“Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Hurt me a little
Rain on me paindrops
that won’t melt
under morning’s light
The tears streaming down
for I exposed my soft areas
open to your wit’s knife
and I say “again”
Make me bleed my weakness
Let me love my strength
through its absence
the teardrop of blood
slides softly down my face
leaving a trail
as another gathers in my eye
causing a scattered prism
A painbow in my eyes.
— G A Rosenberg
“I did not know how to reach him, how to catch up with him… The land of tears is so mysterious.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
You watched in silence
your old home torn apart
not one word spoken
I didn’t know what to say
and you
you showed nothing
one tear washed down your cheek
and it was over
I would have saved that tear
like a precious gem
or kissed it away
The tears we shed in silence
the blood of emotion escapes
and it is gone
leaving only echoes
somewhere in our soul
Tho you cried
somehow it was shared
tho I couldn’t touch you
and the release
like the memory
is gone.
— G A Rosenberg
“I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
File this one under I should have known the gun was loaded. Facebook can be an interesting place where we find ourselves in the cause of making a point defending things we disagree with. Recently an acquaintance on FB (a FB acquaintance is a friend whom you don’t have much conversation with other than occasionally liking a posting by them) got himself in trouble with many people by admitting publicly in several places that he felt an attraction for young women. He did not say he ever acted on it. He just admitted to having a fetish for it. He chose among other places to post this in a bunch of groups that are associated with the Anonymous movement. One of Anonymous’s big targets is pedophiles so it was rather like wearing a gestapo uniform to a synagogue. He rather enjoyed the blowup on his profile page with assorted death threats and harangues.
I believe in protecting kids from pedophiles. It is not a crime I find condonable. Yet to me the idea of attacking someone for what they think, particularly something that they cannot help is rather a waste of time. Would I ever let him babysit for me or anyone else? I definitely would not. Do I think that he should be lauded for making such a statement? No and yet I would rather have someone identify themselves as a possible predator than to keep it secret. It would be so much easier to keep my family safe if everyone labeled themselves like household products. “Danger: May mug you.”
“Do not combine this person with alcohol”
“Texts while driving”
“Psychopathic Serial Killer”
“May be attracted towards children”
Anybody with enough self-knowledge to label themselves has saved me the trouble of trying to discern possible danger. Are they a hero? Hell no, but at least they are warning you. So many people don’t.
Kids these days in the west are raised to be incredibly savvy about this stuff. Between media and school, they are well aware of stranger danger. This is so much the case that at times I get concerned that they are raised with too much fear and paranoia. I grew up in a friendly neighbourhood and miss the fact that they are somewhat a thing of the past. Now a friendly hello to anyone may be looked upon with suspicion. Yes western civilization children are probably safer than they have been in any time in history and yet there is a price in fear and freedom that is paid for the security. It is a good balance to keep in mind.
Anyway in the conversation, I attempted to point out that this guy had committed no crime merely identified an impulse that could be considered unhealthy and that it was not worth the time and emotional energy to attack him. Of course this led to suspicion towards me (and another guy saying much the same thing) for ‘defending’ him. The next three hours of my time was spent defending a point of view I only half believed in against people who were listening to their emotions more than they were understanding any points I made.
I wasn’t defending the man. I was defending the idea that someone can’t be persecuted when a crime has not been committed. Who, reading this has not had thoughts that if acted on, would land us in prison or make us pariahs of society? We all have our shadow and our time is better spent working on ourselves than attacking others. It is all to easy to point fingers at the shit heads of the world as a way to avoid looking at our own stuff.
If we feel that a crime is beyond the pale then do things to either help the victims or prevent the crimes. Persecuting someone who is looking for the attention is feeding these impulses and not preventing them. A better form of prevention is to help these people work through their issues so they don’t end up acting out. That is not something that will happen on Facebook.
So lessons learned. If you stand in between a witch hunt and its target, you will become a target yourself. You can’t force people to see a bigger picture or to think critically. Mores the pity.
Blessings, G
“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
What have you tamed? Have you tamed your restless spirit and let it find a home? Have you tamed your mind ever exploding in a million directions with ideas that seem either equally good or preposterous depending on your mood? Have you tamed another and made them a pet? Who so takes responsibility for another rather than teaching them to be responsible for themselves?
