Writ Large

They say we become "set in our ways" as we get older and it is a widely accepted proposition. But, why should this be? As we go through life accumulating experiences why should this make us more statically tied to those specific perspectives? Wouldn't a more logical response be to accept how varied and dynamic the world around us is, to expand rather than shrink our view of it? Do we fear so much the loss of this particular thread that we have woven through existence that we need to try and grasp tighter and tighter to it as we begin to see the inevitability of it slipping from our fingers? 

Maybe there is something to that age-old concept of "enlightenment" preached by the sages before preaching became its own practice. Why should our world grow smaller the more we learn about it? Nearly every story of the "after-life" seems to include some concept of "revelation", where all will be understood, accepted, and embraced. Why should these be offered only after we have struggled through this singular existence?

What if the point is not to narrow this one life we have, attempting to find and follow a strict path to the end in hopes that it will lead to all being revealed. What if, instead, we assume all these experiences are supposed to widen our view of the world, the universe, nature, people, ourselves, and our existence? What if revelation is ours to create through understanding, acceptance, and embracing?

Falling

There's falling hard,
Catching yourself,
Shaking it off,
Continuing to run.

And falling fast,
Rolling with it,
Regaining your feet,
Resuming the pace.

Or falling slow,
Stumbling a bit,
Ignoring the step,
Retaining life's course.

Then there's the fall
That scarecely goes noticed
'Til finding yourself
Wrapped in embrace.

Sometimes...

You're bumbling through the Universe
Minding your own business
When the World sneaks in
And asks you for a kiss
Sometimes...
It's best to just go with it.

Looking back 10 years looking forward

Reflecting on life 10 years ago, I stumbled upon this post that I'd written at that time. Ironically enough, in it I was both looking back 10 further years and projecting into the future to this very date. Of course, life is never what one expects it to become. Just as 10 years prior to that post I could not possibly have imagined where I would be when I wrote it, I certainly never imagined where I would be now. One thing is for certain. I won't be attempting to look forward another 10 years. It's hard enough to be prescient of the immediate days (or hours or even minutes) and if you don't pay them their heed the years will come tumbling on soon enough. 

Do you?

Why do you care?


...or, more to the point...


WHY do you care?


...though, sometimes....


Why DO you care?


...then again....


Why do YOU care?


...but, never...


Why do you CARE?

Seeing

Fell in love with an ideal,
Failing to see the fragile being within.
Grew angry with myself
Committing the mistake yet again.

Skin without scars

Must all stories be writ rough hewn upon body and soul?
What of the seemingly unblemished surfaces?
Might they too have their tales to tell–
Perhaps no less interesting than those that leave a permanent mark?

Maybe there are smoother paths to fulfillment.
But, what is it that's said about the path of least resistance?
Something to do with crooked rivers...
Is the alternative always to push against the tide?

If we allow the current to just run its course,
Where might the flow carry us?
And how does one begin?
Simply letting go is never simple.

Many and not at all

A thousand half-formed thoughts do not a complete thought ...

in memoriam

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."  Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"joy is one's fuel"

In a place

One year of circling the sun and right back where we started.

However, a year is not a completely exact measure of travel around the sun and there are subtle changes and oscillations in the orbit. Not to mention the fact that our solar system is orbiting around the center of our galaxy and the galaxy is moving within the universe and let's not forget that the universe itself is expanding. So, are we really ever in the "same" place again?

I suppose, if we choose a specific frame of reference we can claim to be roughly in the same place. Though choose one far enough out and "roughly" can mean almost anything. Relative to Alpha Centauri we're practically on mars and with respect to the Andromeda Galaxy we might as well be in Alpha Centauri. Maybe from a pan-galactic perspective we're pretty much sitting in the same place our entire lives.

Then again, if you're thinking relatively, you can sort of just put yourself wherever you want to if you keep shifting your frame of reference. You can be the center of your own universe if you please. Though I imagine the equations one would need fabricate to keep such a Ptolemaic-like system in place would become increasingly absurd.

Now what was the whole point of this again?  Oh...right...to try and distract myself.

Mission accomplished, I guess.