Content:
Who said everyone must learn to share?!
If you cannot fly without crashing then walk,
When love meets love it greets the shelter of devotion
Empowerment – Foundations for Heart-full Living
Exploring contrast
Soft is the Marsh Mellow and strong is a stone
Cold is the morning, Yet colder is the night
A time for everything
Just this much
The contrast of wisdom and folly
Choices of Today…….To nurture or to be fed?
Too much!
If living is learning – Learning is living?
Two ends of the same stick
The Wind Chimes
Conceptual Exploration and Consecutive Thinking
If roses are red and violets are blue
This is the Key to the Kingdom
The tiger has stripes.
This kingdom is covered with snow.
Who said everyone must learn to share?!
The frost was on the ground, it was quite snowy white.
Very cold was the morning after a sub-zero night.
I order to feed the birds on this cold winters day, I put out some oats in a small tray.
Along came the blue-tit so gentle and fine,
Then came the Robin who said “Get off its mine!”
Then it was the blackbird that came to see what was to eat.
He chased away the Robin with his bright orange beak.
Next a proud magpie flew down onto the shelf, to get these treats all for himself.
But even this was not to be when sheep said “Go” these oats are for and me.
And soon the scene changed again, when the farmer’s dog came down the lane.
Until the farmer came strolling by, then the dog went to his side.
So I watched in quiet contemplation as the patient blue-tit returned to the place to see what was left on the little offering plate.
- If you cannot fly without crashing then walk,
If you can’t walk without falling then crawl,
For it’s not how fast you have travelled that’s important
But rather, that you keep moving safely forward.
And it’s not how far you have travelled,
But your condition on arrival that directs your future.
- When love meets love it greets the shelter of devotion
When desire meets love it surrenders to compassion.
When desire meets devotion it is transformed into love
When desire is conquered, if love is still there, then devotion can flourish.
When devotion meets devotion we embrace the divinity of God.
| Empowerment – Foundations for Heart-full Living
Heart-full Living – Foundations for expression of the soul. Expression of the Soul – Revival of Higher Consciousness Higher Consciousness – Foundations for Communion with God Communion with God – Embracing the Supreme source of Love and Light Love and Light – Living the Dream of Heaven on Earth. |
Exploring contrast
Exploring contrast is a natural aspect of conceptual awareness and thinking which lends itself to creative forms of written expression:-
- Soft is the Marsh Mellow and strong is a stone
Fun is a playful conversation as dull is the silent phone.
Tall are the forest trees as short the summer for birds and bees.
Soon is awaited with hurried breath, later is held within an iron grip.
Vast are the seas as trusting every ship.
- Cold is the morning
Yet colder is the night.
Bright is the morning
As Dark is the night.
New is Today
As yesterday was ………..And tomorrow will be.
Joy rules my heart
As Solemn rules my mind.
Love rules the world
As light shows us the way.
| If forgiveness requires surrender Does surrender always include forgiveness ? (for ourselves and/or others) |
A time for everything
‘For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, a time to die;
a time to plant, a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.’…………
……….3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
[Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: English Standard Version Bible; Crossways: 2008]
Just this much
Just this much will take you to that place you seek.
Just this much will guide you on that illusive path.
Any more would be too much, a distraction.
Anymore and your expectations would obstruct the path you feel so passionately.
For even I cannot give it,
The moment you seek it you are lost;
In your searching, you deny its existence within you.
| Discernment dissolves control; humility dissolves anger and listening dissolves argument. Forgiveness dissolves revenge, stillness dissolves stress, prayer dissolves fear. |
The exploration of contrast can invoke depths of thought and conceptual understanding that might otherwise remain unspecified or even misunderstood. Exploring contrast may take us to levels of definition that deepen understanding through a natural desire to clarify. For example in The way of love [Marshall Pickering, 1994: 170] Brother Ramon clarifies the difference between priest and prophet as follows, ‘The role of the priest is to stand before God on behalf of the people, but the role of the prophet is to stand before the people on behalf of God.’
Contrast can bring us to honestly assess what we seek and the realities that surround an ideal and help us evade truth.
- The more I speak of love the further I remove myself from its powers of purification.
The more I think about love the more distracted I am from the divine nature of my soul-spirit.
The more I seek enlightenment the more successfully I am obstructed by my own self-deceptions.
The harder I work at my performance in life, the greater I find the boulders of resistance and barricades of illusory fears.
The more I want peace and light the stronger my capacity to deny its existence within me.
The more I design my own actions and activities as important ways of expressing myself, the fainter my awareness of listening with inner stillness as a greater achievement.
The more I look to find understanding of the past and a future of goodness the more I inflate my egocentric pride.
The more I concern myself with the dramas in other peoples’ lives the more I become distracted by the quality of entertainment found in spoken human communication.
The more my mind feeds my emotions with judgements and expectations the greater my separation from my own original divine nature.
The more I seek freedom the more constricted I am by the boundaries that channel my thoughts and dull my awareness of higher consciousness.
The more connected I am to my own needs the greater my separation from the Supreme source of infinite love
The contrast of wisdom and folly
A good name is better than precious ointment (a costly luxury in ancient Israel),
and the day of death than the day of birth.
