You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2013.
Watching the sunset,
feeling the air go cold again,
listening to the music of a friend
who lives on the other side of the world,
I am captivated, I am entranced,
I feel transported, I feel enhanced.
The beautiful voice of my friend echoing from my ears to my soul,
the gorgeous light of the end of the day,
engulfs me in a vortex of stellar energy,
and makes me lose all self-control.
I picture my friend in my mind,
I picture the sky made up of a million hues
of white, blue, red, orange, and purple-
like I would imagine poets, artists, writers, and painters,
must have seen thousands of times,
and whom all wanted to capture it in some way
that could be felt, seen, and experienced,
long after this celestial and special moment
has been replaced by the darkness of night.
Every sunset is different, every sunset feels timeless,
every sunset makes you inhale an intake of breath,
and makes you experience, for a second,
the sensation of being weightless-
however, when you combine the magic moment of a still and silent sunset
with the heart-felt voice and music of someone who has seen
and has felt what you feel expanding in your mind
and in your heart-
there are no words in any language on Earth, or among the stars,
that can ever come close to having the means,
or the depths of resonance to express.
Sunrise. Watching the sky burn like a fire of concentrated life,
expanding over the horizon, and beyond, all the way to the sea,
breaks my heart when I see it-
it makes me feel young, it makes me feel like I have a purpose,
it makes me want to run towards it,
and reach out and touch it, and take it into my thoughts and dreams,
so that it may inspire me always when I am awake,
comfort me, and stir me to unknown shores of islands of imagination
that could only have been born from my hyper-active mind while I sleep.
I daydream all the time about what, and who,
lies on the other side of a sunrise, or a sunset;
I constantly think about following the voices of my friends
to the source of their thoughts-
just as I imagine what if there wasn’t an ocean between us
that we had to constantly traverse,
what if we could all get together and share everything about us
without having to rely on technology all the time, what then?
What if exchanging feelings, ideas, thoughts, emotions,
poetry, music, between ourselves, wherever we are,
was as easy as entering into a trance.
The weather is so beautiful;
the hours of the day feel like they are racing away at a marathon pace;
there is a silence, and a stillness in the summer air,
save for the sweet dusk chorus of birds tweeting and chirping all-around.
Even though I feel tired in body, I feel alive in mind,
I feel good in spirit, I feel wondrous, I feel jovial, I feel hopeful.
For the first time in a long time, I feel the wall of uncertainty
crumble and fall to rubble and dust;
for the first time in my life, I feel like I can lower my guard,
take a chance, open up, put all my faith in trust.
We take people for granted,
we take our families for granted,
we take our planet for granted;
we forget, sometimes, that no one is perfect-
we wish people were, we wish our fantasies were our reality,
but that is human nature:
we look at the paradise planet that we are blessed to live on,
that has its own heart, engine, mind, speed, and momentum-
the manifestation of a miracle, in perfect balance with itself-
and we wish that we could all be so easily accepting of differences
and change, and we wish that we could create something
that might stand the test of time, as Earth has-
something built to endure.
To me, every day is Earth Day.
Everyday I feel lucky to be alive, in good health,
and able to express myself in any way that I wish-
especially when I think of what it is like
for some people on planet Earth
who are not as lucky as I am, who are not as fortunate,
who never had the start, the upbringing, the foundation,
and the family that I have;
to someone who lives in a war-zone,
or in a totalitarian society, looking from the outside in at my life,
they would think that I were someone who lived
without a worry in the world,
someone who lives in a constant state of bliss-
with all the fruits and gifts of modern-life in the world
at his finger tips.
I wish it were so.
I may be spoilt in one sense of the word,
but I genuinely feel wanting in another:
I am like a hard-back book that remains closed most of the time,
and the only part of me that people see is the dust-cover.
We build. We tear down.
We bring together. We destroy.
In my opinion, we need to step back
and live along-side our planetary parent,
leave and savour what is meant to be there
and what was there long before our species
could even walk on two feet,
let alone think about the well-being of others,
communicate and talk.
We need to realise that coexistence
is the most important prerequisite for peace and sustainability;
if we were to do so, then we would rise above our problems
and our differences, grow wings,
and feel as free and unhindered as a hawk.
