Sunday 18 August 2013

Unpin your thoughts, leave them tacked against a tree…

I took to the forest today and returned with the greenery in my soul. I wanted to ascend to go up and up to get closer to the Mother Mountain. Softly I tread on pine needles just taking my own path to cross other known paths. So typically me... I became aware of the city receding, and began to lose my thoughts. They were too noisy. I unpinned them, tacked them against a tree and ascended into silence.

Deep breaths, and connecting to the web all around me. Soft damp air, gentle breeze ruffled me, thoughtless I stood. The word gaining new meaning that carried another richness. A bird alighted close by, flitted, not hearing the clamor that I usually carry.

I became One with the all that was around me. I left the pine forests behind me, and sank into the indigenous vines, trees, bushes. Moss forests, and the peace of water flowing. I looked up, waterfalls rushing and the same down my face as I stood in awe… gratitude abound, I felt I could just arise and never be seen again, having merged with all around me.


I am sure if you look into my eyes now – you will see another country…



Saturday 17 August 2013

Gut knotted, shoulders tensed, oblivion is sought..

I have been thinking deeply upon my need to always want to make right the emotions that move through me. The emotions that are labelled as uncomfortable. Who taught me that fear, worry or sadness is bad? What may I do to just love what is? I have read reams about this… and what Byron Katie says sounds so simple.

"I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn't believe them, I didn't suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment. That joy is in everyone, always."


Gut knotted, shoulders tensed, oblivion is sought in meditation, thinking positive and being busy…The best that I can do is sit with what moves, accept my emotion. Even be brave enough to back track where it has come from. Have a conversation with it instead of resisting it. In my resistance I do not find ease, but into allowance I find a great deal of understanding/insight and from this arises compassion for self. In this space of looking and examining a sense of detachment arises. And a preference of joy or sadness becomes blurred because this IS… it IS… and there I find myself a full circle coming back to Byron Katie’s words of Loving What Is…

My own personal opinion is that by shutting down any emotion that arises, be that desires, grief or melancholy we lose our humanity and become wooden and somehow less real. This does not mean I am acting on everything that arises, but rather being more attentive and tender towards myself. 

Tuesday 13 August 2013

I honour the glimmer of your Bright soul and wish you ease…

I am ashamed to say that I have sometimes not had eyes that really see… Most of you who read this blog know the love that I have of this Planet. But I see that my love has not really extended fully into the compassion of the expression that we as humans make. I took to the streets in Woodstock a few days ago, armed with my cell phone camera intent on capturing what I have seen of late.

No matter where we are, we will attempt to re create something beautiful to rest our eyes upon. The back streets of Woodstock are crammed and narrow, but oh the murals on the walls are something to behold… some fierce eyes and souls have painted expressions of love, fear, pain and trees. And the buildings, I leaned into them and felt the life within them. I was transported back to another piece of writing that I penned a few years back when I was wandering through Addis Abeba…

“Addis Abeba is crumbling, it crumbles from the pavements to the buildings. As if when a building goes up it should grow its own arms to clean the windows and keep things neat. I have compassion for the buildings, everything has a vibration, we are all made of the same material. You have stardust in your veins as much as the buildings. So here you have me honoring the buildings souls. And in this vision I see the people that built them with the crazy puzzle scaffolding - then their dna has dropped onto the bricks with their sweat. So they are connected and part of them is connected... it gets bigger does it not when you live with the knowledge that are all one…”

Crumbling Cape Town is no less different. I honour the one’s who have their homes in the mud of winter, the thin sheet of steel that separates them from the wild rains. I honour the glimmer of your Bright soul and wish you ease…





Friday 2 August 2013

Are we ghosts, wandering until eyes that see, startle our souls…

Meandering through the streets for staples from the local stores I saw the bowed heads. About a 20 years ago when bowed heads were seen it was in reverence, prayer or deep thought. Now it’s the unceasing communication that we subject ourselves to. I too am that kind of self imposed consumer and have to constantly be aware of stepping away from this. It is as if we are hounded by connections by will or otherwise. The new God is in the air and no one is talking to anyone really. When you catch the eyes of a stranger it is almost a cosmic experience.

I see that the life in the eyes of the street man is more alive than the far away look of the bowed heads. So not present, whereas the tramp has humanity so raw, his hunger real. I escape to the trees who do not say any words, their faces present and sap real, these are the ones I lean into. They connect, I connect and for a brief spell amidst the tar and noise I am aware. And I step away carrying the greenery in my face. To carry to the person who sits on the corner and has thanks for the sandwich given.


I bow my head – for the older reason….