Saturday, April 20, 2013

Tear Down This Wall...

One of a few of the most influential words and ideas of our history. Today has been a day of reflection for me. As an American, I will never know the impact of a physical wall that holds so much power. I will never know how it feels to be ready to die, just to pass through a gate. I will never truly know what it means to want freedom. I have never had to fight, literally for my life. As I think about the events, and ideals that led up to this, it definitely made me think. I was quite young in this decade of chaotic movement, and lived in a small town that seemed so apart from what was going on around me. A lot of jokes are made about the 80's and the outrageous, absurdity that took place. The intense level of excess that happened. The ridiculous hair, clothing, lingo, etc. How pop culture became mainstream, politics and Hollywood, melding into one. But out of the chaos came beautiful change. That is something to think about.

As a tree that bears excess fruit, it will only nourish the earth it rots upon. As a storm gathers to much energy, it is only doing its purpose. As humans live in reckless excess of material objects, it nourished the world. It gave a new perspective and hope to others. It literally crushed walls. There are two sides of this coin. We offered the idea of freedom, but what we really offered, was an image of what freedom is to us. A disfigured image that was created by us, and has now only multiplied the ideals that came with that image; power, wealth, excess....

If we taught peace, if we practiced love for not only our fellow humans. but of our mother earth, and offered that image as a freedom, what would the world be like now? As we grasp so tightly to the decade that brought about so much change, we seem so ignorant. We offered the idea of change, but yet we don't offer that to ourselves. Respect for ourselves, and our bodies, our home, our neighbors is lacking. We are in the year 2013, and yet one of the most important decades in our short history is still so strong.

Let us move on, let us give in to change. Let us tear down these walls we have built ourselves. We as a nation wanted to help a land break down the barriers of their own freedom and happiness, one of the greatest gifts we could have given, yet we build walls against those that look different, speak different, love differently than ourselves. Hypocrisy! All is love, that is what we are aiming for. If we are to take the role of the servant, and seek to help all fellow humans on this earth, then why hold them to so many personal judgements?  Your gay, your not white, you don't speak English, your not Christian.  How does that make a person any less than someone with those qualities? We are ALL equal. We are ALL human. We are ALL family.How can you as one person, feel you have the right to pass judgement?

I have a new resolution to myself. Every time I want to judge, I feel that poison crawl into my mind, I will simply say "Tear down this wall." Those four words resonate so much to me. In an instant I am reminded of suffering, of hope, of my fellow humans. I don't know a person on this Earth who lived through that that isn't impacted emotionally. Chaos brings with it good and bad. We need to not only look at how we reflect that chaos, but how to change the chaos. Imagine if all the people in this world, for one day, laid down all their hatred and anger, and just loved each other  Imagine if that was what was reflected. The next day, as men take up their guns, governments take from their people, women are forced into prostitution, and children rob for food, how hard will it be to continue this hatred, when you can reflect on the love of just one day? The weight it lifted from you, the peace it gave you. Like a good meditation, that you can reflect on when life gets stressful. You look for that peace to calm your mind. How could one go on hating, when they felt love for just one day?

So I say to you... Tear down this wall. 
  




Friday, January 25, 2013

Like It or Not


Not really a poem, just some rambling thoughts I needed to get out of my head


We are one family
Interconnected by our own design
Colors of skin melt away with the erasing of time
And change with the brilliance of the sun

We hustle and we bustle
We order food, we become obese
We forget about the hunters and the gatherers
The tribesmen, the nomads
We forget about a world
Outside our own
filled with beautiful people
that inside we all know

Facial features
Developed over time
Do not change what we are inside
Blood and bone
Sweat and tears
All beat into this Earth
Over the many years

How can you say you are better than me?
What puts you above anybody?
Your status in life, the path you choose?
But how do you measure your life to another
What dictates poverty?
You can have all that money can buy
But you can still be lonely
We all can still cry

Like it or not
You are tied to me
Deep inside, it will set you free
When you harm another
You hurt your own family
It spreads through this world
The deadliest of disease

I worry for those I have never met
I spread hope through the choices of my life
Every action on this Earth
Is the result of one thought put into motion
One thought…now think about that
So what will you contribute today?

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Every Moment is a Moment


Came home today, and words were flowing through my mind, sat down, and this is what came of it... Enjoy! Remember, every moment is a moment, good or bad, long or short. Embrace it, learn from it. Be in that moment, and love.


Sometimes you are brushed by the hand of fate
Sometimes you barely glance at someone great
You might not know it
Till years down the road
When looking back…
You were touched by gold

The stranger sitting outside the bar
Smoking their cigarette
Or getting in their car
A brief glance, maybe an obliging smile
Never quite knowing the soul
Residing there, all the while

That friend of a friend
That showed up to hang
Spirits flowed, and guitars sang
A moment in time
That you’d almost forget
Casual conversation
And a memory aged silhouette
Little embers of greatness
That for a time warmed your soul
Small little encounters
That you would barely know

Because sometimes you are brushed by the hand of fate
Sometimes you barely glance at someone great
You might not know it
Till years down the road
When looking back…
You were touched by gold

So remember this
In every moment you breathe
Everyone around you
Has a story to leave
Whether you’re a chapter
Or an obscure reference within
Every moment is a moment
Where great things can begin….