Tag: journey

Expanding the Road

 

“The road must eventually lead to the whole world.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

 

I write a lot about the road and the journey and how no two of ours are the same. There is truth in that and yet for most of us our trails widen and the areas of understanding and commonality start intersecting and overlapping more and more. It is very rare that something happens to us that is so traumatic that it narrows our road and forces us to shut down our understanding. Perhaps someone has wronged us horribly in some way that the possibility of feeling compassion for their point of view seems bleak. (As a side note here I want to point out that understanding someone’s point of view or feeling compassion does not mean we condone what they do. If someone was a threat to my family or anyone without the ability to defend themselves, I would step in and cause damage to get them to stop. Yes, I would feel compassion for them and in many cases I believe that the spirit of those who cause harm is crying out to be stopped.) As we understand and allow ourselves to walk in the footsteps of others our road leads out to the world. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Blessings, G

 

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Drifting AwarenessDrifting Awareness by G A Rosenberg

 

Fiery CorridorsFiery Corridors by G A Rosenberg

Tramping the Perpetual Journey

“I tramp a perpetual journey.”
― Walt Whitman

 

I love the perpetual nature of my journey. That I have no real knowledge (tho lots of clues) about any eventual destination or way station makes it all the more fun…It seems so many people of a spiritual bent seem to be so focused on either getting off the Wheel of karma or ascending to the fourth or fifth dimension or any one of a number of admittedly worthwhile goals that they miss the point of being here in the first place. They see this world as being a rather horrid place and just want to leave. This may be true but since we’re here, there must be a reason for it. I don’t believe suffering to be it.
Funny thing about suffering. It seems that the people I have known who have suffered the worse (poverty, ill health etc) seemed to be the most focused on finding moments to enjoy. The people who seem most focused on the amount and duration of their suffering seem to be the ones for whom suffering is an option. Oh I’ve had moments of suffering and moments of joy. I also realize that I’ll have more of both in the future. I’m open to it.
But then as a tramp on the journey, my prevailing attitude has mainly been curiosity about what may come next.
Blessings, G

 

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Wolf Night on MetalWolf Night on Slate Metal by G A Rosenberg

 

Multi-Dimensional Still-LifeMulti- Dimensional Still Life by G A Rosenberg

All on the Hero’s Journey

 

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
Perhaps it is everywhere – on water and land.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

 

Originally Written in 2009:

I’ve always enjoyed quest stories, stories in which the somewhat innocent naive protagonist through undertaking a series of adventures reaches a defined goal (returning home, finding his/her fortune, destroying the one ring etc) and comes out enlightened in some manner. Perhaps reading these stories becomes in some sense a form of religious ritual for me. I imagine myself in the shoes of the hero or heroine. I become Jack going up the beanstalk and escaping from the giant. I find myself, stuck to the tar baby like Br’er Rabbit begging Br’er Fox not to throw me into the briar patch. I can see myself as Aladdin, trapped in the cave rubbing the lamp to get it lit, Alice down the rabbit hole and Luke Skywalker taking that last desperate shot to destroy the Death Star. Their journeys too I have undertaken within my imagination. It doesn’t appear to be restricted to words on paper. Movies and TV shows can also spark my imagination tho somehow it doesn’t feel as effective.

I go into Chapel Perilous, seeking the grail only to find I must encounter the darkness inside myself. I sit down with the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse to find that their word puzzles and inverted logic reshapes my mind into new insights. I take peyote with Carlos Castaneda and jump across the abyss. I fight their demons, both inner and outer (assuming for a moment that there exists a difference). If in facing their demons and perhaps by doing so discover and confront my down, can I claim a piece of the enlightenment at the end.

Since writing this I have danced with my darkness and cried with it… confronted and lied with it…felt numb and then enlivened and several points…I find that I am repeating many of the old lessons again , perhaps with more awareness or is that my illusion… I have seen the hero in the ordinary man and seen mundaneness in heroes. What better way to realize that we embody both and we can be so much more and are becoming so…We all exist on the hero’s journey, the grail quest whether we know it or not…
Blessings, G

 

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Goddess GazeGoddess Gaze by G A Rosenberg

 

CrossemissionsCrossemmission

Weekend Designs

 

Colour patterns across my monochrome skies
shower me with hues I’ve missed
and wavelengths I’ve yet to discover
Your brush against me with your energy
setting new hued waves in motion
New fractal patterns
reveal meanings in long sought hues.
— GARosenberg

 

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World On FIreWorlds on Fire by G A Rosenberg

 

SpinningInversed Spinning by G A Rosenberg

 

StudiedStudied by G A Rosenberg

Perpetual Journey

“I tramp a perpetual journey, (come listen all!)
My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods,
No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,
I have no chair, no church, no philosophy,
I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, exchange,
But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
My left hand hooking you round the waist,
My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the public road.
Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,
You must travel it for yourself.”