It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind,
and the living will lay it to heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter,
For by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise
than the songs of fools;
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of fools; this is also vanity.
Surely oppression drives the wise into madness,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,
and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
[Ecclesiastes 7:1-10 :English Standard Version Study Bible; Crossways: 2008]
When fun plays on initiating fear
excitement becomes dangerous.
When listening becomes insensitive
judgmental discussion becomes argument.
When appreciation becomes subjected to disrespect
desire transforms into demands.
When social interaction becomes entertainment
playfulness becomes showing off.
When one person seeks everyone’s attention,
interaction becomes obsessional
When fantasies direct everyday communication
natural balance is distorted into greed.
| When the difficult times are managed well, the easy times manage themselves. |
Choices of Today
To nurture or to be fed?
To creatively seek rather than follow in discriminate reception!
To enjoy and forget to witness the truth?
To pray for help without surrender to highest good!
To give thanks, instead of celebrating with gratitude?
To live life for the affections of others, distracted from our own heart-full authenticity!
To judge our pain as unfavourable rather than as a wakeup call that initiates healing.
To resent life’s challenges or to live life with prayer-full optimism.
Let us aspire within the doing to attain a loving way of being.
| Divine healing may bring a flow of cleansing tears so that we can learn to receive divine mercy and engage every aspect of ourselves in devotional service. |
Too much!
When sharing becomes domination
caring becomes bullying.
When fun plays on initiating fear
excitement becomes dangerous.
When listening becomes insensitive
judgmental discussion becomes argument.
When appreciation becomes subjected to disrespect
desire transforms into demands.
When social interaction becomes entertainment
playfulness becomes showing off.
When one person seeks everyone’s attention,
interaction becomes obsessional
When fantasies direct everyday communication
natural balance is distorted into greed.
Learning is living? |
If faith embraces doubts Can doubts embrace faith ? If compassion requires gratitude Gratitude must require compassion? If love can be expressed with money? Can Money express love ? If this is all true Every truth is a complexity of variables! And every compromise a combination of possibility! While the world turns we may never know where we are….. If we don’t know where we are how can we know where we are going? So who am I! If I don’t know where I am or where I am going…!….? |
Two ends of the same stick
Contrast can also be explored as the two ends of the same stick.
The example below presents a pictorial exploration of the concept presented by the word PEACE as the balance point on a stick.
The author has presented the picture below as a visualisation or a guided illustrated coloured drawing. This interactive creative activity illustrates a perspective of conceptual exploration based on a presentation of balanced attributes related to a central concept. In this example the concluding poem links the word peace with balance…harmony….love and describes the description of love within the context of wind chimes.
The Wind Chimes
Love is like the chimes that sing of a natural engagement,
In a state of stillness they wait in silence for an intimate connection.
Only a gentle wind can play their creative potential
Written as an innocent melody of notes.
In shyness they perform to an unprompted audience
And sing an unpredictable tune of good fortune,
Whereby the angels celebrate with a shower of blessings.
| The success of yesterday is a blessing for today. Your failure yesterday provides learning for today. What you haven’t managed to do today is to express gratitude for what you have done today and learnt yesterday! |
Conceptual Exploration and Consecutive Thinking
Integrating conceptual and consecutive thinking may not need to be complex.
If roses are red and violets are blue
What is the colour that blesses you?
If coal is black and snow is white
What is the colour that brings day into night?
If oranges and lemons are the bells of Saint Clements,
What are the drums that say cherries and plums?
If my grass is green but your grass is greener,
Then blue is the ocean but the sky can be bluer.
If bright are the colours that I see everywhere,
Who puts the rainbow arching through the air?
And if the rainbow’s end is elusive, our fantasies illusion
How can this poem have any sensible conclusion……?
This is the Key to the Kingdom
In that Kingdom there is a city.
In that city there is a town.
In that town is a street.
In that street there is a lane.
In that lane there is a yard.
In that yard there is a house.
In that house there is a room
In that room there is a bed.
On that bed there is a basket.
In that basket there are some flowers
| This is the Key to the Kingdom
In that Kingdom there is a ………. In that …………..there is a ………. In that ……………there is a . In that …………..there is a etc. |
This traditional poem is based on a simple and pleasing poetic conceptual structure that can be used as formula for creative writing as shown in the box. The following descriptive poems are examples of how a young writers and the author were inspired by the above poetic, conceptual and repetitive structure:-
The tiger has stripes.
The stripes are black.
The blackness is fur.
The fur has two stripes.
The other stripe is orange.
The stripes of orange and black are fur.
The fur is on the skin.
The skin is on the muscles.
The muscles are around the bones.
The bones are called ribs.
The ribs protect two lungs
And nestled between the lungs beats the heart
That sends blood to the lungs, bones, muscles and the skin.
The heart that keeps the tiger alive.Written by Bryony
This is the key to the kingdom.
This kingdom is covered with snow.
Lying in the snow is a big white bear.
Near the big white bear is a little white bear.
The little white bear is playing by a pool.
In the pool is a lot of freezing cold water.
In the freezing cold water there is a little silver fish.
The little silver fish is looking at the little white bear
And the little white bear is looking at the little silver