It comes when it comes, kid Don’t force it You’ll learn the best things in life will just happen As natural as the sun rises Don’t put pressure on yourself to blossom Don’t sit and wait for that moment either Just be in tune with whatever season it is If you’re cold, then feel the cold If you’re sad, then be sad.
Each day, just accept what comes to you And slowly you’ll feel a harmony inside of you A state of being that will not be disturbed As you grow in tune with the totality.
You won’t run for the future Or be mournful for the past You’re just be There In the great happening of life Experiencing each day in its essence As your roots spread deeper And your sense of self grows stronger.
And one day you’ll feel it coming As the dawn comes once again And its beaming light hits your being The petals of your joy will blossom And delight in the sunshine Joining in the dance of everything And you’ll be a person of cultivated perfection Living with the same trueness of the birds The same fluidity of the springs And the same blazing brightness Of the sun.
I couldn’t concentrate on the normal things in life. It was hard – all too much harder than it was supposed to be. To be concerned with a career, to build up portfolios, to accumulate material wealth and neglect the present to focus on the future. To be frank, none of it interested me and I couldn’t force myself to do the things that everyone around me seemed to centre their life on. I thought there were only two possibilities: that I was missing something, or they were missing something. When you’re in the vast minority of any behaviour, it’s easy to categorise yourself as the wrong or weird one. But the more I observed the others doing the things they believed they were supposed to do, the more I was quite sure that many were on the wrong road, chasing happiness down a dead-end street. There were many moments where I experienced a profound bliss without having much at all. Just to sit and meditate, to go on walks in the woods, to write some words down and live in tune with my inner nature. This, I felt, was the true source to my happiness; and I also felt, although each person’s ‘things’ may have been different, essentially this was the way to so many people’s happiness – living in tune with their true nature. Meanwhile I saw many successful people on the ‘correct’ path – people with high-paying jobs, nice cars, big houses, large social groups, flash watches, and designer clothes – completely screwed up by the age of thirty. Drug addicts, prostitute addicts, gambling addicts, ego maniacs. Poverty obviously had its known downfalls, but it was clear that being too ingrained in the system could be immensely damaging to the individual too. Quite clearly, there was a price tag for being too involved in a game that lacked any soul or substance. Yet, this was what so many strived for; to achieve what we were socially conditioned as ‘the good life’. Just living in opposition to that, I knew I was experiencing the happiness that so many of those people were searching for. It was a striking realisation; perhaps one that had come at too young of an age. These sorts of realisations about life usually came at a later point in one’s life – maybe after a divorce or midlife crisis. Well, perhaps some others would eventually share my way of thinking too, but for now, I decided I’d keep living the same way I was. And also to keep writing down a few words here and there. Mostly because I enjoyed doing it, but maybe to see if anyone else felt the same way too.
In the haunted house of my heart Broken piano keys play their own melody And the clocks tick relentlessly out of rhythm.
There once was a home A place of warmness and being Where happy souls sat around fires in winter And played on green lawns in the summer.
But now the grass grows long and wild The ashes of the fire litter the floor And the floorboards creak in ruin.
Life has deserted this one Through the toil of the years Being bled dry by experience And the failed endeavours Of deluded and wasted feeling That strip away slowly at the soul.
I exist now like so many others Living and walking relics Occupying a place and wondering What this life has done to me To leave me standing but broken Lying at the end of the street.
Still, I don’t completely collapse As I hold onto this space inside Waiting for it to be filled To carry the weight of love and joy As light fills this home once more.
But the years go on And the silence remains No sound of joy to be heard Just whispers in the hallways The ghost of something That cannot no longer be.
Be kind to yourself. I know it’s easy to do the opposite; to constantly compare yourself to others, to think you’re not good enough, and wallow in your own issues. But one day you’re going to see that you’ve been fighting your fight as best you could; and, in the end, a lot of things you worried about didn’t matter anyway. You can’t control many things in this life, but you can control your attitude towards yourself. So why not love yourself unconditionally? Take a bit longer in the shower when you need to. Use as much gels and creams as you like. Savour the taste of a well-made coffee. Allow yourself to smile at the passing dogs, at the lovers walking hand in hand, at the rays of sun bursting through the clouds. Drink in the goodness of the world that is always there, if only you keep your eyes open to that instead of letting a fog of thought make you blind to your surroundings. You’re doing as good as you can, and the harder you are on yourself, the more you forget that just being alive itself is a complete wonder and marvel. And you are those things too. Just look in the mirror and gaze into the depth of your complicated eyes. Tell me there isn’t a magic there – billions of years of universal evolution manifested in a beautiful human-being. Isn’t it about time you saw that? Isn’t it about time you allowed yourself to be happy with the person you are?
