Commitment

 

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery and isolation. Isolation is a gift… All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it… And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds… and it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”
~ Charles Bukowski

 

This year, for a number of reasons I have decided to work on my physical aspect. Over the last couple of rather taxing years, I had let myself become rather sedentary and ate a lot of my frustrations. I had started smoking again and was up to over a pack a day. So once January hit, I decided I would take action.
1) January – I quit smoking cold turkey.
2) February – Diet and more activity. I stopped eating by eight PM. I stopped eating cheese. I started drinking lots of tea both to suppress appetite and to clean the body. I walked 10,000 Steps a day. I lost about 13 lbs and achieved my goal weight for the month.
3) March – Continue Diet and increase exercise. I am up to 15 pushups twice a day. I have been riding my bike every day that the sun allows. I am up to 12,000 steps a day. While weight loss has slowed a bit I feel my body regaining its overall form.
These might seem like some what minimal goals. I purposefully chose goals that would not result in injury. I have, in the past, overcommitted and ended up unable to exercise at all and I wanted this to all be doable. It hasn’t just been a matter of extensive effort but that of committed every day constant effort and it is paying off. The next steps will be a yoga class and the gym at least 3 times a week. One step at a time
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Serpents ArenaSerpent’s Arena by G A Rosenberg

 

Cancer RisingCancer Rising by G A Rosenberg

 

Cheese Gratings

 

“I should think that many of our poets, the honest ones, will confess to having no manifesto. It is a painful confession but the art of poetry carries its own powers without having to break them down into critical listings. I do not mean that poetry should be raffish and irresponsible clown tossing off words into the void. But the very feeling of a good poem carries its own reason for being… Art is its own excuse, and it’s either Art or it’s something else. It’s either a poem or a piece of cheese.”
—Charles Bukowski

 

Sometimes it is good to throw my words into the void. It is the one time when there is no echo so I don’t have to hear the same distortions that seem to plague me when I speak to others or even carry words into my own head. Indeed things that enter the void tend to disappear for good so what better place is there to get rid of things one no longer wants. Oddly enough tho since the void is also the fount of creativity, what comes back from such an exchange is often worth so much more. Indeed it may be the best conceptual recycling and renewal program ever. Yet it has such a bad rap tho I guess most people are somewhat weary of the whole losing things forever idea. Yet the risks are worth it
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Unfolding FlowUnfolding Flow by G A Rosenberg

 

Alchemical FlameAlchemical Flame by G A Rosenberg

 

Blind Rhyme That’s Somewhat Reassuring

 

“The best advice I’ve ever received: ‘no one else knows what they are doing either.’
— Charles Bukowski

 

Pretending to know
what its about
Backing it up
knowing no doubt
Fearing that I’m making it up
Fearing that it’s breaking all up
I’ve done my studies
I’ve passed my tests
wanted to feel
I’m not like the rest
Yet finally the cracks begin to show
My energy drained, I’m losing the flow
Surrender to randomness
Feeling quite ravenous
for knowledge I’m lacking
my brain I am racking
yet still nothing shows
This really blows
yet with my feet on the ground
I look around
and see everyone’s with me
confused as can be
and yet they pretend
what they do they intend
they make it up too
its how they get through
we’re all bozos on this bus
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Flowering of the GoddessFlowering of the Goddess by G A Rosenberg

 

The Watcher From the ShadowsThe Watcher From the Shadows by G A Rosenberg

 

Three Paths

 

“Nobody can save you but yourself—and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won, but if anything is worth winning—this is it.”
— Charles Bukowski

 

