Saturday, January 28, 2017

Los Angeles 2017: Urban Planet - Everything Revolves Around It's Center

Cities on planet Earth tend to be large.
What is large about Earth-bound cities
is their personality and history -
the history of their personality.
Be careful, when you investigate a city!
Take small steps, long breaths, smile often!

When searching a city for any sign of Life,
close your eyes and feel your way around.
Move in circles starting from the city center.
Close your eyes, open your heart,
extend your hands in front of you,
plant your feet on the ground,
stretch and separate your toes.
The best part of the body for navigating Life,
is the soft part between your fingers and toes.

The soft part of the body,
between the fingers and toes,
is the last place corrupted by greed.
The location of the body's soft spots -
remember, hold the memory
of how to be a child,
and be child like.

If you encounter someone in the city,
don't crush their hand by shaking it!
Torturing the soft spot between the fingers,
with a vise-grip-like wrench of their hand,
will squeeze the Life out of their body.
If you meet someone living in the city,
best to smile, from ear to ear.
Let them know that there is nothing to fear -
not a single thing hiding between your teeth,
or lurching beneath your tongue!

My experience, of which there is plenty,
has taught me to smile and laugh
when greeting people.
I expose the inside of my head,
by letting them see into me,
all the way in to the back of my throat.
I let them see my friendliness!
Imagine while they watch me smile and laugh,
I imagine that I have super powers -
or at least the ability to smile and laugh at will.
I have the power to share joy,
spread kindness and offer friendship.

When exploring cities on planet Earth
it's great to let people know,
what is in your heart and on your mind!
Empty your mind, clear your throat,
release your yesterdays and tomorrow
so you can choose to create a new today.
Be your best hand-shake foot-forward self -
be available and present
by offering a spectacular beginning
to any introductory moment.

Let go of being the enemy of friendship,
so you can first be human!
If you see enemies first,
then you will never have friends.
It is harder to make a friend,
if they were first your enemy.

Above all things,
the most important thing of all,
is to fill your time with human kindness.
Be friendly, be a friend to attract a friend.
Friendship is what makes the world go round.

~~ Other People's Fingerprints ~~
Sometime after 1936 Pema Chödrön wrote

in her book "Practicing Peace in Times of War";
“When we’re putting up the barriers
and the sense of “me”
as separate from “you”
gets stronger,
right there
in the midst of difficulty and pain,
the whole thing could turn around
simply by not erecting barriers;
simply by staying open to the difficulty,
to the feelings that you’re going through;
simply by not talking to ourselves
about what’s happening.

That is a revolutionary step.
Becoming intimate with pain is the key
to changing at the core of our being -
staying open to everything we experience,
letting the sharpness of difficult times
pierce us to the heart,
letting these times open us, humble us,
and make us wiser and more brave.

Let difficulty transform you.
And it will.

In my experience, we just need help in learning
how not to run away.”


"At the center of everything is it's own center.
The center of each thing's center is central.
Central to the center of each thing is it's core.
The center, of the core at the center of all things, is central.
Central to all things is the core meaning of what is central.
The central meaning, of all cores, is the Life at the center.
Life is, the core of all centralized things, central to Life.
Centralized cores, are at the center, of all concentric Life.
Concentric Life is organized according to what is central.
What is central is the core meaning of concentric life.
The core meaning of Life is Life having concentric meaning."



Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Los Angeles 2017: False Spin, Magic Realism

Spin a yarn, weave a tale,
share a story, tell a lie.
What makes truth true,
and not a web of worries?
What makes culture real,
and not inappropriate appropriation?
What makes culture whole,
and not fabricated or manufactured?
Does a person's intention and desire,
individual permission and personal history,
create peace or foster war within?

In the world wide web of communication
is there common unity and common sense,
but does good intention count for anything?
Communion, existence is an encounter
in balance and equalization, where everything is
neither independent nor dependent -
existence is interdependence on everything else.
Everything is something that once held another shape -
and once experienced something other than it's self.

Wellness is well intended
when a person's heart and mind
creates for self and common good.
Heart felt self-respect promotes dignity,
and self-inclusiveness outweighs exclusion.

When respect is felt by all,
everybody's life counts,
everyone feels like they matter -
our planet physically counts for something.
Planetary spiritual alchemical charm -
a consensus of consciousness
that our collective Ancestors
called manifesting Magic.

When a person's Magic is real
presence manifests quiet calm to the quick -
such power moves the mass to heal,
to feel feelings felt,
intuitive ease in the core.
Magic does not take an army
to soldier belief or enforce followers -
Magic is awareness flowering
from the power of self-creation.

Magic rewards what gives life, not takes it.
For Magic, there are no rules of engagement.
Magic is presence, presence powers the cells -
empowers the Magic of gifting and receiving
simple insights, that manifest light in the day,
which at night warms and feeds the internal fire.

