Tag: Rumi

Quote of the Day – February 20 2013

“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.”
― Rumi

 

I have a bit of a confession, folks. When it comes to dancing as in at a club or at a wedding I kind of suck. Oh I can figure out the movements and possibly the rhythm but hardly ever do the twain meet. For years this stopped me from even trying to dance. Of course being out of step with those around me has been a fairly common theme in my life. In a similar way I can perceive the rhythms and I can get the steps yet  they are not my steps so when I try to do them it becomes somewhat unnatural.
Sometime in the last few years tho I loosened up quite a bit. I’ve started dancing my own steps to the music in my head and whether or not it suits other’s aesthetics it expresses my own and that’s a good thing. There is something amazing and prayer like in movement and letting yourself go. Likewise, in my life, I have given up trying to fit into anyone else’s definitions except that of my life itself.
Blessings, G

 

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The DancerReality Alters When the Dance Begins by G A Rosenberg

 

FractalizeFractualize by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – November 2 2012

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.”
― Rumi

 

Can I communicate with colour
Can you understand my reds and greens or does the purple cause hesitation
and puzzle meant on your part
chartreuse pink may say it just right as long as not too much is red into…

My selves dance around in chaotic hue
combining into pictures that lack words
and words to songs not yet written
that I sing into the Karaoke machine

which self will i be
why must i choose now
i will be the voice for them all
knowing that each feeds into the total
not only does the elephant exist
he manifests in me…
well partially anyway

or is that holy
for yes that comes through to
enough that i can recognize the
divinity I see in you
Ewe, not sheepishly i realize
that you are a voice within as well
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Awakening Vision by G A Rosenberg

 

Loki’s Cave by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – August 11 2012

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”
― Rumi,

 

Cleverness never seems to get me as far as I would like it to. Oh there’s something to be said for being witty, being quick, having the right answer but in the long run the fastest way to avoid learning at times is the belief that I have all the answers. Thank you universe for sparing me from that at least most of the time. Still I see it surprisingly often. People so convinced they know that they close themselves off to what could be learned from others. I kind of find that self-limiting tho I guess it is a way to have an unchallenged world view.
Blessings, G

 

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Eddy in the Neon Stream by G A Rosenberg

Silence and An Orchid Mandala

“When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi

There is value in silence but if the quest for it proves a distraction, it helps to embrace and accept noise. At the very least its a sign of life teaming all around us.
Very often if you listen carefully different sounds combine to make music especially if you can divest the sounds for just a minute of emotional baggage. At the beach the sound of kids fighting and boring around (or swearing joyfully) can join in with the cawing of ravens, the lapping of waves and the joyful squeals of infants and form a beautiful orchestration of life waiting to be embraced. Perhaps the gift offered was to always listen for the symphony.
BLessings, G

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Orchid Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 20 2012

“Lovers find secret places inside this violent world where they make transactions with beauty”
–Rumi

 

Enter the secret place
that lies between my ears
I live at the crossroads
each moment being where past meets future
and here meets there
From here all choices are possible
possible? nay necessary
or perhaps inevitable

 

I’ve always loved the in-between places, the hallways where any door is open to choice and new ones appear as old ones close forever. Each doorway begins a journey. All I have to do is choose.
Blessings G

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Fire Works (Take Two) by G A Rosenberg

Floating Stars by G A Rosenberg

Angelic by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 5 2012

“If you know the value of every article of merchandise,
but you don’t know the value of your own soul,
it will all have been pointless.
You’ve come to know the fortunate and the inauspicious stars,
but you don’t know whether you yourself
are fortunate or unlucky.
This then is the essence of all sciences–
that you should know who you will be
when the Day of Reckoning arrives”
–Rumi

Take two on this one with some apology for cluttering email boxes. As I was saying last night when I was a young adult I studied all manner of things spiritual and philosophical. I had a guide through the thicket, a friend and brother who I loved and through lack of self-knowledge betrayed. Was it ignorance or innocence, not quite sure but in the years to come as I threw myself at life, scattered and tattered, exploring, explored, living, and perhaps learning. I played the instrument of life rather than listened to the music. I was the band, the singer and the song. If innocence was the price of knowledge I played gladly. No lesson was learned the easy way and eventually I was too full and too empty. I skim way too much in this brief description and will no doubt write more but my life experiences have given me context for the knowledge I’ve gained before and since. Perhaps it is the same for many of us.
Blessings, G

 

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Woman with Snake by G A Rosenberg

Crawling Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 24 2012

“Late, by myself, in the
boat of myself,
No light and no land
anywhere,
cloudcover thick.
I try to stay
just above the surface.