— Walt Whitman

 

Do you have joy in your journey? What’s stopping you? Are you sure the journey is your own? Oh it is. If you are on it then how can it belong to anyone else? You can say that someone else chose it for you but then in most cases you chose to listen or go along with that other person’s choices. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Perhaps it was. I believe that there is a playful part of ourselves that chooses even the challenges as they are the ones we need. Perhaps the greatest of these challenges is to find the fun in decidedly unfun situations. That is not as difficult as it may seem. Wildly exaggerate your sorrows. Play can you top this with yourself. Today was so hard and I just bet this could happen tomorrow. Make it comical. Anything from falling donkeys in your path (to fecal matter from the donkeys flying in the first place 🙂 Find a way to laugh at just how bad things can get. You might find it surprising how much easier laughter and exaggeration can make it. I hope always that I have the courage to choose joy.
Blessings, G

 

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Rising SpiritsRising Spirits by G A Rosenberg

 

<h5 style="text-align:center;"Another StarAnother Star by G A Rosenberg

Realized Journeys

“The seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs.”
― Wally Lamb

 

Sometimes I believe that the journeyer within ourselves has both an inner and outer aspect. Our outer aspect often needs a reason to journey whether it be towards a job or a new life or even to escape their old one. The inner journeyer tho realizes that the journey never ends. Our voyage of discovery starts when we take our first breath and continues on until our last one.

 

I have found my life the most satisfying when I have united the two. At some point I stopped feeling that every step of my life had to be in a new place, or with different people and in different circumstances. Changes in attitude and viewpoint matter a lot more to me than any geographical change ever came as much as I enjoy a good road trip. That’s a funny thing to isn’t it. With a geographical change, we end up seeing brand new locations with the same old eyes and we keep looking for similarities to what we know. With an attitudinal change, however, we end up looking at things we have seen for years in a whole new way with greater appreciation. More and more I have come to love the change of eyes as I see the real clearer and clearer with new realizations.

Blessings, G

 

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PurificationPurification by G A Rosenberg

 

Mindfield7Mindfield 7 by G A Rosenberg

Point of Freedom — Redux

 

No, Poetry this time.  When I first created this picture a few years back, it was in the early days of my tarot picture project. I was trying to imagine what the Hanged Man trump might look like and was finding the elements that would go along with it. At some point, as tends to happen with my pictures, it started becoming something else. It became a totem of sorts.

 

I’ve always identified with the Hanged Man. The idea of sacrificing myself to myself for the sake of wisdom, or perhaps a better way to say it is, sacrificing who i am now for who I am in my deepest highest self, the man behind the mask. Amazing how being hung upside down can become so liberating.

 

In this picture instead of hanging by a rope, the central figure is caught in release of a dive, hanging in mid-air at the moment of freedom. Included in the picture are tricksters (the raven), messengers (the Owl) wisdom (the snake and the crone) and playfulness, another form of wisdom (the dolphin). Also included was the crocodile representing Sekhmet the eater of the part that dies). Almost everyone of these beings are in motion as is the plant.

 

This picture represents so many qualities I wish to elicit more and more in myself and many that I have. It remains one of my favourites of all the pictures I’ve done

 

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Point of FreedomPoint of Freedom by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 29 2012

“We are travelers on a cosmic journey,stardust,swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

 

 

I have become familiar with both the inward and outward manifestations of the journey. So much of  my 20’s and 30’s were spent moving from place to place, soaking up experiences, learning what can only come from them yet not focused on the inward growth tho I was open to it.  I think if my 25 or 30 year old self was to look at me now, living in the same house for 10 years, married and child-raising, he’d be terribly bemused . Sometimes I hear his voice, quoting Peter Pan. “What happened? You got old.” I think tho we’d like each other. I’ve learned to accept the things about myself at which I used to lash out. Oh I still work at not needing to do or feel certain ways but I accept that they do come up. I like myself now a good deal more than I did then. It’s made it a lot easier to love my family and others in general. I have found truth in the adage that everyone we meet serves as a mirror to something inside of us and now I can enjoy the reflection. Well more and more.

I think my former self might enjoy my company as well. He’d laugh as much as I do when he hears that younger people keep referring to me as wise and not meaning it as either ironic or half a word. I have no advice for my younger self except enjoy the voyage even the painful parts and realize that even when your life is stable, you still continue to journey. It is a moebius strip existance where the internal and external can change positions all in an instance…

Blessings, G

 

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Gold Star by G A Rosenberg

 

Kitty Pride by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – July 5 2012

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”
– Douglas Adams

 

So another journey begins, We have flown to Saskatoon to meet up with in-laws and to hopefully grab a day or two for ourselves along the way. As usual I live a life far different from that which I would have imagined. Yet each time I say that this is not the life that I would have chosen for myself I find myself asking “Who chose it then?” It is definitely an outgrowth of decisions made. All in all a positive one with lots of room for growth in every way possible. I have ended up in a life that’s filled with love and has more adventure in it than perhaps I let myself realize. May we all find ourselves in a place where we fit our lives and our lives fit us.
Blessings, G

 

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Orange-Teal Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 7 2012

A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have two friends who live here in the UK who I’ve known for three years. I and them have seen each other go through many changes. Last year I felt privileged to attend their wedding. Tonight I got to meet them for the first time. I love the ways the internet has added to my life. Discovering friends and loved ones who share common interests and developing friendships that in many cases are deeper than any I’ve built where I live. Not to mention the fact that without the net my partner and I would never have developed the relationship that we have and Zev would have had a very different life.

Lucas, Claire and Myself