Breaking through...

We paint...and paint...and paint....
until we have callouses on our hands...

And it feels......

to our chagrin and frustration....

 that we are servicing ONLY....

"an exercise in futility"....

We've simply LOST our touch...

We can't do it anymore !

Something happened...

during the night perhaps......

that took away our ability to MAKE THINGS>>>

Our creative self has gone AWOL....

Damn....

Should we...

- take up POTTERY ???

- go back to sleep ???

- throw all the expensive, useless tubes away ???

And then.......

we turn the corner....

on the BOULEVARD OF LIMITATIONS....

and we have LITERALLY broken through....

to yet another, deeper layer of information...
After all....

We held strong,,, 

We endured with tenacity...

We stuck with it tightly...like glue.......like cement...

We clung to our VISION....

even while muddling through to that vision 

with a temporary BLINDFOLD over our eyes....

like the horse in the painting......

And so on.....

The Paint Feels Like Clay...

And in its thick and dense property.....
I begin to see, somehow,
a BREAK THROUGH......
of actual COSMIC proportion.....
And as I continue in my routine effort to
build the scene of "Frivolous Prettiness"...
the ACTUAL history of the brushwork...
begins to shed away ....
as if it were a snakes 2nd skin...
And beneath the coats of "armor" and "power" and GREY......
 are small, morphed, SEED-like entities...
seemingly incarnated SEEDS of REDEMPTION....
And then///////
LO AND BEHOLD.....
 The 'White Brotherhood' appear...
in a haze of magical purity...
They are the EPIC HEALERS...
of all things ill....
and "ill-at-ease", as well...
Mind you, the WHITE is not their SKIN color,
but rather, the color of their TOOLS...
of their LAB COATS...
These WHITE BROTHERS,
 known well to ORGANIC HEALERS AND MYSTICS around the universe.....
 are actually RED and BROWN and YELLOW in tone...
WORKING, as it were, in a veritable assembly line of WHITE LAB COATS...
They lift their GOLDEN HANDS to the canvas.....
and their warmth and honey flow upon and around it....
And so it goes......

Holidays and Disasters...

They are forever intertwined...
The Feasts and the Famines...
The Wonderful days and the Desperate days....
One moment we are sitting on the edge of our seats...
waiting for literal TERROR to pounce....
And the next,,,
 we are carving up a roasted bird and singing Hallelujah...
We are HOSTILE and CRAZY during ELECTIONS...
and Trick-or-Treating at the same time..
The human spirit is certainly INDEFATIGABLE...
and MALLEABLE as well really....
We are camelions...
GREEN camelions...
waiting in the brush....
camouflaged by our ever-changing skin color..
for the inevitable, NEXT shoe to drop...
Will we all be HISTORY in three weeks ??
Was it the Mayans who made the prediction ?
Because...
according to this little girl's recollection...
the time for Messiah to come , as proffered in Judaism...
seems like precisely what's happening NOW...
We've got dangerously, INCLEMENT WEATHER..
WAR...
PESTILENCE....
Why don't WE get the credit ??
Well.....
Credit may not be the best word...
as the checks and balances of EVERYTHING,...
will pretty much be obliterated anyway...
Right ??
So...
Eat the Cranberries...They're filled with Antioxidants...
Get high on TRYPTOPHAN...
Watch FOOTBALL 'til it hurts....
Pretend that you actually LIKE Pumpkin Pie....
Enjoy and put up with your nuclear and extended families...
Wear your loveliest cashmere...
and GIVE THANKS....
for the human condition...
for the astounding beauty of its VAST IMPERFECTION...

Happy Thanksgiving...

All in all....

even with a hiccup or two ...(or 1000 !) on the road to wherever it is that we're going....
it would appear that ALL IS, in fact, WELL....
It is compelling.... riveting really.... that in times of need one can
literally,
palpably,
 FEEL the Grace of God around them...
next to them...inside of them even...
OR....
Perhaps it's simply that we don't LOOK  for Him when life is going smoothly...
So...
What if we WERE to look ?
to open our sleepy eyes ?
Would we not only FEEL Him, but SEE him as well ??
What do you suppose He would look like ?
Anthropomorphic  terms?
for our benefit...
to aid in our LIMITED understanding of "all things metaphysical"..
Something we can RELATE to ?
Why are the times so unbelievably CHALLENGING ?
Is this a Divine Test of some sort...
Pondering...Pondering...

