35 Comments
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Apollo's Lyre's avatar

That last quotation reminds me of another banger from DJ Jiddu that I have on heavy rotation lately:

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

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Candace Glass's avatar

So many forget that we as humans are nature too. Forget the wisdom of the body. Forget the simplicity and beauty of connecting to Mother Nature and her infinite wisdom. Each morning to sit and watch the sunrise and just peer into the sky, listening to the birds, watching a passing deer, and feeling my breath is a gift and in some ways I feel more of a luxury than anything I have ever purchased. Thank you for this. Passing it on🙏🏽✨✨✨🌺

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Michelle Lindblom's avatar

We are nature and most certainly need to act more like it. Everyone would be much more fulfilled if they did.

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Debra O's avatar

Amen!-

from one who believes in the Wonder of The One -

w/o religious dogma, orthodoxy, unexamined Faith or practice.

Rather, embracing Spirit: broader & bolder than each of us, than All.

Religious truths are shared across books, bindings & borders. Under trees, in the sea held gently & tightly in our hearts.

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Ken Paul Rosenthal's avatar

The Yeats quote is exquisite. The onus is on ourselves to sharpen the pointed pursuit of our passions. I've resisted working a conventional 9 to 5 existence for all of my sixty-one years in order to singularly focus on making art, and engaging art and nature. In my experience, this modest recipe for living breeds so much magic--tactile, sustainable, meaningful magic.

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Cindy Scribner's avatar

Wow!

“Fear is born out of continuously kneeling at the altar of security. Freedom is sacrificed for comfort”. Agreed and agree, if only we could break free of our conditioning to be and see the beauty right in front of us, how different civilization would be. Being uncivilized would be common.

But….

First each one of us must become disenchanted with the status quo of our faux life. The conditioning is ancestral as is the fear — it is bone deep; IMO changing takes intention, courage, role models and guides.

I am hopeful those of us who are evolving are generating a movement that could just save us from ourselves.

Thanks for your clarity of thinking- refreshing!

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A.D.'s avatar

Buddeeeeeh I love your poetry but get a special kick out of your prose.

"Be. Alive. Now. As the great writer, Llewelyn Powys once said, “We should grow less involved in society and more deeply involved in existence.”

Pump this shit straight into my veins.

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Paul's avatar

So very true, but difficult to put into action. It is still difficult at my late age.

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Mr. Raven's avatar

Not really, even if you live in a city surely there must a park you can walk in? It really is as Zen simple as getting out of the goddam house.

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Julie B. Hughes's avatar

Powerful! Thank you Erik. Especially this— Be. Alive. Now. As the great writer, Llewelyn Powys once said, “We should grow less involved in society and more deeply involved in existence.” AMEN!

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marilyn dyck's avatar

Profound complete insight…

We are a desperate emptiness…

Our withered souls so need this awakening to ourselves…

Thank you

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Dollyboy's avatar

This society calls me mad because I don't see value where they do. I would like to BE if they'd just leave me alone. Participation is however, compulsory.

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Mr. Raven's avatar

Some is, but it isn't black or white. If you escape the city you can set up your life so you work for the man 10 hours a week or less. And yes I do know, I am doing it.

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Dawn Collins's avatar

This is all so right, I was nodding my head reading down your prose ..... and then bam!

Llewelyn Powys ... very few people know his writing. Have you read his brother, John Cowper Powys's, wonderful novels? Llewelyn's writing is clear and extraordinary, a joy to read.

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Poetic Outlaws's avatar

I haven't read his brother but I surely plan on it soon. Thank you!

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Mr. Raven's avatar

I would certainly be dead by now if I hadn't escaped the rat trap to live in a wilderness cottage where I can take my dog for a walk by free running trout streams.

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Dian Parker's avatar

Does this ever ring true. You said it, man, straight and true. Granite. Fluid. Heartfelt.

Thank you for posting this guy.

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Joey DeFilippis's avatar

Many people walk this earth living, but oh so few actually walk this earth ALIVE.

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David Deubelbeiss's avatar

It's really the terminus of a culture fully embodied with materialsm - the belief that there is a master plan and we can figure it out and plot it and know how the balls on a billard table tumble about ... poor sods. We are so many caught in a net that the butterflies did not invent.

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Yuri Zavorotny's avatar

True, all true. I wouldn't blame the tech though. We tend to think that we live in times like on others. Because we have satellites and smartphones and what not. But under the surface, it's all the same -- the masks, the roles, the games...

"All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players." (Shakespeare)

"There's no truth in you. When you tell lies, you speak your native language." (John 8:44)

Jesus said it how it is. It's not that we're wearing masks. The real issue is that too often the mask is all there is...

Thanks for your insights though, and for your page. It's pretty amazing.

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