China, Vietnam 1992: Serve to Lead Your Own Inner Great Cause

I am on the border between

China and Vietnam.

I watch my step,

so I do not land on a mine.

The evidence of war is buried just below the surface -

the conviction between the peaceful and priceless,

is often found in the boundary of humanity 

reinstated then re-situated 

on the razor's edge of sanity.

Weapons of mass destruction

wound at incalculable worth ...

decamp, the valuables of the refugees ...

devalue, the invaluable heart of enlightenment ...

deflate, the moral price of self esteem.

The children, who play in these fields ...

the trades people, who walk these trails ...

lose more, than their daily Self worth ...

gain less, at the nightly expense of their Self survival.

The signs of life, and the sighs of the living,

sound through this scar infected region.

Inflation is the downturned economy's cry to battle,

to arouse, the propaganda to rouse the legions ...

to raise, the voices of the people
to sing, the songs that praise the rich's spoils from war ...
more war revenue, more natural resources needed ...
more calls for more battles, to take over ...
more fights for more rights, to have more ...
more competition to earn more, to invest in more.

Money is earned by tearing a land apart by it's seams,

and performing an emergency make over ...

to re-piece the puzzle back together again ...

in the image of it's creators, movers and shakers -
economic cultures built in the image of their makers.

What reins supreme, of a cause in the making,

is the fear consciousness used to call the public to arms.

Fear, created for profit by the mob bullying class ...

scarcity, created through downward declines ...
ego gains, returning to the investors augmented Self entitlement ...
investments, which earn more wrath of a joy rationed nation.

Peace lives within, each one voice, the choice so the presence of peace.
Peace lives within, each one voice, which desires the presence of peace.
Peace lives within, each one voice, who enjoys the presence of peace.
Peace lives within, each one, each one voice the powerful presence of peace.

Obtaining peaceful enlightenment, is not won at any price ...

nor need be sacrificed, by any one of us to gain material security -

simple presence, is bestowed on those working to that effect ...

peace created within, any one of us can serve to lead our own inner great cause.  

~ Other People's Fingerprints ~

Sometimes after 1207
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī
also known as Rumi wrote;
"Where ever you stand, be the Soul of that place."

"Mekong Delta, Farmer's Market" 

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

Los Angeles 2012: Thanks Given, Thanks Received, Ever Grateful Throughout An Eternity of Creative Imagination

I can write about all of our ancestors we never thanked.
I can smile at all the memories not yet understood.
I can feel gratitude for all the children choosing peace.
I can hear all the songs being sung by people forgiving to forget,
To forgive may not be an act of forgetting, but it is an act of love.

I can see all the crimes of humanity acted out in ignorance.
I can ignore all the humanity acting out crimes.
I can forgive all the crimes knowing the unconsciousness of humanity.
I can forget humanity's unconscious knowing to not forgive is a crime,
To not forgive may not be a crime, but it is a shame.

I can imagine that beliefs are winks of light from stars long ago dead.
I can know that the sensation of color forms a community that is bright.
I can taste the chemistry of the alchemy of life.
I can smell a world banquet of cultural choices nurturing light,
To forgive is a saving grace that can someday save a Life.

I can touch the remarkable difference between silence and creation.
I can see the universal spark of inspiration.
I can feel within my space my spark of light.
I can feel between my atoms where my memory marked,
My cellular markers placeholders for my genetically remembered paces.

Sometimes, Life can seem like only a slight blessing,
but it is an immense journey of a Life in the making.
Life is learning to be alive in a peopled-illuminated manuscript,
to witness the living history of every human being being human,
Individually created and individually wrapped, we are history in the making.

We are the bodies of history making history while it is being written.
Each their own millions of stacked and ringed inner-cellular memories.
Each their own, millions of stacked years of ringed inner-cellular harmonies.
We create and can in-tune to atone our personal music,
to play aloud the symphony of our Life's makings while they are passing.

It is through Self-attuning that dreams are orchestrated.
Dreams individually created manifest into being.
Each individual Life, lived as one life, among the forest of trees.
Each one Life unique, grown from a single seed,
Each one Life born, from the same singular inspiration that sounded colour.

