Unhinge the Doors

Yes. I am blogging once again. Yes, this is my official blog and this is where I will attempt to write my thoughts and ponderings from here on out. I have primarily shared my writings on Facebook, but that forum has seemed to tapper off a bit for me. A notch of inner inspiration removed. I figure it's just too many words for that little wall, when most folks at this point just put up photos of lost dogs, political confusion, Buddha memes, and a flower or two from the spring garden. All cool prevalent stuff, but as we well know, there's kind of a common predictability there, and I am personally tired of the commonly predictable. I suppose it always has been that way there in FB land, so maybe I'm just a late bloomer to this fact. Maybe blogging has always been the correct forum for my ginormous diatribes on life and insights of subtle personal amusement. Who knows?

 So yes, I'm blogging here again too because I can "mostly" guarantee it's going to be so much more unpredictable if someone decides to read my writing at my Blogger site as opposed to my Facebook wall. In other words, I ain't going to be holding much back! No fucking way. Blog world is free domain! Im thinking I will say everything I wanted to but didn't say on FB, and revel in the liberation of free speech. I will also revel freely with the assumption no one will read any of these, so I can just have at it. I will most likely be entertaining myself alone, but I have no shame in doing so. This is my pledge.

 BUT.....the pledge has an addendum too: I do have three blogs here from 2011/12 that I totally forgot about, so I have a small head start in the blogging realm. I also found, through looking at my stats on the blogs, that I had roughly 250 views on them over the years they have been up here. Naturally I was surprised at that and I thought, "Hmmmmm...... Who the hell are those 244, people that have stumbled upon and read my stuff besides the maybe the at max, 6 friends of mine who read my ponderings back in the day?" The bottom line is, I want to write, seems perhaps 250 people want to read, so I am entertaining myself and possibly another. That stated, I also pledge to continue to write blogs in the case that 1 in 250 reads them and finds a small slice of continued entertainment in this little world of blog.

 After that rather long prelude, I will get to the topic of blogness that I want to ponder further on this evening. Because, yes folks, it is after all "Time to Ponder":

As I sat and had afternoon tea today, I found myself pondering about the door/life changes metaphor humans use. You know the one......When one door closes, another is opening. One door opening, another closing. So on and so forth. And then there's the joke about that doors are supposed to close and open, because that's how they work, or something fucking hilarious like that. Or if a door closes open a window. Blah blah....I can't stop laughing! (not really.)

 But my thought today is that it's not the best analogy really at all if you would rather add some ease and grace into your life, because if you hadn't noticed before, doors open and close in front of us everyday, all day long, over and over and over again. Push, pull, click, slam, knock, swoosh, automatic door sliding, ding dong! It's too much to think of life being like doors in this constant opening/closing cycle. It can become quite overwhelming because we might even begin to forget which one is closing and which is opening. It's down right confusing.

 So, upon this pondering today, I decided that I prefer when one of my doors is opening, that I then choose to put a door stopper under it for awhile and let the breeze in. Then, when I'm damn well ready to close it, I will. I might even decide to unhinge the whole thing too. Put the door aside for awhile and see what comes in and goes out on it's own. It's my choice, because it's my door and it's my life! Ponder that......

Yogis laughing and one hand clapping

Wow. We've made it! Made it to the next day, moment, year, lifetime of our existence. 2012....my oh my.... what is to come? Let's wait and see until the Mayan calendar actually ends on December 21st. Until then just sit back and relax because we have some territory to cover. I could put a fancy quote in at this point, but my whole blog will actually revolve around a short video (link is below) and I will tell you why.

It is because this year, after watching this said video several times in 24 hours, that decidedly 2012 will be about laughing my ass off. It will be a year of throwing away some of the built up crap that has been stored in the cells of seriousness and sorrow of victimhood. It will be a year of coming together and possibly dancing into trance like states of exhalation. It will no longer be about the economy, or the occupation of _________ (fill in the blank), or about all the shit we've endured at the mercy of others. I'm thinkin' more and more it's about the souls freedom and the reveling in some unspoken remembrance of childlike states of simplistic innocence. Well at least that's what my astrological inner compass says.

Back to the video. You could perhaps scroll down and watch it now and get into that giddy feeling state of what I am speaking to, because afterall we need to do some of this layer by layer. But if you choose to hold out, I will dive a bit deeper into why I have lost all sense of wanting to take it all with such seriousness at this point. It is because I have had the realization that the greatest people seem to know that humor and laughter above all else transcends the mundane and the complex and even the "spiritual". It makes all things plain as day and as they really are. It makes the effort seem like swinging on a park swing set. It make the day in day out seem like licking lollipops and then sharing that same lollipop with a friend. (Yeah, I do mean sharing spit.) It makes for a moment of letting it fall away, and just letting the laughter bubble up and out. It makes for a good well ridden dirt bike, and a dirty at the knees pair of corduroys. Yes, I was a tomboy in the 70's.

Here's the moment where I will finally come full circle while directing you to the video and take a step into the "spiritual" aspect of humor. Or the humorous aspect of spirituality rather. There is an iconic laughing Buddha after all! I would like to speak about, and possibly for the Buddha himself for a bit because I spent my new years eve at Spirit Rock Buddhists retreat center chanting, dancing, and listening to Dharma talks mixed with confusing guided meditation and finally finding myself punch drunk laughing about the reverence of it all.

