April 30, 2018

Well, here’ it goes…Jumping off the Gmail drafts/Notes app/Moleskin cliff into the deep and endless sea of the blogging world. It's been a slow trip to the edge and an even longer wait perched there, toes curled over the jutted rocks, gazing out at the dangerously inviting unknown, feeling its insistent gravitational pull, and using quite a bit of energy to resist the fall. But here we are, having taken the plunge, swimming around in the Sea of Squarespace.

The purpose of this blog is to continuously throw rocks of exploration and inquiry into the water and embrace any splashes (or waves) that result.  Or, if one prefers another analogy, throw pieces of spaghetti against the cosmic kitchen wall and notice which ones stick.

Let's start with some relationships to words. 

We'll begin with "you" and "I." This is a place where one will experiment with the elimination of these pronouns. Not consistently, but enough that it will probably feel forced or incredibly impersonal at times. And that's okay. And kind of the point. The purpose being that these words seem to have convinced most of us of two things: that we are separate from one another and that, as separate entities, our deepest "ness" can be destroyed. Let's just assume for at least the amount of time that we spend reading these blog posts that this is not the case. Let's agree, for the sake of experiment, that we are all aspects of each other, constantly reminding and reflecting, and bound by the confusing, tragic, and love-inducing fact that we exist.

Secondly, let's explore the relationship between words and meaning. As many word-ponderers such as Lao-Tsu, Rumi, and Tolle have pointed out, words are just that--pointing signposts, empty of meaning until we as meaning-makers agree with ourselves or one another what these shape/sound sandwiches will point to in this experience of fixed form. At their purest, words are sound--that free-flowing vibrational energy, of which all matter in existence is comprised. May the words in this blog be just that--pointers back to the deepest measure of truth we have: the experience of the self. We can notice how words sweep through the body, flowing freely through some channels and blasting the places most sticky and littered with dusty crumbs. 

Here are just a few themes one may expect to emerge on this blog. 

Questions. Music. Improvisation. Relationship. Non-duality. Honesty. Self-inquiry. Silliness. Story. Poetry. (Im)perfection. Photos. Celebration. Mistakes (including the spelling and grammatical kind). Grief. Birth. Loss. Doubt. Awe. Discomfort. Ease. Humor. Gratitude. Shitfits. Inspiration. Openness. Closed-ness. Made up-ness, which somehow is different from improvisation. Illusion masquerading as truth and its subsequent and inevitable disillusionment. 

Here's an invitation to use this space together to explore and express the truth of each moment. And yes, there have been and will be many moments that we will spend in desperate-running from the truth, like precious baby-girl on YouTube running in terror from her own shadow. There is room for that too.

Welcome to this beginning. 

A poem to close. Read in-between the lines. Relish in reaction to these signposts.

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 23

To talk little is natural.
High winds do not last all morning.
Heavy rain does not last all day.
Why is this? Heaven and earth!
If heaven and earth cannot make things eternal,
How is it possible for man?

He who follows the Tao
is at one with the Tao.
He who is virtuous
Experiences Virtue.
He who loses the way
Feels lost.
When you are at one with the Tao,
The Tao welcomes you.
When you are one with Virtue,
The Virtue is always there.
When you are at one with loss,
The loss is experienced willingly.

He who does not trust enough
Will not be trusted.