Our life, all of our lives,
would be so much simpler if we could just allow ourselves
to go where the signs of life tell us to go,
to see a direction to proceed and go with all our heart that way.
Earth, our home, is a testament to order, chaos,
experimentation, what you can achieve if you are willing
to put the time and the effort into something,
no matter the sacrifices that you sometimes have to make.
I just wanted to take the time to thank the planet of our birth
for all that she has blessed us with;
and to everyone, I just want to say a Happy Earth Day!
Since I was a small boy, I have always loved surprises.
Since I was old enough to recognise, remember, and understand,
why birthdays, Christmas, and special occasions were important
to celebrate and share,
the not knowing of what gift I will receive and from whom,
and the not knowing of what is going to happen next,
even now, as I turn 32 years old, still makes me feel excited.
Everyday I receive amazing gifts from my family,
everyday I am blessed with the phenomenal presence of my friends,
everyday someone I have never met will inspire me
to think of something that I have never thought of before-
something important that may one day save me.
Everyday Earth feels like a brand new world, constantly evolving,
and humantiy breaths in and breaths out new creations
and drives itself forward,
while maintaining what makes them who they are-
cherishing and nourishing new life,
while at the same time harbouring the means and the will
to start a ticking clock towards the end.
Life is full of surprises.
Being in the dark about something makes the reveal
and the revelation of a secret feel incredible-
so much so that it can completely overwhelm you,
raise your heart-rate, flood your thoughts,
irrevocably effect how you feel in the future,
and make the universe seem fantastic and magical,
like it always felt to you when you were a child.
A kiss on the cheek,
a hand-shake from someone who you haven’t seen in a while,
a message or a phonecall from someone out of the blue,
can be the best thing that has happened to you all week,
the thing that you think about that always makes you smile-
what you don’t expect to happen is nearly always
what makes you feel more and dazzles you
like seeing your favourite view.
We learn so much about ourselves by observing others;
we prepare for what is to come by reliving our experiences in the past;
we learn over time what is meant to be shared straight-away,
and what should be kept undercover;
we prepare ourselves for what happens in our lives as best as we can,
but, ultimately, the answers that we crave
cannot be known without first living outside of the reality
in which we feel the most secure and comfortable,
and by asking the questions that we have always been afraid to ask.
We can’t control who we fall in love with;
we can’t surpress what makes us laugh;
wa can’t let go of our personal superstitions
and our unique fascination of certain myths;
we can’t be good or bad, on the light-side or the dark,
we can only just be who we are-
all shades, all colours, all sides;
just like Earth, or outer-space, or the universe-
you can’t split someone in-half.
The most important thing to remember
about anything that happens in life
is that unpredictability and uncertainty
are the roads and the highways
that we travel down everyday of our lives;
and no matter how fully-formed a thought
about something is in your head
the end result may differ drastically,
and you will be diverted down a route without a map,
through a labyrinth of left and right turns and dead-ends,
before you reach where you are going-
all you can do is make the choices that feel right
at the time that you are making them, don’t fight change,
embrace and learn from what you don’t understand instead.
Living a life to its fullest can be risky,
but if you are very lucky, along the way,
you will see things that others could never imagine,
you will go places so beautiful,
you will meet so many extraordinary people,
you will make great discoveries,
you will win prizes.
The more you live, the more you realize that the universe
and nature, as a whole, isn’t driven by facts and knowledge,
or about measurements, or sizes;
the universe and nature,
no matter what we think we know about it and its nature,
is still full of surprises.
She’s like no one you’ve ever met,
and she spins my mind around-
every time I think of her
I feel like I am walking two feet off the ground.
She’s got the look of a greek goddess,
she’s got the heart of an Angel,
she’s got the spirit of a tigress,
and there is no one on Earth more beautiful.
She’s my friend, she’s my love,
she’s summer sun on hot sandy beaches that go one without end,
she’s someone who you would want to be with every hour of every day
because she has got more to give than anyone could possibly conceive of.
Everything that she says makes me smile,
every pout of her lips makes me want to kiss her mouth.
When I look into her beautiful eyes
I can see someone who is so joyful and special,
who always thinks about the feelings of others before herself.
She blesses everyone she meets with love and peace,
and I hope that she will forever be blessed with the same-
because I think she is the most gorgeous and amazing person
I have ever come into contact with,
and I feel so energized, positive, and inspired,
every time I see her face, every time I hear her name.
