Nothing Is Wasted

Thought for the day!

 "When you're a writer or an artist, nothing is wasted. Even the most painful and difficult experience in life can be recycled into material for a project, and it's the artist's job to be awake, aware, and opportunistic. This attitude might sound a bit cold and calculating, but it's not. Quite the opposite. Art, when it comes from dark and difficult places, gives us a means to fully feel out most powerful human emotions and transform our suffering into something meaningful."

 Ruth Ozeki, from an article in Shambala Sun Magazine.

Healing the Wound of Forgetting

Forgetting in the moment to feel compassion
                                       to quell the anger
                                       to put aside the  frustration,
                                       the judgment and inferiority of
                                       another

                 but then to see people in community
smiling, laughing, clapping, praying, adoring,
communing with one another
                  with their eyes, voice and touch
                  and then
  to be one with them in the sharing of a meal
  - that's healing the wound of forgetting.

A thought on our guides

I've noticed for years that I get bunches of great input and chatter from my own universe when I'm on a long drive. That's one of the many reasons I love to drive so much! I always figured it was simply the solitude, the enforced mental downtime, with enough of my attention taken up by driving to allow my mind to wander.

One thing I've done for many years, at least since 1998 or so, is a protection ritual. When I'm on a long drive like that, I say/think/broadcast something like "I call in my guides, my guardians, my ancestors, anyone who is with me on this journey, to help me arrive safely at my destination," and I envision roses at every corner of my car. When I left for Florida, for the very first time I added "my characters" to that list. I had no idea why I did that.

After both of our calls and thinking a bit differently about my own guides, I'm feeling differently about why I get so much input on my trips. I quite clearly ask them for it, don't I???

Peace.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I don't want to describe the movie I was talking about last night in too much detail. A big part of the pleasure of it is the way the story reveals itself. I'll say it involves the option to have part of your memory erased and the consequences that could bring. What it brought to my mind last night was whether forgetting would be a wound or healing in that case. I have very strong feeling about that, and I'd love to hear what others think. The IMDB page is here, though you might want to wait until after you watch the movie if you plan to. Spoilers for certain! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/

The title comes from this passage by Alexander Pope:
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.

Another story along that line is very much up my nerdy sci-fi alley. It was an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, by far my favorite incarnation in that universe. The computerized doctor had a very traumatic experience, and the humans decided to help him by erasing the memory. The memory kept surfacing no matter what they did. In the end, the humans sat with the doctor while he worked through the memory and dealt with the feelings that came from it. I last saw that episode about 15 years ago, and it has stayed with me very clearly ever since. I do love the way good sci-fi and fantasy use such incredible settings and characters to explore the most human of emotions.

Peace.

Last night I dreamed I was in Tibet!
I don't remember anything else. It was a lovely dream.

Barbara's Drawing: True Self Knows...

By Barbara Agalia