A Creatives Quest...

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

― Ira Glass

Goosebumps!

The Invitation~ by Oriah

A friend shared a beautiful poem yesterday and this is how it goes...

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know 
if you will risk 
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are 
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you 
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know 
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone 
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Some more Hafiz....

"When all your desires are distilled

You will cast just two votes:

To love more and be happy."

~ Hafiz

The Lightness of Being...

Soul Song

They're Singing Your Song 

From a story told by Alan Cohen

in his book: Wisdom Of The Heart

 

When a woman in a certain African tribe knows 

she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness 

with a few friends and together they pray and 

meditate until they hear the song of the child. 

They recognize that every soul has its own vibration 

that expresses its unique flavor and purpose. When 

the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud.  

Then they return to the tribe and teach it to everyone 

else.

When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child's song to him or her. Later, when the child enters education, the village gathers and chants the child's song. When the child passes through the initiation to adulthood, the people again come

together and sing. At the time of marriage, the person hears his or her song.

Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and friends gather at the person's bed, just as they did at their birth, and they sing the person to the next life.

To the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community

form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them.

The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another.

A friend is someone who knows your song and sings it to you when you have forgotten it. Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.

You may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings your song to you at crucial life transitions, but life is always reminding you when you are in tune with yourself and when you are not. When you feel good, what you are doing matches your song, and when you feel awful, it doesn't. In the end, we shall all recognize our song and sing it well. 

You may feel a little warbly at the moment, but so have all the great singers. Just keep singing and you'll find your way home.

Man In the Arena...

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt

My all time favourite poem - 1

Transformational....

ATTRACTION IS PROMPTED BY INSTINCTS: IF WE LACK SELF-KNOWLEDGE, OUR INTUITION IS OFF, WHICH MEANS OUR INSTINCTS ARE OFF TOO.  ~ Natalie Lou, Baggage Reclaim

Qualia...

Qualia is an unfamiliar term for something that’s actually very familiar to all of us

Qualia is the way things seem to us

The experience of happiness
The redness of an apple
The taste of wine
The touch of a loved one

Qualia is a word for how we experience everything around us..

When I got there after hours of wondering
I just ran my hands through my hair and said to myself, It’s beautiful up here!

When you see something like what I saw
It’s like watching a giant ensemble do its thing
Only they don’t know they’re being watched

It wasn’t contrived like a performer going on stage at a certain time
It wasn’t like the creation of a masterpiece from a blueprint
It wasn’t like anything anyone can do with their eyes open
It was just there… and it was beautiful

And I finally sat there by myself holding my head in my hands
I’ve been trying to believe for so long
It was all the proof that I needed,
there is serious meaning in nothing,
and unlimited joy in everything…

Asking upside-down questions
getting inside out answers
writing trails with them on and on
and leaving my own instead.

So I made like a sponge, and absorbed away
taking photographs with my eyes
writing stories in my mind
and not forgetting to be there at the same time
because you know that memories are like picture post cards
and experience is actually being there

So when you look back tomorrow
and wish it was today,
you can wish wish wish away,
stare into space wonder how i felt back then
and smile because you remember…! 

~ Dualist Inquiry

From, “Dance to the Piper and Promenade Home”

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action,
and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. 
And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. 
The world will not have it. 
It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. 
It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. 
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. 
You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate YOU. 
Keep the channel open.”
As quoted in “Dance to the Piper and Promenade Home” (1982) by Agnes de Mille 

Today's Ah-ha!

Sometime you find yourself in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself... Amen! :)

This never made more sense than now, here, today...

No More Leaving ~ Hafiz

At
Some point
Your relationship
With God
Will
Become like this:

Next time you meet Him in the forest
Or on a crowded city street
There won't be anymore
"Leaving."

That is,
God will climb into
Your pocket.
You will simply just take
Yourself
Along!

The Power of Alignment

Read some more Abe wisdom today and this gave me goose bumps!!

So when you see people asking a lot of other people what they think, you can be sure they have not found their power, because one who does, doesn't give a rip what anyone else thinks, because one who does has found the power of alignment. ~ Abraham

Confessions of a recovering Judger! (1)

"When you have an emotional reaction to what you see, you are judging. That is your signal that you have an issue inside of yourself - with yourself - not with the other person. If you react to evil, look inside yourself for the very thing that so agitates you, and you will find it. If it were not there, you will simply discern, act appropriately, and move on."

- Gary Zukav

Follow Your Highest Excitement!

Here's something interesting I came across today...

"This is what you need to understand: following your excitement is not only the driving engine of your reality, it is also the automatic organizing principle.

You don't need to know the how of the details, you just need to act on your excitement. Physical mind is not designed to "understand" how things happen, physical mind is designed to "perceive" how things happened... not how things are "going to" happen. Higher-self does that for you!" ~ Bashar

A Healthy Relationship...

"A healthy relationship is not “two becoming one”.  That is a recipe for disaster. 

A healthy relationship is two people who stay together because they want to.  They are free to walk away at any point.  Not just free to do so, but capable of doing so on every level, and yet they make that choice to stay together  everyday. You can’t put that kind of commitment on a license.  You can’t have that kind of commitment between two people who need each other. You can only have that kind of commitment between two fully independent individuals who love each other enough to give it a go, another day, and another day, and another day after that."

By, Lisa M. Hayes

Today's Goose Bump Dose

"We think we move through the world unseen. But sometimes (just inches away even) is someone who can hold the hard stuff with you. Our vulnerability creates a space for connection." ~ Superhero Journal

Keeping It Simple... :)

The wisest words I heard today... On finding out that his "best friend" had come into town and left without even calling him, my 9 year old nephew goes (all the while doing somersaults on the bed) "Doesn't matter, he's still my best friend." :) Oh boy! The lessons kids teach us... :)

Goose bumpy... (SMJ Intro)

Sirf Hangama khada karna mera maqsad nahi, Saari Koshish hai ki ye surat badalni chahiye. Mere seene mein nahi to tere seene mein sahi, Ho Kahin bhi aag, lekin aag jalni chahiye...