Tag: poetry

thoughts

~ Popping The Bubbles ~

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~ Popping The Bubbles ~

“Most people get a glimpse of the world beyond normality at some point in their lives. Maybe it’s the beauty of a sunset moment when walking in the park, or an indescribable sensation when listening to a song, or an existential pondering when looking up at the stars. Although most people get a glimpse of the wilderness beyond culturally-defined reality, very few are actual willing enough to venture down the rabbit hole. In my life, every time I tried to remind people how small they are and how trivial their worries are in the grand scheme of an infinite universe, people would quickly roll their eyes and change the conversation. I never quite understood that though. To me, expanding the scope of your thoughts and popping those bubbles we live in was the most liberating thing on earth. The more of those bubbles I popped, and the more I ventured down the rabbit-hole, the easier life was – the more beautiful life was. The worries fell away and the cracks in the pavement again appeared as magical as they did when I was a child. Clearly, I was in the minority though. Most people were not ready to let go of the virtual realities cultures created inside their minds. Most people would rather watch televisions than sunsets. Most people would rather open magazines than their minds. Most people would rather look solemnly down at the floor, than gaze curiously up at the stars.”

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~ Toasting To A Life Well-Lived ~

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~ Toasting To A Life Well-lived ~

“What is terrifying to me is not death, but the thought of facing it unfulfilled and full of regret. I recently started working in a bar which is frequented by old retired men who spend their day drinking alone in silence. Many of these are people who have spent most of their adult life working and saving for retirement, only to find themselves sitting alone, drinking beer and descending toward death in a depressing manner. I can’t help but think to myself – is that what retirement is for some people? Is that what we human-beings get after spending all our lives toiling away in some time-consuming, unfulfilling job? There is one guy in particular who comes in about 10 am every day and drinks until he falls asleep or unconscious in his chair in the corner. Sometimes right before he falls asleep, he stares solemnly into the bottom of his glass and there almost seems to be a silent recognition – a sort of unspoken acknowledgement that he missed the point of life the whole way along.

    Perhaps I’m just another idealistic youth, but to me there is no thought more depressing than the one of never experiencing the wonders of life in our one ticket on the roller-coaster – the thought of missing the music because you were too busy playing life safe and following a tedious script. So many of our homes and buildings are already populated with the ghosts of the lives that were not really lived. Our culture has managed to condition us to a belief that life begins somewhere in the future – right after school, right when you get that promotion, right when you get that shiny car, right when you retire. This toxic philosophy that pervades our culture has already robbed many millions of time that can never be bought back. So, it’s important to realise this sooner rather than later so you don’t allow yourself to also be fooled by the madness. The time you have on this earth is your greatest treasure. You need not spend all your time chasing material wealth and security and retirement. By all means, do that if that’s what you truly want and it makes you happy – but if it doesn’t, then just don’t participate in the insanity that mindless mass society produces. You are a goddamn human-being – you already have the diamonds in your eyes, the gold in your heart, and the wealth in your spirit. Nothing you save up for to buy is more valuable than time. Remember: your life is now. Don’t keep perpetually postponing plans to some mythical future. Don’t allow yourself to become the person who spent their best years toiling away in a job they didn’t like just so they could earn the right to sit around in silence waiting to die. This world is a playground; the present moment is a gift. So, live your life fearless and free. Live a life you can go happily to the grave with. Live your life to the full and make sure those final drinks are toasted to a life well-lived.”

(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

 

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~ In Search ~

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 ~ In Search ~

“It doesn’t matter if you die in a ditch or a mansion; both have the same end result. The only that matters – the only thing that ever matters – is what you do with the time you have here. We all grow out of the universe but many a life is denied its full blossoming due to the fear of failure or being different. Too many of us abandon our passions due to the influence of others. Gripped by an urge to fit in amongst the tribe, we instead choose to dwell in the darkness of living a life untrue to ourselves. We settle for the mundane and our homes and buildings become populated with the ghosts of the lives that were not fully lived.