Magic is a lightness of being -
a Magi's illumination converts cold unconsciousness
and burns transparently clear any reign of illusion.
To take another's power, or life source,
will not give more to yourself -
but will be your unmaking
and only take it's toll,
extract an illusion at a cost
of your own self-respect and dignity.

Magic realism requires belief.
If I had to believe in something,
I would believe in myself.
My ability to spin a yarn,
weave a tale, share a story -
with peace, my life feels true.
Without peace what I create lies,
and my creations might lie awake
unable to rest in peace -
unable to touch any heart,
reach into what matters most,
travel the transformative void of now.

Atoms carry our stories,
memorized spins,
woven yarns of tales told.
Pushed dominoes stacked end to end,
mirroring solar storms of distance futures,
often mimicking the fear of our present dances.
The movement of each choice a truth or lie,
and everyone and everything in between,
creating a spin that blurs each choice.
Each choice archived in the world wide web,
each choice a dream not yet true or real.

What is the stuff that dreams are made of?
Yarns spun, tales woven, stories shared?
Inappropriate cultural appropriation?
Manufactured culture, fabricated reality?
Truth be told, what is true might not be said,
but truth is felt in hearts as worldly wisdom,
and does not create a web of worries,
but rests the soul at one with peace.

What choice will you make?
What choice makes you?
What choice will unmake you today?
What choice will you unmake today?
Truth be told, what is said can be undone.
To rest the soul at one with peace,
be magical today and tonight rest easy at peace.

~~ Other People's Fingerprints ~~
In 1894, John Jacob Astor IV wrote,
"They had often seen it in the terrestrial sky,
emitting its strong, steady ray,
and had thought of that far-away planet,
about which till recently
so little had been known,
and a burning desire had possessed them
to go to it and explore its mysteries.
Now, thanks to apergy,
the force whose existence
the ancients suspected
but of which they knew so little,
all things were possible."









Saturday, January 14, 2017

Los Angeles 2017: Lingering Impressions

If it was not for the blur
in One's Life
then One would have
no hope of recognizing
that reality is not real -
that reality is only one
experience of oneness.

Born in the blur of Life
hope comes from
impermanence
to arise
from transient evanescent,
the inconstancy
of one life lived
by One.

Effective living
betters mediocracy
and restores
individual livelihood -
to self-create
sustainable subsistence -
one life valued
by the One
who is living it.

One sets One's own
individual standards,
to be beyond
ultimate meaning
and purpose -
to see clearly
One's own
unique existence,
to be the One
in one once-in
one lifetime.

To be certain
of change,
is to be
confident of Mind,
courageous of Heart -
to create one life
worth living,
once
in one
moment.

One's livelihood
worth living
is to live
for One's own
self betterment -
to provide
One's own life
the talent
to transform
from mediocrity
and meaninglessness.

To be One's own
self-guidance system,
is to be one force
and freak of Nature -
an awe,
in awe of awesome
momentary awesomeness -
living one life
is a flash
in One's moment
of eternity."

~~ Other People's Fingerprints ~~
In 1046-256 BC Laozi Li Er 李耳 wrote;
"Knowing others is wisdom,
knowing yourself is Enlightenment."

                                 Photography by Karin Lisa Atkinson







"What is Life if not gentle -
all Life values gentleness
admires gentleness, 
is in awe of gentleness. 

Who are the gentle - 
those who understand 
the power, 
 the presence 
and the passion 
of that which is, gentle.

Why are the gentle valued 
by those who are gentle, 
by those who are not gentle, 
by those who desire to be gentle -
gentility is the ability to respect Life. 

Gentility is a gift given 
to those who have the ability to listen, 
gentility is a gift cultivated 
by those who want to be listeners, 
gentility is a gift valued 
by those who want to be listened to, 
gentility is a gift of peace 
to all those who want to be peaceful. 

To be gentle is to be at peace, 
to be at peace is to be gentle, 
listen to the sound of peace, 
it sounds like gentleness -
step gently
leave gently, 
create gentle impressions, 
be peaceful."


"Beauty among Life's pins and needles,
always there, sometimes blurred, 
but always present in full bloom,
or as presence in a seed, 
hidden below the surface, 
yet ready to blossom, 
on any given day and night, 
all year long, all the time, 
Beauty isn't seasonal, nor finite, 
Beauty is eternal, infinite -
seek Beauty to find Beauty, 
because Beauty is always present, 
buried within the seed that contains all Life"


"Impressions move the Mind
to change form into emotions -
and transform perception of Self. 
Impressions can magnify to simplify, 
and minimize to complicate - 
extolling the magnificence of Life, 
while glorifying the significance of the living. 
Take a moment to reperceive, 
and that one moment will change your life - 
transform how you lead to live your life, 
and how you live to lead your life."