We all have unique ideas and perspectives. Some of us hide them even from ourselves and so live half a life always trying to make ourselves into either an amorphous society’s view of what a ‘normal’ person should be or they fixate on one path and try to force themselves into someone else’s mold. In either case they become somewhat akin to a zombie living half a life at most.
There are others who find it impossible to fit in. Their perspective is so unique and their ability to masque some of the more aberrant parts of themselves so limited that they are seen as at best odd and at worst insane. Life can be hellish for those who live in a society that increasingly focuses on hammering down the nail that stands out.
There is a third way tho. It involves holding onto one’s madness and what makes them unique yet learn and follow enough of the mores of the people surrounding them that they can mimic it when they have to. To the person who can do this well, all doors are open. At any given point they can discern how much of their true selves to show and how much of a masque to wear. This discernment can be learned by anyone who is both bold enough to do it and perceptive enough to see the value in it. For those who lack the courage choose the Zombie path while those who lack the motivation or discernment are stuck forever outside looking in.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full sized:

 

Flowing Towards MoonlightFlowing Towards Moonlight by G A Rosenberg

 

Odd Still LifeOdd Still Life by G A Rosenberg

 

To Be Free

 

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”
― Charles Bukowski

 

My puppet strings cut long ago
I wear no chains unwillingly
I am free to do my will
My only task discovery.
My love is freedom’s sun
In its shadows do I dwell
Any who would deny me
their wishes I will quell
My will is clear within me
it’s fulfillment is why I live
in laughter love and merriment
giving what I have to give.
On life’s long journey forward
I’m never looking back
As long as I have liberty
there’s nothing that I lack.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

At RestAt Rest by G A Rosenberg

 

EchoEchoes by G A Rosenberg

 

BluestarBlue Star by G A Rosenberg

 

Travel Plans

 

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”
― Charles Bukowski

 

In about four days this blog as it is will have a brief metamorphosis. I will be travelling in areas where wi-fi is a questionable proposition so I may end up having to break my daily blogging habits. The reason for this is an exciting one. For our fifteenth wedding anniversary my partner and I will be embarking on a twelve day five country cruise. I will be doing one of my favourite things, exploring new places, meeting new people and seeing lots and lots of art. I’ll be taking lots of pictures and gaining lots of inspiration and recharging my own artistic batteries somewhat.
You see, about two years back I made a commitment to myself that I would make art and write at least 100 words daily. I’ve been overall pleased with the results and I now have material that I can expand and publish in a collected form. I intend to return from the cruise and continue this habit as I find this a fantastic way to express parts of myself that would remain otherwise hidden and I have found in the readers here an amazing supportive group of people for which I am more grateful than I can say
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full sized:

 

Cthulu's Gargoyle Over MountainsCthulu’s Gargoyle Over Mountains by G A Rosenberg

 

Rose Through Soft LightRose Through Soft Light by G A Rosenberg

Surviving

 

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”
― Charles Bukowski

 

Time after Time I have found myself in the muck of life having to deal with situations that in one way or another I set myself up. Call it lessons or call it carelessness or lack of mindfulness or perhaps at times just circumstance. I find myself neck deep in it and treading water. I sometimes wonder how will I get through this. I meditate and I pray and agonize. Tho time and time again, the answer that comes back tends to be the same. In my life I have survived many such lessons. If I survived that than I can get through this. Sure enough I get through it.
We are by nature survivors. If you don’t believe that this is true than ask yourself this? If you’re not a survivor, how did you ever make it this far? This should quiet those particular shadow voices long enough to do what you have to do. We are all infinitely strong if only we let ourselves be. We have all made it to this point in our lives no matter what we have had to live through. We all have roadblocks but rarely are there insurmountable obstacles.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Forest at Night

Forest At Night by G A Rosenberg

 

Expansion2Expansion 2 by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – July 18 2012

“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire”
― Charles Bukowski

 

I have two pictures in my mind with this quote. One is of people who have not only survived the types of trauma that most of us have to undergo at one time or another in our lives. Tho our trials may differ in nature they have similar intensity. My other image is of fire walkers who walk on burning coals without getting harmed because they know they can do it. Could you imagine how much easier your fires would have been to walk through if you knew ahead of time you could do it? I feel totally in awe of what some people I know have survived. Some of them have been broken by trauma and others have been made magnificent.
Blessings, G

 

Maggie Drawn by G A Rosenberg

 

Neon Rose by G A Rosenberg