Life grows in proportion to an individual's Self-awareness.
The tricks of the trade of Life, are to live Life, alive as joy.
To not sharpened your senses through acts of sheer force.
To not grind an axe head upon a stone body, banging
head-bone against flesh-walls making a mess of releasing
pressure built-up overtime from resistance to what deadens.

Acts of sheer force, the use of brute force to create,
produces nothing but a dim Soul's dull ache.
Symbolically doors do not yield by being forced open -
openness is created through the care-taking of the creator,
the heartfelt carefulness in the act of choosing what not to create.

Life in all it's forms has a core feeling.
The sensing of sensations that sound in bodies of light.
The feeling of experiences that are alive still living in Space.
The feeling of Space alive full with every experience ever created,
The sensing of any body of experience no longer held in form.

The form that one's Life takes is stillness birthing movement,
Life satelliting in formation around one heart's information.
Life is having the personal Space to sense Self as a force living,
so living your own individual experience leads to
knowing yourself more, as a force of who - that is Self-leading.

I can not imagine any believed-concepts so permanent
that Life is fixed for all of eternity like a stitch in time
woven into the universal fabric of well healed poetics.
Imagination is a temporal vibration, felt in
the language of creation: imagination creating images.

The language of creation: imagination creating Self-image,
while I sense joy, simultaneously I see pain in our world.
I see people invest in lies they believe to be lies.
I see the middle, end and more new Self-filled beginnings -
circumnavigational truths, spirals of cultured interconnectivity.

I imagine thanks given to the past is a form of reconciliation.
Through forgiveness I imagine my ancestors being released
from the deep dark prisons of secreted cellular memory.
Forgiveness is a timeless liberation from acting out the same behaviours -
time and again bodies making new bodies, holding breath, wanting more.

I imagine ancient grief consciously being lifted
from my witness body of observation.
I imagine I am powerful enough to remember
that I am my Soul leading my Life to awaken,
becoming alert throughout my own Soul's Self-creation.

Thanks given and thanks received
are acts of creation which move cellularly inward -
being passing out through shared atomics in breath living.
To the width and breadth of their own choosing,
to each their own breath and Life of their own making.

Thanks given and thanks received, are powerful choices.
Any act of creating joy is a powerful act which releases hate.
To imagine one's Self as fully worthy of Life,
is one step to live one's given Life, as expanded Self-purpose.
Every one of us is Self-fulfilling and Self-worthy.

To release the imagination from imagining the worse,
is an act to take, power away from what is powerless.
To release the imagination from imagining hatred,
is an act to give power more inspiration,
inspiration creates more Life force power.

Life is not fixed, not broken, never permanent -
all things living are alive filling up space
with a timelessness beyond our body of experience.
That, which is in the process of being created,
lives in the evermore of what is, made by
who ever is imagining what ever into being.

Life can be a joy, a Self-created sensation.
Any one of us can distill our Life to Self-recognize.
We are all creators powering Self through gratitude -
the power to forgive gives and frees up the partake in Life.
Thanks given, thanks received ever-grateful
throughout an eternity of creative imagination.

~~ Other People's Fingerprints ~~
Sometime after 1452, Leonardo da Vinci wrote;
"I love those who can smile in trouble,
who can gather strength from distress,
and grow brave by reflection."

"Life Swirls!" by Karin Lisa Atkinson

"Colours of Winter Rain" by Karin Lisa Atkinson

"Straw Flower, One"

 by Karin Lisa Atkinson

Kona 2012 : Wishing Upon The Stars, Experiencing Peaceful Coexistence

Aloha means love -
words of the wise.
Aloha also means presence -
words to the wise.

I hear people visiting Hawaii using the word 'Aloha' -
no matter what language they use in their home country.
'Aloha' is written in the universal language of feeling.

The 'Aloha Spirit' or 'The Way of Aloha',
is sharing the love -
a way of Life
interacting in integrity
with the Natural world.

"Alo" means - sharing in the present, presence.

