“The world’s a puzzle; no need to make sense out of it.” – Socrates”
― Dan Millman
Sometimes we can get so caught up in the planning of our lives that we never get around to living them. All too often, We map out how things will be. we leave no room for the spontaneous, the miraculous, the unexpected serendipitous something which whether it be a sunrise or an adventure can add shades of meaning to our lives. We don’t need to know everything. Chances are tho we learn more and more that we cannot know everything. So we may as well enjoy both the possibilities and the mystery of life. We never know when a spontaneous wrong turn can lead to a new adventure.
Blessings, G
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The End Looks Onto a New Beginning by G A Rosenberg
“Take me with you. For laughs, for luck, for the unknown. Take me with you.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
We make a splendid band of travellers
Caught in our own explorations
and then comparing notes
talking about the strange places
that this one or that one had been to
and the bizarre things they’ve done
along the way
Still in all the voices in my head
I listen for the biggest gems
of self-discovery and renewal come from the least expected places..
I listen to the drumming, the strange rhythms
and I dance to the beat
I hear a new land calling
without, within, without, within
Mobius Striped
I journey once more…
— G A Rosenberg
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Casting a Shadow by G A Rosenberg
Constructing a Matrix of Possibilities by G A Rosenberg
“If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I reach out to the best that is in you for that is what I seek to nurture. You shine like the sun. You are compassionate and whole and with you I can speak my heart. You know my struggles for you have struggled to and we celebrate each other’s successes. You are limitless and beautiful. You face your shadow self without fear, dance with it and unite. As I see you this way, you become it. Is that the secret? Shall I treat myself as if I am what I am capable of and so enable myself further along the path? It is worth a try. Imagine what a transformative experience it could be if we all were to try this for one day and then let it continue as it would.
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Dreamscape XVIII by G A Rosenberg
Random Order With Glimpses of Beauty by G A Rosenberg
“Don’t try to hurry,” he said. “You’ll know in due time and then you will be on your own, by yourself.” “Do you mean that I won’t see you any more, don Juan?” “Not ever again,” he said. “Genaro and I will be then what we always have been, dust on the road.” I had a jolt in the pit of my stomach. “What are you saying, don Juan?” “I’m saying that we all are unfathomable beings, luminous and boundless. You, Genaro and I are stuck together by a purpose that is not our decision.” “What purpose are you talking about?” “Learning the warrior’s way. You can’t get out of it, but neither can we. As long as our achievement is pending you will find me or Genaro, but once it is accomplished, you will fly freely and no one knows where the force of your life will take you.” “What is don Genaro doing in this?” “That subject is not in your realm yet,” he said. “Today I have to pound the nail that Genaro put in, the fact that we are luminous beings. We are perceivers. We are an awareness; we are not objects; we have no solidity. We are boundless. The world of objects and solidity is a way of making our passage on earth convenient. It is only a description that was created to help us. We, or rather our reason, forget that the description is only a description and thus we entrap the totality of ourselves in a vicious circle from which we rarely emerge in our lifetime.”
― Carlos Castaneda
Breaking through the skin
I crack the shell of my life
the ongoing show in which I act
giving importance to things that never were.
Free of the things that ‘matter’
matter not
surrendering the pull of false emotions
and the endless mind traps that i set myself.
Liberation is bliss yet even that is but the inner face
Conscious existence is all that remains
The Being Now
“Most of us are only willing to call 5% of our present information into question any one point.”
― Ken Wilber
What if everything we know is wrong? What if the universe is very different than we have always believed it to be? Why is it so difficult to change our viewpoints? Indeed it seems at times that we go out of our way to avoid stating what our viewpoints are. I know that I have been guilty of this. Despite this reluctance, we so identify with our points of view that we defend them as if they were something precious, a bedrock to stand on rather than a coin to be paid for something clearer and closer to visceral truth. I will trade any viewpoint I have for one that makes more sense. If that makes me sound wishy-washy than so be it. I am more than my ideas and stances and more and more I learn what that is.
Blessings, G
“Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.”
― E.M. Forster
all too often when people have attempted to teach me something, they teach it by rote a bit at a time. How much better it would be if they were to present something fully and let me reason it out or plant seeds of understanding and show me how to grow them. It seems all too often people are in the habit of imparting knowledge instead of fostering understanding. This is somewhat akin to JFK’s famed expression of feeding a man fish rather than teaching them how to fish. By showing someone pathways to understanding, they can not only gain tools that will help them in all areas of their life but they will be able to grasp what they are being shown in a much more visceral way.
Blessings, G
“Maturity is not when we start speaking big things, it is when we start understanding small things.”
— Aamir Khan
Each age brings its own Maturity. At least that is the way it has been for me. At fifteen many of us believe that we are mature and that we know and understand it all. We believe that we are ready for any test that life can give us and (at least in our minds) we believe that we speak and act like adults. We pronounce on the universe and our place in it.
In our twenties, many of us start to question our beliefs. Indeed we may question whether we know anything for sure. s. Life starts to test us and we find that things may not be as easy as we once thought. The questioning can often be the beginning of new wisdom.
In our thirties, we my come to an appreciation of more subtle things. We refine our beliefs or become fixed in them. We seek to expand our knowledge and our power. As we watch the generation before ours age we may start to question our mortality.
In our forties and beyond some of us once again question wheat we know and indeed whether it is possible to know. We come to an appreciation of the more subtle things in life and appreciate the many gifts that we have been given. We realize that we don’t have the life we expected to have but what we have is in many ways brighter and richer. We learn patience from our children, our partners, our coworkers and our parents. If we haven’t learned it yet, we learn that there is life beyond ours and it will continue after we are gone.
I can’t wait to see what happens next Note: When I use the word ‘know’ in the above, I mean an experiential understanding beyond the intellectual. Something akin to what Heinlein meant when he used the term ‘grock’.
Blessings, G
“The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.”
― Anne Lamott
Back in the meditative mountains. Thoughts of surrendering the parts of myself I have no control over (onto Nuit) to the universe and just getting on with it all. That too may have to be surrendered. Until then I have the beauty of some of the most amazing scenery and my family and yes lots of good books, snacks and magazines. I have no end of things to be grateful for both small and large and gratitude I have. Still I asked for this trip to be an internal one as well as external and it has been. I have been exploring my vulnerability this week and feeling it and that has been a good thing.
When it comes to any kind of development baby steps are not only ok, they may be essential.
We are already there and miles to go before I sleep are both true and the paradox is as beautiful as any mountain pass.
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Art:
Abstract C by G A Rosenberg
Photograph:
Stormy Afternoon in Canadian Rockies
Memory:
The Burden of Holding On to Tight by G A Rosenberg
“But why think about that when all the golden lands ahead of you and all kinds of unforseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you’re alive to see?”
― Jack Kerouac
Tales of the road continue. Leaving behind the Athabasca river, we’ve moved on to the city streets of Edmonton, Alberta. My thoughts and emotions have taken on a bit of concreteness as well. It is a strange mixture of gratitude for the journey and all that I’ve seen (both life journey and the subset of this trip) and feelings of unfulfilment and frustration with where I am at right now. These things stay transitory for I never despair of life’s ability to surprise in some pretty amazing ways. I am hoping that my travels this month and the accompanying inner journey will help me to resolve a bit and perhaps map out a bit of the next period of my life. It feels as if in someways I have reached a standstill and need to find ways to push myself forward into a new cycle. I know it will come it always does.
Blessings, G
The End Looks Onto a New Beginning by G A Rosenberg 
Indigo Coin Ripples by G A Rosenberg 