I have known her for a while now,
but who she is and who she always will be never changes.
I love her so much, because no matter when I see her
she is so full of life, and because she believes that faith in others
will win-out in the end, and that no matter the obsticles of life
that pop up in front of us sometimes
everything will work itself out one day.
She is someone who I have dreamed of meeting
face to face a million times,
and I believe that if you want something so badly,
if you are lucky, one day those dreams may actually come true-
as I hope mine will do so and soon,
so that I can say I love you, Salomay!
We were born of the Earth.
The Earth was born in space.
The sun was born of our galaxy the Milky Way.
The galaxy was born of the universe.
The universe was born of a Big Bang,
a moment of creation, a flash of transformation,
a phenomenal explosion of life-defining energy.
Everything is made and patterned and destined
to live and endure within the environment
in which they are born into:
a fish needs water to stay alive,
a human needs light, air, land,
something in their life to anchor them,
to keep them sane, to give their lives meaning-
the planets of our solar system give meaning to the Earth,
and the Earth gives meaning to you.
When two compatible individuals connect and come together
a new life is born that irrevocably changes
the face of everything that has come before it,
emerging into a world perfect for it
but which it must continuously learn to adapt to living in,
and living with, that it can’t control,
that it must struggle to understand,
that looks simple from the outset,
but which is more complex than they could ever conceive-
just like being able to walk and stand up straight
without falling over, constantly fighting,
and yet defined by, an invisible force;
just like looking back over a persons life,
seeing the choices that they made, and asking:
how much of what happens in something’s existence
or someone’s life is planned?
Patterns are repeated over and over again in our universe,
on our planet, in our lives- day after day, decade after decade,
century after century, millennia after millennia-
patterns of behaviour, echoes of design, sustaining structures,
that have stood, spread, and are prevalent in a billion different,
but connected, configurations, in a thousand galaxies
throughout the universe-
and they repeat, because they have evolved a way of maintaining balance
and equilibrium with the life source that created the universe
and seeded all things with a purpose, a power,
a path, a pattern to follow,
that we are all destined to find and make work.
No one will ever know all the answers-
anyone who says that they know everything, knows nothing;
but what everybody can know, if they are willing to search
and understand, is that patterns are there:
we were born, we all live our lives,
the galaxy exists, the universe and all life came into being,
for a reason-
a reason bigger and more important than all of us,
but the essential nature, components, spirit, final design,
can be seen everyday in everything and everyone on our planet
when you look for and when you see repeating patterns.
You can’t conceive of the pain,
you don’t realize how much it will hurt,
you don’t know how close you are to a fire
until you get burned.
When someone breaks your heart,
when someone sets your mind alight,
when someone clouds your vision,
when someone tears your feelings apart,
when someone takes you above and beyond
and then drops you from a great height,
you become a shadow of yourself-
scarred, dark, lost-
you feel like you are coming undone.
You feel like you want to get even,
you feel like you want them to know
and to feel what you are going through;
but it doesn’t matter:
who they are, who they were,
they no longer are, and they never were.
I wear the invisible scars of a man
who has dared to touch the fire of too many flames,
who has been enticed by the heat and the light
of more false-stars than I would care to name-
they shine for a short-time,
but then their true-self is revealed:
they seek attention and love from anything and anyone
that they can, and then they return to what is familiar to them-
leaving their heart-broken victim to pick themselves back up again;
and it is then that you can, and should, lift up your head,
move on from the pain that aches in your chest,
and eventually feel healed.
Everything that we send out comes back to us;
every voice in a dark tunnel gets returned;
every heart-breaker will one day become the heart-broken-
so remember that if you are the one who has ever done the burning,
or if you are someone who has ever been burned.
Above my head, skirting the cosmic veil,
a comet trails a path in the clear star-lit sky
and dusts the Earth in its wake.
I have always loved and I have always marvelled
at the sight of these glowing and solo travellers
that pass through our solar system,
and so close to Earth that they can be seen with the naked-eye
from the ground, from time to time, on a clear and unclouded night.
I have always been fascinated by what gives a comet its remarkable tail.