"Oha"means joyous affection, love.

"Ha" means Life force energy, breath, essence of Life.

To the Hawaiians
'Aloha' meant 'Creation Within Us' -

the conscious joyful sharing of existence,

and manifesting Life through presence.

The Wind carries emotions,
so does the Moon, Sun and Stars.
It is not a romantic notion,
but a reality felt as a fact of Nature.
My nature, which I know so well,
I have memorized until
I can feel myself awake
while I am still asleep.

Relatives
of the ancient Hawaiians
share with me
that Ancestors knew
Nature is not separate
from our whole of existence -
but Nature is the foundation
of our physical world -
and so a part of our very being.
Our core manifest-reality,
Nature teaches Truth -
the insights and revelations
of the natural world's wisdom.

Two weeks ago,
for several nights
the roosters crowed at midnight.
At one o'clock every night
I felt the Earth quake.
Afterwards, each morning
I walked to the community healing garden
to ask the Elder, the caretaker
of the sacred Water garden space,
if she also felt the Earth quake the night before.

Each morning she replied;
"No", she had slept deeply.
Each morning she shared with me
her own beliefs -
and that she believed in me.
"If I had 'felt it' then 'it' must have happened."

The Elder carried so much confidence in my events,
that I ceased to question my own perception of my incidents.
Her reoccurring choice to validate me,
supported me to feel more fully my own self-guidance.
I choose to self-renew my self-esteem.
I choose to believe more of my intuitive whispers.

The following week,
after digging and harvesting
from the rich volcanic soil,
each night I looked to the Volcano -
still, active, red, and glowing.
My friend and I walked
through underground lava tubes.
With a flash light torch we played in the Rain,
illuminated the Rain Forest's leaf umbrellas,
and felt the rock hard lava walls
wet, slippery and ancient.

The smell awakened us to our senses.
The sound of the animals,
as the birds slept,
woke me from my exhaustion.
It was neither weird nor wonderful to be
slithering along pitch black underground caverns,
on an island experiencing Earth quakes -
while lava smoked,
and the clouds plumed,
meeting the almost full Moon.

Life is a most natural event,
and my senses longed to feel open,
and alive -
for such a very long time I craved stillness.
I dreamed I was a taro planted in the Earth,
growing and waiting
for the time to emerge full of the nutrients of life.

My essential ingredients
to sustain my creative breath,
and maintain my musical merriment
are born from sleeping deeply -
and dream travelling to dream
of more ... more of this, more of that ...
more of more of more of more.
I ask for more because
I am created from infinite more.
My heart beats are heard
above the Coqui frogs' whistles.

My heart sounds are mixed with
the music of a White Owl's wing flap.
White Owl navigated
past our car's windshield,
flying faster than we drove.
We had no time to brake from our speed,
but we were slow motioned
by the ancient universal choreography -
the mystery which tilted White Owl's head
in time to meet our eyes.
White Owl stared at us wide eyed,
and wondered who we were
suddenly in it's way,
moving along a road
running high above the cliff and tree tops.

We watched White Owl's wing tips
brush the window of the world clean.
Blessed to witness the whites of the Owl's eyes -
to smell the Earth mixed with wing tips,
to taste the underground Water of the lava flows,
to hear the guitar strums and singers voices
rise above the stars to serenade the universe
with harmonies of peace and gratitude for Life.

I asked my friend,
the guardian of the community garden;
"Why do starfruits host armies of ants?
Why do papayas burst with Water
to quench the thirst of both
the daylight creatures,
and their enemies
the animals of the night time prowl?
Why do smooth lava rocks cut the feet,
and also heat the body
to warm the blood
ending cold disease?"

We laughed at the questions which held no answers,
and ate a few more flowers from the garden harvest,
then pulled a few more weeds from between the vegetables.

It is Nature's way to create and destroy growth,
heal hurt, seal wounds,
grow space to transform,
create beyond the scar tissue,
grow in present time beyond the past -
create within full view of the future.