This feels different somehow..

This time...
the WAY in which we've been attacked...
in which ISRAEL has been attacked...
feels, somehow, painfully distinguishable from the myriad other times....
The world seems to be teetering on the edge of some gargantuan abyss...
falling into a black, smoldering hole.....of unrest...
Something has SHIFTED....perhaps subtly...perhaps GLARINGLY....
There are too many EVENTS....
too many EARTH SHATTERING events...
to deem it "coincidence"...
It begs the pervasive and open-ended question:
WHAT HAPPENS NOW ?
We've muddled through DISASTROUS WEATHER...
BEYOND DISASTROUS ELECTIONS....
and now....
We are attacked....with the world screaming "WE HATE YOU!" in our ears...
LOUDLY.... FRIGHTENINGLY....
And we, yet again, are FORCED to use FORCE...
in order to merely survive....

Is this God's way of finally putting His foot down ?
Has He just about HAD IT with us ?
What does the immediate future hold ?
When will the madness STOP ?

Here we are, yet again....

What is it, my friends...
that makes the entire world want us to fall off a cliff ??
I mean..
WHAT EXACTLY did we do to them anyway ??
Is it our BRAINS that they envy ?
Our ACCOMPLISHMENTS perhaps ??
Our FEARLESSNESS ??
Is ENVY even the appropriate word ?
Or is it just plain old DISDAIN ?
What, prey tell....makes us SO DAMN HATE-ABLE ??
We are SHOT AT....SUICIDE BOMBED....TARGETED FOREVER...
and ONE LITTLE shot BACK from us...(albeit a GOOD one!)...
and they put us right back in line for the GAS CHAMBERS !!!!
WHY ??
WHY ??
They laugh at our NOSES and our ASSES and our GEFILTE FISH APPETIZERS...
They scoff at our HEAD COVERINGS and our HOLIDAYS...
and at just our general DEFIANCE at being scoffed at...
WHY ??
WHY ??
What is it that makes them hate us so much ??

Don't put all your eggs.....

in that ONE FREAKING basket...
Cuz....
Guess what ??
The basket could BREAK....or TIP OVER...or UNRAVEL.....
and all of those perfectly lain eggs would come toppling out....
SPLAT!!
SCRAMBLED !!
all over the kitchen floor....
And guess what else ???
You would have ONLY yourself to blame...
That's the truth...
WHY, you ask ??
Because you had the absurd notion....
that all your eggs would stay perfectly upright.....
regardless of the winds and rains and inevitable, inclement pitfalls of the day....
NOW.......
Take this very notion......
and apply it to people....
for surely you realize.......
 that projecting ALL of your HOPES and EXPECTATIONS on one person...
one UNASSUMING person.....
will lead ONLY to DISAPPOINTMENT and feelings of being CRUSHED....

This is ALL totally hypothetical, of course!
I'm just sayin'.....

Not so simple.....

We conjure up all this LOFTY, conceptual imagery...
and.....
We intellectualize and critique...
and, yeah...
We even JUDGE...
We can roll those words around like nobody's business...
and we can render and paint and materially manifest just about anything your heart desires...
And we have really good hair and eyes to boot!
So, externally, we seem to be "on the ball"...
But here's the thing....
There comes a moment....
every so often...
when we stop and look around ...
and we take a sort of ethical and moral inventory....
And as we do so....
a MIRROR appears magically on the wall directly in front of us...
And those magnetic eyes of ours look DIRECTLY into themselves...
and there appears to be a hint of 'wistfulness' ...of 'longing' almost...
behind those deep, green pools...
And then....just like that....
the mirror disappears.....the cell phone rings,,,,and the moment is HAPPILY forgotten......
And so it goes...

Allowing LOVE into our lives....

I know....I know...

sounds corny...

But it's NOT....

We read articles and novels and E-books on 'Letting Love In'...

Dr Phil and Opra and Oz and EVERYBODY ELSE and "their mother'!!

 are lecturing to us about LOVE...

EVERY DAY....

EVERY DAY....

