught me to be weary of snap judgements. This is another example perhaps of seeing others not as they are but as I am.
Blessings, G
“You are remembered for the rules you break.”
–Douglas MacArthur
Often in order to live our lives in the way that is truest to our selves we have to break the rules. It may be by how and who we love, how we learn or sometimes just by the act of being in countries that would rather we didn’t. Oh there are more prosaic rule breaking that happens every day. If laws are passed telling us we can’t collect fresh rainwater or that we can’t grow certain kinds of food on our property, then chances are that if that is what we wish to do that is what we’ll do. There are so many laws and ordinances in the countries in which most of us live that it is nigh impossible to go a day without violating one rule or another. Thus is life in a world where “Everything not forbidden is compulsory and everything that is not compulsory is forbidden” seems to become closer with each passing month. Yet the most important rule to me is that of living according to one’s truest nature. As long as we do this than any other rule becomes secondary. As Bob Dylan said, “To live outside the law, you have to be honest.”
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Somewhat Platonic Fractal Campfires by G A Rosenberg
“There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky.”
― Dejan Stojanovic
Nature is so easy to talk to
away from human ears
I can speak my heart
conveying in song and story
everything inside unfettered.
Much better tho
when in silence I listen
Everything speaks in its course
the wind whispers and roars
the ocean sings a song to the moon
while crickets provide rhythm
Birds screech and hoot and the leaves rustle
each advising me in their way
they harmonize in a way I’ve yet to learn.
As I hear the perfect expression of their being
I begin to act in kind.
— G A Rosenberg
Hearts and Thorns by G A Rosenberg 
