Mind Games

The wind, it is blowing

from where? I don't know.
It's bringing a change,
who knows where to go?
Do we fight to keep our ways?
Do we fight to make them change?
How do we know what's for real,
and what's just in our brains?

Is there a god?
A big man with a plan?
Or is it all up to us,
to do what we can?

I've never met a person,
who knew anything at all.
We pretend to have answers
so we don't feel so small.

The birds in the sky
and the mice in the shed,
have much more to offer
than the stuff in our head.

-Brian Sweeny

Concentric Circles

“You will walk differently alone, dear, through a thicker atmosphere, forcing your way through the shadows of chairs, through the dripping smoke of the funnels. You will feel your own reflection sliding along the eyes of those who look at you. You are no longer insulated; but I suppose you must touch life in order to spring from it.”

-F. Scott Fitzgerald from his novel Tender is the Night

Drew Dellinger: Hieroglyphic Stairway

A long term perspective based on responsibility to our great great grandchildren. A stunning recitation by a powerful poet.

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Text 'Messages'

"It's acceptance; complete surrender.
I fully believe that God is in control and that I am powerless.
It's a relief in some ways to not be responsible.
Not that I'm good at this.
I struggle every day. Every moment of every day to not give up.
But really throwing a fit and saying I can't do this anymore isn't productive.
I really have no other alternative. I HAVE to go on.
And surrendering to God makes it possible.
I also try to remember not to fight against "it" but fight for what I find the most challenging.
Like peace, sanity, acceptance.
I cannot do this life on my own.
I have to turn it over to God.

Do the action and your heart will follow."

-Laura Manzani in a text message protaining to life's stuggles

Gandhi's Embark

'What you are seeing is a large statue of Gandhi by the Embarcadero in San Francisco. The people there are poets. I love the feeling of Gandhi walking into the distance.'

Janice Haugan's Photography

The Phoenix

 From the ashes I will rise
 Finding the fire deep inside
 Using it to be my guide.
 Beautiful
 when I burst into flames
 Discarding an old life
 Destroying names
 Ultimate
 Return
 From which I came.

Proverb

If there is light in the soul,
there will be beauty in the person.
If there is a beauty in the person,
there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.

You-niverse

Each moment, each moment, each moment.
Each moment is new,
is yours.
This is all-
for you.

There is no room for regret without a past.
There is no room for worry with no future.

       so what's here?
You-niverse.
       what will I do?
Be.
       how do I be?

Perhaps this is the end of seeking.

    where will I go?
Anywhere.
    what will I do?
Anything.

Perhaps this is the end of believing.

    what will I have?
Me.
    what will I be?
Free

Whispers

“There's no vocabulary

For love within a family, love that's lived in 

But not looked at, love within the light of which 

All else is seen, the love within which 

All other love finds speech. 

This love is silent.”

T.S. Eliot

Give it away

"Love can only stay love,
if we give it away."
     -Unknown Source

Preface

"The artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on [traditional] wisdom; to that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition—and, therefore, more permanently enduring. He speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation."

Joseph Conrad

Be Here Now

"What keeps you from that place that gives you that total feeling and experiencing and knowing of fulfillment is all of this posturing, all of your thoughts, all your way of organizing your world, all your plans, all your games you're exploring."

-Ram Dass

Choose

I want to be
the very best I can be
it is a choice
and it is up to me

Treasure Hunt

I remember it. 

That feeling of being whole. Nothing needed to fulfill me besides me. No one needed to love me besides me. The ability to feel sadness and anger without the fear of pain. The feeling of joy as time ticked away transforming every moment into a new experience. Smelling December. Seeing the electric lines as I drove by. Hearing the rumbling sound of an airplane as it flew across the sky.

These memories are the road map to my beginning.