Nature knows
who it is,
why it is
alive with being
existing in the reality
of life giving and taking moments.
Nature simply is existing
while all else is alive
with the presence of coexistence.

When women birth in the Ocean
the Dolphins come to surround
and protect the delivered baby.
Newly formed life
and new born infants
are loved by all who thrive
on this planet of wonder and creativity.

When I swam the Dolphins came,
alongside me a baby Ocean Turtle
surfed storm-waves -
and off the lava reefs
baby Sharks fed on tropical yellow fish meals.
None of us got in each other's way,
we synchronized our curiosity in balance
with respect for each other,
and the truth of Nature's way.

The roosters stopped crowing at midnight,
and the Earth ceased it's pitch and roll.
Ripples from Japan across the Ocean,
the Tsunami storms came and went,
tossing the waves in a dance with the fish.
We all experienced together
new heights of wonder, wisdom,
and wishing upon the stars,
for more experiences of peaceful coexistence.

~ Other People's Fingerprints ~
Aia i ka 'olelo ke ola, aia i ka 'olelo ka make
"In language is life and death."

"Center of the Universe"

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

"Grower's Storm"

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

"Blue Jade Emerald Vine"

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

"Kealakekua Bay Kava"

 by Karin Lisa Atkinson 

"Full Moon Eruption"

 by Karin Lisa Atkinson 

Kilauea Volcano on Kona Hawai'i

"Love and Peace"

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

"Water of Life"

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

"A Flower's Sense of the World"

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

Los Angeles 2010: Exhausted from My Own Betrayal

Day and night cooperate
to unify the whole,

day does not oppress night, 
and dark does not suppress light -

each at their core 
contains the truth of the other.

Life is alchemical 
and always, 
ever and ever more, 
forever and ever after,

a restorative dance 
moving 
with a sense 
of optimism 
for the future.

My beliefs and choices 
are personal to my Self.
Mere intellectual concepts 

made to be naturally altered,

destroyed in each moment 

to enable and expand 
the art of my Self 
experiencing expression.

I craft my Self aware, 

sculpt my Self identity, 

I am, and so I am, 

recreationally Self defining.

Each day I birth 
the extraordinary lightness of my being

to oversee the demise 
of my dualistic mediocracy.

To oppose any divisive rule 
imposed on me, by my own 

mediocre Self governing principals.

I expose the pain 
that I experience 

to transcend and transform 
the pain that I cause.

The nature of creation 
is spiraling escalation.
Even during times of contraction 

I am simultaneously expanding. 

The challenge of my unknown 

sharpens my sense of Self determination,

the confrontation of my Self, known -

challenges my unknown, 
Heightens my sense 
of Self realization.

Life is not a test, 
I am, I exist, and all ready

I know the score.

I am not afraid 
of placing my attention 
on the beauty in this world.

I do not believe evil 
will grow unruly 
if devoid of my gaze.

Simply I have learned, 

and so I am aware, 

that love transforms.

The gain after the fire 
is the replenishment of the earth.

After the storm the air is clear.

I still and redefine my past behind me 

to carry nothing more ahead of me, 
than my purity forward within me.

I still and create vibrant 
child-like innocence and trust.
I believe in being present,
and in being present, that

I will be an experience, 
of decorous acts that decorate 
all that is around me.

One way to create depreciation, 
of all demeaning and devious acts,
is to create value in appreciating
all that holds love for meaningful peace.

I still and meditate 

on restorative peace 

to strengthen the harmony 

of my core’s presence –

especially when the experience 

all around me is disheartening 
and dishonest.

I still and purify, 

any and all discord and dissonance,

by being present,
and so my presence 
synchronizes my actions -

Sounds out and manifests 

significant resonance which orchestrates 
the unification of my story.

How can I be so nonsensical 
in such a sensual world?

Beauty all around me, 

how could I behave as if 
this world smells 
only repulsive and unattractive?

Vibrating color 
unappreciated is tasteless, 

an unsavory course 
that causes indiscrete irregularity.

If Soul is left unknown and untouched, 

we lay in virginal beds of senseless determination –

only to die mind-numbing deaths.