For me it was that haunted darkness which drove me out into the world. Whenever I was on the road, I often witnessed the blossoming of a wilted flower. I looked into people’s eyes and could see people finally shining in the light of an overdue dawn, living life with the kind of inner joy they knew they deserved. The air was filled with electricity and there was a sense that anything was possible. It was in moments like that when you realised the true power of picking up that backpack. It was in those moments when you realised the value of wandering over the horizon. It was in those moments when you stepped back and realised that the real journey – the real adventure – had only just begun.”

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~ Stepping Off The Conveyor Belt ~

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~ Stepping off the Conveyor Belt ~

“Whenever I started a new trip, I always delighted in grabbing my backpack from the airport conveyor belt. It was a standard act everyone went through when you flew to a new place, but I felt like it symbolised so much about what it was to travel. All throughout our lives we are continually placed on conveyor belts; from the mechanical process of education, to the roundabout of the 9-5, to the circular nature of riding back and forth down the same highway everyday – perpetually we rotate around and around in a repetitive and predictable fashion. To travel to a new place with no plans was to finally step off from the carousel of routine; whether for a week or a year, it was a journey away from the robotic process of normal life which required you to do the same things every day. Whenever I looked around at the people collecting their bags, I rarely saw the defeated faces that were found in those Monday morning traffic jams. Instead I saw hyper kids and hyper adults; I saw burning eyes and wide smiles; I saw the wild faces of those who knew a great adventure awaited them. And the more I collected that backpack, the more it became clear to me that we all loved to collect those bags. The reason we love it is because we know a new journey awaits us. The reason we love it is because we know the world is rich with possibility. The reason we love it is because – if only for a short and bittersweet period – we know that we are finally free.”

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thoughts

~ A Thought For Her ~

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“Yes, I know you are hurting. This world has broken you. It breaks many of us at some point. But you are not going to give in because I can still see the flames that will start a great fire still flickering within those eyes. You are going to overcome this, but know that it’s not going to be easy. The warrior inside you doesn’t even want it to be. It’s going to be a great battle in which you shall dive down and rescue yourself from the depths of hell. Soon that darkness will pass, the dungeons will be unlocked, the dragons and demons will leave your skies. A new dawn shall arrive as the flags of joy in your heart flutter once more in that morning wind. This is it: the greatest battle you will ever face and you will face it as who you really are: a child of infinity; a warrior of the sun. And it is a battle you are going to win. But first remember to be gentle to yourself. You are not responsible for saving the world, but first yourself, and please know that you are worth saving. Those eyes were meant to blaze with brightness, not wither with gloom; those feet were meant to dance in ecstasy, not trudge in the swamp.

In all your despair, you have forgotten that you are the entire universe dancing in a singular being for a singular lifetime. Stars have died; light has travelled billions of years; cosmic magic has been weaved. Your very flesh contains the fundamental fabric of the entire universe and no matter what anyone says: you matter and you count. So go on: do whatever it takes. Go crazy if you have to. Reinvent yourself. Set fire to your soul and let the battle begin; let your spirit be unleashed. Because there is no way a divine being such as yourself was meant to dwell in darkness and despair. Those days are over and now is the time to emerge from that swamp; now is the time is now to claim back what is yours. With the power of a million suns burning deep inside your heart, now is the time is to rise up and become who you were born to be.”

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~ Expanding Horizons ~

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~ Expanding Horizons ~

“Your life is a miracle. An unprecedented phenomenon that can never, or will never, be matched on any imaginable level. The very fact that you are currently conscious reading and understanding these letters, words and sentences is a moment in which its recipe consists of infinite combinations of abstract events happening in the right space at the right time. The optimum position of our planet in the universe; the perfect conditions on earth for life to flourish and evolve; the very fact that your parents went out to the same place on the same day and met each other. Just think: above anyone else that day, in any place, at any moment, they met each other – and you and your ridiculously complex DNA were the result. Just like they were when their parents before them met each other. And their parents. And their parents. The very fact that all these endless combinations of events led to your being on this earth means that your very existence is miraculous – a stoic defiance of the odds and the culmination of a billion unlikely things all gelling together in perfect discourse. YOU are a miracle. So revel in it. Celebrate it. Your life should be a symphony.

