Old Man and Young Women

I came across this photograph today and have been pulled into its aura. The faces of the old man and young women, their clothes, especially the shoes, then the background and the little boy capture me in endless fascination. There appears to me so many stories that spring out from the image.

The photographer is Hugo Jaeger. Early in 1940, Hugo took this photograph during a visit to the Kutno ghetto in Poland. What is more surprising is Hugo was the personal photographer for Adolf Hitler. He more typically recorded the triumphalism of the Third Reich rather than the shadow.

This and other images he made of the plight of Jews during the 1940's are incredibly striking and a significant reminder of the atrocities that took place in Europe in the middle of the twentieth century. After a period of economic depression and great austerity the countries of Europe went to war. Fast forward to the present day and we are in the midst of similar circumstances. Europe is on the cusp of a right wing fascist revival.

The question sitting with me is how we can step outside of this cycle of events and take a different path and learn from our history. A path that seeks to build on what joins us whilst celebrating difference. A path that seeks to innovate our way of life to a more holistic perspective.

Words of Wisdom

This liminal space that Eckhart is referring to is quite familiar. It's a betwixt and between place I have often written about on this blog. Trying to articulate my experiences of how it feels me. It can get very uncomfortable and disconcerting. It's been described by some as like being on a bridge or lost in the woods or adrift on the sea. A bridge that it is not possible to simply get off. On one side there is nothing attractive for you and the other is not yet available.

The bridge/sea/woods that reconnects the fragmented self to wholeness, to oneness, is contemplation. And yet as we step on that bridge, the path often disappears beneath our feet. Uncertainty and not knowing fall like veils across our eyes. The mystery deepens to the far horizon. Our vision takes on different forms and images that we can not easily decipher. 

In this moment, in this space, we make our departure into a presence that can only be experienced and participated in rather than reasoned, controlled, planned for and conceptualised. This is where our creative spark can leap forth and guide us. This is a place of death and dying as well as renewal and rebirth. The ego has to be transcended. Our awakened selves has to discovered. Borrowing a line from Rumi, contemplation, offers us a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground we are upon.

I am learning not to try and push or fight my way out of this circumstance I find myself. Nor to zoom up into my head and analyse. Rather I have to place myself in a contemplative stance. To be patient and learn to wait. Wait until the moment to move is presented or invited.  As much as I wish it, I am after all not in control of this one.

Getting into a contemplative stance is not passive. For me it means making an active choice to explore an embodied world.

To be out in nature, 

take a walk in the woods, 

canoe down the river, 

write a poem, 

bang a drum, 

feel the sun on my face,

hug a friend,

paint a picture, 

move and stretch my body, 

pick apples, 

plant seeds, 

cook a meal, 

kiss my partner, 

gaze up at the moon,

lit a fire

make pancakes,

meditate,

it's a list I keep

searching for ways 

to

add to!

Signs of Brilliance

This is a poster used during the occupy movement in Boston in 2011.

Just fantastic.

I love the sentiment.

Some Poems Written on Train Journeys

To my love

I'm on a train to Waterloo

Dreaming 'bout all the fun

Things we shall do.

Museums and tearooms,

Wasabi's and beer,

Followed by music,

Whatever you want,

My Dear.

It's our day to play

In big London Town.

All the hours are ours

Until the sun goes down.

Nobody

I say no to my body

No to my feelings

The emotions rising within

And what happens

Is the FEAR seeps in.

It taps on my shoulders

Then whispers into my ears

'Who do you think you are,

messing around here,

You're a Nobody!'

I'm a Nobody?

'You'll not amount to anything'

I'm a Nobody!

My disengaged body

Visibly shrinks within

Getting tighter and tighter

Smaller and smaller

The density so heavy I'm unable

To let anyone or anything near

         Contraction

                  Retraction

My eyes to the ground

Clouds loom above me

Impending doom all around.

My shoulders carrying the

Heavy weight of it all

    Heavy

       Heavier

         Even heavier until ...

Up pops a Robin hopping

on the wall.

His red breast plumped up.

He's ever so small tall.

My fingers slowly begin

To release and unfurl.

As the open field

Beyond the Beech Tree

    Beckons me

        To come in.

Each footstep brings a

Deeper breath, inner then

In to the field I go

Looking skyward

A blue expanse abounds

  Up

     Up

       Above

As far as I can see.

The trees sway in unison

As the breeze glances by.

Far distant cries from the 

Milking cows travel as they

Wait their turn in

The Parlour.

    And expanse,

       And openness

Return me to space

Nature's welcoming embrace

The pendulum has swung 

Once again full circle

From despair to hope

And yet, wait,

Will it now go back again?

As certain as night

Follows day!

The cycle will go round

And round again.

Each time I get Triggered ...

    BANG 

And off I go again

But this time

I stay

I don't look away

This time
I look into its eye

FEAR

I'm walking toward you.

To ME!

What do I see?

   Humanity

     My loneliness

My sensitivity and vulnerability

   My POWER, my strength,

my judgement ...

It's all there to be seen.

No hiding place here.

The full spectrum of qualities.

Like an energy filled rainbow.

Spreading its message of colour.

The hot Red of anger and passion

The verdant Green of jealousy and fecundity

The golden Yellow of cowardice and joy

The azure Blue for sorrow and love.

 

It's about the all and everything

Not one thing or no thing

OR Nobody.

You're not Nobody.

I'm not Nobody.

We're integral wholes

Circling

   Circling

     Circling
Inseperably embracing the ALL!