Pretending, to be something other than we are, is boring.

Whoever said that monotony 
and effort are required 

to be in relationship 
with one’s Self -

was masquerading 
as a Self saboteur, 

a Self controlled artist 
restraining their own imagination.

I clear my mind, 

continuously and effortlessly,

I die to the past to remain present 
in simplicity and meditate 

transforming my lunacy -

all that insanely contorts and extorts 

my Soul from my familiar peaceful patterns.

I am not blind 
in a world 
of growing illumination.

In such a musical world 

I hear the song of life 

animating the vessel of my meaning.

Role playing, to play a role, takes so much effort.

An exertion so full of impotent try,

that it manifests tiresome inertia 

into ever and ever deepening virulent weakness.

I sleep for days when I am inauthentic, 

exhausted from my own betrayal.

~~ Other People's Fingerprint ~~

Sometime after 1923 Brendan Behan wrote;

“Many of our fears are tissue paper thin,

and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.”

                         "Self Portrait" by Karin Lisa Atkinson

Photography by Karin Lisa Atkinson

Yucatan 1986: Integrated Power Produces Certainty

I think I am dreaming, 
when I see a face of a woman,

trapped in the ruins of a temple, 
overlooking the ocean.

I see this woman imagine her future, 
and then let go of her grasp on time.

Her next choice is cleared, 
reduced into an incremental moment.

Her result is grounded,
an accessible next step in time.

I touch the crumbling stone ledge, 
the angelic-fallings resting

on this window sill, 
still here, 
as a life-force-surge imprinted by sorrow.

The woman’s essence remains, 
from once upon a time long before now.

Confined and ghostly-hand printed
transparent remnants left for me to feel

and fold into my presence – 
this woman has surpassed time and its boundaries.

The woman’s emotions enter 
and overwhelm me – 
I feel her.

I feel her fear 
that her soul is falling, 
over a cliff edge

to be frenzied and churned, 
by the milky-white waves crashing below.

People here tell me stories of a Goddess,

who guards these temple grounds, 
where she was eventually imprisoned.

She found absolution in isolation -
isolation in birth and isolation in death.

Memory is a force, 
that goes beyond this incarnation.

Without knowing why
I am transported back in time

to the moment 
my consciousness entered the fertilized egg.

I tap into the courage awarded me
the moment I chose birth canal exit 
into an expanded community of consciousness.

Memory it is not a force that needs to be feared.
Memory communicates to me
to recall my personal power –

the unique, individualized original essence of me.

My afterbirth bits of my energy ...
I unconsciously left behind ...
somewhere ...
scattered back in time ...
overtime embedded within
the various life experiences, of me.

Our bodies can reflect 
the sum, total, all 
of our experience.

Empowered and strengthened
I am carried to the ledges of my own intentions.

I do not yet comprehend my decisions,

but I am required to face the fear
of my unknown choices.

I must let go not knowing
what my results will surrender me to.

Perhaps this Mayan woman, 
whose spirit has long since passed from this planet, 

intentionally left behind
the heart-prints of her Soul to show me ...

how to use my intention
to replenish my passion,

and integrate this power ...
my power into my presence.

Since re-membering all my experiences, 
from birth into present time,

I feel less like a concept
and more grounded in the reality of my own existence.

I feel less scattered, shattered and overshadowed,

I feel more fully the daily experience of reincarnating  -
waking up and reintegrating back into my body.

Each event surrounding my past, present and future 
has clarified and cleared 
from my felt experiences held within my body.

The sensation of my integrated power releasing
produces a certain kind of certainty -

certainty that I am ...
certainty that being still ...
certainty that being at peace ...
creates a certain kind of knowingness ...
that I am here.

~~ Other People's Fingerprints ~~

Sometime around the year 600 BC, Sappho wrote;

“You may forget but let me tell you this:

someone in some future time will think of us…

Although they are only breath, 
words … are immortal.”

"Spring New Growth" by Karin Lisa Atkinson

Image Credit: Tz'utujil Mayan Indigenous Art of Guatemala

"The Secret Life of Water"