Art, Creating and Writing Practice

WARNING: this is a boring writing practice

We all do art.  Words are art, spoken or written no matter.   If you bring sound from silence, you are creating and you are an artist.  If you coax something out of what is in your mind into art and put it outside of yourself where it is visible, you are an artist!

We are creating all of the time.  I suppose you could say we are creating all kinds of causes and conditions that if they do not manifest today or tomorrow, their seeds are there waiting for that stimulus to awaken whatever those may be.

Now its time for a confession.  This is a writing practice. You see, there’s this thing in me.  Let’s say it’s like in the paragraph above.  There’s something in my mind, heart, spirit that is really seeks written expression.  How, after all, can any of us write unless we write?  We practice all kinds of things in life to get better.  We workout at the gym in order to get stronger.  We walk to stay healthy and such things as this.  Writing is no different.

There are these ideas and thoughts about stories to create — for fun, for maybe inspiration or some kind of education but I’ve got to use this form.  Fingers on the keyboard.  Using a pen and paper makes my hand numb.  Go figure. I’ve tried it but typing; yes, it’s a ‘can-do’!

Many times, nonsense is written and let me apologize if I’m already boring any readers.  There are only a few minutes left to this practice but before I go, let me describe a thing or two.  The overhead daylight bulb in the desk lamp just to my left creates flashes of sparkle from my silver rings as they move on the keys.  One is heart-shaped.   That was my mother’s.  Another ring is a feather-shaped which reminds me to lighten up.  Actually, it reminds me of finding a white feather just at the door threshold of the hospital when I was admitted for gallbladder surgery.  A sign that the angels were watching over me?  I’d like to think so.  And then there’s the bulky butterfly which is my favorite.  Looking beyond the lamp, its dark outside and the day went well. There was no drama trauma and that always rings the gratitude bells of the heart.

It’s snowed today and while nothing stuck (*or laid as they say in the high country), the cold rushed in like an unkind guest when the door was opened.  I had to do this to feed the stray cats just before nightfall.  Such boring stuff, I know.  That’s why I get discouraged by this writing business but all the books about writing say, just do it.  Its a really great slogan Nike! Really is.  Well, there’s the timer.

I came onto this blog to add something and to tidy up a few things so while here, this post happened.  You see, in a moment of weakness, I paid the ransom to get rid of the advertising at the end of the posts and then had got myself in big trouble doing a name change server redirect thing with my hosting service.  A tangled web it was!

Well, beeper just went off; writing practice is over.    Sorry about the big bore.   If only I could be more clever.

I sit and stare up at the light to see what the mind wants to type next to end this, but the only thing that comes to mind is dinner.  It’s getting near 8 PM and my stomach feels betrayed.

I apologize for any run-on sentences or typos or any other writing errors; this was dashed off in a flash.  I usually do my writing practices in a Penzu Journal.

The Fool and The MisUnderstood Fringe Dweller

“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

Relationships!  Great teachers!  That quote always helps me to feel better at times when I feel mis-judged or mis-understood.  I wanted to blog a bit about it and hope in doing so that it helps others who come across this problem themselves.  This may be a more common experience among fringe dwellers and those are the type to come across a blog such as this.

Anyway, do we subconsciously ask for these judgments and or set ourselves up for the opinionated wrath of others?  I don’t think so.  Perhaps a tarot card can help us out here so I pulled one.  And by the way what I’ve observed is that those who point the finger at fringe dwellers are those that fear being on the fringe themselves and as so often happens we project our fears onto others.

So the cards we have here to help us understand these types of experiences are one major and one minor arcana card — namely, The Fool and the 3 of Pentacles.

The Fool has no home, no destination, with no possessions.  I have to laugh a bit at the cosmic joke here–currently I am without a home that is my own (I share an apartment) and essentially live in one bedroom.  I don’t know where I am going to be going (on various waiting lists currently) and well, this last part is partly true.  Most of my possessions are in storage and they’re not much at that–I’ve probably paid more in storage rent than the stuff is actually worth!  In that way this card describes my life right now–thus, the cosmic joke.  But getting back to the point now….

The Fool is fed by what Zen folks would call THE TAO, or the Great Mother or The Divine Intelligence.  And I think this is what fringe dwellers who are mis-understood should remember.  It’s important.

