I believe my “purpose”, if I have such a thing, is to be a reclusive seeker and perhaps a guide for those who ask of me. I am not a sage or an enlightened being but a simple wayfarer who seeks insight into my world and the workings of the human mind. All too often when a person feels a great need to write or speak of these matters they are faced with people who feel them to be arrogant or just charlatans trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes. I make no claims to absolute truth, nor do I seek to tell anyone how to live. When I write, I attempt to do it in such a way as to present my revelations to myself. Hopefully, I can do it in such a way that readers will find entertaining.

I live a simplistic life by choice. I have found that this is the way I must travel through this journey of life. I write out my spiritual journey (whether through bad poetry or bad essays) because I have always found it easier to write my thoughts down than to speak them. I do not savor the idea of conflict and division whether internal or external and I actively attempt with my life to dissolve as much of this as possible. I know that resistance and conflict are as needed as breathing and sleeping and we cannot escape it all the way around, but I believe a reduction in turmoil is the starting step that we must make in order to achieve balance.

I am grateful that I have found an outlet that allows me a chance to explore these things in a public forum and receive feedback from others. It is a useful thing to get differing perspectives and viewpoints on issues that can all too often be reduced to controversy. It’s much better than just talking to yourself.  We all have our paths and our own manner in which we travel, but it is always nice to come across a friendly face along the way. In short, dear friends, I welcome you into my hermit’s hovel as this new year begins. Don’t bother kicking off your shoes, put your feet on the coffee table if you wish, the only thing I ask of my friends is that they find their peace and then actively strive to preserve it. And thank you to the ones who have found my place already.

In peace,

wayfarer

Trees reach up their ancient arms toward the gray sky

As if longing to touch the same thing we earth bound dwellers seek

I strain my neck peering back to fill my longing eyes

Waiting only for just a second’s glance, a miniscule peek

As if some great hand would pull back

Those curtains of gray suddenly

Revealing the face of pure love and peace

To someone as unworthy as me

Ancient forests spread out before my eyes

My hands stretch forward trying to grasp the thin air

I am

Alive

Awake

Vibrant

Renewed

Complacent

Meditative

Flowing

Restful

Silent

Safe

The cool of winter fills my lungs and numbs my hands

And I breathe in the newness of me today

The New Year is an especially resonant moment with me, spiritually. The symbolic renewal and the cycle once again coming full circle to start anew. It is a time of reflection, meditation, and celebration. The shedding of the old skin for the new.

In my reflections of the old year and my forward looking into the new one, I find that I have many blessings that have been bestowed upon me. I have found Blogstream, for one, which has become a very comfortable fit with me. I have a relationship with a beautiful, caring woman that renews itself each passing day. My writing has started to resurface after a very long absence, and my spiritual journey has progressed by leaps and bounds. In short, I have much to be pleased with as this year comes to an end.

My reflections also lead me to the obvious conclusion that there are those things I feel remorse about. Those things that sadden me, anger me, or just fill my head with confusion. The ugly war that our country is embroiled in overseas, and the lives of those young men and women that hang in the balance there. The ugly war that brews here on our own soil between two opposing sides of the political spectrum that hangs our lives in the balance is also a concern. People who still live in abject poverty in the world at large, and in our very cities and towns across America. The serious and dangerous issue of our environment threatened daily by our own ignorance of the problems.

It is a joyous and wonderful time of year, and I hope that this weekend finds you all safe and with the ones you hold the dearest to your hearts. As with all things, however, the bad comes with the good, and here is hoping that we can continue to hold a semblance of balance for all mankind in the coming year. Here’s wishing all of my friends a peaceful and prosperous New Year!!!!!

Peace be to you all,

wayf

When the seasons change, birds fly south, trees shed their leaves, rivers and ponds freeze, bears sleep, and all things rest and lie dormant. Soon the spring rains will come and life once again will resume with the full knowledge that the cycle will repeat itself. This is how nature works and it is a mechanism that has endlessly proven its effectiveness throughout the ages. It does not need to be tampered with; it has no need for repairs.

If nature were allowed to follow its cycle endlessly and without impedance, peace and tranquility would be the result. Surely there would be times of tumultuous uproar and violent upheavals but for the purpose of the cycle only. Without contention, the violent times would rise and fall along with the peaceful ones in an endless cycle of birth, death, and renewal.

This cycle will not end. The mechanism will expunge any impedance it encounters and continue to cycle. Disturbing its processes is an exercise in futility that will only lead to permanent withdrawal from the workings. The balance and proficiency with which this mechanism works will not be permanently disrupted. It goes about its business with no thoughts or ideas of how its actions affect one small piece of its workings but with the simple task of completing the cycle so that all things within the workings of it may flourish. If that means the extinction of virus like infesters, it will come to pass.

Nature does not wish our removal. The world does not seek our extinction. Its cycle is performed for our benefit as well as every other living creature on the planet. We are the ones who have placed ourselves in nature’s way and try desperately to conquer it. I am in awe of the arrogance it takes for humans to make statements about conquering nature. The truth of it is we will never escape the cycle of birth, death, and renewal. Placing ourselves at odds with the natural world and our own inner nature will only speed up the process and we will end up on a long list of failed projects. The mechanism, however, will keep on going through the cycle; with or without us.