Crying for the moon

Artist meanwhileinnowhere

"This very real feeling of inferiority is magnified by his childish sensitivity and it is this state of affairs which generates in him that insatiable, abnormal craving for self-approval and success in the eyes of the world. Still a child, he cries for the moon. And the moon, it seems, won't have him!"

Look within

Look within. Watch how many jealousies, how many angers, how many lustful desires are boiling there. Just watch them!

And this is the greatest contribution of Buddha – that he has said, and proved beyond doubt because it has worked for thousands of people – that a deep observation of anything that is wrong in you is enough; you need not do anything else. Just be aware of it and it disappears. It disappears just as you bring light into a room and the darkness disappears.

Become aware, awake. Then you will see that everything comes and goes, all things come and pass. Life is a flux. Your consciousness is the only thing that is immovable, that is eternal. To attain it is freedom. To attain it is the goal of life.

Human beings

Artist Carl Hummel

“Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.”

Maya Angelou

Last doubt

Josephine Red/Red, 2022/23.

UNTITLED

What made me take this path when there are so many others?

Pale gravel on the left from the Orangerie to the Louvre

Though October promises the winter I want, the sun shines

Spotlighting flower beds that ring as false as stagecraft.

Even we ring false, possessed of everything except

Some ragged piece of puzzle we cannot read:

A blank gray space shaped rather like Italy’s boot

Obscures our view.

But would you lie to me?

Suddenly the last doubt vanishes

The last trembling disbelief is gone.

You turn to me and say, “How lucky we are.”

Ah yes, I think, I could be blind, you could be dead,

And Paris could be burning.

–Barbara Chase-RIboud,

Presence

Fernand Léger

Three Women

1921-22

To love means to be there: to be there, first of all, for yourself and for the wonders of life and the Earth all around you. And, once you are truly present, you can offer that presence to those you love.

- THICH NHAT HANH

Chaos Creator

Artist Amanda Kavanagh

What are some things that you do to create chaos in your life?

Here are some examples:

  • Being chronically late or regularly late

  • Knowing what is right for everyone else all the time

  • Worrying

  • Overspending

  • Agreeing to do/take on too much

  • Not saying no when you know you should (no boundaries)

  • Neglecting responsibilities or relationships

  • Ignoring physical problems, hoping they will go away or fix themselves.

  • Arguing with someone who’s high or drunk

  • Picking a fight

  • Fixing other people, doing for them what they can do for themselves

  • Manipulating others to get what you want

  • Trying to control something or someone to get the outcome you desire

  • Attempting to make something (or everything) perfect

  • Obsessing

  • Projecting

  • Wallowing in self-pity

  • Being a Martyr

  • Being critical of others

  • Feeling you are the right person to "teach them a lesson."

    Chemically and hormonally, many of us get a surge of adrenaline pumping through our bodies when we engage in these behaviors, and we get addicted to that feeling.

If you would like more in-depth clarity around these behaviors, I look forward to discussing this in a session.

We are programmed

kerry james marshall

From childhood, we are programmed to stop daydreaming and told to be constructive and busy instead. Allow your mind to wander and dream. Spend some time leaning into staring out at “nothing.” Put down everything and be with the air around you with the space you are in; it is the same as reading or studying because it supplies knowledge of the unknown and gives peace. Take a moment to be with it.

Fleeting goodness

Artist Charles Hoffbauer, In the Restaurant 1907

These things of beauty

Of being beautiful, Pretty

Are they of fleeting goodness?

Do they stop and see

Or continue to pass by nonchalantly?

What endures but simplicity

Not captured nor confined to anything

Resting peacefully in observing

Everything

-D.G.

Freedom fire

Artist Tyler Sorgman

If you bring freedom fire to people expecting them to gratefully accept it, you will be disappointed. Many people, contradicting their own souls, do not want freedom. Build your freedom fire where you are. Stay with it. Be at peace with it. Who wants freedom will arrive, drawn by light and warmth. No matter their fears.

—Jaiya John