Others (the one’s who mis-calculate our life and our reasoning and our behaviors) are mere reflections of energy that we sometimes cast in more important roles than they deserve.  What I mean there is that we put people in a role many times and then we expect certain behaviors or perhaps a particular loyalty or some such attribute.  And then of course, they let us down.  People most all of the time do not live up to the expectations we have of the roles that we assign to them in our minds.

And that is a 2-way street of course.  It’s the reason we feel misunderstood at the same time the other mis-judges.

The thing is that it is we who are judging our own self, isn’t it?  We judge ourselves for not being part of the pack and then we see that reflection.

It is okay not to be part of the pack and this is why I like the quote from Emerson on self-reliance.  it is reliance on THE TAO or the GREAT MOTHER or reliance on the DIVINE INTELLIGENCE or DIVINE LOVE.

Not being part of the pack and feeling the pack turn against us (no matter how it comes about–i.e. reflection or not) is helpful in that it turns us back within toward that energy as described–the Divine Love.

Many times we want others to give us that respect, that love and to provide that sense of ‘belonging’ for us that we can only give to ourselves.  it is like turning ourselves inside out to find all of that within.  We fringe dwellers have done that over and over again, many times.  it is part of being on the fringe; only old souls or experienced souls seem to be capable of handling it.  I see that observing others who seem to be like myself–that’s why I say so.  Reflections? Maybe, but I do observe and correlate and we do carry the collective unconscious within us.

The tarot card of The Fool is all about learning from experience and and knowing that he is one with All That Is–so why worry?  The Fool is comfortable being alone and without attachment because of the inner knowledge that there is never any separation whatsoever and as in the the movie, The Matrix when the young adept says, “There is no spoon”, it is the same way with The Fool.  Even if there is a fall, even if it hurts a bit, it is just part of the Divine Matrix, an grand illusion.

We are sustained by Life Itself after all and not by the others–they only play out a role of our own making to help us see the truth… there is no spoon, no fringe, no dweller and no others, not ultimately.  Conventionally we have to acknowledge the existence of others, the pack, and the world of matter, but ultimately, “there is no spoon”.

It is a gift really to be mis-judged and mis-understood because it is at those times we are being assisted or reminded of ultimate reality.  It is not denial, it is enlightenment at least in the moment of the recalled realization.

I love being a psychic and in touch with various forms of divination and the tools of the trade.

PS— i nearly forgot about the 3 of pentacles but then again writing this blog post as I feel misunderstood today is an example of that card’s meaning.  I often think of this card as doing work.

Planting seeds, GETTING REAL and that’s writing this blog post today is about for me.   Applying your craft.

Many spokes attach to the hub but it is the empty center that turns the wheel, they say.    Emptiness has potential–that is associated with the 3 of pentacles as well.

The 3 of pentacles as a person is one who is highly skilled and has deep feelings.  This card reminds us to apply our craft, our art to any perceived problem or concern in life.

Tuesday September 3, 2013 Reality, Karma, Spiritual Strength

All is very quiet again this day, Tuesday the 3^rd and gratitude swells in my chest and pulses out to toward the Sun which has already warmed us up to 80 degrees in the shade. The desire to go out anywhere yesterday was null as I wanted to employ the peace and quiet as long as possible while the neighbors were away. And so in in celebration I switched around the loveseat and chair and put up a large cloth wall hanging of the Sun and Moon.

Coffee this morning is especially good again and now that I moved the large Sathya Sai Baba picture which is a large—doubled a poster size–he looks directly at me when I glance up from my computer to have a sip of espresso.

It will be a full day today and the bright pink impatience flowers blooming in a pot out back remind me of an art project which I’m making as a gift that needs attention today and a secret smile dons as I think of swimming my laps first.

The transiting lunar North Node of the Moon is quite close to my 3^rd House Saturn.  When we think of nodes we think of karma and evolutionary purpose and in that the node is applying intensely now and will cross over Saturn in two weeks, I’m hoping that this is a sign that my neighbor karma is about to end or is ending.

Well, there are clients on the schedule here so this will do for now, but in ending….  I came across a quote from a Zen Buddhist Monk that really spoke to me last night regarding spiritual practice and it is still sticking with me.  Suzuki Roshi said that the way to acquire spiritual strength is by practicing through a continual succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations.

Then I came upon this other quote:  “To change reality, let reality change you.”

Hope your Tuesday reality will be very, very agreeable! 🙂