discernment - Waking Spirals

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

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Flowing Towards Moonlight by G A Rosenberg

Odd Still Life by G A Rosenberg

Rubbing the Blue Mud of Choice

“The first and most important thing an individual can do is to become an individual again, decontrol himself, train himself as to what is going on and win back as much independent ground for himself as possible”
― William S. Burroughs

Listen, do you hear them? Can you hear those well-meaning voices telling you how you should do what you’re doing or not to do it at all or perhaps what you should be doing instead? After all don’t you want to fit in? Don’t you want the acceptance of others? I once worked with a woman who told me that she believed that whatever society deemed proper she would do. If everybody rubbed blue mud in their navels, then she would to. I didn’t appreciate at the time the ironically unique illustration for her philosophy that she chose. Instead her lectures on propriety made me dress and act even more outré or at least as much as I could get away with without losing my job. Gradually I came to realize that if everything I did was an act of rebellion than nothing was. Rather than being an individual I was an anti-robot reacting against conformity and thus conforming to its opposite. Being an individual means considering everything and choosing what reflects myself regardless of how society sees it.
Blessings, G

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Only an Ass Would Choose by G A Rosenberg

Undergrowth Design by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – August 4 2012

“YOU ARE AN ARTIST OF THE SPIRIT
Find yourself and express yourself in your own particular way. Express your love openly. Life is nothing but a dream, and if you create your life with love, your dream becomes a masterpiece of art.”
― Miguel Ruiz

Can you see beauty in ugliness? Can you spot ugliness in beauty? How do you decide? Or perhaps it’s when.
Deciding is not wrong even if it means leaving objectivity behind. As a matter of fact, you’ve always had preferences, always decided. Only now perhaps you acknowledge that that is what you do. Creation is choice.And good things result when we create with love.

Time to leave crossroads
New balances made daily
My road has no end

Blessings, G

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Quote of the Day – May 9 2012

“Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.”
— Arthur Rimbaud

What would it be like if we could experience life with the openness and innocence of a child? Isn’t that a goal to aspire towards? And yet …
Our childhoods all too often get ripped away from us. Way too early we find out that the heroes and villains often exchange hats and that nothing is wholly one thing. Would becoming a child again mean that we would continuously have that experience of lost innocence?

I used to believe that innocence was the price we paid for knowledge and that it was a worthwhile trade. Yet, what does knowledge bring us but a calcified view of existence? Once we know something we lose the ability to see what we know as something else. It is only with openness that we can truly experience the true flexibility of being. If we understand that what we know may not be the final word on the subject then we can come to perceive the knowledge and understanding of others. Are we willing to part with the knowledge that we paid such a heavy price for? What if we could trade our knowledge for discernment, the ability to hold both our knowledge and that of others in balance and choose a new knowing. Perhaps that is the genius that Rimbaud speaks of, the genius of discernment.
Blessings, G

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Rainbow Spiral Mind by G A Rosenberg

Eye Beams by G A Rosenberg