Oh my, the power of falling in love! It all starts with seeing something in this significant other, may it be a lover or landscape, a song or sight. All of a sudden my eyes are being opened and the character of this other touches me. This is where stories begin, this is what makes the world turn round.
There is a curious thing: When I hold life very tightly, everything becomes a rather tiresome and exhausting affair. When on the other hand I hold things loosely, I may discover that things seem to come to me without me really doing a lot. This doesn’t mean I’m passive.
The way to this direction leads through most unlikely doors of which death is an essential one. The tiny deaths we have to die in our life, and sometimes ugly big ones, allow us to prepare. Facing death brings a most remarkable insight.
There is a proof that everything is consciousness, says Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, because everything we know about our existence and the world happens in our consciousness. When you think of it, it really is the only thing we have.
So it is kind of curious to take a step back from my awareness so as to ponder about what is in my awareness, what it is about. Here’s a poem, inspired by the beautiful hills of Dartmoor, and my oh my, how the beauty of that place first had me sink into it and then sank into me, so much that it has become a part of me.
Following my inner calling can lead me down a most adventurous path, and part of that journey is death – not necessarily physical death, but the death of something in my life. J. R. R. Tolkien put those oracle words into the mouth of Gandalf, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
Such a quest for your inner calling frequently leads to desperate moments in which I question everything and have a sense of being completely lost, in which I feel like a complete failure. This ”dark night of the soul”, as the Christian mystic John of the Cross has put it, seems to be a necessary passageway on this journey to that fertile land of which my longing informs me. Nothing for the faint of heart! But, oh my, how very worth it is the trip, once you’ve arrived, and how so very much worth it do those dark moments feel in hindsight. So, come on, put all your chips on the table and come on board …
The ego doesn’t have a good rep in our world, and we all know why. Yet, there is a place for ego to navigate through this world. It is, so to speak, the captain who runs the ship and takes care so we do reach our destination. Any destination. When used properly it is a great servant to help us realize what’s important to us and what we want to realize.
In no field is this more important then in art. The creative act is such a deeply personal act, as in its truest form in comes from deep within me. As an artist, I make myself vulnerable when I present my art. So the temptation is great to smooth things into a palpable, nice way. But to be true to your art can require you to be without compromise, to be daring, to be extreme. A strong ego, a strong I, is needed, to stay the course.
There are forces in this world, so utterly destructive, they leave a seemingly endless trail of traumatized victims behind. Yet, there is also a magic that can happen, where the hurtful grain of sand turns into a pearl and we develop into the wounded healers. That’s when dark turns into light and the path of life continues. Surely we’re not leaving the world to darkness, not our own world, not the world at large. We fight for the Light! We’re the Crippled Army!
Living my life fully is key to be able and let go gracefully when that final last goodbye comes around. It’s all about beauty. Rather than postponing life, it is good to ask yourself from time to time whether the life you are living is really the one you want to live. This is your one precious moment of being alive.
Living fully is not for the faint of heart. And yet, there is nothing like knowing you have followed your heart, your calling, your passion, your intuition.
The sensuality of nature has a way of getting me out of my head and into connection – not only with my body, but with an order and a flow that is larger than me. Even though I am trying to spend lots of time out in nature it never fails to surprise me what it does to me. How good it is.
As I start watching, I mean, really watching nature, she teaches me about how to be. I see life with all its struggles, life with all its beauty, life as constant change. Somehow, this puts my own life into perspective, and sometimes in ways that are underneath any intellectual concept. A little bit like magic. To be in this place where my senses get tingly makes me relax about my own stuff. It’s pure medicine
An invitation to live When I dare to live, I will feel alive. I may wet my pants in the process, but I will also experience exhilarating joy. It all starts now. It all starts with becoming aware of what is actually around me and going on. Chapters: Transcript Trust the Moment You know it…