The Necessary Madness of Being Human

We are creatures of this world. We are not here to transcend our planetary existence. We’re here to fully immerse ourselves in the miracle that is this planetary existence: the Life and the Death, the ineffable reality of consciousness that dances with mortality; the beauty and ecstasy of Life unfolding, co-existing with the reality of necessary disappointment and endings, partings, grief and....then....beginnings again...the never-ending relentlessness of beginnings that follow directly on the heels of endings. The ebb and flow, like the tide in flux with the moon. The constant contraction and expansion that is our inheritance; that is this human experience.

It is in our job description, the one that reads “Human Being: responsibilities and requirements are as follows...:” to apprentice to grace in this role of witness to the All and Everything, to simply remain in awe as the wildness flies around us, to track and record the comings and goings, to let it have its way with us so that we may know it into the marrow of our bones, so that we may say, “ah yes....I understand what you are doing here...”, doing all this as if all life depended on it (because it does). To hone ourselves as the most reverent and reliable of court stenographers in this on-going litigation of liable between the Ones who are counting on our awareness and our human propensity to go to sleep...to numb, to shut down and tune out, to go away, to say “not mine”. Make love with your self, your partner, the tree in your backyard, to setting sun, the swollen spring creek, the returning herons, the dog as he catches a dangerous spring scent in the wet hair of his nostrils, the first blade of a crocus bud...make love as if all life depended upon it, as if you are the last one to survive these times and you know how to spend these precious moments of borrowed time.

WE ARE HERE. YOU ARE HERE. BE HERE NOW. BE RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW. AS IF ALL LIFE DEPENDED UPON IT....(because....it....does).

A Spider Playing in the House

Conventional knowledge is death to our souls, and it is not really ours. We must become ignorant of what we have been taught, and be, instead, bewildered.

Run from what is profitable and comfortable. If you drink those liqueurs, you will spill the spring water of your real life.

Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.

I have tried prudent planning long enough.  From now on, I will be mad. ~Rumi~