“Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to loseNothin’, don’t mean nothin’ hon’ if it ain’t free, no-no”Me and Bobby MCGee, Janis JoplinNothing left to lose is an interesting concept, right there along with freedom. One holds the potential of captivity, while the other dangles the promise of something to hold onto. The actuality …
Category Archives: spirituality
Today I Grieve
Today I am grieving. Deeply. Painfully. Messily. Preciously. Not for the beloveds I’ve lost but for this world imploding about me. Maybe it’s nothing to grieve. Perhaps it was never worth the love I gave it. Maybe this country has always been the monster in the closet that everyone cowered from while smiling and pretending …
Boom! What Aren’t You Appreciating?
After a morning without power, I’m snugged up in my cushy chair watching the snow fall … and accumulate. It is putting it down right now. Wow. I awoke this morning to the sound of a transformer blowing – bang. No that’s too high, this one boomed, snapped and grumbled. Not a sound you expect …
Bridging the Ever-Widening Gap
There are infinite responses available to us as we approach possibly the last (anything’s possible) peaceful handover of power on January 20th. Several come to mind: unbridled anger, deep and clawing angst, suffocating depression, willful ignorance, and feigned neutrality that would put Switzerland on notice. Oh, I forgot myself for the moment. Geez, can’t forget …
The Self: Mind’s Masterpiece
There’s an infinitesimal tipping point, a razor’s edge of sorts, where the individuated mind assumes control, or seems to, but of course, it doesn’t really. It’s that breath where the pause between thoughts, the spaciousness of beingness, is stealthily overwritten by identity. It’s a spellbinding miracle, that nothing creates something out of nothing, or the …
Question: Do you think reality is benevolent?
A friend sent me this question: Do you think reality is benevolent? My response may be of interest to many of you. From observation, I tend to experience it as benevolent, that it trends organically towards harmony. When life is left alone, let be as it is, it quite naturally wholes itself. That ‘leave it …
It Doesn’t Bode Well for Love
I’m not sure why sleepless nights are so rich with insights. Regardless of reasons, and mind can come up with a million possibilities, mine are. Maybe the breakthroughs require the freshly broken sense of control. I mean really, if we can’t control whether we fall asleep, what can we control? Last night I couldn’t …
The Golden Idols of Our Lives
People want to use spirituality just like they want to use God. Fix me. Heal me. Help me. Awaken me. Overcome my enemies. Help my side win. People use money, power, force, and other people, exerting influence to the same end. There’s not a lot of difference between any of them. Some propel the world …
Back Where I Started
Rather than spending time discussing whose version is right and whose is wrong, I think I’ll spend the rest of my life with everyday people, those who are simply living, loving, doing their best with the life they’ve been given, and let them show me their secrets. I’d like to know people better, to see …
All That’s Left is Paradox
It’s easy to get sucked into non-duality, to think it is the answer. It’s true, well as true as anything is true. It’s the closest to describing what this is that I have found. I don’t argue that at all. Do you hear that sucking sound?I get it! That’s right. It makes sense. Hell no! …
Why Would Anyone Want to Wake Up?
Arguing with life, stressing out over what’s here and what’s not, makes you and everyone around you miserable. Most of us look for ways to make life better, but what if there is no way? How many years have you been at it, trying to win the unwinnable game? You win one and lose two. …
Ode to Sleeplessness
I sleep well most nights. This is something relatively new for me. For many years, I was a raging insomniac. I didn’t sleep well last night and found myself meditating around 4am, not so much to get to sleep but for something to pass the time. Sitting there, my pillow tucked behind my back, and …
Wherever Your Focus Lies There Lies Your Truth
I start laughing whenever I try to write. Nothing is true, so why bother. It’s all pointers and even that is going too far. I enjoy reading the words other characters in this play string together and seeing where they go, as well as where they don’t, what lines are drawn in the sand unawares, …
Infinite Aliveness: Unraveling the Mysteries of Existence
It’s a dream. You’ve heard it said before, whether you believe it or not, is another story. You’ve read about lucid dreaming, perhaps even experienced it. To be lucid within a dream means you are aware you are dreaming while you are dreaming. While lucid you can push the threads that knit the dream together, …
You Don’t Want This
You don’t want this, and when it finds you anyway, you won’t have needed me, or anyone, to show you how to get it. You say you want IT, but you don’t. You want a better life, a sweeter deal, not this. No one in their right mind wants this. It’s beautifully simple, and minds …
Amaya Gayle 