I came to the conclusion after making jokes with friends during this sacred celebration about the Buddists clapping with one hand, that the Buddha was in fact a happy man being he created Nirvana and all. I decided he would have laughed his ass off at this video. I believe if he was hip and down with the times, he would have considered it as funny as the people laughing at the yogis themselves....and perhaps that is what all those gurus and people we've bowed down to all this time need. A good laughing at. Not because they are not hip to laughing their asses off, but because it would and will continue bring us all down to an equality that we really are, and in my humble opinion, seems to be required now. Laughing together into oblivion. "We are ONE but not the SAME" as U2 said so eloquently. Just imagine all of us laughing that hard all at once.....Pretty cool. All different laughs merging into oneness. Now picture Buddah, Jesus, La Virgin De Guadalupe, Shiva, Moses, and your dog or cat doing that with us human. Funny shit huh?

So, there will be a LAUGH IN starting now. We will occupy the funny bone until we are all sitting happily in a circle with that relaxed smile that settles after a good round of hilarity. See you there. Oh, and did I mention it's contagious?

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMC1_RH_b3k

Shem

James Brown and the Theory of Entropy

Disclaimer: The title I chose might have little to do with what I am going to write. And, I am happy to discover within that after some prior thought, James Brown and Entropy might end up being a very entertaining conversation worth having at some point. Ponder that and I'll get back to you.

Tonight is a night for a short travel through what I will call The Theory of Undivided Equals. Now this is not a topic many will be familiar because as I find myself back at the land of blog, I also find that I make these things up as I go, and well, I just found out that includes my own theories. Perhaps some might also call this annoying, because why would a woman sitting in a cozy wooded cottage alone have any right to make up her own theories? Well, I would say that it is alot more entertaining than turning on a television and watching someone get liposuction and then nip tuck their face or breasts into something humanly unrecognizable. My theory on that is called (and it's a long one so bare with me)....."You Are One Crazy Cracker! and if you so think that you need to cut, suck and slash away your Goddess given flesh to make yourself feel more solid then you should just stand on your head for three days while looking in the mirror then stand up quickly look in the mirror again and then continue on with your life." That should pretty much do it with reforming of perception and leave you with the lack of desire to change it up. (I prefer run on sentences.)

I would say that Undivided Equals has primarily to do with how one would perceive a balance of two so in place that you can hardly notice a plural state. That there is something essential about equilibrium that it is the very thing that we as humans are always questing for. That we, at times, are so skewed in our perception of ourselves, nature, "the other", and our focus so bent at times, that we finally might find that we no longer feel connected to any of it. That we experience division. So, the Undivided Equal is the place of experiencing that somewhere beyond that skew is the true sight, the true balance, the true and essential place of rest and calm.

In example. There is the Sloth and the tree is wraps around. The Sloth is just about the slowest moving living creature at about 10 ft per minute. I would have chosen the turtle to rant about, but it is a little too common for this mind wander. I suppose if you watch a Sloth for some time you might just fall into a fuzzy slow motion state yourself and then over a slow moving time of your own, you might even think that it is actually a part of the tree it is kickin' it in. It sort of becomes the space it inhabits. It merges with, it holds a balance in it's stillness. It is has then become an Undivided Equal.

I would say in partial summary that the "One Crazy Cracker" theory is more likely the complete opposite of this Undivided Equal theory. That if we so divide against our own flesh that we feel that never ending quest to equalibriate, then we will always be longing for something which cannot be found from the outside in. And really after Sloths and James Brown, and the question of Entropy (which I totally question), I believe that is what the true Undivided Equal is to us humans.... Ourselves united with ourselves. Habitating our own skin in the essential nature of restful and loving balance.

Please feel free to do what you will with this theory.

And please, please find the time to hug a Sloth.

Shem

I do have something to say...

So there was this moment this morning upon awakening when I thought, I in fact do still have something to say. And then I thought, no I still do have a whole lot to say. I felt up until this morning that my mute sign has been up and I have not had the pleasure of articulation of words at my demand. But, seems there's suddenly a storage unit in my mind-soul that has possibly been unlocked and ready for all the things to be moved out. Dusted off, loaded up in the Uhaul of the spoken word, and taken to it's new place of residence.....my very own blog space. Oddly enough it feels like home for the moment.

I never actually thought I would arrive here, but I think I've been spending more time with myself than comfortable. Having also taken to sobriety (of the red wine persuasion) as of late, I have nothing to do but ponder. "What do you ponder Shem?" you might ask......"Well in my humble and likely contrary opinion, some quiet interesting things!" I would kindly answer. So, now I will take you for a little ride into those if you choose to continue reading.

I will make a list of ponderizations this first time round so you might begin to get used to the feeling of taking a thought one at a time and swishing it around in your mind.( BTW: That is my definition of pondering.) I will keep it as clear as possible, and you might find yourself having a bit of a response, but I welcome those just the same. We can consider this a conversation, a correspondence of ponderings, a romp down the rabbit hole of multidimensional travel if you will. Give yourself free reign to ponder along, and I will too because I will be making these up as I go along. Off the cuff ponderings come in the best of flavors!

#1 Did you ever consider that just because there are these things called clocks and there are numbers on them that the concept of time is human made solely to keep track of motion of experience in space and does not at all mean that the numbers have anything to do with that concept. Clocks-Numbers=Experience of Motion.

(I know....that one can take awhile to wrap around, and will also likely change your perception of reality...did mine!)

#2 Have you ever watched a small child for a long time and then thought, "I was once that small". You were. Weird huh?

#3 We are floating around on a large ball in the middle of a black star dimpled vastness and we think it's normal, or we sometimes don't think about that at all. Well now we do!

#4 If you believe in reincarnation: I like to think that when a mother dies at childbirth it is likely that she reincarnates as her own child she just gave birth to. Life=Death=Life

#5 Where do you come from? You aren't from the Earth, you arrived here and you will leave here. Where will you go from here?

O.k. that should be a mind-full. I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my new little speak easy. I will be back and have more to say.............

Keep it REAL.

Shem

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