Every Day A Pilgrimage

 

“A pilgrimage is not a conquest, it is a surrender. It is a way of getting yourself out of the way.”
–Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

 

Getting out of my way…Not second-guessing or build up rationalizations for the emotions I’m feeling but just letting it flow. Giving up worries and rationalizations and concerns about how others are seeing me. Surrendering to myself and listening to what my spirit is saying. Stepping back. Too often when I try that I tend to trip over my feet. How can I make each day a pilgrimage of understanding; of growth? It means surrendering my world or at least my world view. So difficult yet so so necessary. What new vistas can open up in our understanding and awareness if we could only live in flow.
Blessings, G

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Bathing in the CurrentsBathing in the Currents by G A Rosenberg

 

Midnight FlowerMidnight Flower by G A Rosenberg

 

Monday Mandalas

“The ‘squaring of the circle’ is one of the many archetypal motifs which form the basic patterns of our dreams and fantasies. But it is distinguished by the fact that it is one of the most important of them from the functional point of view. Indeed, it could even be called the archetype of wholeness.”
— Carl Jung

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Textured Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Gold Wave Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Cosmic Spiral by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 12 2012

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding… And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy”
― Khalil Gibran

When I was quite a bit younger I had an amazingly wise friend Delores. She told me that she gained her perspective due to the many health crises that she had. One day I was bemoaning my life and all my problems to her. I was having the usual problems relating to my father and deciding what I wanted to do with my life. She listened patiently until I summed it all up with one question.

“Why Me?” Sometimes I believe that question is one of the most common ones that us humans use. What Delores answered floored me.

“Why not you?”

“Huh?”

“Why not you? Why should you be so special that you shouldn’t have your share of problems and difficulties, your share of heartbreaks and pain. That’s what you should be asking.”

I think Delores intuitively understood what Kahlil Gibran was saying here. Pain is part of our lives and to deny it is to deny life’s full experience. Indeed our pain always tells us something. Either a part of our body needs to be attended to or possibly even a part of our attitude or a part of our life. Pain in any of those cases is the best early warning system we have. There are also times when pushing past our pain, accepting it and moving forward brings lessons to us that can’t or won’t come any other way.  I know that very seldom in my life have I learned things the easy way. Friends and I have discussed whether it is possible to learn the big lessons we need in a gentle way and always end up either shelving the question or deciding that somethings are meant to be learned through that great teacher, pain.

Blessings, G

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Blue Marbled Hallway by G A Rosenberg
Glowy Caterpillars eating my Lettuce  by G A Rosenberg

Blue Marble Cathedral 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