But it throws me – life, sometimes. It saddens me even. Amongst this grand symphony of existence on the magnificent stage of planet earth, I look around and I see so many of us consumed by monotony, recklessly killing the precious time that has been gifted to us. I see so many of us plodding along aimlessly, burying our desires, toiling endlessly in a job that we have no interest in – contentedly dwelling in dead-end towns where nothing ever happens until our minds and bodies become old and weathered. With our precious time on this earth dissipating as we sit comfortably on a sedentary cushion, we so easily fall into the trap of drawing the curtains on our world and perpetually living a systematic and samey routine in which we let days become weeks, let weeks become months, and let months inevitably become years. So many amazing opportunities and experiences drifting on by in the great ocean of time out in this vast world – yet we don’t reach out to explore and experience. And why? Why in a universe of violent bursts and endless movement do so many of us let our lives and horizons become so static and still? Why in a world where we could explore and experience a million different things do we persist in doing the same ones week in, week out?

I don’t hasten to say it, but I believe it to be so –  just because it’s easy.  It’s easy for us to get accustomed and stay in one place; it’s convenient for us to only ever interact to the same people; it’s comfortable for us to perpetually relive the same week and repeat the same habits for a lifetime. Due to the impulses of comfort, routine and security, a world can become a bubble – and eventually that bubble can become a world. A world where precious time flies by as we tumble endlessly through the vices of systematic living; a world where comfort and frivolous possessions rank higher than personal growth and experiences; a world where magazines and newspapers open and our minds close.

I know this because I’ve seen it, and I see it more vividly now than ever. After seventeen months of travelling around the world, seeing other-worldly sights, meeting hundreds of new people, sharing ideas, thoughts, language and adventures, I return home from this small lifetime to find that very little has changed. People have new shoes, but the same routine; people have new televisions, but the same knowledge; people have new cars, but the same scripted conversations. And with the pain and bitterness that comes with being back to square one, I have to look in the mirror and ask myself: is this lifestyle really our final destination? Is this static, comfortable bubble really where you and I want to dwell till the end of our days?

Even after only just a few of years of living a culture of experience rather than one of security and possession, I personally already know my answer to this is forever a resounding no. Life is not some story we tell ourselves; it is neither a tale of the past or a preconception of the future – it is the very thing that is happening to us right here – right now. Even as you’re reading this sentence. Now is forever; and if we are to sink into a bubble, stay still and never plot to move forward in any way – nor experience other things, peoples, places and ideas – then we are being short-sighted and condemning ourselves to not taking full advantage of the miracle of life and consciousness that we have all been gifted. And we’re bigger than that; in a time and age where we are more connected and capable than ever before – you and I are bigger than that bubble. Bigger than our sofa realities; bigger than those tabloid newspapers; bigger than closing our curtains and selves off from the outside world.

Our time is now and our time is precious. It truly is – like a drop in an ocean or a grain of sand in the desert, our brief time period of existence is ultimately nothing against the vast canvass of time in the universe. And this universe will not wait. Life is not a rehearsal; it is not some show on television – it will come to an end and there will be no replay button. Time shall pass; youth shall escape us; our bodies shall age; our lives will come to an end – and we will all die – that is undeniable and for sure. But when the time comes, our sun sets and our miraculous time on this earth comes to an end, the only thing of any importance to me and you will be just how much we ever really lived in the first place.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ Incomplete ~

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~ Incomplete ~

“She walked barefoot through the fields of my heart, untouchable like a ghost, her skin shining in the sun like the blazing light of the cosmos in all its glory. And now the thoughts of what could have been haunt those same fields as I sit alone in the night, hearing those voices of happiness echo in the wind before I return to that silence I know all too well. Some of us are just never meant to feel that union of love; to feel confirmed or completed by another soul. We have that empty space in the heart where we sit still in solitude and stare into skies above, waiting to be liberated from our pain, waiting to be saved from our own madness – waiting for someone or something to come deliver us to a home we know deep inside we will never touch nor feel.”