I have always dreamed about
what it would be like to be on the surface of a comet
as it passed by Earth, to see our testament oasis
to the infinite possibilities of choice and life,
and to gaze-out in wonder as the comet atomised and fragmented
and floated to Earth like winter snowflakes.
A photograph of the night-sky can never truly capture its beauty;
a camera can see into the depths of space,
but it can only return with an after-image-
a photocopy, a poor-mans facsimile, and representation
about what is truly out there:
colours that we don’t yet have a name for,
forces that dictate the reason for everything
that we don’t yet understand and perhaps never will,
life existing in forms we are incapable of envisioning
because we are not yet ready to see them.
We look longingly at pictures of nebulae, new planets,
moons, shooting-stars, and comets,
because they remind us of ourselves,
and they fore-shadow what we will one day find in the universe:
another and another and another example of complicated
and constantly evolving life-
the evidence of which will come of no surprise
to those who have for centuries believed, looked, read, and listened.
For thousands of years,
humanity has been in the perfect vantage-point
of the astro-auditorium to witness epic changes,
and to ask questions about what they are seeing
and about how the mere witnessing of something that is galactic
and out of our control will fuel the need of someone
to keep watching and finding new pieces to the vast
multi-levelled universal puzzle.
As is customary, to answer multi-faceted questions
you need to employ multi-faceted means of investigation, discovery,
and definition, until one day one layer of the picture
starts to take-shape in a way that could not have been planned,
that is the only way of making sense of what is right in front of you,
that is genuinely new and unthought of before- something like:
what if our universe is not the only universe out there in existence,
and maybe in the grand-scheme of things,
as seen in an infinite image of everything,
our universe is nothing but a puddle.
There is nothing more magical than sitting in a well-lit theatre,
staring at a blank movie-screen,
when suddenly the lights go down around you,
the film-projector turns on and the screen comes alive
with images of advertisements, film-trailers, and movie-teasers,
before getting to the main-event, before the spectacle of magic
that you have paid the price of a ticket to see,
is projected before you- so that you may immerse yourself in it
and come away from it with something that you didn’t arrive with;
just like how you feel when you see the ancient cave-paintings
of our ancestors in the early dwellings and places of importance
that have been discovered in parts of Africa and Australia.
For our entire existence, humanity has looked, learned,
and will continue to look and learn, and record,
and pass-on their discoveries to a new generation
for them to interpret in their own way-
in the same way, that when we look at cave paintings
we see art, our lineage, our humble beginnings;
perhaps our descendants will one day look at all life, as-one,
in the same way that we now watch a film in a cinema.
I went out into the world today
with a new camera, a new outlook, a new focus-
the world felt like a light-blessed river
being sustained by a towering waterfall of rainbow rain,
sparkling mist, and beautiful lotuses.
There was something different about me,
about my surroundings, that I felt I could not ignore-
it wasn’t clear to me what had changed, at first,
but the minute that I turned everything off:
my phone, my life, my world, my hopes,
my dreams, my fears, my knowledge;
I realised that I knew nothing,
I realised that I had missed so much,
I realised that every moment of blessed silence-
when the only thing you can hear is your own heart-
is in itself an intergalactic door.
I captured and I became something new in that moment;
the windmill of life turned in the breeze- I became frozen,
I felt awestruck by a new truth that was echoing in every direction,
I was touched to tears by a new clarity
that cleared-away the cobwebs of my imagination-space
and exposed a new picture of reality to me
that felt natural, vast, free of pretense.
I looked at myself differently,
I looked at my life with new eyes through a new lens,
I became enamoured again by the faces and the memories
that I have saved my entire life of my family and my friends,
I saw the source of the divine and great muse of enlightenment
from where all thought stems.
This world, our collective meaning,
continues to amaze and inspire me.
If someone was to take a picture of everything that is happening
right now- every choice that someone made,
every thought that someone had-
what would that picture look like,
what would that picture make someone on the outside looking-in realise:
perhaps that they are in fact on the inside looking-out;
maybe such an image would change what it is about life
that means so much to you,
maybe such an image would enthral you,
maybe such an image would send you mad.
I felt like a lone lotus, bobbing up and down in a pond-
reawakened, exposed, open to the new tides of the future
and the new light of a new era;
I felt like I was beginning my life again,
with new depths to explore about the entire universe-
like the first photo of a new camera.