I tamed my wandering nature…and taught it to stay still.
I tamed my despair…allowing it to leave as it came and myself to know it did not have to tray.
I tamed my anger…learning how to express it.
so many parts still run wild within me. For I am not ready to take responsibility for them.
My inertia I blame on distractions.
My envy I blame on the accomplishment of others.
my lack of focus i blame on so much being so interesting.
One day I will take ownership and even that ownership I will tame.
I know that true power comes from responsibility and is a byproduct thereof
I just have to allow myself that power..
Blessings, G
“Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Courage takes many forms. For some it may mean doing something for the first time. For others it may be attempting something that they don’t believe they can be successful at. Courage can also be daring to step outside the truths that they have always accepted and daring to see the world in a new way even if that somehow invalidates what they have always believed. For my money though, the bravest act is when we open ourselves up to another person. This often involves pain for when we do this, we become vulnerable. We expose the armour of constructed self and let the other inside where all our wounds lie open to examination. They see us in our truest form. Would that we could lose that armour altogether and open ourselves up in love to the universe in that way, ever present, ever vulnerable. In our vulnerability we may become more than we have ever been before.
Blessings, G
“I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings.” -from the Fox-”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
If I could paint you a picture with words
If I could let you see the sunrise
of my meaning
and realize
it may be different from yours
but our hearts still beat together.
Please don’t take absolute definitions
from what I say
you’d never do that from my painting
merely see interpretation and energy
and that is what I give you
We may never understand each other
if words get in the way
let my heart speak to yours
Hang me on the wall of memory
and observe my meanings
like art
— G A Rosenberg
“No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected. To live is to be slowly born.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
In each moment we are reborn to the person we will become. Both child and midwife, father and mother as every moment before inseminates our awareness of our future being. If its so that As above, so below, than the universe itself is eternally being born. Since each moment leads from the one before, tho we may be strange to ourselves (and definitely to others) we are never as strange as we may believe. What truly matters is being who we are at any given time for that is most becoming.
Blessings, G
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
I build my house
with dreams of rock and
feet of clay
and wonder why little emerges
I once dreamed of clouds
and built towers high on illusion
and watched them shatter
I shifted then to practical things
adding brick after brick
in random patterns
the mosaic was pretty enough
but not functional
How do I mix my dream materials
with my life substance
to erect something fulfilling?
As long as I keep building
and dreaming
the hope remains strong
— GAR
“if you want to build a ship, dont drum up the people to collect wood and dont assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
It seems to be out of fashion to love life on this planet. Everywhere we turn, we can discover new reasons why life is difficult and injustice abounds everywhere. There is definitely a lot of selfishness and shallowness and exploitation of others everywhere we look and that can all too easily take the joy out of life. Yet… this world is beautiful and life holds the potential for magick. If we choose to focus on this beauty and the love and see that than we can find ourselves living the old native blessing, “Walk in Beauty” This does not mean that we forget the ugliness or that we fail to move beyond it not only within ourselves but within the world as well. It is a matter of finding that balance and never forget to long for the immensity of existence in all its qualities.
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Nighttime Memories of Those Who Have Gone Before Us by G A Rosenberg
“People where you live,” the little prince said, “grow five thousand roses in one garden… yet they don’t find what they’re looking for…
They don’t find it,” I answered.
And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water…”
Of course,” I answered.
And the little prince added, “But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Why can what we find be found in one rose but not in five thousand? Why is it that we pass hundreds of people every day and yet there is only one that makes our heart sing in a certain way? How can we read every holy book, every self-help manual and every book of philosophy out there and yet one question from a child can reveal more universal secrets than any of them?
There is no answer to these questions that cannot be gainsaid or argued. The true answer is in the asking itself. There are questions that the heart asks out of its experience that the brain is not equipped to answer for it is far beyond the mind’s subjectivity.
I am just at the edge of knowing courage enough to write about these questions and returning to the heart’s vision. I have owned my inner scarecrow and inner tin woodman, the lion has been on his way. Our inner depths stir calling to us, and we fear their shadows. Yet we can steer through them also when we are guided by our heart’s voice and vision.
Blessings, G
Shadows Outside the Box by G A Rosenberg
Mysterious Pathways by G A Rosenberg 