I am a wild man There is no kidding myself anymore No pretending that I’m going be straightened out And put on some suit and settle down Into a life of stability and sanity.
I wasn’t made for that And I think that’s okay There are others who do that well And lord knows I once gave it a shot But those periods of routine didn’t last long As the inescapable truth gradually emerged:
That I am a wild man And I am only truly myself When I stand outside of this farm Living a life that many would call chaotic And perhaps even pity.
But one’s man trash is another man’s gold And this wayward life of mine Well, it fulfils my soul As I live by my own rhythm Going from job to job Residing in random rooms Where I sit writing my books And dreaming up my next escapade As my heart laughs in raw freedom.
That freedom is that of the wild man Who cannot be rid of his nature And lives in tune with his inner voice Not tamed by other’s opinions Or a follower of predetermined paths But rather runs dangerously free In a place that is definitely not everyone
Lift your head up from the despair Do not accept defeat in that debris You are in ruin, yes, But you are still here Maybe not standing But breathing And that is enough to Begin again.
Just focus on that if that’s all you can do Breathe in and out Let your lungs be filled It might not seem like much But that air is the foundation That slowly grows the forests And fills them with birds Singing their morning chorus.
You have fought hard and it’s only natural That you feel like giving up You don’t need to pull yourself up Like some phoenix from the ashes You don’t need to put on a strong face Or climb some goddamn mountain Right now, all you need to do is breathe In and out. In and out.
I think I’ve finally done it And broken through to the other side I see with a clarity I’ve only read about Each step forwards takes me nowhere different I’m not an isolated being lost in the universe I am a piece of the entire thing happening My actions are the result of some higher energy That runs through everything I see around me The wings of the birds belong to the same body The stars in the sky come from the same source Each one shimmering majestically And in that fire is the same heat in my heart As it beats in tune with everything else Causing me to look around me like a new-born baby My eyes shining as they process how beautiful it all is How trivial my concerns were And how very wonderful it is To be alive.
I know it’s easy to close up And build the wall that so many have built It can stay built for the rest of your life Holding out the threat of life’s beasts But remember the other things you are blocking out.
Take down a few of those bricks If even just to take a peak It’s a wild world out there Full of strange and wonderful things It will all come at you and you may get hurt You may get lost and scared But you will be in the place Where the majesty of life will meet you head on In that wilderness of love and heartache Those forests of joy and despair.
That environment is where you will experience it all The nature that brought you into existence Don’t close yourself off to it Don’t let yourself be invulnerable To life’s great chaos and adventure.
Submit yourself to the forest once more And let the roots of this life entwine you.
It’s better to have the beauty and the beasts Than to have nothing at all.
Where is your soul man I wonder as I listen to your words And watch you judging me Despite not even knowing me You don’t listen to my reply As you bark on about yourself Telling me how great you are And then shitting on me Because you make more money And have different goals.
Don’t you see how ugly you have become? Your face is mangled and distorted If only you could see it under the right light With the right instrument You’d be able to see how damaged you are And that maybe you are not as great as you think But deep down I suspect you already know that As you bark out your stale beliefs Declaring of your greatness while high on drugs Trying to make me guess how much you earn.
I hope one day you will sober up And your voice will go quiet So you can finally hear the inner voice That you have tried to drown out all these years And you will discover how poor you really are As you face that Monday morning mirror On another comedown at work Back to your life that you need to escape from As the truth weighs down on you,
Beaten Punched out On the canvas Life hitting harder than ever And you fight to get up again But this time, the thousandth time, You finally begin to feel the futility As you think back to all the struggle The seeming eternity of this constant battle As the crowd stands watching And you contemplate finally succumbing Letting yourself fade away under the lights Feeling the heaviness of your heart Battered and bruised But, somehow, still beating its blood That life force still flowing through you As you take a deep breath And feel a new surge of energy That makes you stand once again to your feet Delirious and even crazier than before Not the same person anymore Worn down, reshaped And doing whatever it takes To stay in the fight And find some strength from somewhere As you move forward back into it To face the punches Once again.
~ A Voice From The Wild ~ 