Lemonade!

There's a saying, "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Sometimes though, you can't help but eat the lemon as is. Fuck the lemonade man! What is it that leads us to such drastic measures?

Perhaps it's the way the lemon looks. You know it's gonna be a sour mouthful; it's gonna make you wish you had the patience for lemonade concocting, but awww who cares!

Those moments stoke the fire in my life - the heat spreading out from my periphery.

Just this morning, I woke up feeling a little so-so. The sick bug has been makin' its rounds round town. I thought perhaps I had flirted with it and brought something back, then I drank some coffee and sat down to my drum-set. Forty minutes later and 12 tracks into Axis: Bold As Love and I was lost in rhythmic synchronization and free expression! Wowser; what a mind/body relief to just play your mood and desires out in musical articulation. I gotta thank my residents above me (if they were home) for putting up with my boisterous sound.

Lemons....lemonade...okay. Right.

It's been said, mostly in my developmental theories classes, that impulse control strengthens as we age. I'd agree with such, though sometimes it's just too restrictive to hold back against such an opposing force. If you proceed with diligence - all the while reevaluating yourself along the way, you'll be on your way to goldenness!

Such can be said about many experiences in life; yours or mine. Often it's okay to play into your desires. With a quick survey into the possible results for good measure, you're off to explore away the day. Young and old, female and male, do what feels right. Your previous thoughts on the matter, positive and negative, will serve to guide you along the experience.

Life IS dynamic.

We all make decisions on the fly. The wrong turns have brought us (hopefully) back to the right track. Be tactful, but not overly circumspect. Basically, enjoy the free things in life. We are a tiny speck in the spectrum of existence and there are plenty of other tiny specks laying in wait to be motivated.

So about that lemon, it's gonna be bitting in bitterness but perhaps you only desire to use it as a zest. In which case, the impulse to forgo making lemonade was justified and the results were as delish as you could have hoped for. Pat yourself on the back, you made the right turn.

Till next time, Bon Appétit.

Our Society's Sad Situation

We live in a society of taboos and double-standards. Words spilling from just one mouth find their way to harm and mal-intended use. Many find it second-nature to utter a word or phrase with a laugh and smile, not realizing the depth or breadth of their comments; or who they might affect.

People in any sort of elevated position have a responsibility to bar ignorance from their societal presence, but excuses speak louder than honest admittance. A word of caution for all of us: we look terrible talking down on one subject and conversely living up another in personal and private spaces!

What possibly could I be speaking of? Let's start with drugs and alcohol. We expect college students, or those under the legal age to be drug and alcohol-free, yet we are on the flip side of this - getting smashed, twisted, or otherwise every weekend with pictures to prove it all on facebook. Though this is done in a guilt-free space, we imagine that those words or phrases we tell others don't apply to us.

Does anyone realize the hypocritical nature of this?

If society was more exposed to the reality of situations, the what really goes on, would we be so quick to pass the same advice and judgement? The optimist in me hopes not, but reason tells me otherwise. Shamefully, the echoes and reflections cast back upon us as a society further the divide between the ignorant and those wishing to see positive change.

Change your perspective like you would a pair of socks. Listen to what you are saying!! Before you slander another, think for a second of what that might mean. Who are we to play God, judge and jury? We are entitled to no more rights than the ants residing in your cabinets. We just think we do because someone somewhere told us we were important and that our ass was more special than another's. It's all very laughable, but yet very sad.

As the snow falls and melts to return again to earth, so will this vicious cycle of ignorance. Please be part of the solution and not the problem.

MLK Tribute - what could the future be?

I am the dream

festering in your thoughts

I am the unrealized person

grasping the unknown

I am the individual in a group

the unity laying in wait

I am the undisclosed start

the match to ignite the inferno

I am the hope residing outside your door

in wait to keep you company

I am the logic

screaming insanity in sane-ness

I am the stutter in your step

wishing you would trip and falter
I am the anchor

hoisted from the depths

I am the young soul

aware of a better future for all

I am realizing consciousness

space to think outside my sphere

I am forward-moving

with eyes to the past for guidance

I am action and reaction

becoming full circle

I am many of you

incarnate as a poem

I am

no longer

We are

Many

Together

One.

()

The Passenger Seat of Our Life

I seek to write though I find it a struggle to create clear thought, even though I am in good mental order currently. Have you experienced or felt a point in your life when you are tentatively ready to break through to a better you, but haven't or can't?

Idle on that.

You see in reflection how you want to fragment the blockage before you, but what will become of it? What is the method, the rhyme, the reason?Are these reasons selfish or self-limiting? Oh how confounding.

