The Lazy Mask

 

“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

 

Identity is a slippery thing. We spend so much of our time trying to find an identity, building it out of what we admire in others and what we read along with bits and scraps of what shines through from our real beings. Sometimes we find a label that attracts us. It may be a spiritual, political, sexual or genre affiliation yet it draws us in so much that we attempt to remake ourselves into everything that that label portends. This may be fun for awhile but ultimately we may find that in assuming the mask, that we have lost ourselves. We may find ourselves taking on attitudes that are far from any that we would choose on our own, ones we may have once found abhorrent all in the name of what we would have ourselves become. That’s the problem with taking what I consider a lazy way out. In the long run it may be more arduous and time-consuming to pick and choose what qualities most draw us from all the potential labels and so become our true self but by doing so we drastically lower the risk of getting stuck in a mask that is not ourselves.
Blessings, G

 

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AnimaAnima by G A Rosenberg

 

Wounded HeartThe Wounded Heart by G A Rosenberg

 

Wise?

 

“Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else … Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
— Hermann Hesse

 

Wisdom is an elusive thing at best. It is not something that time gives you (would that it were). There are people of all ages who still insist on being grounded in their own unrecognized ignorance. It’s not something that can be given at all tho it is something that can accumulate around one. Wisdom is not a constant, often there are those who are wise in somethings at sometimes and foolish in others. The most important thing about wisdom that I’ve learned is that it is not something that anyone can claim for themselves, it is something that only another or others can recognize. I have an inherent mistrust of anyone who calls themselves wise. Tho I do believe we can often find wisdom in the words of another,even if the words are spoken by a fool.
Blessings, G

 

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ReckoningReckoning by G A Rosenberg

 

Wheels and SurrealsWheels and Surreals by G A Rosenberg

 

Eternal Demands

 

“Dear God, I want it all: the depths, the heights.”
— Theodore Roethke

 

Prayers to shell games
deific masques wishing for the extremes
and gaining them only
for the middle to drop out
I thought if I had the highs and the lows
I’d have it all
yet it is in the mid-ranges I thrive
Striving to understand
striving to learn
Striving to live
and missing the plot
that my life is scattered around me
the discarded and discarnate pieces
waiting to be picked up.
the wide ranges are great
agony and ecstasy
yet so easy to lose the plot
the context in which they all make sense
I want the colours and the greys
foreground and background to
and the key to make them fit.
Not out of a sense of greed
but of commitment to knowing the all
One eternity or another will be just time enough
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Hazy PastsHazy Pasts, Hazy Paths by G A Rosenberg

 

Scarabic TiesScarabic Ties by G A Rosenberg

 

Choices and Responsibility

 

“Choices may be unbelievably hard but they’re never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that’s not how a person with integrity acts.”
― Patrick Ness

 

There are always choices whether they be good, bad or indifference. We choose to act in one of several ways or not act at all and each choice influences our trajectory in a different way. That trajectory will lead off into several different choices and several ways. If only we could see clearly ahead on the path our choices will lead us. Alas even with guidance we make the choices we do and then with hindsight we may see how each choice has led us to here. We can accept the responsibility for our choices and use the insight to guide the next ones we make. Learning from our missteps is possible and I have even known it to happen once or twice in my own life. Denying our culpability tho is to make ourselves a victim, helpless to the whim of others or to some agent of fate itself. Not everything is necessarily our fault but it does come from our choices.
Blessings, G

 

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FallingFalling by G A Rosenberg

 

1-BaelBael (#1 in goetia series) by G A Rosenberg

 

ConvergenceConvergence by G A Rosenberg

 

The Leave It Alone Rap

 

“There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.”
― William S. Burroughs

 

Everybody wants to get you on side
they want you to climb in their ride
see their point and be their point man
don’t let you disagree, they want a fan
to fight off their perceived attackers
and whack all their conceived packers
but you just want to watch the game
know the two sides just the same
the drama’s unfolding and you’re just holding
on to your freedom of thought
know their’s a draught
of people just being
and maybe seeing that
no one side is right
you scream “leave me alone”
I’m not your clone
I just want to go home
this has gotten tired
and I fell pretty wired
just watching the drama you create.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Abstract Journey 23Abstract Journey #23 by G A Rosenberg

 

Inside the HiveInside the Hive by G A Rosenberg

 

Life, Free of Hope, Free of Despair

 

“Write a little every day, without hope, without despair.”
— Isak Dinesen

 

Hope is easy. We all dream of what we may accomplish one day or what we would like to have in our lives that may not be there as yet. Yet hope is just a vision. We have to be willing to work to make the hopes happen or at least to provide space in our lives for their fulfilment. All too often we become so busy hoping for things to get better that we forget to do anything else.
When our hopes don’t become immediately gratified or when they get dashed too many times, it is all too easy to give way to despair. We fear that our dreams will never come true and that things will stay as they are without improvement. That too is an illusion for change is a constant and things (or at least how we feel about them) will improve and worsen in their cycle. Yet when despair has us by the neck it becomes all too easy to give up on life and spend our time wallowing in it.
If we could give up on both hope and despair then we can actually live our lives, doing what we can to improve them or other things that oft if they are interesting enough keep us too busy to either aimlessly hope or mindlessly despair. Who knows maybe without the emotional roller coaster that these two horses take us on, we can actually start making our dreams come true.
Blessings, G

 

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Manifesting ShadowsManifesting Shadows by G A Rosenberg

 

A New UnderstandingA New Understanding by G A Rosenberg

 

True Direction

 

“My real self wanders elsewhere, far away, wanders on and on invisibly and has nothing to do with my life.”
— Hermann Hesse

 

I read the above quote and wonder whether it is true for everyone. Are most of us truly that divorced from our true selves (whether we wish to call it our souls or our Holy Guardian Angel or any other choice of metaphor.) I know that there have been times in my life when I have felt the presence of my true self, that part of me that connects to the greater spiritual universe. I also know that having had a taste of it, I have attempted to live my life in such a way that I could connect with it again and as often as possible with some moderate success. Granted this is not easy and so much of life does seem divorced from the touch of that higher being and yet the more I reach it whether through meditation, magick, yoga or creativity the more my life takes on truer hue and colour and the more I abandon those parts of my life where I feel unable to touch it at all. For if my real self does travel elsewhere than that is the direction I wish to travel in myself.
Blessings, G

 

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Hellhound and the AngelHellhound and the Angel by G A Rosenberg

 

What Strange BeastWhat Strange Beast by G A Rosenberg