Hope

Defy Gravity: Always Dream even when Awake.

Embrace gravity fully while letting go of attachment

Peace

:)

Blank Slate

When I write posts: It starts as a blank slate.

• No intentions, goals or ideas (or very rarely does a post happen premeditated) . It's a simple practice of mine to blank out my mind, melding with the empty space of the page... to the empty space of my being.

It's very refreshing, since, as often as not the result surprises me. This becomes a process to learn one more new thing about myself.

And that is the true meaning:

Relationships to oneself.

To see in the mirror...?

Nothing

It's not a forcing of some desired image, nor some magical mirror telling things from far and wide. It's a simple exercise of acceptance of what comes up and forth.

When one is eternal, a lifelong dance unfurls within living to enjoy and explore. To be always the same unchanging person... is actually the point of an ending, a form of death: setting the stage for the next major life change to arise.

Instead being a Taoist opens up a lifestyle embracing a changing shifting nature: ever a kaleidescope of ideas, desires, hopes, fears, problems, accidents, movement, reachings and enfoldings.

Right now is my personal dance within images of African flocks of flamingos, sitting at the black river as autumn leaves stain the water to tea, watching Brisamina smile, Kendall and Clay bicker and strain as they become adults, the little honda we drive covered with child hand prints... so many images and stories swirl up and forth to stain this page, this entry

It's my life

All revealed and expanded upon in the empty space of living life.

You may only see the glimpses I share here in words: but myself, I am spread across over a drum skin beaten into the shape of existence: the Tao and dance (my practice of Taoism) in the space of my being.

All because I just relaxed into this blank space, and let myself be... myself.

Peace

Dreams in the Now

Live the Dream

Here & Now

Being more: in being Yourself.

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Been writing mentally about quite a few things of late. For example about an absolute truth being in fact also an absolute falsehood... I won't go into that one... don't feel like stirring up emotions or debate

In this I have also been pondering how people trap themselves, hence the little statement at the top of this post...

It actually started off by thinking about MLK saying "I have a Dream" and I was wondering If I were to stand up to proclaim something what would it be.

And it would be simply:

Take the dream further

In living the dream, here and now...

This got me thinking upon how people trap themselves

• Waiting for a right time
• Tripping over the past
• Making excuses in order to be not themselves
  (Think about this one for a moment...)
  
  
• Countless other little points used to trap oneself within... and you know what??
  

Regarding all these mind games on how we trap ourselves: To quote my Harlem days:

Fuck that shit.

Not for me. Live, Make mistakes, Grow, Move on, Dream and Act out the dreams, Change, Chase one's nature...

So what: when falling in the mud, just get up, wash off and move on and beyond and ... well...

Be yourself.

Seriously, how much more simple can I make it??? Well I suppose I didn't need to swear, but not my style.. sometimes you also just need to swear while at other times just smiling... :)... as it's just all part of our humanity.


Peace

The Edge of Center

I am sitting within place of centering and pause right now.

It's a quiet place.

Poetry doesn't swirl across my vision. The desire to create, build and climb are all muted. Currently I am spending time with Julie and Brisamina, playing a computer game (something I haven't done in years), exploring around northern Arizona..., working odd jobs for cash flow and most of all... simply in pause.

I am quietly waiting.

While quiet now, tides of living will shift again. I have to admit: I like low tide, when everything has rushed out leaving the hidden exposed and being able to truly poke around & about.

However all that will be for later, right now, it's time for the world to swirl around me for a change of pace.

It would be foolish to think as a human, that a place of centering, of healing: is also a long term place... Just think about all the personal internal fault lines and larger social crisis's criss crossing about the world. Life is a jumbled mix of experiences all tumbling about ...waiting to explode outwards.

So when life does explode out and everything jumbles about. I will still be living within the moment.

The only place a person can reside eternally is now.

It's a quiet place.

When living it internally.

Peace

Snippets of Place

Some snippets of life

---

We arrived at Prescott (but pronounced prescitt). It's a nice town

---

I no longer wake in pain, and the aches are gone from my body. In fact: now that my allergy haze has lifted, I feel my body relax, and while I am tired, it's tired since the body can actually rest. It feels good, and I am just letting my body be lazy for a few days. No rush. I like listening to what my body says, its always an interesting conversation.

Living in pain for the past years actually was a good thing, it was an edge which I learned and expanded against. However, when that edge bites back too deeply, when the edge actually erodes out who you are, then perhaps becomes the time to move with the edge rather than having the edge destroy your nature. This is a hard action since at times a person needs to be eroded in order to let loose more important discoveries underneath your life. It creates an interesting problem. When should a person resist and when should a person move on?

This isn't something which you can find a cookbook of self help on. However, many authors will claim so...

Humans have this fascinating desire to resist and root and refuse to move at times.

Over the past few years I have come to realize many people don't listen or experience a form of converse within themselves. Our bodies, mind, spirit and so many other parts are each distinct and tied to each other. A person is a community of one within themselves.

