‘The First Step’
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” – Martin Luther King Jnr.
The First Step
Tag: Quotes
Unicorn
” Do you know, I always thought unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!”
“Well, now that we have seen each other”, said the unicorn,”if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you”.
-Lewis Carroll , ‘Through The Looking Glass’
Weighs A Ton,Weighs You Down
I was intrigued by this suit of armour at the Tower of London when I visited there in October.
Shiny, superbly crafted and protective to the nth degree…lots to admire then.
But…
“When we have built up armour against all the bad things we think might happen in the world, we have a false sense of protection and have only built up isolation”. -Tara Stiles
You name it – defensiveness, cynicism, aloofness – they only will only leave you alone in your corner in the end.
And those eye slits are not the best way to view the wonder and possibilities of the world!
Lift
“I think it is incumbent on anyone who can, to lift human dignity to the highest possible levels, maintaining one’s own and helping to raise that of others.”
– Henry Rollins
Great words from former Black Flag frontman and spoken word artist Henry Rollins.
Emphasises to me the togetherness of humanity – sometimes you will be the lifter (when you can) and sometimes the one lifted up (when you need to be).
As an aside, Rollins has also been a keen lifter of weights and famously said of the iron he lifted:
“The Iron is the great reference point, the all knowing perspective giver. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend……..Friends may come and go but two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.”
I agree…what gets lifted, and what lifts us up … is the Truth.
Abundance
“The source of all abundance is not outside you. It is part of who you are. However, start by acknowledging and recognising abundance without. See the fullness of life all around you. The warmth of the sun on your skin… or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from the sky. The fullness of life is there at every step. The acknowledgment of that abundance that is all around you awakens the dormant abundance within. Then let it flow out”
-Eckhart Tolle, from “A New Earth”
Sea Cave Treasure Seeker
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
– Joseph Campbell
Mighty sea cave on New Zealand’s west coast at Muriwai Beach.
I would be more than a little afraid to explore beyond the cave’s entrance – the power of the sea ,the damp rock walls and general darkness puts me off. Plus, a tiny fear of drowning…
The uncovering of the mystery of the cave’s depths and discovery of its ‘treasure’ will fall to someone else braver than me…..
Fear holds us back from discovery so often. Even when we know that at the times we have been most brave, we have learned and gained much.
As an aside, sea caves are products of erosive wave action – it is amazing that the destruction of the softish cliff rock over time actually creates something ‘other’ and new!
The Real You
“Just imagine becoming the way you used to be when you were a child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind. The real you is loving, joyful and free. The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun.”
– Don Miguel Ruiz (Mexican author and philosopher)
–
What Fish Don’t Notice
“The last thing a fish would notice would be water.”
– Ralph Linton
Great quote from the anthropologist Linton!
What is your fish view blindside?
That thing so obvious but essential, it doesn’t even factor into your thinking.
The thing that you may also forget to be grateful about…
Making Humiliation An Artform !
“Art is born of humiliation”
– W.H.Auden
Art Ascending
“Art, when inspired with love, leads to higher realms”
– Baba Meher
Two community art gallery stairways, in NZ’s Nelson (left) and Taumaranui (right), echo the above quote.
You can feel the love and passion transforming humble carpentry.
Stairs inviting you upwards with rainbow colours to discover more artful wonder.
Which is what inspired art does, I suppose – takes you out of yourself and beyond.
I fumble around with this blog, and I don’t really know what qualifies as ‘good’ art ,but I have come to learn that the act of creating something that is real to me has actually taken me ‘beyond’. The creativity of others (bloggers like you included!) inspires that journey too.
Onwards and upwards!
No Mistake
“Without music, life would be a mistake”
– Friedrich Neitzsche
Surrender Feathers
Something wild, and wise:
“Be crumbled.
So wild flowers will come up where you are.
You have been stony for too many years.
Try something different.
Surrender.”
– Rumi
Fighting life continuously can leave one a little bashed up.