And we REALLY consider what they're saying....

and we contemplate....and speculate...

and ultimately, 

we just continue on as we were before....

none the wiser....

And then we turn around one day....

and we realize, in no uncertain terms, that we've SABOTAGED ourselves right into a corner...

for even though we certainly have the CAPACITY to LOVE...

we lack the ABILITY to BE LOVED.....

Is it an issue of SELF ESTEEM ?

or...

PARENTING ?

or 

CULTURE?
What about the HEART CHAKRA ?
I mean...
we practice YOGA....and we conceptually MEDITATE....
we work on the Chakras...
(at least the aspiring enlightened ones do!)
and STILL....
and STILL.....
the heart remains relatively CLOSED....
or so it SEEMS....
What if we were to somehow SHED ALL of the EXTERNAL blockages ?
the things KEEPING us from love ?
What would that look like ?
Feel like ?

Tuna Sandwiches, Liberty, and Electric Cars....

The above-mentioned, three items seem unrelated, right ?
As if I'm trying to be CLEVER or something....
Trying to PUZZLE you with my FLAIR for the SUBLIME, right ?
But I'm NOT trying to be or do ANYTHING....
other than PROCESS the out-of-sync, oddness that we've been living with as of late...

1)Tuna Sandwiches....

No supermarkets, farmers markets, etc OPEN during this "UNFORTUNATE" weather situation...
ONLY convenience stores, offering Advil , TUNA, and bread.
period.
Hence....TUNA SANDWICHES....

2)Liberty...

Need I go into this in any kind of detailed way ?
Do we actually HAVE LIBERTY ?
Are we really FREE ?
or...
Is our so-called, "FREEDOM", cloaked in IRONY and SUBTERFUGE ?
just sayin'...

3)Electric Cars...

I don't know about YOU, but a CHEVY VOLT is sounding PRETTY GOOD at this particular moment...

There it is...for your ANALYTICAL CONSUMPTION.....

In the wake of....

yet another SNAFU on the part of the American people...
we feel...
(at least SOME of us!)
like sitting ducks...
stooped on the edge of the Golden Pond....
Our webbed feet are dry and achy and in desperate need of WATER...
Yet try as we will,
we cannot seem to ENTER the pond...
And so...
we shrivel a bit....feeling more than a little PARCHED....
and ever so DEHYDRATED....
Somehow, to our own chagrin,
we had relied TOO MUCH on the OTHER creatures to help us out with our struggle...
for THEY, as you know, do NOT have webbed feet themselves...
They are simply without sight...
They are BLIND....
roaming the streets with HUGE, SEEING-EYE dogs....
We have no FOOTING, and they have no VISION...
We are QUITE the combo....
Hopefully.....
a CHAMPION will appear on a white horse....
equipped with enough Intel Paraphernalia to save ALL of us....
Until then.....
WE PAINT.....

The Storm is Over...and yet....

We feel....
NUMB, in a way...
Overly agitated...
Worried...
about seemingly simple things...
like.....
GASOLINE....
FOOD....
ELECTRICITY....
things that we CERTAINLY took for granted only 8 days ago....
And now....
CONCERN....DISCONCERTION...
We are relieved, I suppose...
Yet this RELIEF is dressed in a costume of RAIN GEAR and general OUTER WEAR...
just in case of another DISASTER !
This time we will PREPARE !!
And to top it off, we are, somehow, PARALYZED....
when there is SO MUCH to do....
Is this POST TRAUMATIC STRESS SYNDROME ???
or just....
EXHAUSTION ?

Here's what we CAN control....

We can control our CHOICES....
of friends...of men....of actions....of  OUR RE-actions....
We can control our DECISIONS....
the motivation behind MAKING those decisions....
the scales that we weigh our options on BEFORE we render those DECISIONS...
We can control our TRUTH....
our UNIFIED, GLORIFIED, and UNRELENTING TRUTH....
even if it is deemed UNPOPULAR....UNWORTHY...by others....
We can control our WORDS...
for they surely have incredible GIRTH and WEIGHT and PURE DENSITY....
And finally....
We can control our RESOLVE....our undying commitment...
to GOD....to EARTH....to HUMANITY..

Don't fool yourselves, my friends......
It's not ALL out of our control.....