So what this means is the true cookbook of self help isn't a book at all... it's rooted to listening into your own personal conversation of your body, life and movements.

The body, mind and spirit will guide a person... provided a person takes the time to listen. Something which can be very hard, when others and society shouts so very loudly at us, so loudly that its easy to become deaf to the important inner concourses which exist within our very own center of being.

---

Went to Phoenix yesterday. It's hell.. I believe humans make heaven and hell in life and not after life. Phoenix is one place I consider to a human hell to be. The land is twisted as people rake and tear it all apart... The water issues, our true life blood... so misused...

I am sure there must be nice spots within Phoenix... but in general it's hell, hades and a few other mythical not fun places to be. Like Las Vegas these cities are examples of the worse of what the United States lifestyle can offer the world...

Oh well so it goes, besides hell can be a nice place for some people to live. I have lived in my own personal hells at times to learn and work against the edges of life. It is just that Phoenix isn't my idea of a hell to visit for any particular reason.

Heh when in Phoenix I refused to wear my shoes, So instead I would firewalk barefoot on the pavement... and that pavement is burning hot... At first I would hop about like a lizard in the hot sands jumping about to keep feet burning too much... but then I could find that place of peace and meander more sanely on the pavement. Julie was laughing as I would wince about at times at the hotter spots. Yes I can be silly at times, but it teaches me more than being well behaved. Besides if I am going to visit hell, I will learn how not to be burned even when bare to the furnace. It's another edge to explore.

---

Driving up to Prescott was fun, I did half the trip driving in half lotus position. Flipping the lotus every other half hour. Which is handy since I can drive the steering wheel with one foot, control the flow with the other foot, and then have hands free to coral the cat and make baby formula. I suppose being a mini yogi has some perks.

---

Other than that...

so it goes

Peace

OFF We Go

After being the road the last two months, Swirling around Olympia like a moth, trying to break free of the candle flame, It's finally time to hit the longer road again.

We are heading south to Prescott tommorow AM for a few months... then to swirl as life moves us

I have Danced the Path of Air for the first 20 years
I have Danced the Path of Earth for the last 20 years

I am now dancing with Water. Tomorrow marks the first day where I truly let go, to sink and dive into the deepness. (The actual path started a few years ago, but I was still digging into the roots of my previous life too strongly) . Now is the day when I Feel and Embrace water...

Having drowned once in my life, this is not a time to fear depths but rather an eternal moment to explore those depths freely.

Farewell Olympia: A wonderful city to explore and highly recommend as a place for those lost to have a chance to find peace and some respite. Hiding under mist and rainbows can make for an interesting place to reside.

Peace

Transitions

Having transformed through many transitions and translations of my personal self. I have some observations.

• Life is change: we are change.
  
  I have said this many times before, so nothing new here. But as a starting point, it's the place to begin as it's firmly established ground. Change, as a basic aspect of life, is important to embrace for contentment. Otherwise, a person becomes lost within the past and not to live within life now.
  
  We each experience many different times of change, be it birth, a rebel teenager, Midlife crisis / transformation , elder sage etc. Nature gives us many many opportunities to practice change within our lives... so experience them to become anew... or resist them to become more as you were... However, no wrong path exists... as we choose to express and process life as our life.
  
  
• Upon acceptance of change. Life is wondrous.
  
  Nothing like being newly born to have that fresh appreciation of life. Whether it's being born again, revisiting childhood, breaking old expectations as teenager, or freeing oneself with a midlife transformation... It's all a form of birth and all leaves a person newly open to explore ideas, life and what possibilities exist.
  
  
• For some: After a time... the wonder leaves.... and so they begin a new cycle... repeat change and become anew to refind wonder yet again.
  

  Be warned: A consumer lifestyle actually lends itself to the consumption of change: to always chase new life within the consumption of other life. The danger being... consuming other people's lives , other people's changes... generally leads to more consumption and ultimately dissatisfaction. This style of life isn't a final answer, instead it's merely a distraction to living as oneself.
  

  
  
• For some: After a time... a person can discover patterns... can discover it's all the same... Some have labeled this as "God" where we all are god. Others label this as "Place" as seeing and connection into the larger universe. Strangely for some this can be a point of depression... as being so connected to everything... can also lead to the opposite feelings... the destruction of ego, no longer having a purpose for of our life...
  

  An expectation base lifestyle will often lead to a sense of place or falling from place and grace. When eating the fruit of life... the place one falls depends upon their expectations.

  
  
• For some: After a time... a person can embrace the patterns... to just be themselves... and that is enough.
  

  In Taoism we live now and always with acceptance of flowing along in life... A Taoist lifestyle lends itself to this place.

  
  

In reality: we are human, mixing and shifting about these reference places.

I have reached a place in life now... another place than the one listed above... It does still combine aspects of what I list above. Yet it's different also. In reality, I am simply wandering and that is enough and answer unto itself.

Peace