Yet I’m already under and living within
The Ocean”
–Rumi

Another night floating bobbing up and down along the consciousness stream, thinking of dogs to home and kids in need and of how great my meditation time was today. Time without thought, focusing on breath and sensation not thinking tho occasionally the thoughts come what system would work best for all? Why do we spend so much time pursuing happiness that we forget to enjoy the moment? floating breathing down deep and back up connecting to the mother below and the sky above and i am back to a conversation about art and blank pages and in breath, feel it expand and slowly out breath and once again the rhythm start, the calm returns and sun feels  nice on my eyelids and in breath and tuning into the feelings, a moment of sadness let myself feel it so it passes and out breath…You know how it goes.

 

By the way what do you think about the new theme for the blog?

Blessings, G.

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Knight’s Vigil in the Four Elements by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 11 2012

“O Maker of Mysteries
Who makes every stranger a friend,
Who has given the rose to the thorn
as a robe of honour,
shift our dust again!
Make our nothing something”
— Rumi

This prayer I feel well and perhaps often, perhaps tonight more often than most. Sometimes inspiration becomes quiet. I spread my net and sing to my muse only to hear nothing back but the faint echo of my song. A friend of mine used to tell me at those times that I had a holding pattern happening and that the plane would land when it was time but until then to enjoy the circling lights. Very well then tonight I will contemplate the thorn on the rose and the friendliness of strangers.
When I was a teenager I used to have a problem with the concept of giving roses (or any flower for that matter) as gifts. “Why would you give someone a present that would die in a few days?”, I use to say with the worldly (or so I thought) disdain of an adolescent. It took me years and the loss of a few amazing people to realize that there is admirable beauty in the transitory and some things are beautiful because they do not last.
Blessings, G

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Blue Reflections by G A Rosenberg

“And if every way is closed before you. The secret one will show a secret path no other eyes have seen”

–Rumi

In my darkest times when I did not know where to turn, someone has always shown up shining like a flame pointing to a new direction. Not all of these have been external people, sometimes they have been in my head and then sometimes it is just a voice or a moment of inspiration. These moments have inspired faith and have saved me from despair many times. Moments like these I consider both loans and gifts. Loans in that I feel the need to return it to any one in similar need and a gift in that I wish to share it.

Blessings, G

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Quote of the Day – February 11 2012

“every sensation
every image
everything we think is lifeless
talks to us silently
with our lips or tongue
relating to us our joys and sorrows
informing us
trying to awaken us”
–Rumi

If we but listen, the sounds in a single moment can bring enlightenment and the silence between the moments bring wisdom. I’ve long believed that if we understand someone’s myths and stories we have come a long way towards understanding that person. This past few years of awakening seem to be a lot about what stories do i choose and its not a much up for grabs as i thought. Almost all of my major stories I’ve talked about on the blog.
I) The five blind men and the elephant
II) Br’er Rabbit and the tar Baby
III) Illusions by Richard Bach
IV) The Life of Emperor Norton
V) The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

There are many others in there that I could add…that illustrate parts of my life, Casteneda, Kerourac, Paulo Coelho (I loved The Alchemist and it resonated for me), Corwin of Amber, Crowley, Blavatsky, so many others. Books and words, Words and Story, Story and Music and silence. For if I don’t take these moments of silence, then how can I continue to hear?
Namaste, G

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Field of Flowers by G A Rosenberg

Snowflake Mandala by G A Rosenberg