Art of God

I have never blogged before, and, as I begin this adventure, I sense that it is one of those experiences that holds gifts greater than I can imagine at this point. I am sure that my writing style will improve, my writing “voice” will develop, and my relationship with myself and, as important, my relationship with others – even those who don’t read or respond to these entries – will benefit.

I’d like to share a few bits that have become clear to me of late, and which I hope will be helpful to others.

I just went home. Back to Upstate NY and the family stew. Three days since my return, I am recovering from the body-slamming cold it gave me. But this is just par for the course when I go back, which is why I always resolve not to do it.

Each trip home I go fortified in who I am, but then the family stuff seeps into all my unconscious cracks and blind spots. Next thing I know, I'm numbed out and one with the misery. The question is how do I not lose myself? My rational mind screams, "Don't go there!" But the truth is that if I can go back to the source of all my trauma and only be who I am, I can do it anywhere on this planet and beyond. And that's always a consoling thought as I haul my bags towards the plane.

First, I’d like to apologize for my prolonged absence from our blog. I have been distracted from it whilst growing other aspects of my life and acclimatizing to Gotham.

i was having a conversation with a friend during lunch on the first day of AoG NY I, and the subject of the masculine, the feminine and how they support one another came up. we began discussing a metaphor of a boat on the water that is used to represent this interaction. i found it curious because it was proposed by a man, and yet, the masculine role seemed to me to be extremely limited and misrepresented. i asked my friend about this point, and she was puzzled as well.
the next morning before class, as i was sitting, i began writing (it pretty much came through me) what turned out to be the following poem which, in my view, represents the masculine and feminine interplay. after reviewing it, i found it interesting that, in some ways, it can be read as if a masculine voice is speaking, or a feminine voice. perhaps it represents the innate balance of the masculine and feminine that we are. i purposely left punctuation to a minimum to allow different readings of the lines. i hope that you enjoy it.

aloha

There is a shift that has taken place within me that I have begun to notice. Perhaps you have experienced such a shift as well. The shift was subtle, at first, but lately has been more distinct than in the days just after my experience in AoG NY I. The shift has been an experience that undoubtedly is the result of my experience in that class.

I have experienced a place in which I think that I have moved outside the box, only to find myself in a different box. In a way, this validates my theory that the box exists nowhere but within our minds and is designed to keep us from becoming who we really are.

Having prevailed after navigating energetic doldrums three times in four months, a few things have come to light. They now seem incredibly obvious, but evidently they were not so earlier, else I would not have been in the doldrums in the first place. And though they seem obvious and even simple, that does not mean that they are necessarily easy to achieve.