Or even totally.
At that point maybe it is time for a different approach…
Joy Of Moving Water
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
– Rumi, excerpt from ‘Moving Water’
Still Moment
“I get these fleeting, beautiful moments of inner peace and stillness – and then the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of the day, I’m a human trying to make it through in this world”
– Ellen DeGeneres
Beautiful And Terrible Things
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.”
-Frederick Buechner
…and sometimes those things are one and the same…but never be fearful, like the man says.
PS: Bonus points for spotting the evil and laughing double-faced gargoyle plant flower.
Rekindled
” In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should be thankful for those people who rekindle our inner spirit”
-Albert Schweitzer
The Widening Gyre
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold…”
– W.B.Yeats ,excerpt from ‘The Second Coming’
These often quoted lines of poetry are mesmerising and terrifying to me , and the whole work is said to be prophetical and allegorical.
I’ll leave the latter for the scholars of literature to debate.
But the words have spoken to me deeply and personally of a time when my centre could no longer hold.
Things fell apart.
I was a lost falcon without direction.
Forces were beyond my control.
Mesmerising.
Terrifying.
As shockingly vivid as the hues and shapes of this picture, but thankfully in the past.
All I can say, if you’re in the eye of a chaotic hurricane , is that ” this too, shall pass.”
Labels Are For Jars
“How many cares one loses ,when one decides not to be something ,but someone.”
– Coco Chanel
This quote has almost been my mantra in the past year or so.
The creeping realisation came that I was defining myself by my various jobs,roles and external expectations , not by my core,essence and natural intuition. And I was losing myself in the process.
The labels that the world uses to pigeonhole us should not stick to us through everything , or anything all really, but they do .
Be warned ,you might just have to break a jar or two to lose those labels, and just be someone – you.
Glass broken, cares lost….
The Monkey Mind
I only became aware this week of the Buddhist concept of the “monkey mind” when I was reading a story online about a depressed US army veteran who had been taught tai chi in order to quiet the negative voices in his head.
Another magazine article at home awhile back described an acquaintance of mine as having a “manic, fizzing mind.” The description was bang on.
I can relate …in fact this blog reflects a lot of things that just bounce around inside my head …I have to get rid of some of them in cyberspace…sorry!
But seriously ,apparently the average person has about 50,000 separate thoughts a day(many about the same thing) and a lot of those are not relaxing or mindful thoughts.They are of the “need to do this..now” and “next, that”, or just general worry bead handling.
Some of this is necessary for personal organisation and survival; too much of it causes mental and physical fatigue.We simply can’t unwind and become restless and unsettled.
Buddha wrote: “Just as a monkey swinging through the trees grabs one branch and lets it go only to seize another, so too, that which is called thought,mind or consciousness arises and disappears continually both day and night.”
The trick,supposedly, is to understand that aspect of ourselves and then tame the monkey, not fight it.
I won’t get into the mindfulness techniques to do that because I am no expert,but it is good start just to realise that maybe we can hold a thought,if a beneficial one, before launching for the next “branch” .
Lastly,the monkey picture was taken at a popular tourist island in Langkawi, Malaysia. There are constant warnings to the boatloads of visitors:”Do not feed the monkeys”,as they can be quite excitable and aggressive.
Good advice for those with “monkey minds” too!
Zen Gate At The Snake Temple
“In Zen they say: “Don’t seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions”. What does that mean? Let go of identifications with your mind. Who you are beyond the mind then emerges by itself “.
– Eckhart Tolle, from ‘A New Earth’.
We love our opinions and our right to have them .
To hang on to them, defend them, fight others over theirs.
We sometimes identify with our opinions, forgetting that they are not actually us.
I think of opinions I have held strongly, then later discarded.Who I am didn’t actually change.`
Some thoughts and opinions I have are kind and beautiful; others, like the snakes who inhabit the Buddhist temple where I took this photo, are just a bit twisted and scary!
Ebb Then Flood 