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thoughts

~ Towards The Ineffable ~

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“There is a form of madness that possesses this slowly decaying heart of mine. It corrupts and consumes me; it pulls me relentlessly into the unknown lands beyond my horizons. Towards that ineffable something I have ventured my entire life. Beyond those horizons I look out for something on those lonely mountain trails, sitting in smoky bars in foreign lands, staring out wistfully at the sad ocean sunsets. My brain knows I can be no where else other than the here and now, but this heart of mine will never fully grant me that total peace it needs. Manically it shall beat its way toward its inevitable death, and until that happens I am cursed to be out on those wild plains, lost among those mountains of madness – relentlessly hunting the horizon for a home that doesn’t exist in this galaxy or the next.”

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~ The Wanderers ~

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~ The Wanderers ~

“Everything in this culture is designed around ushering us all toward the life of schedule and routine. First comes school, then comes career, then marriage, then kids, home-ownership, and – eventually – retirement. Make no mistake about it, the system is set up meticulously to usher everyone into this one formulaic mould. But what if your fingers fidget for something else? What if your heart longs for freedom? What if – for some reason you struggle to articulate to friends and family – you find that every ounce of your body rejects this conventional way of life? If this is the case and you find yourself out of odds with absolutely everything, then don’t worry – you are not alone and you are not crazy. Maybe the coworkers and relatives will never understand, but we sure as hell do. So keep a look out for us, and we’ll look out for you too.

Wherever you go, whatever you do: look out for the ones looking wistfully into the skies, for the ones embracing the touch of the rain, for the ones delighting in the sound of silence and dancing out of place. We are out there and we are the wanderers; we are the misfits and outcasts – the adventurers and dreamers. You will not find us in immaculately groomed houses, or in trendy shopping malls, or expensive bars and restaurants. In fact, you will not find us in one place for too long at all actually. No, we are the ones you find beyond the borders, the ones you find away from the crowds – the ones you find on the sunset beaches and mountain paths and peaceful forests. Our nature is awkward and unpredictable; our spirit is rough and uncombed. We are slightly deranged and a mystery to ourselves, but we are sure of some things. We are sure that we do not seek status and security, but freedom and adventure. We are sure that we don’t live life to others’ expectations, but to the flow of our hearts and passions. We are sure that we do not wish to possess, but to cultivate and appreciate. Such a state of being means we usually walk alone, but if you keep an eye out you will be sure to see us occasionally. From the mountain peaks, to the concrete jungles: we are out there roaming; we are out there exploring. And we’re destined never to belong to one place. Because we are haunted by the horizons; we are bewitched by the stars. We are rugged and restless – wild and reckless – lost and found.

We are the wanderers.”

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thoughts

~ A Life Worth Dying For ~

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~ A Life Worth Dying For ~

“If that heart of yours aches for some adventure, then don’t allow yourself to sink into a sofa of submission; don’t allow yourself to get too settled in a life of constant comfort and routine. Out there beyond those curtains waits a magical wonderland of amazing sights and adventure. The mighty mountains. The lonely forests. The ripples dancing upon the water’s surface. The sandy shores where those fiery sunsets sear themselves into your soul. The ocean breeze gently kissing your skin. Yes, it is true that there is also danger, but don’t forget that other insidious dangers also lurk in the suburbs of safety in which so many spend their entire life. To chase security and comfort all your life will slowly suffocate your soul and take the fire from your belly. Life kills us all in the end, so don’t forget to do some living while you still have the chance. Don’t forget to pursue your passion and curiosity. Don’t forget to live a life worth dying for.”

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