Perhaps the breadcrumbs leading towards the possible future will guide me into clear communicable thought...

* * *

There is something about the word development that entices me to write. Thoughts form but with relative ease they fail to assimilate sense at what lies before, beside, or behind me. Transform that medium to the role of an observer and clarity starts to peak. Perhaps I am putting my own life under the knife and microscope, but seeing the shadow that follows in my stead is proof enough for the examination of self.

Many have said that we are our own worst enemy, but why must it be represented as such? Can we not say that the worst enemy we have known has been the destructor of self instead? When the blocks tumble down and nothing seems to have any strength or growth, it is our own hand and mind that limits and destroys, but that same mind and hand can be positively responsible for so much more. Realizing we are the driver's of our lives permits a connection to words associated with control, but what of the passenger seat? Is that seat reserved only for someone else, or can we truly switch seats at a whim to find a differentiated viewpoint?

For those that have sought to follow my words and phrases but still are coming up bewildered, I apologize. My style is like a creek flowing over rock and stones in its way. Where the thought is headed is understood, but how it gets there and the lateral shifts it takes along the way are what may derail your good sense for reading this. Flow with me though.

As we drive down a favorite country road or half way across the country, the passenger seat in our vehicle is usually unoccupied or occupied. There is no denying this dualistic fact. I'd venture that 99.99% of us do not decide spontaneously to switch seats 30 minutes into the interstate, blazing at 69 mph down the highway. That just isn't logical, but what about the passenger seat of our mind? Who occupies that and with what frequency?

Often times, it is terrifying to take the passenger seat in your own vehicle while a friend drives. The same can be said for taking the observer's post in our minds. While this thought sounds spacey and far-off, it is actually more realistic and applicable than we realize. The desire to always be in the driver's seat is the Ego at work. Never does it desire to be second or third in line. Humorously enough though, the Ego has no quips when relegated to such positions; so long as a confident being is ordering the moves. Do we really need that delicious chocolate chip cookie, whose fudgey goodness begs a spot amongst our taste buds, or is the Ego speaking more loudly, telling us we do? This same dilemma, minus the rewarding taste of a cookie, plays out multiple times a day. The Ego, in the driver's seat, decides what, when, where, and how. Such a response is second-nature. Where was the higher mind?

If the Ego was in the driver's seat, which for all purposes is us manifested in our wants and desires, then who was in the passenger seat? That is where this piece strives to break into full sail. With no one observing from such a post; not even ourself, the higher mind keeps in its concentric circles above, while the Ego stirs the sharks below.

Fast forward 3 months and 6 days from now, that's April 15th; what is the status of your passenger seat? If you cannot see yourself in that spot, then perhaps you enjoying feeding the sharks. If you love being in the driver's seat but have a desire to take an observer's role, then you are aware that the possibility exists. Those like myself, who can imagine being the passenger for a split second or two, will appreciate the changed perspective. The clarity at that moment as we spectate how the sharks react below gives rise to the higher mind. Its concentric circles extend down to spatially incorporate all into harmonious thought. The person represented solely by the Ego is not absolute knowledge, but of course it thinks it is. Being able to see this as an observer, from the passenger seat or our own lives is disjointing, but we appreciate the harmony and understanding that clairvoyantly follows the schism.

Question this: How can we shift into an observer while still being in control of our vehicle, aside from actually scooting laboriously mid-drive into the passenger seat - rolling down the highway doing 69 mph? Just like anything in life, we can obtain the end result in a multitude of manners, but is it a manner we can be proud of as we lay in bed reflecting on our day or our journey?

Take that same morsel of fudgey chocolate chip goodness, and instead of eating it whole, sample it piecemeal. Do you notice the taste and texture change as it organically communicates to your brain the reason you desired it in the first place? If the cookie's shift from delicious treat to sustenance has been missed, than perhaps the passenger seat is unoccupied, with the Ego blazing full speed ahead.

Aim to occupy that seat; observe the lateral deviation and the new perspective it brings. Notice that life still continues, and the feeling of safety exists. Though the sharks will remain hungry, we have sacrificed the humanistic response at our Ego's expense. We have brought about a new awareness within ourselves without knowing how we would get to such a point in our lives. Oh how less confounding the road ahead seems as we peak through as both passengers and drivers of our lives.

Greetings Blog-liens

About to drop, fall or otherwise onto this blog is a post about something interesting to read, I hope. At least, at worst, it will cause some neurological processes to initiate in your cranium.

Stay frosty on the

Words and phrases,

Al